Anoma untranslated

Anoma 01. Birth-city of Vessabhū (see Anopama).

Anoma 02. A mountain near Himavā. Ap.ii.345.

Anoma 03. A pleasaunce in Khema where Tissa Buddha was born. Bv­a.188.

Anoma 04. An ascetic of great power, who lived in the time of Piyadassī Buddha. He gave a jewelled chain to the Buddha and offered him a meal of fruit. In the present age he became Hemaka Thera. Ap.ii.351-4.

Anoma 05. v.l. Araṇemi. A king of Jambudīpa, fifty kappas ago; a previous birth of Bakkula Thera. Ap.i.329.

Anoma 06. A township in the time of Sumana Buddha; the residence of Anupamā, who offered the Buddha a meal of milk-rice. Bv­a.125.

Anoma 07. One of the two chief disciples of Anomadassī Buddha. Ja.i.36; Bv­a.145; Dhp­a.i.88ff. The Bv.viii.22 calls him Asoka. He preached to Sarada tāpasa on the occasion when the latter made up his mind to become an Aggasāvaka himself.

Anoma 08. The personal attendant of Sobhita Buddha. Ja.i.35; Bv­a.140; The Bv.vii. 21 calls him Anuma.

Anoma 09. An ājīvaka who gave grass to Anomadassī for his seat. Bv­a.142.

Anoma 10. The city in whose park Atthadassī preached his first sermon. Bv.xv.18.

Anoma 11. The birth-city of Piyadassī Buddha, and capital of King Sudinna. Ja.i.39. According to the Bv.(xiv. 15) it was called Sudhañña.

Anomā 01. A river thirty leagues to the east of Kapilavatthu, where Gotama went after leaving home. According to the Lalitavistara, the river was only six yojanas from the city, and Cunningham accepts this (p. 485 ff.). It was eight usabhas in breadth, but

Kanthaka cleared it in one leap. It was here that Gotama cut off his hair and beard and put on the orange garments of the ascetics, brought to him by the Brahma Ghaṭikāra.

On its banks was the mango grove of Anupiya (Ja.i.64f.; Snp-a.382). Three kingdoms lay between it and Kapilavatthu. (Bv­a.5. The countries of the Sākiyans, Koḷiyans and Mallas; see Expositor i.43n., where Kapilavatthu, Devadaha and Koḷiya are mentioned as the three kingdoms).

From the river to Rājagaha was a distance of thirty leagues, which Gotama took seven days to walk (Ja.i.65; Snp-a.382). It took him a whole night to ride from Kapilavatthu to Anomā (Vv-a.314).

The name seems to have meant “Glorious,” or “not Slight”. See Ja.i.64, where Gotama asks Channa the name of the river and Channa replies, “It is Anoma (glorious).” “Good,” says Gotama, “my renunciation shall also be anomā.” The Burmese name is Anauma (Bigandet. p.41).

Cunningham identifies the river with the modern Aumi. He states his belief that the word means “inferior,” to distinguish it from other and larger rivers in the neighbourhood, and that the original name in Pāḷi was Omā (p.486ff.; in the Suttanipāta (vv. 153, 177) and again in the Saṁyutta (i. 33) the Buddha is spoken of as Anomanāma. Buddhaghosa (SN­a.i.67) explains this as meaning having no “defect,” endowed with perfection (sabbaguṇasamannāgatattā avekalla-nāmaṁ; paripūranāmaṁ). According to him the confusion in names arose from a misunderstanding of Channa’s reply. It is difficult to accept this suggestion because evidently, according to the tradition quoted in the Jātaka commentary and elsewhere, the name of the river was taken as a good augury for the accomplishment of Gotama’s desires.

Thomas (loc cit., p. 61 and n.1), on the other hand, suggests that Anomā did not necessarily really exist. There was possibly an actual locality to the east of Kapilavatthu traditionally associated with Gotama’s flight. It was probably near Anupiya of the Malla country, and the names given to it, such as Anomā, Anomiya, Anuvaniya, Anumaniya, were corruptions of Anupiya in the popular dialects of the neighbourhood.

The Mahā Vastu does not mention a river; it only mentions a town, Anomiya, twelve leagues from Kapilavatthu. The names Anuvaineya and Maneya occur in the Lalitavistara.

Anomā 02. Mother of Nārada Buddha. Bv.x.18; Ja.i.37.