Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 3

Author(s): R P Poddar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 101

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VAISHALI RESEARCH BULLETIN No. 3
the scourge of a dreadful epidemic of plague, to which they failed to any antidote. As a last resort, the Vaišalians decided to invite the Buddha who was then in Veluvana Vihara at Rajagaha. Mahāti a friend of Bimbisāra and the son of a chaplain of Vaišali was sent for this purpose. On hearing the plight of the people the Buddha was moved and he immediately accepted the offer. He started his journey for Vaišali along with five hundred Bhikkhus. The Magadhan monarch provided all comforts on the way and he himself accompanied him (the Buddha) upto the Ganges. On the other bank of the river, the Vaišalians were ready to pay their obeisance and their preparations far outdid the Magadhans. As soon as the Buddha set foot on the Licchavi soil, the rain fell in torrents, and all malign influences which had hung over the country vanished and the sick and suffering were restored to health. In the evening the Buddha taught Ananda the Ratna Sutta and enjoined that it should be recited within the three walls of the city along with the Liccbavi princes. The Buddha himself recited this Sutta to the assembled people and 84000 persons were converted. After repeating this for 7 consecutive days the Buddha left Vaišāli. On his return journey, the Vaiśālians accompanied him with redoubled honour. On the opposite bank Bimbisara awaited his arrival and conducted him back to Rājagaha. On his return there the Buddha recited the Samikha Jātaka.
In order to commemorate this historic episode, the Vaišalians built a monastery in the honour of the Buddha and the Samgha at the site where he had stayed in the Maharana. It was a grand and pinnacled structure and as such was named as kutāgārsālā. Besides many more other beautiful shrines which vied in their excellence with that of the heavenly abodes, were also made over to the Buddhist Samgha, one after the other. So strong was the spell of the magnetic personality of the Buddha over the Vaiśälians that even the courtesan Amppali was impatient to get ordination of the order. And as such she invited the Buddha and his Samgha to a dinner, and thereafter presened her pleasant Mango grove with a magnificent Vihara therein to the Samgha. Buddhism got a suitable climate and fertile soil in Vaišali. The Vaiśalians were of highly religious and spiritual bent of mind. They put before the Buddha numerous questions about religion and dogma that posed some difficulty to them. Even careless boys, wandering about with hounds and bows and arrows, would lay aside their arms when they saw the Buddha seated under a tree and 'surround him with clasped hands, eager to hear him. We hear of a story how his wholesome and edifyeing lecture had corrected the arrogance and selfishness of a wicked Licchavi prince, and filled his heart with love and kindness.