Itivuttaka - Book of This Was Said: Free Downloads on October 15 and 31, November 15 and 30, and December 15 by Anagarika Mahendra

Author:Anagarika Mahendra [Mahendra, Anagarika]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dhamma Publishers
Published: 2018-05-21T03:00:00+00:00

Appendix 1 – Queen Sāmāvati

DPPN thus: She was one of the three chief consorts of King Udena. She was the daughter of the setthi Bhaddavatiya of Bhaddavatī, who was a friend of Ghosaka of Kosambī. When plague broke out in Bhaddavatī, she and her parents fled to Kosambī, and there obtained food from the alms hall provided by Ghosaka. On the first day Sāmāvatī asked for three portions, on the second two, on the third only one. For her father had died after the meal on the first day, her mother on the second. When, on the third day, she asked for only one portion, Mitta who was distributing alms, teased her, saying: "Today you know the capacity of your belly." She asked what he meant, and when he explained his words, she told him what had happened. Mitta pitied her and adopted her as his daughter.

One day, when she arrived at the refectory, she found a great uproar going on, people rushing everywhere to get alms. She asked to be allowed to bring order into this chaos, and had a fence erected round the refectory with separate doors for entrance and exit. This put an end to the disturbances. Ghosaka, hearing no noise in the refectory as before, inquired the reason, and, finding out what Sāmāvatī had done, adopted her as his own child. Sāmāvatī's original name was Sāmā, but after building the fence (vati) round the refectory she was called Sāmāvatī.

On a festival day Udena saw Sāmāvatī going to the river to bathe, and, falling in love with her, asked Ghosaka to send her to the palace. But Ghosaka refused, and the king turned him and his wife out of doors and sealed up his house. When Sāmāvatī discovered this, she made Ghosaka send her to the palace, and Udena made her his chief consort. Sometime afterwards Udena took Māgandiyā also as consort.

When the Buddha visited Kosambī at the request of Ghosaka, Kukkuta and Pāvāriya, Khujjuttarā, the servant woman of Sāmāvatī, heard him preach and became a Sotāpanna. She had been on her way to the gardener, Sumana, to buy flowers for Sāmāvatī, with the eight pieces of money given to her daily by the king for this purpose. On Sumana's invitation, she had gone to hear the Buddha at his house. On other days she had spent only half the money on flowers, appropriating the rest for herself; but this day, having become a Sotāpanna, she bought flowers with the whole amount and took them to Sāmāvatī, to whom she confessed her story. At Sāmāvatī's request, Khujjuttarā repeated to her and her companions the sermon she had heard from the Buddha. After this, she visited the Buddha daily, repeating his sermon to Sāmāvatī and her friends. Having learnt that the Buddha passed along the street in which the palace stood, Sāmāvatī had holes made in the walls so that she and her friends might see the Buddha and do obeisance to him. Māgandiyā heard of this during

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