Now, as she became far gone with child, the nuns noticed the alteration in her person,—the swelling of her hands and feet and back, and the increase in her girth; and they asked her, “Lady, you seem to be with child. How is this?”
“I don’t know how it is, ladies; but I have kept the vows.”
Then the nuns led her to Devadatta, and asked him, “Sir! this young lady, after with difficulty gaining her husband’s consent, was received into the Order. But now it is evident that she is with child; and we know not whether she became so when she was a laywoman or when she was a nun. What shall we do now?”
Devadatta, not being a Buddha, and having no forbearance, kindness, or compassion, thought thus: “If people can say, ‘A nun of Devadatta’s side is carrying about a child in her womb, and Devadatta condones it,’ I shall be disgraced. I must unfrock this woman!” And without any inquiry, he answered with eagerness, “Go and expel this woman from the Order!”—just as if he were rushing forwards to roll away a mere piece of stone!
When they heard his decision, they arose, and bowed to him, and returned to the nunnery. But the young girl said to the nuns, “Ladies! the Elder, Devadatta, is not the Buddha. Not under him did I enter the religious life, but under the Buddha himself, who is supreme among men. What I obtained with such difficulty, O, deprive me not of that! Take me, I pray you, and go to the Master himself at Jetavana!”
And they took her; and passing over the forty-five leagues of road which stretched from Rājagaha to that place, they arrived in due course at Jetavana, and saluting the Master, told him the whole matter.
The Teacher thought, “Although the child was conceived when she was still in the world, yet the heretics will have an opportunity of saying, ‘The mendicant Gautama has accepted a nun expelled by Devadatta!’ Therefore, to prevent such talk, this case ought to be heard in the presence of the king and his ministers.”
So the next day he sent for Pasenadi the king of Kosala, Anātha Piṇḍika the Elder, Anātha Piṇḍika, the Younger, the Lady Visākhā the influential disciple, and other well-known persons of distinction. And in the evening, when all classes of disciples had assembled, he said to Upāli the Elder, “Go and examine into this affair of the young nun in the presence of the church!”
The Elder accordingly went to the assembly; and when he had seated himself in his place, called the Lady Visākhā before the king, and gave in charge to her the following investigation: “Do you go, Visākhā, and find out exactly on what day of what month this poor child was received into the Order, and then conclude whether she conceived before or after that day.”
The Lady agreed; and having had a curtain hung, made a private examination behind it of the young nun; and comparing the days and months, found out that in truth she had conceived while she was yet living in the world. And she went to the Elder, and told him so; and the Elder, in the midst of the assembly, declared the nun to be innocent.