Thereupon Mṛgadhara went to King Prasenajit of Kośala and asked for leave to call Viśākhā his mother. The king said, “As Viśākhā has taken care of me also, I will, after consulting my grandmother, call her my sister.” [[125]]So he asked his grandmother, and she said that he might justly call Viśākhā by that name.
King Araṇemi Brahmadatta had become attached to the daughter of a servant-maid, and that attachment had resulted in the birth of a son, to whom the name of Balamitra was given. Balamitra was banished from the country by his grandfather on account of an offence, and he went to Champā. As Viśākhā was his daughter, she might well be called Prasenajit’s sister.
The king gave orders that Viśākhā should be set upon an elephant, and that public proclamation should be made that she, Viśākhā, was Mṛgadhara’s mother and King Prasenajit’s sister. In what had been a park she built a monastery, and made it over to the community of Bhikshus of the four parts of the world. Accordingly it is stated by the Sthaviras in the Sūtras that the Buddha Bhagavant abode at Śrāvastī in the palace of Mṛgadhara’s mother Viśākhā, in what had been the park (Pūrvārāma).[2]
At another time Viśākhā produced thirty-two eggs. When Mṛgadhara heard of it, he sat for some time absorbed in meditation, resting his head upon his hand. He was inclined to throw away this mass produced by the fairest in the land. But Viśākhā said, “O master, throw them not away, but ask Bhagavant.” He did so, and Bhagavant said that they were not to be thrown away, but that thirty-two cages were to be made and filled with cotton, and that an egg was to be placed in each of the cages, and was to be daily stroked three times with the hand, and that on the seventh day thirty-two sons would come to light. When Viśākhā had done all this, thirty-two boys made their appearance on the seventh day. All of them, when they grew up, were sturdy, very strong, and overcomers of strength.
One day when they had gone out to drive in their [[126]]chariot and were returning home, they came into collision with the chariot of the Purohita’s son, who had also driven out and was on his way back, so that the poles of the two carriages clashed. The Purohita’s son called out to them to make way, but they bade him do so himself. Then, as the Purohita’s son began to use abusive language, Viśākhā’s sons seized the pole of his chariot and upset him on a heap of rubbish. When he had come to his father, with his robe drawn over his head, he said with tears, “O father, thus have Viśākhā’s sons treated me.”
“O son, wherefore have they done so?”
The son gave a full account of the matter. Then said his father, “O son, as this is so, we must contrive some means for making these men keep their mouths shut and not complain.” So he carefully sought for a pretext for calumniating them.
After a time the hillmen rebelled against King Prasenajit, who sent a general against them, but he was beaten by the rebels and he turned back. After the king had in this way sent out the general seven times, and the general was always beaten and obliged to retire, the king determined to take the field himself with a fourfold army. Viśākhā’s sons, as they came into the city, saw the king, and asked him whither he was going.
“To subdue the hillmen.”