The Mahapali Alms-hall (08)

  In a park about a hundred yards further north from the palace, on the right of the road, are the remains of the Mahapali Alms Hall. The chronicle describes it as “the refectory called Mahapali, easy of Approach, beautiful, stored with all provisions and provided with service”. In the building is a large stone trough, which would have served as a ‘rice-boat’. The food was collected by a tool at the city gates, and distributed at the alms-hall. Fa Hien mentions that “the king, besides, prepares elsewhere in the city a common supply of food for 5,000-6,000 (monks)”. Aggabodhi !(564-597 A.D.) had a bronze trough made for the alms-hall, but this was taken away by a later king, to pay his soldiers.

  Any monk could fill his begging at the Mahapali alms-hall, and several kings are recorded as having taken all their meals here. Alms were provided here even during severe famine. A deep well also remains, so designed that steps down to the water level. It probably supplied drinking water, and even today it is hardly ever dry.