Kalandakanivāpa

Kalandakanivāpa; A woodland in Veluvana.

Here food (nivāpa) was regularly placed for the squirrels. It is said that once a certain raja went there for a picnic and, having over-drunk, fell asleep. His retinue, seeing him sleeping, wandered away, looking for flowers and fruits. A snake, attracted by the smell of liquor, approached the king from a neighbouring tree-trunk, and would have bitten him had not a tree-sprite, assuming the form of a squirrel, awakened him by her chirping. In gratitude the rājā gave orders that thenceforth the squirrels in that locality should be fed regularly. UdA.60; SnA.ii.419.

According to some, it was the gift of a merchant named Kalandaka (Beal: Romantic Legend, p.315); Tibetan sources identify the rājā with Bimbisāra and say that the snake was a reincarnation of the owner whose land the king had confiscated. According to these same sources the name is Kalantaka and is described as the name of a bird (Rockhill: op. cit., p.43).

Kalandakanivāpa was evidently a favourite resort of the Buddha and his monks.