Dakkhiṇāgiri untranslated

Dakkhiṇāgiri (v.l. Dakkhiṇagiri). A janapada (district) in India, the capital of which was Ujjenī, and over which Asoka ruled as Viceroy. It also contained the city of Vedisā (Vin-a.i.70; Mhv.xiii.5).

Dakkhiṇāgiri lay to the south of Rājagaha, beyond the hills that surrounded the city – hence its name (Snp­a.i.136; MN­a.ii.795; SN­a.i.188). In the district was the Brahmin village of Ekanāḷā (Snp., p.13). The road from Sāvatthī to Rājagaha lay through Dakkhiṇāgiri, and the Buddha traversed it in the course of his periodical tours through Magadha, residing in the Dakkhiṇāgiri vihāra in Ekanāḷā (SN.i.172; SN­a.ii.133; Vin.i.80). It was during one of these tours that he converted Kasī Bhāradvāja and Dhammasava (q.v.) and his father. On another of these occasions the Buddha saw the Magadhakhetta, which gave him the idea of designing the robe of a monk to resemble a field (Vin.i.287). Ānanda is also said to have travelled through Dakkhiṇāgiri, gathering a large number of young men into the Saṅgha, who, however, do not appear to have been very serious in their intentions, as their behaviour earned for Ānanda the censure of Mahā Kassapa (SN.ii.217f). Later, we find Puṇṇa with a large following in Dakkhiṇāgiri refusing to join in the findings of the Rājagaha Council, and preferring to follow the Dhamma according to his own lights (Vin.ii.289).

Dakkhiṇāgiri was the residence of Nandamātā of Veḷukaṇṭakī and she was visited both by Sāriputta and by Moggallāna during a tour in the district (AN.iv.64). In Dakkhiṇāgiri, Sāriputta heard of the lack of zeal of Dhānañjāni (MN.ii.185; see Ja.i.224 for another incident connected with Sāriputta’s tour). The Arāmadūsajātaka (q.v.) was preached in Dakkhiṇāgiri.

The Dakkhiṇāgiri vihāra was, for a long time, a great monastic centre, and at the foundation of the Mahā Thūpa there were present from there forty thousand monks led by Mahā Saṅgharakkhita. Mhv.xxix.35.