Then the Brahman Nyagrodhaja thought, “This damsel is very discreet and of well-ordered intelligence.” And he said to Bhadrā, “Bhadrā, come here; we will go forth from the house together.”
Thereupon they two went away from the house together. [[202]]After they had journeyed for a short time together, the husband said to the wife, “O Bhadrā, go and live in whatever way pleases you.”
At that time there lived in Rāajagṛiha the Nirgrantha Pūraṇa, who asserted that he knew all that is unknown, and who was surrounded by many Nirgranthas[4] and Nirgrantha students. To him Bhadrā betook herself and said, “Reverend sir, I wish to be received by you into the clerical order.” He received her, and she entered among the Nirgranthas. When the Nirgranthas saw Bhadrā’s exquisite beauty, they said to each other, “All we who have entered the clerical order have done so by reason of the five powers of divine love. Now Kapila’s daughter Bhadrā looks like unto a divine being, but we know not whether she has acquired the powers of divine love or not. So we desire to enjoy the company of Kapila’s daughter Bhadrā.” Betaking themselves to the Nirgrantha Pūraṇa, they explained the whole matter to him, and asked for Kapila’s daughter Bhadrā. As a favour to his pupils he granted her to them. Thereupon the five hundred Nirgranthas, in consequence of former actions, enjoyed her company every day. Disquieted, she consulted Pūraṇa. He said, “Whom the lot betokens, with him have to do.”
At that time Bhagavant, after enjoying himself in love as the Bodisat for twenty-nine years, and then gazing upon age, disease, and death, had risen up at the midnight hour, and betaken himself on the good steed Kaṇthaka to the forest, and, after enduring for six years a penance of no avail, bathing in the river Nairaṅjanā, partaking of the milk-food sixteen times purified by Nandā and Nandabalā, had been praised in verse by the Nāgarāja Kāla, had received the Svastika [[203]]grass from the grass-seller, had betaken himself to the Bodhi tree without allowing himself to be disturbed, and had without fear strewed the litter, taking his seat with crossed legs as the sleeping Nāgarāja coils himself together, and there had remained in this position till purification was attained, and had uttered words stirring his soul. After he had there overcome Māra and a host of thirty-six tens of millions of demons, he attained to the most complete insight, and became the perfect Buddha. Admonished by Brahma, he betook himself to Vārāṇasī, and after he had set in movement the wheel of faith, he confirmed Ājnāna Kauṇḍinya and eighty thousand gods in the truth, also he converted the troop of the Five, and the followers of the Five, and fifty village youths. Having reached the cotton-tree forest, he converted the sixty Bhadravargiyas; having reached Senānī, he confirmed in the truth the two maidens Nandā and Nandabalā; having reached Uruvilvā, he converted Uruvilvā-Kāśyapa and five hundred others by means of the eighteen magic transfigurations; having reached Gāyā, he converted Nadīkāśyapa and a thousand wearers of matted hair by means of three metamorphoses; having reached the Yashṭi forest, he converted King Bimbisāra with his son and his court, eighty thousand gods, and many hundreds of thousands of Brahmans and householders of Magadha. From Veṇuvana Bhagavant betook himself at that time to Bahuputrachaitya. There Kāśyapa saw Bhagavant under a tree, and was received by him. Kāśyapa gave him the costly cotton robe, and received the Buddha’s robe in return.
At the time of the festival of the meeting of the Nāgarājas Girika and Sundara, many Nirgranthas came to Rājagṛiha. When Kāśyapa perceived Kapila’s daughter Bhadrā, as he remarked that her appearance was altered, he asked her whether she had preserved her chastity. [[204]]After she had informed him of what had taken place, he invited her to turn her mind towards the teaching of Bhagavant. As she hesitated, he assured her that this teaching contained in it nothing sinful, for its followers experience no desire for the love of gods, not to speak of that of men. He sent her to Mahāprajāpatī, who received her.
When she next met him as she was collecting alms, she complained that, like a fat sheep, she attracted universal attention on account of her beauty. Thereupon he told her that she need not go out collecting alms in future; he would give her every day half of what he himself collected. Thereat the Six scoffed. At length Bhadrā became an Arhantin, and Mahākāśyapa gave her back her liberty to collect alms for herself.
Now, when Ajātaśatru had killed his father, and nothing sufficed to rouse him from his sorrow, an evil minister, who remarked the beauty of Bhadrā, conceived the idea that she might be able to gladden his heart. So he caused her to be seized while she was out in quest of alms, and had her washed in one of the royal bath-houses, and provided with royal perfumes, flower chaplets, raiment, and brilliant ornaments. Then he conducted her to the king, who fell passionately in love with her as soon as he saw her, and enjoyed himself with her.
As Bhadrā was not present at the fifteenth Upavasatha,[5] Mahāprajāpatī ordered Utpalavarṇā to see after her. Utpalavarṇā introduced herself into the palace through a window by means of magic, and instructed Bhadrā in magic. Then Bhadrā betook herself, adorned with all her ornaments, to the summer residence of the Bhikshuṇīs, where the Twelve mocked at this magnificent array. Mahāprajāpatī ordered her to give the ornaments back to the king and to put on again the brown clerical [[205]]robe. When she reappeared at the palace, and the king, aroused from sleep, wished to embrace her, she raised herself heavenward by magic means. When he saw her thus soaring, fear came upon him. He uttered cries of anguish, and asked her whether she was a goddess, a Nāgī, a Yakshiṇī, or a Rākshasī. At his request she swept down again. He fell at her feet, and she granted him the forgiveness for which he prayed. [[206]]