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Andhakavinda

A village in the Magadha country, three quarters of a league from Rājagaha. Between it and Rājagaha is the river Sappinī, which rises in the Gijjhakūṭa.¹ Once the Buddha went from Bārāṇasī to Andhakavinda with 1,250 monks, and many people followed them carrying cartloads of provisions that they might feed them in turn. There were so many awaiting their turn that a certain brahmin (referred to as Andhakavinda­brāhmaṇa) had to wait two months for his to come round. At the end of two months, finding that his own affairs were going to ruin and that there was no likelihood of his turn coming soon, the brahmin went to the provision-room to see what deficiency he could possibly supply. Seeing there neither rice, milk, nor honey-lumps, he approached Ānanda, and having, through him, obtained the Buddha’s permission, the brahmin prepared a meal of milk-rice and honey-lumps for the Buddha and the monks. At the conclusion of the meal the Buddha spoke of the tenfold good qualities of milk-rice.²

During the same visit of the Buddha, a newly converted minister of the district prepared meat dishes for the fraternity, but being disappointed that the monks, who had had a meal of solid milk-rice earlier, could not eat large quantities of his dishes, he was rather rude to them. Later he expressed remorse, and the Buddha assured him that heaven would be his inheritance.³ It was on the way back from Andhakavinda to Rājagaha that the Buddha met Belaṭṭha Kaccāna.⁴

Once when the Buddha was staying at Andhakavinda the Brahmā Sahampati came and lighted the place with his effulgent beauty until late at night; then he sought the Buddha and sang before him verses of exhortation meant for the monks, urging them to lead the holy life.⁵ Here, too, the Buddha mentioned to Ānanda the necessity of admonishing and encouraging new members of the Order with regard to five things: good conduct, control of the faculties of sense, abstinence from too much talking, love of solitude and the cultivation of right views.⁶ Once in Andhakavinda the Buddha suffered from disease of the wind. Ānanda was asked to obtain gruel for the complaint. The wife of the village physician supplied the gruel with great devotion, and as a result was born in Tāvatiṃsa, where her abode was known as the Kañjikādāyika vimāna.⁷ Another lay devotee built a Gandhakuṭi for the Buddha at Andhakavinda, and personally looked after the Buddha while he was there. This lay disciple was also, as a result, born in Tāvatiṃsa in a golden mansion (vimāna).⁸

Cūḷaseṭṭhi’s daughter, Anulā, lived in Andhakavinda after her marriage and it was there that she gave alms on behalf of her dead father.⁹

¹ Vin.i.109; Vin. Texts i.254, n.2.

² Vin.i.220 f; it was this praise uttered by the Buddha that made Visākhā ask him, as a favour, that she should be allowed to supply milk-rice to the monks throughout her life (Vin.i.293); see also UdA.112.

³ Vin.i.222 f. This was the occasion for the rule that monks who have been invited to a meal in one place should not accept milk-rice somewhere else earlier in the same day.

⁴ Vin.i.224 f.

⁵ S.i.154. ⁶ A.iii.138‑9; referred to in Sp.iv.789.

⁷ VvA.185‑6. ⁸ VvA.302‑3. ⁹ PvA.105‑9.