Anāthapiṇḍika, the wealthy merchant of Sāvatthī, comes on business to Rājagaha and sees his wife's brother spending the whole night preparing a meal to invite the Buddha and the ; on merely hearing the name “Buddha” he is filled with joy, and that same night he goes to see the Buddha in the Cool Grove (a grove beside the cremation ground) outside the city. The Buddha gives a graduated teaching and the ; Anāthapiṇḍika attains the , and becomes a male , and invites the Buddha to keep the at Sāvatthī. Back in Sāvatthī he covers the ground with gold coins to buy the park from Prince Jeta, who builds a gatehouse on the land that remains. The Buddha comes from Rājagaha by way of Vesālī to Sāvatthī, and Anāthapiṇḍika, following the Buddha's instruction, gives the park to “the monastics of the four quarters, present and future”; the Buddha speaks a verse of appreciation. This is the Jetavana monastery. Taishō Canon
More sources (2)
Pali Canon
More sources (3)
Different Accounts
The place where he met the Buddha: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition and the Chinese Saṃyukta Āgama have the Cool Grove; the Bieyi za ahan jing has the Bamboo Grove; the Buddha biography Zhong benqi jing has the Bamboo Grove park.
More differences between accounts (3)
His host at Rājagaha: the has the brother of Anāthapiṇḍika's wife; the Buddha biography Zhong benqi jing has the householder Boqin; the Chinese Dharmaguptaka, Mahīśāsaka and Sarvāstivāda Vinayas have a friend or a local resident. Taishō Canon
Year: the Chinese Shi'er you jing has the sixth year; the later commentaries of the Southern tradition place it after the Buddha's first return to his home town, when he had returned to the Bamboo Grove at Rājagaha, which by the reckoning used here is Year 2 after the Awakening.
The invitation to the rains retreat: several Vinayas say Anāthapiṇḍika invited the Buddha to keep the rains retreat at Sāvatthī; but the table of rains retreats in the later commentaries says the Buddha's first rains retreat at the Jetavana was in the fourteenth year, and the sixth on Mount Makula; both views are set out here side by side.
Dating
Placed here in Year 6 after the Awakening (the Buddha aged forty); its order relative to the rains retreat is unknown. The only year number in the canonical texts is the sixth year of the Chinese Shi'er you jing, while the sequence of the later commentaries of the Southern tradition falls in Year 2 after the Awakening; the year is uncertain.
Related Entries
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Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
The episode of “Anāthapiṇḍika meets the Buddha at Rājagaha and takes refuge” is recorded by four schools: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (Sifen lü), the Chinese Mahīśāsaka Vinaya (Wufen lü) and the Chinese Saṃyukta Āgama. Attested across multiple schools. “The purchase of Jeta's grove and the donation of the Jetavana” within it is recorded by four schools.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Stated in the canonical text (the text itself gives the time); commentarial dating (the canonical texts give no date; later commentaries record it); inferred from the sequence of events (neither the canonical texts nor the commentaries give the time; the year is worked out from the order of this event and those around it). Time precision: year uncertain.
Sources
- Pali Canon巴利律 Kd 16:4.1.1–4.10.17
- Pali Canon巴利 SN 10.8:1.1
- 大正藏大正藏 T02 no.99 p.157b
- 大正藏大正藏 T02 no.100 p.440b
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.938b
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.166c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.167b
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1435 p.243c
- 大正藏大正藏 T24 no.1450 p.138b
- 大正藏大正藏 T24 no.1450 p.142b
- 大正藏大正藏 T04 no.196 p.156a
- 大正藏大正藏 T03 no.191 p.966a
- 大正藏大正藏 T04 no.193 p.81c
- 大正藏大正藏 T04 no.195 p.147a
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Ja-a
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.939b
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.939c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.244cVerified location: 大正藏 T23 no.1435 p.244c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.167bVerified location: 大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.167b
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 AN-a
- 大正藏大正藏 T04 no.194 p.144b
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Ja-a，PTS 1.92
- Pali Canon巴利律 Kd 16:5.1.1–6.1.1
- Pali Canon巴利律 Kd 16:4.7.1
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.939b–c
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1435 p.244c