Part 5: Dhanavatī’s birth as Ratnavatī

And now, there was a king, Anaṅgasiṃha, in the city Śivamandira in the south row on this very Vaitāḍhya. He had a moon-faced wife, Śaśiprabhā. Dhanavatī’s jīva fell and descended into her womb. At the right time Śaśiprabhā bore a daughter with a pure body. Because she was born after many sons, she was extremely dear. On an auspicious day her father named her Ratnavatī and she grew up in course of time, like a creeper in wet ground. Soon she acquired the arts suitable for women and attained youth, auspicious, a formless ornament of the body.

One day her father asked an astrologer, “Who will be a suitable husband for her?” After some reflection, he replied: “The man who takes from you your jewel of a sword and on whom the gods rain flowers as he worships in a temple of the eternal Arhats, the crest-jewel of the human world, will marry your daughter Ratnavatī in a suitable union.”

Saying, “Whoever takes from me my jewel of a sword, he, the sole field of miracles, may be my son-in-law,” the king, delighted, dismissed the astrologer.