1. Now at that time the venerable Pilindavakkha had a mountain cave at Râgagaha cleared out, with the object of making it into a cave dwelling-place. And the Mâgadha king Seniya Bimbisâra went to the place where the venerable Pilindavakkha was; and when he had come there, he saluted the venerable Pilindavakkha, and took his seat on one side.
And when he was so seated the Mâgadha king Seniya Bimbisâra said to the venerable Pilindavakkha, 'What is it that my Lord, the Thera, is having done?'
'I am having a cave cleared out, with the object of making it into a cave dwelling-place.'
'Do you then, Sir, require an ârâmika (a park-keeper)?'
'Not so, great king! A park-keeper has not been prescribed by the Blessed One.'
'Then, Sir, enquire, of the Blessed One (concerning this matter), and let me then know.'
6. Then the venerable Pilindavakkha took a grass chumbat 1, and said to the park-keeper's wife: 'Bind, I pray you, this grass chumbat round the child's head.' And the park-keeper's wife took the grass chumbat, and bound it round the girl's head. And that became a chaplet of gold, beautiful, lovely, and pleasing, such that there was no chaplet of gold in the king's seraglio like it. And people told the Mâgadha king Seniya Bimbisâra, 'There is a chaplet of gold, your Majesty, in the house of such and such a park-keeper, such that there is no chaplet of gold in the king's seraglio like it. How could he, poor as he is, have got (such a thing)? For a certainty he must have procured it by theft.' Then the Mâgadha king Seniya Bimbisâra had (the whole of) that park-keeper's family thrown into bonds. 7. Now the venerable Pilindavakkha robed himself again early in the morning, and went, duly bowled and robed, into Pilinda-gâma for alms. And going his round for alms straight on from house to house he came to the dwelling-place of that park-keeper; and
End of the first Bhânavâra on the law of medicines. 64:1 A circular roll of grass, or cloth, to be placed on the head when a pot of oil or water was being carried on the head. Compare kumbataka, and Rh. L.'s 'Buddhist Birth Stories,' p. 295.
Footnotes
