The introductory story relates how the
monks of Kosambī quarrelled and brought about great dissension among themselves
because one of their number had left in a vessel the surplus water for rinsing
the mouth. When the Buddha found that he could not induce the monks to live in
harmony, he related to them the story of Dīghīti, king of Kosala, and when even
that failed to produce the desired effect he uttered ten stanzas, standing
poised in mid-air, and went away from Kosambī, leaving the monks to their fate.
The Kosambī Jātaka contains only a small
portion of the story of Dīghīti, scarcely more than an allusion to it. The
Dīghīti Kosala Jātaka (q.v.) contains further details, but even when taken
together, these two do not make the story complete. The full story is related in
the Vinaya Pitaka (Vin.i.342ff).

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