The Pali Commentaries

Outside of the canonical texts, the Pali commentaries are a vital source of knowledge on the early Buddhist period. They transmit old traditions about Buddhist thought and meditation, record important events in the expansion of Buddhism across and beyond Indian subcontinent, and preserve important material on the development of Buddhist philosophy and the different Buddhist schools. They also contain very old traditions about the Buddha which were not included in the canon itself. For example, the commentary on the ‘Discourse on the Noble Search’ (MN 26: Ariya-pariyesana-sutta) tells us that after spending the first twenty years of his teaching mission as a homeless wanderer, the Buddha’s daily routine in the last twenty-five years was relatively fixed around the Northern city of Sāvatthi.

bhagavā pa (o) thamabodhiyaṃ visati vassāni anibaddhavāso ahosi, pacchā pañcavisati vassāni abbo (o) kiṇṇaṃ sāvatthiyeva upanissāya vasanto ekadivase dve ṭhānāni paribhu (o) ñjati jetavane rattiṃ vasitvā punadivase bhikkhusaṅghaparivuto dakkhiṇadvārena sāvatthiṃ piṇḍāya pavisitvā pācinadvārena nikkhamitvā pubbārāme divāvihāraṃ karoti. pubbārāme rattiṃ vasitvā punadivase pācinadvārena sāvatthiyaṃ piṇḍāya pavisitvā dakkhiṇadvārena nikkhamitvā jetavane divāvihāraṃ karoti / kasmā dvinnaṃ kulānaṃ anukampāya / manussattabhāve ṭhitena hi anāthapiṇḍikena viya añena kenaci mātugāmattabhāve (o) ṭhitāya ca visākhāya viya aññāya itthiyā tathāgataṃ uddissa dhanapariccā (o) go kato nāma natthi / tasmā bhagavā tesaṃ anukampāya ekadivaseneva imāni (o) dve ṭhānāni paribhuñjati / 

‘For twenty years after the awakening, the Blessed One did not have a fixed abode. But for the following twenty-five years he lived around Sāvatthi, where he would eat in two places each day: when he spent the night in the Jetavana, surrounded by the community of mendicants, he would enter the Southern gate of Sāvatthi to gather alms in the city, and would then go out through the Eastern gate to spend the day in meditation in the Eastern Park. When he spent the night in the Eastern Park, he would enter the Eastern gate of Sāvatthi to gather alms in the city, and would then go out through the Southern gate to spend the day in meditation in the Jetavana. Why did he do this? Out of compassion for two families. For nobody else gave up their wealth for the Tathāgata like Anāthapindaka among men, and like Visākhā among women. Therefore the Blessed One would eat in these two places each day out of compassion for them.’