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Ananda. The King checked them and exhorted them to spare Ananda as he, the King, was to die soon. Ananda was then annointed king and soon afterwards he caught the King and ordered Durmati to throw the old King into a horrible dungeon. The queens there saw him in the most pitiful condition, wept and beat their breasts. The king persuaded them not to do so and preached to them the vanity of all these things. He advised them to renounce the world and become nuns. The queens followed his advice. (120. 21.)
The King did not become enraged even in the least at the daily ill-treatment meted out to him. He at last resolved to starve himself to death. When Ananda heard of this resolve, he sent one of his noble men napied Devas’arman to dissuade the King. But he could not move the King from his resolve. (121. 6.) Seeing that Devas'arman was late, Ananda rushed and threatened the King to lop off his head if he did not take his food. The old King was undaunted and declared in a long and moving sermon that it was foolish to be afraid of the inevitable death. Ananda, thereupon, killed him with his
