Part 15: Story of disputed parentage

Now, a certain rich man left the city at that time to go to a distant foreign country on business. He was accompanied by his two wives who looked alike. While he was on the way, one wife bore a son who was brought up equally by the two wives. After he had gained wealth and had started home from the foreign country, he died while still on the way. The course of fate is uncertain. His wives, both of them, their faces bathed in tears from grief, performed the funeral rites and cremated the body. Then the second one, deceitful, quarreled with the boy’s mother, saying, “The boy and the property are mine.” The boy’s mother and step-mother, the one wishing enjoyment and the other possession of the boy and property, went quickly to Ayodhyā. There they both went to the court of their own and the other’s family, but their dispute was not decided in the least. Then, quarreling, they approached the King who summoned them to the assembly and questioned them about the cause of their dispute.

The step-mother said: “This dispute has been told in the whole city, but no one has settled it. Who is distressed by another’s calamity? Now I have approached you, King Dharma on earth, pleased by another’s pleasure, pained by another’s pain. This is the son of my bosom; he looks like me; he was brought up by me. This property is mine. For the money, etc. belong to the one who has a son.”

The boy’s mother said: “The boy is mine; the money is mine. She, my childless co-wife, quarrels from greed. Formerly, I did not prevent her from caring for the child because of my simplicity; for she used to take a pillow and lie at his feet from affection. Therefore, arise to give judgment. The decision rests with you. For a judgment by the king, good or bad, is irrevocable.”

Thus addressed by both, the King spoke: “These two are as much alike as if they had fallen from the same stalk. If there were any difference in appearance between them, the child would be considered hers whom he resembled; but he is like them both. He, a little boy, can not speak because of his infancy, to say nothing of knowing, ‘She is my mother; she my step-mother.’” To the King troubled by this difficult decision, announcement was made that it was noon, the usual time for the daily ceremonies. The members of the assembly said to him, “O lord, we did not decide this dispute of the two women, which is like a knot in a thunderbolt, even in six months. Now the time of the daily ceremonies must not be passed by. After a while the master can consider this question again.” “Very well,” said the King, and dismissed the assembly.

After he had performed the daily rites, he went to the women’s quarters. There Queen Maṅgalā asked him: “Why did yon pass by the time of the daily ceremonies at noon, my lord?” The King gave the Queen an account of the dispute between the two women; and, wise from the power of her embryo, the Queen said, “It is certainly fitting for a dispute between women to be decided by women alone. Therefore I shall decide the dispute, Your Majesty.” In astonishment the King accompanied the Queen to the assembly. The two women were summoned and questioned, and told the same stories as before. The Queen considered the complaint and the answer, and spoke as follows: “In my womb I have a Tīrthakara, the possessor of three kinds of knowledge. When the Lord of the World is born, he will give judgment at the foot of the aśoka tree. So have patience, both of you.”

The step-mother agreed, but the mother said, “I will not wait at all, O Queen. Let the mother of the All-knowing, Your Ladyship, give judgment right now. will not make my own child subject to my co-wife for so long a time.” Then Queen Maṅgalā gave her decision. “He is certainly her son, since she can not endure delay. The step-mother can bear delay in this case, indeed, because she considers that it is another’s son and money that are subject to both. Unable to endure her own son being made subject to both, how can the mother endure a delay? My good woman, since you can not endure the least delay, it is evident that the boy is yours. Take him and go home. For he is not this woman’s child, even though cared for and cherished (by her). The offspring of a cuckoo, even though nourished by a crow, is a cuckoo.”^[1]

When the Queen had given her decision by the power of the embryo, the fourfold assembly opened their eyes wide in astonishment. Then the mother and the stepmother of the boy went home, joyful and depressed, like the day-blooming and night-blooming lotuses at dawn.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

With reference to the cuckoo’s habit of laying her eggs in the nests of other birds.