asked permission to pay the visit. Twice Nâtaputta refused him. Then Sîha
determined to disobey him. He sought Buddha out, heard his teaching and
was converted by him. In order to show his attachment to his new teacher
he invited Buddha and his disciples to eat with him. On the acceptance of
the invitation, Sîha commanded his servants to provide flesh in honour of
the occasion. This fact came to the ears of the followers of the
Nigaṇṭha. Glad to have found an occasion to damage Buddha, they
hurried in great numbers through the town, crying out, that Sîha had
caused a great ox to be killed for Buddha's entertainment; that Buddha had
eaten of the flesh of the animal although he knew it had been killed on
his account, and was, therefore guilty of the death of the animal. The
accusation was brought to Siha's notice and was declared by him to be a
calumny. Buddha, however preached a sermon after the meal, in which he
forbade his disciples to partake of the flesh of such animals as had been
killed on their account. The legend also corroborates the account in the
Jaina works, according to which Vardhamâna often resided in Vaiśâlî and
had a strong following in that town. It is probably related to show that
his sect was stricter, as regards the eating of flesh, than the Buddhists,
a point, which again agrees with the statutes of the Jainas. [Footnote:
_S.B.E_. Vol. XVII, pp. 108-117.]

The account of Nâtaputta's death is still more important. "Thus I heard
it", says an old book of the Singalese canon, the _Sâmagâma Sutta_,
"once the Venerable one lived in Sâmagâma in the land of the Sâkya. At
that time, however, certainly the Nigaṇṭha Nâtaputta had died in
Pâvâ. After his death the Nigaṇṭha wandered about disunited,
separate, quarrelling, fighting, wounding each other with words."
[Footnote: The passage is given in the original by Oldenberg,
_Leitsch. der D. Morg. Ges_. Bd. XXXIV, S. 749. Its significance
in connection with the Jaina tradition as to their schisms has been