289. The Bodhisatta Eating Alone
Once upon a time Brahmadatta ruled righteously in Benares, having renounced the ways of sin, and he kept the Ten Royal Virtues. This being so, his court of justice became so to say empty. The king, by way of searching out his own faults, questioned every one, beginning with those who dwelt about him; but not in the women’s apartments, nor in the city, nor in the near villages, could he find any one who had a fault to tell of him. Then he made up his mind to try the country folk. So handing over the government to his courtiers, and taking the chaplain with him, he traversed the kingdom of Kasi in disguise; yet he found no one with a fault to tell of him.
288. The Bodhisatta At The Deathbed Of King
After coming down from the palace of Truth, Sudassana, the king was lying hard on the couch prepared for him in the Palm grove which was all of gold and jewels. Subhadda said to her husband, “”Eighty four thousand cities, chief of which is the royal city of Kusavati, own your sovereignty, sir. Set your heart on them.”
Sudassana told Subhadda, his wife, “Don’t say like that, my queen; rather tell me, saying, ‘Keep your heart set on this town, and yearn not after those others’.”
287. The Bodhisatta As Yakka’s Son
Once upon a time in the reign of Brahmadatta, king of Benares, his queen-consort after falling into sin was questioned by the king, and taking an oath she said, “If I have sinned against you, I shall become a female Yakkha with a face like a horse.” After her death she became a horse-faced Yakkha and dwelt in a rock-cave in a big forest at the foot of a mountain, and used to catch and devour the men passing by the road leading from the East to the Western border. After serving Vesssavana three years, it is said, she got leave to eat people in a certain space, thirty leagues long by five leagues broad.
Now one day a rich, wealthy, handsome Brahmin, accompanied by a large suite, ascended that road. The Yakkha, seized the Brahmin and threw him on her back, and in entering the cave, through coming into contact with the man, under the influence if passion she conceived an affection for him, and instead of devouring him she made him her husband, and they lived harmoniously together.
286. The Bodhisatta As Vidhura
Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Kuru and the city called Indapatta, was reigning a king Koravya, of the stock of Yuddhitthila. His adviser in things temporal and spiritual was a minister named Vidhura. The king, with his great almsgiving, set all India in a commotion; but amongst all those who received and enjoyed these gifts, not one there was who kept so much as the Five Virtues; all were wicked to a man, and the king’s giving brought him no satisfaction. The king thought, “Great is the fruit of discriminate giving;” and being desirous to give unto the virtuous, he determined to take counsel with the wise Vidhura. When, therefore, Vidhura came to wait on him, the king put a question to him.
Explaining this, the Master recited half the first stanza. All the rest are question and answer of the king and Vidhura.
