Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/319

Rh 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 Deva-datta!' 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.

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