Ukkacelā untranslated

Ukkacelā. See Ukkācelā.

Ukkācelā (v.l. Ukkacelā, Ukkāvelā). A village in the Vajjī country, on the banks of the Ganges, on the road from Rājagaha to Vesālī and near the latter (Ud­a.322).

Once, while Sāriputta was staying there, the Paribbājaka Sāmaṇḍaka visited him and talked to him about Nibbāna (SN.iv.261-2). Some time later, after the death of Sāriputta and Moggallāna within a fortnight of each other, the Buddha came to Ukkacelā on his way to Vesālī and at a gathering of the monks uttered high praise of the two chief disciples and spoke of the loss the Saṅgha had sustained by their death (SN.v.163f).

The Cūḷa Gopālakasutta was also preached at Ukkacelā (MN.i.225).

Buddhaghosa says (MN­a.i.447) that when the city was being built, on the day its site was marked out, fish came ashore at night from the river, and men, noticing them, made torches (ukkā) out of rags (celā), dipped them in oil, and by their light caught the fish. On account of this incident the city was called Ukkācelā.