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Migāramātupāsāda

The name given to the monastery erected by Visākhā Migāramātā in the Pubbārāma, to the east of Sāvatthi. It is said (DhA.i.410 ff; SNA.ii.502; UdA.158; DA.iii.860; SA.i.116, etc.) that, one day, when Visākhā had gone to the monastery to hear the Dhamma and afterwards attend on the sick monks and novices, she left in the teaching hall her Mahālatāpasādhana and her servant girl forgot to remove it (this incident is referred to at Vin.iv.161 f., as the cause of the institution of a Vinaya rule).

Later, on going to fetch it, she found that Ānanda had put it away, and Visākhā, being told of this, decided not to wear it again. She had it valued by goldsmiths, who declared that it was worth ninety million and one hundred thousand. She had the ornament put in a cart and sent round for sale. However, there was none in Sāvatthi rich enough to buy it, and Visākhā herself bought it back. With the money thus obtained she built the Migāramātupāsāda at the Buddha’s suggestion. The site for the pāsāda on the Pubbārāma cost ninety million, the buildings costing another nine. While the building was being erected, the Buddha went on one of his journeys and, at Visākhā’s request; Mahā-Moggallāna was left to supervise the work with five hundred other monks. Moggallāna made use of his psychic powers in order to expedite and facilitate the work. The building had two floors with five hundred rooms in each, the whole structure being surmounted by a pinnacle of solid gold, capable of holding sixty water pots. The work was completed in nine months, and the celebration of its dedication was held on the Buddha’s return. These celebrations lasted for four months and cost a further ninety million. On the last day, Visākhā gave gifts of cloth to the monks, each novice receiving robes worth one thousand. The building was so richly equipped that one of Visākhā’s friends, wishing to spread a small carpet, worth one hundred thousand, wandered all over the building, but could find no place of which it was worthy. Ānanda found her weeping in disappointment, and suggested that it should be spread between the foot of the stairs and the spot where the monks washed their feet.

During the last twenty years of his life, when the Buddha was living at Sāvatthi, he divided his time between the Anāthapiṇḍikārāma at Jetavana and the Migāramātupāsāda, spending the day in one place and the night in the other and vice versa (SNA.i.336).

It is, therefore, to be expected that numerous suttas were taught there; chief among these were the Aggañña, the Uṭṭhāna, the Ariyāpariyesanā, and the Pasādakampana. See also S.i.77, 190 (= Ud.vi.2); iii.100; v. 216, 222 f; A.i.193 f; ii.183 f; iii.344 f; (cp. Thag.vss.689‑704); iv. 204 f., 255, 265, 269; Ud.ii.9; DhA.iv.142 f; iv.176.

It was at Migāramātupāsāda that the Vighāsāda Jātaka was taught, and the Buddha gave permission for the Pāṭimokkha to be recited in his absence. Sp.i.187.