| J.193 |
Cullapaduma Jaataka |
The Bodhisatva was once born as Paduma, son of the chief queen of the Benares king.
He had six brothers. The king, becoming suspicious of his sons, ordered them to leave
the kingdom. They went away with their wives, and coming to a region where there
was no food, they killed their wives one by one, and ate their flesh. The Bodhisatva
managed to save his wife by foregoing a share of the meal each day and fled with
her. During the flight, the bodhisatva even gave his wife some of his own blood to
drink because she was so thirsty. Later they lived in a hut on the bank of the Ganges.
One day the bodhisatva rescued a thief whose arms and legs had been cut off, from
a boat in the river. At first the Bodhisatvaís wife would not even look at the man,
but soon she conceived a passion for him and threw her husband over a precipice.
The bodhisatva fell on a fig tree and after some time climbed down with the help
of an iguana. He went to Benares and established his claim to his fatherís kingdom.
His erstwhile wife, wandering from place to place with the cripple on her shoulders,
gained great reputation as a devoted wife. One day she came to Benares. There the
king recognized her and revealed her treachery. The story was told in reference to
a backsliding monk. The details are given in the ummadanti Jataka. Devadatta was
the thief, Ci~nca the treacherous woman and Ananda the iguana. |
57/229 |
Jaataka |
Khuddhaka |
J.ii.115ff. |
women, treachery |