Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was the youngest of the King’s hundred sons. He grew up to manhood. Now in those days there Pacceka Buddhas who used to come to take their meals at the palace, and the Bodhisatta ministered to them.

One day, thinking of the great number of brothers he had, the Bodhisatta asked himself whether there was any likelihood of his becoming a king. He determined to ask the pacceka Buddhas to tell him what should happen to him.

Next day the Buddhas came, washed and dried their feet, and sat down to their meal. And as they sat, the Bodhisatta came and seating himself by them with a courteous salutation, put his question. And they answered and said, “Prince, you will never become a king in this city. But in Gandhara, two thousand leagues away, there stands the city of Takkasila. If you can reach that city, in seven days you will become king there. But there is peril on the road. It is double the distance round the forest that it is to pass through it. Ogres have their houses therein, and ogresses make villages and houses arise by the wayside. Arranged in celestial splendour the ogresses sit within their abodes, seducing wayfarers with honied words. ‘Weary you seem they say come here, and eat and drink before you go further on your way. Those that come at their calling are given seats and fired to lust by the charm of their beauty. Then the ogresses will kill them and eat while the warm blood is still flowing. If you can subdue your senses, and be strong in your resolve not to look upon them, then on the seventh day you will become king of the city of Takkasila.”

“Oh, sirs; how could I look upon the ogresses after advice to me?” So saying, the Bodhisatta asked the Pacceka Buddhas to give him something to keep him safe on his journey. Receiving from them a charmed thread and some charmed sand, he first bid farewell to the Pacceka Buddhas and to his father and mother and then going to his own abode, he addressed his household as follows “I am going to Takkasila to make myself king there. You will stop behind here.” But five of them answered, “Let us go too.”

“You may not come with me,” answered the Bodhisatta; “for I am told that the way is beset by ogresses who captivate men’s senses, and destroy those who succumb to their charms. Great is the danger, but I will rely on myself and go.”

“If we go with you, prince, we should not gaze upon their baleful charms. We too will go to Takkasila.” Then the Bodhisatta took those five with him on his journey.

The ogresses sat waiting by the way in their villages. And one of the five, the lover of beauty, looked upon the ogresses, and being ensnared by their beauty, lagged behind the rest. “Why are you dropping behind?” asked the Bodhisatta. “My feet hurt me, prince. I’ll just sit down for a bit in one of these stones, and then catch you up.”

“My good man, these are ogresses; don’t hanker after them.” “Be that as it may, prince, I can’t go any further.” “Well, you will soon know your real colours,” said the Bodhisatta, as he went on with the other four.

Yielding to his senses, the lover of beauty drew near to the ogresses, who tempted him to sin, and killed him then and there.

Thereon they departed, and further along the road raised by magic arts a new pavilion, in which they sat singing to the music of divers instruments. And now the lover of music dropped behind and was eaten.

Then the ogresses went on further and sat waiting in a bazaar stocked with all sweet scents and perfumes. And here the lover of sweet smelling things fell behind.

And when they had eaten him, they went on further and sat in a provision booth where a profusion of heavenly viands of exquisite savor was offered for sale. And here the gourmet fell behind.

And when they had eaten him, they went on further, and sat on heavenly couches brought by their magic arts. And here the lover of comfort fell behind. And they ate him too.

Only the Bodhisatta was left now. And one of the ogresses followed him, promising herself that for all his stern resolution she would succeed in devouring him. Further on in the forest, woodmen and others, seeing the ogress, asked her who the man was that walked on ahead.

“He is my husband, good gentlemen.”

They said to the Bodhisatta,”Hi, there! when you have got a sweet young wife, fair as the flowers, why don’t you walk with her instead of letting her trudge wearily behind you?” “She is not my wife, but an ogress. She has eaten my five companions.”

she said, “Alas! Good gentlemen! Anger will drive men to say their very wives are ogresses and ghouls.”

Next, she simulated pregnancy and then the look of a woman who has borne one child; and child on hip, she followed after the Bodhisatta. Everyone they met, asked just the same questions about the pair, and the Bodhisatta gave just the same answer as he proceeded.

At last he came to Takkasila, where the ogress made the child disappear, and followed alone. At the gates of the city the Bodhisatta entered a Rest house and sat down. Because of the Bodhisatta’s efficacy and power, she could not enter the rest house and stood on the threshold.

The King of Takkasila was at that moment passing by on his way to his pleasaunce, and was snared by her loveliness.

The King said he to an attendant,”Go! find out! Whether she has a husband with her or not.” And when the messenger came and asked whether she had a husband with her, she said, “Yes, sir; my husband is sitting within in the chamber.” But when asked, the Bodhisatta said, “She is not my wife. She is an ogress and has eaten my five compainions.”

And, as before, she said, “Alas! Good gentlemen, anger will drive men to say anything that comes into their heads.”

Then the attendat went back to the King and told him what each had said. The king took the ogress in his elephant and went to the palace.

Then in the night, the king met her in the bed-room. She was weeping. The king asked the reason for weeping. She said, “Sir, you found me by the wayside, and the women of the harem are mocking at my birth. But if your majesty would give me power and authority over the whole kingdom, nobody would dare to annoy me.”

The King said,”Sweetheart, I have no power over those that dwell throughout my kingdom; I am not their lord and master. I have only jurisdiction over those who revolt or do iniquity. So I cannot give you power and authority over the whole kingdom.”

She asked,”Then, sir, if you cannot give me authority over the kingdom or over the city, at least give me authority within the palace, that I may have rule here over those that dwell in the palace.”

Too deeply smitten with her charms to refuse, the King gave her authority. Contented, she waited till the King was asleep, and then making her way to the city of the ogres returned with the whole crew of ogres to the palace. And she herself killed the King and ate him; and the rest of the ogres entering the gate ate everything as it came in their way, not leaving even a fowl or a dog alive.

Next day when people came and found the gate shut, broke open and found the whole palace strewn with bones. And they exclaimed, “So the man was right in saying she was not his wife but an ogress. In his foolishness the King brought her home to be his wife, and doubtless she has assembled the other ogres, devoured everybody.”

Now on that day the Bodhisatta, put the the charmed sand on his head and the charmed thread twisted round his wrist, was standing in the Rest house. He was having sword in hand, waiting for the dawn.

The Ministers and the court cleaned the palace and decorated it with flowers. Then they took counsel together, as follows:-

“The man that could so master his senses as not so much as to look at the ogress as she followed him in her divine beauty, is a noble and steadfast man, filled with wisdom. With such an one as king, it would be well with the whole kingdom. Let us make him our king.”

And all the courtiers and all the citizens of the kingdom were one minded in the matter. So the Bodhisatta, being chosen king, was escorted into the capital and there decked in jewels and anointed king of Takkasila.

Shunning the four evil paths, and following the ten paths of kingly duty, he ruled his kingdom in righteousness, and after a life spent in charity and other good works passed away to fare according to his deserts.