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Nigrodhārāma

It wa’s during this visit that Mahāpajāpati Gotamī first asked permission for women to enter the Order. This was refused, and from there the Buddha went on to Vesāli (Vin.ii.253; A.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 Sākyans came to see the Buddha at the Nigrodhārāma, among them, Mahānāma, Godha, Sarakāni, Nandiya and Vappa (S.v.369 78; 395 7, 403 4, 408; A.ii.196; iii.284; iv.220; v. 83, 328, 332, 334). The Buddha himself visited Kāligodhā during his residence there.

It was during a discussion with Mahānāma that the Cūḷa Dukkhakkhandha Sutta (q.v.) was taught. During one of the Buddha’s residences in Nigrodhārāma, the Sākyans invited him to consecrate their new Mote Hall, which he did by teaching there far into the night and then asking Moggallāna to continue his discourse (S.iv.182ff.; also M.i.353, Sekha Sutta). On another occasion the Buddha is mentioned as having spent a period of convalescence at Nigrodhārāma (A.i.219f ); he was there also when the quarrel broke out between the Sākyans and the Koliyans regarding the water of the Rohiṇī (SNA.i.357; but see J.v.413, where he is said to have been in Sāvatthi). It seems to have been the Buddha’s custom, when staying at Nigrodhārāma, sometimes to spend the noonday siesta in the Mahāvana near by (e.g., S.iii.91f).

Among others mentioned as having stayed at Nigrodhārāma are Anuruddha (DhA.iii.295) and Lomasakaṅgiya. M.iii.200; a deva called Candana there taught him the Bhaddekaratta, Sutta. Is this Lomasakaṅgīya the same as Lomavaṅgīsa, who is also mentioned (S.v.327) as having lived in Nigrodhārāma?

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 Kaṇha Jātaka (J.iv.6).

There is a tradition (CypA.1,7; BuA.3) that the Cariyā Piṭaka and the Buddhavaṃsa were taught 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 (DhA.iii.295f). Buddhaghosa says (MA.ii.906; M.iii.109f ) that Kāla Khemaka, the Sākyan, built a special vihāra near Nigrodhārāma, on one side of the grounds.

Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names • G.P. Malalasekera