[3] Takshaśilā was “a city of the Gandhāras, the Ταξιλα of Ptolemy in the Paṅjāb.” [↑]
[4] Maudgalyāyana “was the name of a pupil of Śākya-muni.” [↑]
XI.
KṚIŚĀ GAUTAMĪ.[1]
A rich householder of Vārāṇasī named Gautama, who travelled with goods to Takshaśilā, contracted a friendship there with another householder, and the two men made an agreement that their children should marry each other. To Gautama was born a daughter, who received the name of Kṛiśā Gautamī. After she had been taught to read, she had to apply herself to learning such work as women do. Now her father had been in the habit of associating with courtesans, so he entrusted his daughter’s instruction to a woman of that class. The daughter began to study with her. After she had done so for some time she said, “As I have acquired what was to be learnt, I will go away.” But the woman objected that she must first complete her studies properly; it was too soon for her to go away yet. The girl replied that she had already studied enough, and that she would go away. Then the woman took a paint-box and said that she would give herself a broken head if the girl was determined to go away. The girl begged her not to do that, and promised to remain. Then said the woman, “Kṛiśā, you believed that you had learnt everything, and yet you did not [[217]]know this. Who would give herself a broken head for the sake of a stranger child? You know nothing then.”
After the girl had tarried with her somewhat longer, she wanted to go away again. The woman declared that if that happened she would jump into the well. The girl besought her not to do that, and promised to stay. The woman said, “Kṛiśā, you believed that you had learnt everything, and you did not even know so much as this, that no one jumps into a well for the sake of a strange child. As you did not know that, you must stop here.”
After the girl had stayed there some time longer, she again wanted to go away. The woman said that she need not wait long. She was going to bring in some milk, she said. The girl could drink it and then go away. The woman brought the milk, and in the girl’s presence mixed oil and honey with it. Then she drank some of it, and having done so, rendered it loathsome, and told the girl to drink it. The girl refused to do so, whereupon the woman took to crying. When the neighbours heard this, they came together and asked her why she was crying. When the woman had explained the matter, the neighbours asked the girl why she would not drink the milk which had been prepared for her. The girl replied that she could not swallow what was loathsome. Thereupon the woman smote her breast repeatedly and said, “Wherefore should I give her what is loathsome to drink?” The neighbours seriously set to work to make the girl drink. But when she was going to drink, the woman seized her by the hand, slapped her face with the palm of her hand, and said, “O Kṛiśā, you believed that you had learnt all that was to be learnt. If that had been the case, you would certainly never have let that be given you to drink which you knew was loathsome. Consequently you know nothing.” Having thus spoken, she drove the girl away.
After some time a merchant and five hundred traders [[218]]came to Madhyadeśa with merchandise. In the presence of these traders the merchant constantly spoke against women. Those traders had previously consorted with the courtesans of that place. But the courtesans now found that they and their leader only scoffed at women, and visited no courtesan’s house. So they held counsel together, saying that whereas the traders who formerly came from Takshaśilā used to have converse with them, they were now entirely devoid of all passion. And so no man consorted with the women. Some of the courtesans said that they had heard that the merchant, who knew how to repress passion, blamed women severely, and that the traders, who were devoted to him, had therefore discontinued all converse with them. One of their number, an old woman, asked, “If I, by means of my daughter, effect a change in him, will ye make me your superior? And, in case she did not succeed, she promised to pay a penalty of five hundred kārshāpaṇas.”
Thereupon the old woman hired a house in the neighbourhood of the traders, and provided it with a great quantity of domestic implements. The merchant’s servants used to go there and borrow some of those implements. She said to them: “Who are ye, young men?”