Bodhisattva Vadana Kalpalata And The Saddantavadana

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

Page 7

J. W. de Jong
order to show how the scribe of the Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā made use of the Kalpadrumāvadānamālā recension, it is necessary to give a summary and to indicate the Kalpadrumāvadānamālā verse-numbers.
Verses 1-4: Introduction. Asoka asks Upagupta to tell another tale.
5: A good man is purified by the fire of a bad man
(durjanāgni) just as a jewel shines after having been
polished by a whetstone. 6-11: Buddha teaches the law at the Garga Pond near Campā. 12-31: Devadatta warns the kşapaņakas against the Buddha. 32-37: His words provoke different reactions among them. 38-58: A kșapaņaka says that he knows a way to destroy the
reputation of the Buddha. He asks Cañāmānavikā to simulate pregnancy and to accuse the Buddha of having made her pregnant. She fastens a wooden bowl under
her garment. 59-88: . Cañcāmānavikā goes to the Buddha and accuses him of
having made her pregnant and of having abandoned her. The Buddha is unperturbed but the gods are greatly upset. Sakra creates two rats who cut the cord which holds the wooden bowl. Crying “I am burnt,” Cañcā
mānavikā disappears in the flames of Hell. 89-94: The Buddha explains that she has been guilty of a grave
sin in a previous existence. 95-123: The Elephant King Şaddanta lived happily in the
Himālayas with his two wives, Bhadrā and Subhadrā. Once he played with Subhadrā in the lotus pond Mandākinī. Bhadrā became jealous and decided to take revenge. She went to the forest where the munis live and took upon herself a fast in eight parts. She expressed the wish to be reborn as a queen and to obtain a seat of pleasure (krīļāsana) made from the tusks of Şaddanta. She killed herself by throwing herself from a mountain, and was reborn as the daughter of the minister Khandita (mistake for Pandita ?) of King Brahmadatta in Kāśi.