In which Prakrit text a queen named Kamalavati tried to persuade her husband to renounce the world? |
Sutta Pitaka Uttaradhyayana Sutta Ashokavadana Vessantara Jataka |
Uttaradhyayana Sutta |
The correct answer is Option (2) → Uttaradhyayana Sutta "Just as the Buddha’s teachings were compiled by his followers, the teachings of Mahavira were also recorded by his disciples. These were often in the form of stories, which could appeal to ordinary people. Here is one example, from a Prakrit text known as the Uttaradhyayana Sutta, describing how a queen named Kamalavati tried to persuade her husband to renounce the world: If the whole world and all its treasures were yours, you would not be satisfied, nor would all this be able to save you. When you die, O king and leave all things behind, dhamma alone, and nothing else, will save you. As a bird dislikes the cage, so do I dislike (the world). I shall live as a nun without offspring, without desire, without the love of gain, and without hatred … Those who have enjoyed pleasures and renounced them, move about like the wind, and go wherever they please, unchecked like birds in their flight … Leave your large kingdom … abandon what pleases the senses, be without attachment and property, then practise severe penance, being firm of energy …" |