When Buddha was gifted a park completely covered with Gold : Story of Jetavana (Sravasti)

Anathpindika wanted to build a monastery for Buddha. He went to the Prince Jeta of Sravasti and requested him to sell his beautiful garden for this purpose. Prince Jeta said that he will sell it to him but only if he covers the entire park with gold coins. This was an exorbitant price which would have meant that Anathpindika needed to pay him millions of gold coins. But why did Anathpindika want to donate a park to Buddha for which he would have to pay millions of gold coins to the Prince of Sravasti? Anathpindika was the richest merchant in the city of Sravasti. Sravasti was one of the six largest cities in India at the time of Buddha. It was the capital of the ancient Kausal kingdom. His birth name was Udatta but instead he was known as Anathpindika or the feeder of the helpless. He got this name because he used to support hundreds of poor and orphans on daily basis. Once he went to the city of Rajgriha, the capital of Magadh kingdom, for some business travel. He was staying at the place of his brother-in-law who himself was a wealthy merchant of Magadh. To his surprise, his brother-in-law did not come outside to meet him. Puzzled, he went inside and saw that his brother-in-law was busy in preparation of a large feast. He thought that perhaps King Bimbisara is going to visit his house and that's why this elaborate preparation. But his brother-in-law told him that he was making all these arrangements for Anathpindika became very excited with the name of Buddha. He double checked with his brother-in-law if he meant Buddha, the enlightened one. He confirmed that yes, indeed the enlightened one had been invited for the lunch next day. Anathpindika asked him if he could see Buddha. He was told that he can meet Buddha early in the morning the next day. He was so excited about the possibility of meeting Buddha that he was not able to sleep at night. He reached the bamboo grove very early in the morning. It was a misty morning of the winter and in the bamboo grove, he could see a figure walking up and down slowly. The figure addressed him and said to him in a very sweet voice, Sudatta, come to me. Now he was surprised. As in Rajgiri, no one knew him by his original name Sudatta. Buddha finished his walking meditation. He preached Anathpindika the Dhamma and the four noble truths. After this teaching, Anathpindika invited Buddha to his hometown Sravasthi. Buddha accepted the invitation. He again requested if he could gift a monastery to Buddha and his followers. Buddha accepted his gift. He returned to Sravasthi and started to look out for a location that would be easily accessible for the people of Sravasthi to offer their respect to Buddha. At the same time, the site should be secluded enough for the monks. He surveyed different places and found a park outside of the city to be the most suitable one. The park belonged to Prince Jetha, the son of King Pasendhi. Jetha did not want to hand over the park to anyone else, so he asked for an exorbitant price. He told Anathpindika that he will sell the park if he covered the entire park with gold. To his surprise, Anathpindika accepted the term. The next day, Anathpindika returned with several carts full of gold coins to cover the garden. Prince Jetha started looking at the gold coins in disbelief. He told Anathpindika that he had asked for the exorbitant price jokingly as he never thought that anyone could pay this kind of price. He told that he was still not ready to sell the garden. Anathpindika persisted. Finally, both of them went to an arbitrator who decided that Prince Jetha will have to sell the garden at the price he had quoted. The men of Anathpindika started to cover the garden with gold coins, but in the end, a small part of the land near the gate remained uncovered. Anathpindika asked his to bring more gold coins to cover this land also. The amazed prince requested Anathpindika to not cover that part and donated that land for the vihara. It is estimated that Anathpindika paid Prince Jetha around 18 million gold coins which was three-fifths of his entire wealth. Prince Jetha used that money in building the gateway, walls and several temples inside the monastery. Anathpindika spent another significant part of his wealth to build the large vihara along with the houses to be used by Buddha and hundreds of monks. Besides the houses for the monks, he also built 60 large halls and 60 small halls for the use of Sangha. Once the monastery was ready, he sent his men to the bamboo grove in Rajgiri to inform and invite Buddha. When Buddha arrived at the park, Anathpindika washed his hands with a golden bowl and dedicated the monastery for the use of Buddha and Sangha. Buddha named the monastery Jetavana