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to give the king the good news. The king gave orders to prepare the elephant and other paraphernalia so that the king and the queen would ride towards the mountains. The sky was full of black clouds, flashes of lightning appeared in the sky and the queen was simply delighted as she rode the elephant and travelled towards the mountain of Vaibhāragiri in the company of the king. Her pregnancy desire was fully satisfied. The royal couple came back to the palace and the god withdrew his magic.
After nine months and seven-and-a-half days the queen gave birth to a son which occasion was greatly celebrated throughout the kingdom. The child was given the name of Meghakumāra in keeping with the pregnancy desire of the queen.
The child was brought up in extraordinary royal luxury, five governesses nursed him. When he was eight years old, he was sent to his teacher's house to be educated in various arts. When after the due passage of time, the young prince returned home to his parents, he was an accomplished scholar and an expert in various arts. He made his parents justifiably proud. They naturally thought in terms of the marriage of the young prince. Eight excellent palaces were constructed for the prince's residence after marriage and eight beautiful princesses from wellknown royal families were selected to be his brides. Meghakumāra enjoyed every kind of heavently pleasure in the company of his eight brides for a long time.
One day prince noticed from the balcony of his palace a large number of people in pleasingly festive mood, talking in a lively manner, all going in the direction of a public park outside Rajagļha. The prince wondered what sort of holiday it was and why should all these people feel so enthusiastic about going to the park. He asked a servant who said that the people had every reason to be in festive mood because they were going to be blessed with a rare opportunity, they would be listening to Mahavira the great prophet who was holding his discourse in the park Gunasilaka caitya.
Meghakumara decided that he too would avail himself of the great opportunity to listen to the Master. He therefore drove in his chariot towards the park and out of respect for the Master he got
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