Nigrodhārāma untranslated

Nigrodhārāma 01. A grove near Kapilavatthu, where a residence was provided for the Buddha when he visited the city in the first year after his Awakening (MN­a.i.289). It belonged to a Sākyan named Nigrodha, who gave it to the Saṅgha. In order to convince his proud kinsmen of his attainments, the Buddha performed there the Yamakapāṭihāriya, and when, at the conclusion of the miracle a shower of rain fell, wetting only those who wished to be wetted, he related to them the Vessantarajātaka (Vin.i.82; Ja.i.88f.;vi.479; Bv­a.22; Dhp­a.iii.163; also Mvu.iii.101, 107, 114,138,141, 179). It was during this visit that Mahā Pajāpatī Gotamī first asked permission for women to enter the Saṅgha. This was refused, and from there the Buddha went on to Vesālī (Vin.ii.253; AN.iv.274). The Buddha stayed at the Nigrodhārāma on several other occasions, and several Vinaya rules are mentioned as being first promulgated there (e.g., Vin.iii.235, 244; iv.55, 101, 167, 181, 262, 314). Various Sākiyans came to see the Buddha at the Nigrodhārāma, among them, Mahā Nāma, Godha, Sarakāni, Nandiya and Vappa (SN.v.369-78; 395-7, 403-4, 408; AN.ii.196; iii.284; iv.220; v. 83, 328, 332, 334). The Buddha himself visited Kāḷigodhā during his residence there. It was during a discussion with Mahā Nāma that the Cūḷa Dukkhakkhandhasutta (q.v.) was preached. During one of the Buddha’s residences in Nigrodhārāma, the Sākiyans invited him to consecrate their new Mote Hall, which he did by preaching there far into the night and then asking Moggallāna to continue his discourse (SN.iv.182ff.; also MN.i.353, Sekhasutta). On another occasion the Buddha is mentioned as having spent a period of convalescence at Nigrodhārāma (AN.i.219f); he was there also when the quarrel broke out between the Sākiyans and the Koḷiyans regarding the water of the Rohiṇī (Snp­a.i.357; but see Ja.v.413, where he is said to have been in Sāvatthī). It seems to have been the Buddha’s custom, when staying at Nigrodhārāma, sometimes to spend the noonday siesta in the Mahā Vana near by (e.g., SN.iii.91f).

Among others mentioned as having stayed at Nigrodhārāma are Anuruddha (Dhp­a.iii.295) and Lomasakaṅgiya. MN.iii.200; a Deva called Candana there taught him the Bhaddekarattasutta. Is this Lomasakaṅgīya the same as Lomavaṅgīsa, who is also mentioned as having lived in Nigrodhārāma (SN.v.327)?

Near Nigrodhārāma was once the site of the dwelling of a hermit (Isi) called Kaṇha. The Buddha, remembering this, once smiled, and, when asked the reason for his smile, related the Kaṇhajātaka (Ja 440, Ja.iv.6).

There is a tradition (Cp-a.1,7; Bv­a.3) that the Cariyāpiṭaka and the Buddhavaṁsa were preached by the Buddha to Sāriputta during his first stay in Nigrodhārāma. It was probably there that Anuruddha’s sister built, at his request, an assembly hall of two storeys for the Saṅgha (Dhp­a.iii.295f). Buddhaghosa says that Kāḷa Khemaka, the Sākyan, built a special vihāra near Nigrodhārāma, on one side of the grounds (MN­a.ii.906; MN.iii.109f).

Nigrodhārāma 02. A grove in Rājagaha. The Buddha says that there he once gave Ānanda the chance of asking him to live for a whole aeon, but Ānanda missed his opportunity. DN.ii.116.