Anathpindika Rama. Anathpindika built several structures inside the monastery but perhaps the most important was the Gandh Kuti or perfume chamber. The Gandh Kuti was built by Anathpindika for the personal use of Buddha where he used to reside in Jetavana. This is the largest temple structure in Jetavana. The original Gandh Kuti was a two-story wooden structure that was later converted into a six-story brick building. Today, only the foundation and the lower walls of the structure survives. Another important structure built by him was the Kaushambi Kuti. Anathpindika built the Kaushambi Kuti as the meditation room for Buddha. The remains of the well that was used at that time can still be seen. This was the room where Buddha used to do his meditations. In front of Kaushambi Kuti is a brick platform that marks the original site of Buddha's walking meditations or sankama. Whenever Buddha stayed at Jetavana, his chief disciple Ananda used to visit him twice a day to fulfill any of the personal needs of Buddha. There is Stupa H just in front of Gandh Kuti which was the place where Buddha used to give his sermons to the bhikkhus and his lay disciples. Buddha spent most of his monastic life in Sravasthi and naturally it was the place where he gave most of his sermons that were recorded in the scriptures. He spent 25 of his rainy retreats in Sravasthi out of a total of 45. He used to stay in Jetavana monastery during the three months of the rainy season and after that he used to leave for his preaching tours across the Gangetic plains of India. Once when Buddha had left the Jetavana monastery, on his preaching tours, the citizens of Sravasthi came to the monastery to pay their respect to Buddha. But as Buddha was outside of Jetavana, they left the offerings at the gate of Gandh Kuti and went off disappointed. Anath Pindika came to know about this. When Buddha and the monks returned during the rainy season, he requested Ananda for some object of worship in absence of Buddha. Anand went to Buddha with the request made by Anath Pindika. He got permission from Buddha to plant a sapling of the original Bodhi tree from Bodh Gaya to be planted in Jetavana as the object of respect. Another chief disciple, Mogalana, brought the branch of the holy Bodhi tree which was planted by Anath Pindika near the gate of Jetavana. Buddha blessed the tree by spending a night meditating under the tree. At the request of Ananda, this tree was called the Ananda Bodhi tree. The old Ananda Bodhi tree is still the object of respect and worship today in Jetavana. There are remains of several monastic settlements established during the 6th century BC to 12th century AD. Some water storage tanks established during that period still survive today. There are also several stupas scattered all over Jetavana which were built in memory of Buddha's disciples. King Ashoka visited Shravasti during his pilgrimage in 249 BC and erected two pillars at the eastern gate of Jetavana. The place where Devadatta, the step-brother of Buddha, was swallowed by the earth is situated nearby. After the death of Anath Pindika, a stupa was built over the foundations of his house. The stupa is now called Kachchikuti and is present at the site of the ancient Shravasti. The site of ancient Shravasti is now called Mahet while the remains of Jetavana is called Sahet. Another imposing structure in front of Anath Pindika's stupa is Angulimal stupa. According to Xuanzang, the stupa marks the place where Angulimal was cremated. Angulimal was the dreaded robber who was saved by Buddha. He became one of the famous monks from Shravasti. The Angulimal stupa is now called Pachchikuti. Shravasti became one of the most prominent centres of Buddhism from the time of Buddha himself. It continued to retain its importance till the end of 12th century when it was gradually deserted by the monks because of the continuous attacks by Islamic invaders. Gradually, the ancient city of Shravasti and the Jetavana vihar got into disuse and was covered under forest. It got erased from the memory of people and remained lost and buried under dust for 700 years when it was rediscovered by the famous British archaeologist Sir Alexander Cunningham. Today, the remains of Jetavana monastery and ancient Shravasti have again become the major centre of Buddhist pilgrimage visited by millions of pilgrims from across the world. Gandhikuti, the residence of Buddha, once again resonates with the prayers of Buddhist monks. If you found value in this video, please give it a thumbs up. We are constantly coming out with new videos on the life of Buddha and the Buddhist heritage. If the information provided by the video was useful, please subscribe to the channel for similar videos on Buddhism. 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