| J.380 |
Aasa"nka Jaataka |
Once the bodhisatva was an ascetic in the Himalayas. At that time, a being of great
merit left Tavatimsa and was born as a girl in the midst of a lotus pool near the
bodhisatvaís hermitage. The bodhisatva, noticing a peculiarity in the growth of the
lotus, swam to it and recovered the girl, who he brought up as his daughter, giving
her the name Asanka. Sakka, coming to visit him saw the girl, and enquiring what
he could do for her comfort, provided her with a crystal palace and divine food and
raiment. She spent her time waiting on the bodhisatva. The king of Benares, having
heard of her great beauty, came to the forest with a great following and asked for
her hand. The bodhisatva agreed on the condition that the king would tell him her
name. The king spent a whole year trying to guess it and having failed, was returning
home in despair, when the girl looking out of her window, told him of the creeper
of Asavati for whose fruits the gods wait 1,000 years. She thus encouraged him to
try again. Another year passed and she again raised hopes in the disappointed king
by relating to him the story of a crane whose hopes Sakka had fulfilled. At the end
of a third year, the king, disgusted by his failure, started to go home, but again
the girl engaged him in conversation, and in the course of the talk, the girlís name
was mentioned. When the king was told that the world had occurred in his talk, he
returned to the bodhisatva and told it to him. The bodhisatva then gave Asanka in
marriage to the king. See also Indriya
Jataka (J.423). |
59/051 |
Jaataka |
Khuddhaka |
J.iii.248ff. |
patience |