In Buddhism

Theravada (major branch of Buddhism)

Source: Pali Kanon: Pali Proper Names

King of Benares. The king of Kosala invaded his fathers kingdom and, having killed the king, took away the queen, who was pregnant. When the child was born he was cast into the cemetery lest he should be slain by the Kosala king. The boy was discovered by a goatherd and brought up as his son, but from the day of the boys arrival in the goatherds home, the latters animals began to die off. He was therefore named Elakamara (Goats Bane). The goatherd, thereupon, put him into a pot and cast him into the river, where he was picked up by a low caste mender of old rubbish and adopted as his son. When he grew up the boy went to the palace with his father, and there the princess Kurangavi, of great beauty, fell in love with him. The servants discovered them guilty of illicit relations and reported them to the king. When the lad was about to be put to death for his misdemeanour, the queen; possessed by the spirit of Elakamaras dead father, who had been born as his guardian angel, confessed that he was no mere outcaste, but the son of the king of Benares. The Kosala king restored to Elakamara his fathers inheritance and married him to Kurangavi. Chalangakumara was given to him as his teacher, and was later appointed commander in chief.

Kurangavi misbehaved with Chalangakumara as well as with his servant, Dhanantevasi (J.v.430ff).

The story of Elakamara was one of the stories mentioned by Kunala in his famous sermon on the frailty of women (J.v.424).

context information

Theravāda is a major branch of Buddhism having the the Pali canon (tipitaka) as their canonical literature, which includes the vinaya-pitaka (monastic rules), the sutta-pitaka (Buddhist sermons) and the abhidhamma-pitaka (philosophy and psychology).

See also (Relevant definitions)

Full-text: Chalangakumara, Kurangavi.

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