| J.341 |
Ku.n.dali Jaataka |
A king of Benares was very handsome. Each day he received one thousand boxes of perfume
for his use and his food was cooked with scented wood. His wife, Kinnara was very
beautiful and his chaplain was Pa~ncalacanda. One day Kinnara looking out (of the
window) saw a loathesome cripple in the shade of a jambu tree near her window and
fell in love with the man. Thereafter, she would wait nightly for the king to fall
asleep and would then nightly visit the cripple, taking him dainty foods and having
her pleasure with him. One day, the king, returning from a procession, saw the misshapen
creature, and asked the chaplain if such a man could ever win the love of a woman.
The cripple, hearing the question, proudly boasted of his conquest of the queenís
heart. At the chaplainís suggestion, the king watched the queenís movements the same
night. He saw the cripple abuse and strike her for arriving late. The blow fell on
her ear, breaking her earring, which the king picked up. The next day, the king ordered
the queen to appear before him in all her jewellry and having proved that he knew
of her infidelity, handed her over to the chaplain for execution.Pa~ncalacanda, pitying
the woman, begged that she should be pardoned, because he claimed that infidelity
was an instinct common to all women (woman can not be owned any more than a well
from which anyone can drink) To prove his contention, Pa~ncalacanda and the king
travelled throughout the Jambudipa in disguise, testing the virtue of various women.
Convinced that all women were alike, the king spared Kinnaraís life, but drove her
out of the palace, together with the cripple and had the jambu tree cut down. The
story was related by the bird Kunala to his friend Punnamukha, testifying the unfaithfulness
of women. Kunala is identified with Pa~ncalacanda. |
58/655 |
Jaataka |
Khuddhaka |
J.iii.132ff. |
women, infidelity |