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Nigrodhārāma

1. Nigrodhārāma.– A grove near Kapilavatthu, where a residence was provided for the Buddha when he visited the city in the first year after his Enlightenment (MA.i.289). It belonged to a Sakyan named Nigrodha, who gave it to the Order. In order to convince his proud kinsmen of his attainments, the Buddha performed there the Twin Miracle (Yamaka Pāṭihāriya), 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 Vessantara Jātaka (Vin.i.82; J.i.88 f; vi.479; BuA.22; DhA.iii.163; also Mtu.iii.101, 107, 114, 138, 141, 179).

It was during this visit that Mahāpajāpatī 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 Sākyā came to see the Buddha at the Nigrodhārāma, among them, Mahānāma, Godha, Saraṇāni, 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 Kāḷigodhā during his residence there.

It was during a discussion with Mahānāma that the Cūḷadukkhakkhandha Sutta (q.v.) was taught. During one of the Buddha’s residences in Nigrodhārāma, the Sākyā invited him to consecrate their new Mote Hall, which he did by teaching there far into the night and then asking Mahā-Moggallāna to continue his discourse (S.iv.182 ff; also M.i.353, Sekha Sutta). On another occasion the Buddha is mentioned as having spent a period of convalescence at Nigrodhārāma (A.i.219 f ); he was there also when the quarrel broke out between the Sākyā and the Koliyā 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 nearby (e.g., S.iii.91 f).

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 Lomasakaṅgiya the same as Lomasavaṅgīsa (q.v.), 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 Cariyā­piṭaka 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.295 f). Buddhaghosa says (MA.ii.906; M.iii.109 f ) that Kāla Khemaka, the Sakyan, built a special vihāra near Nigrodhārāma, on one side of the grounds.

2. Nigrodhārāma.– 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. D.ii.116.