Saṁyutta Nikāya
I. Sagātha Vagga
9. Vana-Saṁyutta
I. Kindred Sayings with Verses
9. The Forest Suttas
Sutta 4
Sambahulā (or Cārika) Suttaṁ
Many of Them
or
On Tour
[253]
THUS HAVE I HEARD: —
Many brethren were once staying among the Kosalese
in a certain forest-tract.
And at the close of the rains,
when the three months [of Lent] were over,
those brethren set out on tour.
Then the deva,
indigenous to that forest,
missed them,
and lamenting,
uttered in that hour the verse: —
"I see these many solitary seats,
By learned men of varied discourse used.1
To-day regret and discontent are mine —
Where are those Gotama-disciples gone?"
When this had been said,
a certain deva addressed this verse to him: —
"They've gone to Magadha, to Kosala,
And some into the Vajjian land have gone.
As deer that roam untrapped at liberty,
Owning no home the almsmen pass their time."2
1 These were not solitary students, but a school collectively and systematically engaged, according to B., in teaching and learning by heart the doctrines, and asking and answering questions, marking the hours by a bell (gaṇḍi).
2 The verses occur in Mahāvastu, 3, 420, 18, which reads magakā for magā. Magā occurs above, II, 2, § 1; cf. M. i, 173 f.; 306.