Once upon a time in the kingdom of Magadha the king was reigning in Rajagaha. When the crops were grown the deer were exposed to great perils, so that they retired to the forest. Now a certain mountain-stag of the forest, having become attached to a doe who came from near a village. He was moved by his love for her to accompany her when the deer returned home from the forest. She said, “Sir! You are a simple stag of the forest, and the neighbourhood of village is beset with peril and danger. So don’t come down with us.” But because of his great love for her, he went with her.

When they knew that it was time for the deer to get down from the hills, the Magadha folk posted themselves in ambush by the road; and a hunter was waiting just by the road along which the pair were travelling. Scenting a man, the doe suspected that a hunter was in ambush, and let the stag go on first, and followed at some distance. With a single arrow the hunter killed the stag. The doe seeing him struck flew like the wind. Then that hunter skinned the stag and lighting a fire, cooked the sweet flesh. Having eaten and drunk, he took off home the remainder of the bleeding carcass on his carrying-pole for his family.

In those days the Bodhisatta was a fairy dwelling in that very grove of trees, and he marked what had come to pass. “It was not father or mother, but passion alone that destroyed this foolish deer. The dawn of passion is bliss, but its end is sorrow and suffering; the painful loss of hands, and the misery of the five forms of bonds and blows. To cause another’s death is accounted infamy in this world; infamous too is the land which owns a woman’s sway and rule; and infamous are the men who yield themselves to women’s dominion.”

Thus the three infamies were comprised by the Bodhisatta, and the woods re-echoed as he taught the Truth with all the mastery and grace of a Buddha.