A woodland within the Bamboo Grove; in the Pali tradition the compound is usually interpreted as “squirrels’ feeding place,” but according to Tibetan sources kalandaka refers to a kind of bird.

The exact referent of the word kalandaka is contested, and its etymology is unclear (see Mayrhofer 1956, s.v.). While in the Pali Buddhist tradition the word is generally believed to refer to a kind of squirrel (see Dhammika 2015, 61 and 110), the Tibetan tradition understood ka lan da ka to be a species of bird that nested in the Bamboo Grove. In the Pali tradition, kalandakanivāpa is the name of a locality in or near the Veṇuvana, the Bamboo Grove north of the ancient town of Rājagṛha, in which a certain king had placed food (nivāpa) for the squirrels. According to legend, a tree spirit in the form of a squirrel had warned the intoxicated, sleeping, and unattended king that a venomous snake was approaching to bite him. Out of gratitude, the king ordered that the squirrels be fed regularly. According to Tibetan sources, King Bimbisāra of Magadha confiscated the park that was later to become the Bamboo Grove from a local landowner. The landowner, angry about the expropriation, took rebirth as a venomous snake in that park. One day, when Bimbisāra and his attendants had fallen asleep after a picnic in the park, the snake approached to bite the king. Some kalandaka birds, however, saw the snake and seized it. Their cries awoke one of the king’s wives, who then killed the snake, thus saving the king’s life. As a sign of his gratitude, Bimbisāra planted bamboo that the birds especially liked (cf. Rockhill 1884, 43–44, for a translation of the Kangyur passage relating this story). According to some Chinese sources kalandaka is the name of the person who donated the Bamboo Grove to the Buddha (for references, see Vinītā 2010, 415 and 417, footnote b). We have followed the Tibetan interpretation in our translation.

Introduction

The Translation

Abbreviations