Bhandu

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (Retd.)

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Bhandu (भंडु) is a place name mentioned by Panini under Suvastvadi (सुवास्त्वादि) (4.2.77) group.

Variants of name

• Bhanduka

Jat clan

• Bhadu

In Mahavansa

• Bhadu & Ashoka: Mahavansa/Chapter 13 tells....When Mahendra son of Ashoka came in time to Vedisagiri the city of his mother Devi, he visited his mother and when Devi saw her dear son she made him welcome, and his companions likewise, with foods prepared by herself, and she led the thera up to the lovely vihära Vedisagiri.....When the prince Asoka, while ruling over the realm of Avanti, that his father had bestowed on him, halted in the town of Vedisa, before he came to Ujjeni, and met there a lovely maiden named Devi, the daughter of a merchant, he made her his wife; and she was (afterwards) with child by him and bore in Ujjeni a beautiful boy, Mahinda, and when two years had passed (she bore) a daughter, Samghamitta. At that time she lived in the city of Vedisa....The son of a daughter of Devi's sister, (a youth) named Bhanduka, who had heard the doctrine preached by the thera to Devi, and who had obtained the reward of one who shall return no more unto life remained with the thera. When he had stayed there a month the thera, on the uposatha-day of the month Jettha, with the four theras and Sumana, and the lay-disciple Bhanduka also, to the end that they might be known for human beings, rose up in the air (and departed) from that vihara; and he, the (thera) of wondrous powers, coming hither with his following alighted on the pleasant Missaka-mountain, on the Sila-peak on the open and fair Ambatthala.

Note: The Sanchi Inscriptions, From West to North Gate.— (Inside.), No 33. — Gotiputasa Bhadukasa bhichhuno dānam = "Gift of Goti's son, Bhanduka, the mendicant monk." tells that Bhanduka was Goti's son of Vidisha. (Bhanduka → Bhaduka → Bhadu)

• Bhadu & Naga - Mahavansa/Chapter 14 states ....The king Devanampiyatissa (307-267 BC) who had arranged a waterfestival for the dwellers in the capital, set forth to enjoy the pleasures of the chase. Attended by forty thousand of his men he went on foot to the Missaka-mountain. The deva of the mountain arranged to meet the theras to him. The wise thera preached to the monarch the Cülahatthipadüpamasuttanta. At the end of the discourse he, with the forty thousand men, came unto the (three) refuges. The thera bestowed on young Bhanduka, within the boundaries of that village and within that group (of bhikkhus), both the pabbajja and the upasampada-ordination, and even in the same moment he attained to the state of arahant. Devas without number were converted to the doctrine and many nägas and Supanas came unto the (three) refuges. Even as when the thera Sariputta uttered this discourse so did the devas gather together to hear it from Mahinda. The king led the theras into the palace. The king himself served them with rice-soup and with foods hard and soft. And when the meal was finished, he himself sat down at their feet and sent for Anulä, the consort of his younger brother, the sub-king Mahanaga, who dwelt in the royal palace. When the queen Anulä had come with five hundred women and had bowed down and made offerings to the theras, she stepped to one side. The thera preached the Petavatthu, the Vimänavatthu and the Sacca-samyutta. The women attained to the first stage of sanctification. (Bhanduka → Bhaduka → Bhadu)

References

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