Then along the road, forty-five leagues in length, he built resting-places at every league, at an expenditure of a hundred thousand for each. And he bought the Grove called Jetavana for eighteen koṭis of gold pieces, laying them side by side over the ground, and erected there a new building. In the midst thereof he made a pleasant room for the Sage, and around it separately constructed dwellings for the eighty Elders, and other residences with single and double walls, and long halls and open roofs, ornamented with ducks and quails; and ponds also he made, and terraces to walk on by day and by night.
And so having constructed a delightful residence on a pleasant spot, at an expense of eighteen koṭis, he sent a message to the Sage that he should come.
The Master, hearing the messenger’s words, left Rājagaha attended by a great multitude of monks, and in due course arrived at the city of Sāvatthi. Then the wealthy merchant decorated the monastery; and on the day on which the Buddha should arrive at Jetavana he arrayed his son in splendour, and sent him on with five hundred youths in festival attire. And he and his retinue, holding five hundred flags resplendent with cloth of five different colours, appeared before the Sage. And behind him Mahā-Subhaddā and Cūla-Subhaddā, the two daughters of the merchant, went forth with five hundred damsels carrying water-pots full of water. And behind them, decked with all her ornaments, the merchant’s wife went forth, with five hundred matrons carrying vessels full of food. And behind them all the great merchant himself, clad in new robes, with five hundred traders also dressed in new robes, went out to meet the Blessed One.
The Blessed One, sending this retinue of lay disciples in front, and attended by the great multitude of monks, entered the Jetavana monastery with the infinite grace and unequalled majesty of a Buddha, making the spaces of the grove bright with the halo from his person, as if they were sprinkled with gold-dust.
Then Anātha Piṇḍika asked him, “How, my Lord, shall I deal with this Wihāra?”
“O householder,” was the reply, “give it then to the Order of Mendicants, whether now present or hereafter to arrive.”
And the great merchant, saying, “So be it, my Lord,” brought a golden vessel, and poured water over the hand of the Sage, and dedicated the Wihāra, saying, “I give this Jetavana Wihāra to the Order of Mendicants with the Buddha at their head, and to all from every direction now present or hereafter to come.”[236]
And the Master accepted the Wihāra, and giving thanks, pointed out the advantages of monasteries, saying,—
294. Cold they ward, off, and heat;
So also beasts of prey,