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CHAPTER THREE
knowing, 'She is my mother; she my step-mother."" To the King troubled by this difficult decision, announcement was made that it was noon, the usual time for the daily ceremonies. The members of the assembly said to him, “O lord, we did not decide this dispute of the two women, which is like a knot in a thunderbolt, even in six months. Now the time of the daily ceremonies must not be passed by. After a while the master can consider this question again." " Very well," said the King, and dismissed the assembly.
After he had performed the daily rites, he went to the women's quarters. There Queen Mangalā asked him : “Why did you pass by the time of the daily ceremonies at noon, my lord ? ” The King gave the Queen an account of the dispute between the two women; and, wise from the power of her embryo, the Queen said, “It is certainly fitting for a dispute between women to be decided by women alone. Therefore I shall decide the dispute, Your Majesty.” In astonishment the King accompanied the Queen to the assembly. The two women were summoned and questioned, and told the same stories as before. The Queen considered the complaint and the answer, and spoke as follows : “In my womb I have a Tirthakara, the possessor of three kinds of knowledge. When the Lord of the World is born, he will give judgment at the foot of the aśoka tree. So have patience, both of you."
The step-mother agreed, but the mother said, “I will not wait at all, O Queen. Let the mother of the Allknowing, Your Ladyship, give judgment right now. I will not make my own child subject to my co-wife for so long a time.” Then Queen Mangalā gave her decision. “He is certainly her son, since she can not endure delay. The step-mother can bear delay in this case, indeed, because she considers that it is another's son and money that are subject to both. Unable to endure her own son being made subject to both, how can the mother endure a delay ? My good woman, since you can not endure the least delay,
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