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Bahuputta, Bahuputtaka-cetiya

A shrine in the neighbourhood of Vesāli, to the north of that city.¹ The Buddha is said to have stayed there.² It was a pre-Buddhist shrine and, according to the Commentaries,³ was a many branched nigrodha tree where persons prayed for sons to the deva of the tree. Hence its name.

Mahā-Kassapa Thera says that while yet a “learner” he paid homage to the Buddha at Bahuputtaka-nigrodha where the Buddha had gone to meet him. The Buddha taught him of the training to be followed and, profiting by the lesson, eight days later Mahā-Kassapa became an Arahant. This nigrodha, however, was on the road from Rājagaha to Nāḷandā and was three leagues from Rājagaha.⁴ It cannot, therefore, have been identical with this tree, which gave its name to the Bahuputta cetiya.

¹ D.iii.9. ² D.ii.118;, Ud.vi.1; S.v.259. ³ E.g., UdA.323; SA.ii.128, etc.

⁴ S.ii.220; see Mahā-Kassapa Thera. It was here that the Buddha exchanged his robe for that of Kassapa, SA.ii.128; ThagA.ii.145; AA.i.102; Mtu.iii.50.