Ajapālanigrodha untranslated

Ajapālanigrodha. A banyan tree which is famous in Buddhist literature. It was in Uruvelā, on the banks of the Nerañjarā, near the Bodhi-tree, and a week after the Awakening the Buddha went there and spent a week cross-legged at the foot of the tree. There he met the Huhuṅkajātika Brahmin (Vin.i.2-3). Two weeks later he went there again from the Rājāyatana (Vin.i.4). It was then that the Brahma Sahampati appeared to him and persuaded him to preach the doctrine, in spite of the difficulty of the task (Vin.i.5-7; in the eighth week after the Awakening, says Buddhaghosa, SN­a.i.152). This was immediately after the meal offered by Tapassu and Bhalluka, so says the Majjhima Commentary (i.385; Ja.i.81). When the Buddha wishes to have someone as his teacher, Sahampati appears again and suggests to him that the Dhamma be considered his teacher (AN.ii.20f.; SN.i.138f).

By Ajapālanigrodha it was, too, that, immediately after the Awakening, Māra tried to persuade the Buddha to die at once (DN.ii.112). Several other conversations held here with Māra are recorded in the Saṁyutta (SN.i.103f).

Here, also, the Buddha spent some time before the Awakening (DN.ii.267), and it was here that Sujāta offered him a meal of milk-rice (Ja.i.16, 69).

Here, in the fifth week after the Awakening, Māra’s daughters tried to tempt the Buddha (Ja.i.78, 469).

Several etymologies are suggested for the name: (a) in its shadow goatherds (ajapālā) rest; (b) old Brahmins, incapable of reciting the Vedas, live here in dwellings protected by walls and ramparts (this derivation being as follows: na japantī ti = ajapā, mantānaṁ anajjhāyakā = ajapā, ālenti arīyan-ti nivāsam etthā ti = Ajapālo ti); (c) it shelters the goats that seek its shade at midday (Ud­a.51). The northern Buddhists say that the tree was planted by a shepherd boy, during the Bodhisatta’s six years’ penance, to shelter him (Beal, Romantic Legend of Buddha,192, 238; Mhv.iii.302).

The Brahmasutta (SN.v.167) and the Maggasutta (SN.v.185), both on the four satipaṭṭhāna, and another Brahmasutta (SN.v.232f) on the five indriyāni, were concerning thoughts that occurred to the Buddha on various occasions at the foot of this tree, when he sat there soon after the Awakening. On all these occasions Brahma Sahampati appeared to him and confirmed his thoughts. Several old Brahmins, advanced in years, visited the Buddha during this period and questioned him as to whether it were true that he did not pay respect to age. To them he preached the four Therakaraṇā Dhamma. AN.ii.22.