Part 3: Previous births of Datta

Now in this southern half of Bharata in Jambūdvīpa there was a king, Mandaradhīra, in the city Śīlapura. He had a son, powerful, long-armed, an ocean of the jewels of good qualities, named Lalitamitra, the sun to the lotuses of friends. The minister Khala^[1] affirmed, “He is arrogant,” rejected him, and established the king’s brother as heir-apparent. Then Lalitamitra, disgusted with existence from this humiliation, became a mendicant under Muni Ghoṣa-sena. Practicing austerities, evilly-disposed, he made a nidāna: “By this penance may I be able to kill the minister Khala.” He died without confessing the nidāna and became a powerful god in the heaven Saudharma.