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Māgaṇḍiya

1. Māgaṇḍiya.– A brahmin of the Kuru country. He had a very beautiful daughter, called Māgaṇḍiyā. Many men of high station sought her hand, but the brahmin did not consider them worthy. The Buddha, one day, became aware that both Māgaṇḍiya and his wife were ready for conversion, so he visited their village. Māgaṇḍiya saw him, and, noting the auspicious marks on his body, told him of his daughter and begged him to wait until she could be brought. The Buddha said nothing, and Māgaṇḍiya went home and returned with his wife and daughter arrayed in all splendours. On arriving, they found the Buddha had gone, but his footprint was visible, and Māgaṇḍiya’s wife, skilled in such matters, said that the owner of such a footprint was free from all passion. However, Māgaṇḍiya paid no attention, and, going a little way, saw the Buddha and offered him his daughter. The Buddha thereupon told them of his past life, his renunciation of the world, his conquest of Māra, and the unsuccessful attempts of Māra’s very beautiful daughters to tempt him. Compared with them, Māgaṇḍiya was, he said, a corpse, filled with thirty-two impurities, an impure vessel painted without; he would not touch her with his foot. At the end of the discourse, Māgaṇḍiya and his wife became Non-returners. DhA.iii.193 ff; SNA.ii.542 f; cp. Dvy.515 ff., where the name is given as Mākaṇḍika and he is called a parivrājaka. The daughter’s name is given as Anūpamā and the wife’s Sākalī.

It is said that they gave their daughter into the charge of her uncle, Cūḷa-Māgaṇḍiya, retired from the world, and became Arahants. DhA.i.202

According to the Aṅguttara Commentary (AA.i.235 f), Māgaṇḍiya’s village was Kammāsadamma, and the Buddha went there on his journey to Kosambī at the invitation of Ghosita, Kukkuta and Pāvārika. He turned off the main road to visit Māgandiya.

See also Māgaṇḍiya (2) below, Māgaṇḍiya Sutta, and Māgaṇḍiyapañha.

2. Māgaṇḍiya.– A wanderer (paribbājaka). The Buddha was once staying in the fire hut of the brahmin Bhāradvāja-gotta at Kammāsadamma and Māgaṇḍiya came to the hut. Seeing the grass mat on which the Buddha slept at night, he inquired whose it was, and, on being told, he was very annoyed, calling the Buddha a rigid repressionist (bhunahu). Bhāradvāja protested, whereupon Māgaṇḍiya offered to repeat his charge to the Buddha’s face. The Buddha, aware of this conversation, entered the hut in the evening and had a discussion with Māgaṇḍiya, who ended by joining the Order, later becoming an Arahant. M.i.502 ff; Mil.313.

Buddhaghosa explains (MA.ii.681) that this Māgaṇḍiya was the nephew of Māgaṇḍiya (1).