soon as she saw it cried out, "O your Majesty! how foolish you are. Here is my dream fulfilled; look at the snake." Then she began to scream out abuse at both the king and Sāmavatī, and reviled the latter, saying, "You put the snake in the lute to kill the king; do you think that if the king died you would live?" When the king saw the snake, he started and exclaimed, "Infamous as Sāmavati is, I gave no credence to Magandiya when she accused her. Before this, she made holes in the wall of her palace; again, she would not dress the fowls for me, and now she lets loose a snake in my bed." Saying these words he became furiously enraged. Sāmavatī seeing the king's anger exhorted her 500 attendants not to give way to anger against either the king or Magandiyā, but to meditate only on the Saranagamana,1 which has the power of preventing all evil emotions. The king, exasperated with Samavati, took a bow made of goats' horns, which required a thousand soldiers to string, and fixing a poisoned arrow, he had Sāmavati placed in front with her 500 attendants in a row behind her; then he let fly the arrow at the centre of her bosom; but owing to her loving disposition the arrow returned, and made as if it would enter the king's breast. The king reflecting, "The arrow that I shot would have gone through a stone slab; yet it came back and made as if it would pierce my breast," trembled and said, "Even this lifeless arrow recognised the merit of Samavati, while I, a man, could not see it." Then he threw away the arrow, and falling at her feet raised his hands in adoration, and ad 1 A formula of worship, viz. I worship Para, I worship the Law, I worship the priesthood. dressed her as follows, in poetry: "Samavati, I am utterly lost, everything is confusion; save me and be to me an object of worship." Saying this he made Queen Samavati, the the humble gesture of apology. disciple of Para Taken, far from allowing the king to worship her, replied, "Do not worship me; I worship Para Taken; do you also worship him. It is you, great king, who should rather be an object of worship to me." The king said, "Let him then be my object of worship," and listening to the advice of Samavatī, he went for seven days in succession to Para Taken, made offerings of rice to him, and heard the law. He also offered to Queen Samavati a magnificent present, but she said to him, "Your Majesty, I have no wish for gold or silver, give permission that Para Taken and his Rahans may visit continually my Pyathat." The king accordingly invited Para Taken to visit continually the queen's Pyathat, but Para Taken replied, "It is not fitting that a Para Taken should go continually to one palace only, for many people long to contemplate him."-" If this be so," said the king, "Lord and master, depute one of your disciples," and Para Taken replied, "I depute my lord Ananda." The lord Ananda accompanied by 500 Rahans then visited Sāmavati's Pyathat, and ate their rice there; and the queen with her 500 female attendants, after listening to the law, presented to Ananda 500 garments, and each priest's garment was worth 500 (pieces of gold). Magandiya, foiled in her designs, planned another stratagem. One day King Udena was amusing himself in the garden, and Magandiya, blind to the state (of soul) in which she was, thought that this was a good opportunity to complete her evil designs. She sent for her uncle the Brahmin, and told him to get a quantity of cloths, saturate them with oil, wrap them round Samavati's Pyathat, and then set fire to them. The Brahmin accordingly procured a number of coarse cloths, washed them, and saturated them with oil; then he took them to Samavati's Pyathat, and after wrapping them round all the door-posts and the leaves of the doors, he closed all the entrances. Samavati said to him, "Brother Brahmin, why are you wrapping these cloths round the doors?" and he replied, "The king has given me strict orders to do so, but why I do not know." Then he set fire to them and went away. Sāmavati exhorted all her attendants, saying, "In the countless existences that have had no beginning, it would be impossible to reckon the number of times that we have perished by fire; let us keep this in mind." When the walls of the palace were wrapped in flames and they began to suffer acutely, she repeated the Kammathāna,1 and several of her attendants obtained the reward of Anāgāmi.2 The assembly of Rahans said to Para Taken, "Lord and master, while King Udena is engaged in his garden, Samavati's palace is in flames, and the queen with her 500 attendants is being burned to death; what will be the future state of these handmaidens?" Parā Taken replied, "Some are settled in the reward of Sotapatti,3 some in that of Sakadāgāmi, and others in that of 1 Forty sentences for repetition. 2 The third state of an Ariya. Anāgāmi. These attendants do not die without future reward, the whole of them have received the right course. All people who are subject to the influence of their former deeds are constantly experiencing both happiness and misery." The intelligence of Samavati's Pyathat being on fire was quickly carried to the king. Unable to reach it before it was burnt down, he remained surrounded by his nobles overwhelmed with grief. He thought of all the good qualities of Samavati, and came to the conclusion that it was the work of Magandiyā. Knowing that he could not extort a confession from her by threats, he had recourse to artifice, and said to his nobles, "From this day forth I shall be in comfort; many a time did Samavati plot my destruction; unsuccessful in her attempts she has now met her death; from this day forth my mind will be at rest, and I shall be able to sleep in peace. Whoever compassed the death of Samavati I call my friend." Magandiya, who was near the king when he said this, directly she heard it, exclaimed, "Your Majesty, could any one else have contrived this? It was I who managed the plot, and my uncle the Brahmin carried it into effect." When the king heard this he pretended to be greatly delighted, and said to her, "You are indeed a friend to me; I will reward you for this; send for the whole of your relations;" saying this he dismissed her. When Magandiyā had brought all her relations, the king, in order that none of them might be forgotten, made them all very handsome presents. Seeing this, those who were only most distantly connected with Māgandiya came forward and claimed relationship. The The third state of an Ariya. 1 king, baving thus caught all Magandiya's relations, had a hole dug in front of him as deep as a man's waist; he then had all of them placed in it, and the hole filled up with fine earth. Above the hole he then had scattered a quantity of straw and rubbish which he caused to be set on fire. After all their hair and skin was burnt off, he had their bodies cut into pieces by passing iron harrows over them. With regard to Magandiya herself, strips of flesh were cut off with an excessively sharp knife from every part of her body, which, after being fried in oil, she was compelled to eat, and thus underwent the most horrible torture. Such is the history of Magandiya. One day the assembly of Rahans said to Parā Taken, "Lord and master, the death of Samavati and her 500 attendants who were all full of faith and love was by no means right."-" Beloved Rahans," replied Para Taken, "this Samavati and her 500 attendants, a long time ago, when Brahmadatta was king of the Benares country, were the concubines of that king. One day when the king was playing in the river with his concubines, these finding themselves very cold, and wishing to warm themselves at a fire, began to search here and there for fuel or rubbish to make a fire with. Finding on the bank of the river a bush of dry reeds, and thinking it was only rubbish, they set fire to it and warmed themselves at it. Now, in this bush was a Pakkekabuddha practising the Nirodhasamapatti.1 When the concubines saw the Pakkekabuddha in the flames, they cried out, "We have burned the Pakkekabuddha, the king's teacher; if this come to the king's ears we 1 Some supernatural attainment; a kind of ecstasy or trance. |