Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Religion
Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Jataka stories, English
And they took her; and passing over the forty-five leagues of road
which stretched from Rājagaha to that place, they arrived in due
course at Jetavana, and saluting the Master, told him the whole matter.
The Teacher thought, “Although the child was conceived when she
was still in the world, yet the heretics will have an opportunity
of saying, ‘The mendicant Gautama has accepted a nun expelled by
Devadatta!’ Therefore, to prevent such talk, this case ought to be
heard in the presence of the king and his ministers.”
So the next day he sent for Pasenadi the king of Kosala, Anātha
Piṇḍika the Elder, Anātha Piṇḍika, the Younger, the Lady Visākhā the
influential disciple, and other well-known persons of distinction. And
in the evening, when all classes of disciples had assembled, he said to
Upāli the Elder, “Go and examine into this affair of the young nun in
the presence of the church!”
The Elder accordingly went to the assembly; and when he had seated
himself in his place, called the Lady Visākhā before the king, and gave
in charge to her the following investigation: “Do you go, Visākhā, and
find out exactly on what day of what month this poor child was received
into the Order, and then conclude whether she conceived before or after
that day.”
The Lady agreed; and having had a curtain hung, made a private
examination behind it of the young nun; and comparing the days and
months, found out that in truth she had conceived while she was yet
living in the world. And she went to the Elder, and told him so;
and the Elder, in the midst of the assembly, declared the nun to be
innocent.
Thus was her innocence established. And she bowed down in grateful
adoration to the assembly, and to the Master; and she returned with the
other nuns to the nunnery.
Now, when her time was come, she brought forth a son strong in
spirit--the result of a wish she had uttered at the feet of Padumuttara
the Buddha. And one day, as the king was passing near the nunnery, he
heard the cry of a child, and asked his ministers the reason. They knew
of the matter, and said, “O king! that young nun has had a son, and the
cry comes from it.”
“To take care of a child, Sirs, is said to be a hindrance to nuns in
their religious life. Let us undertake the care of it,” said he.
And he had the child given to the women of his harem, and brought it up
as a prince. And on the naming-day they called him Kassapa; but as he
was brought up in royal state, he became known as Kassapa the Prince.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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