Thus was her innocence established. And she bowed down in grateful adoration to the assembly, and to the Master; and she returned with the other nuns to the nunnery.
Now, when her time was come, she brought forth a son strong in spirit—the result of a wish she had uttered at the feet of Padumuttara the Buddha. And one day, as the king was passing near the nunnery, he heard the cry of a child, and asked his ministers the reason. They knew of the matter, and said, “O king! that young nun has had a son, and the cry comes from it.”
“To take care of a child, Sirs, is said to be a hindrance to nuns in their religious life. Let us undertake the care of it,” said he.
And he had the child given to the women of his harem, and brought it up as a prince. And on the naming-day they called him Kassapa; but as he was brought up in royal state, he became known as Kassapa the Prince.
When he was seven years old, he was entered in the noviciate under the Buddha; and when he attained the necessary age, received full orders; and, as time went on, he became the most eloquent among the preachers. And the Master gave him the pre-eminence, saying, “Mendicants! the chief of my disciples in eloquence is Kassapa the Prince.” Afterwards, through the Vammīka Sutta, he attained to Arahatship. His mother, the nun, too, obtained spiritual insight, and reached Nirvāna.[284] And Kassapa the Prince became as distinguished in the religion of the Buddhas as the full moon in the midst of the vault of heaven.
Now one day the Successor of the Buddhas, when he had returned from his rounds and taken his meal, exhorted the brethren, and entered his apartment. The brethren, after hearing the exhortation, spent the day either in their day-rooms or night-rooms, and then met together at eventide for religious conversation. And, as they sat there, they exalted the character of the Buddha, saying, “Brethren, the Elder Prince Kassapa, and the Lady his mother, were nearly ruined by Devadatta, through his not being a Buddha, and having no forbearance or kindness; but the Supreme Buddha, being the King of Righteousness, and being perfect in kindness and forbearance and compassion, became the means of salvation to them both!”
Then the Master entered the hall with the dignity peculiar to a Buddha, and seating himself, asked them, “What are you sitting here talking about, O mendicants?”
“Lord,” said they, “concerning your excellences!” And they told him the whole matter.
“Not now only, O mendicants!” said he, “has the Successor of the Buddhas been a source of salvation and a refuge to these two; formerly also he was the same.”
Then the monks asked the Blessed One to explain how that was; and the Blessed One made manifest that which had been hidden by change of birth.