

: JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. 
New Series. 
Vol, IV.—1908. 
o CRAG - aN 
Pe Gandhakuti—the Buddha’s Private Abode. 
By H. C. Norman. 
The object of this note is to determine from an examination 
of Pali and other sources what precisely a Gandhakuti is. 
The question is an interesting one, both because anything that 
throws light on the Buddha’s habits as a private individual is 
welcome to the biographer contending with the difficulties of 
extracting the particles of truth from the masses of legendary 
fiction, and because students of epigraphy have been confronted 
with the term and will probably often meet with it again as more 
relics are unearthed by the patient labours of the archeologist. 
e gongs ll ae pika (to begin with the definition of the 
standard Pali Kosha) says: Gandhakuti—Jinassa vasubhavanam 
“The perfumed chamber of the Jina.’ This is repeated by 
Childers s.v. = far is this definition borne out by Pali docu- 
ments! 
The Sumaiigale-Vilaaini 5 in the Brahmajalasuttavannana gives 
a clear and apparently authentic account of the Buddha’s daily 
_and nightly routine. It has been translated by Warren in his 
“ Buddhism in Translations,” so that only the details in reference 
to the “perfumed c hamber”’ need be considered here. 
takiccam). After entering, the Buddha has his feet washed by his 
special attendant and then, standing on the jewelled apelepnes of the 
Gandhakuti, delivers a short homily to the Saigha, the members 
of which receive from him special subjects for meditation ae then 
