འཕགས་པ་བད་སའ་རྒྱལ་པ་འཆར་བྱད་ཀྱས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་ལའ intro.6

intro.6

King Udayana seems to be portrayed in these stories as a powerful but impulsive, passionate, and sometimes belligerent person who is led by the Buddha to reflect and change. Another text in the Kangyur featuring King Udayana of Vatsa that follows this pattern is Advice to a King (2) (Toh 215).⁷ In its brief framing story, the king is about to set out on a military campaign of conquest when he meets the Buddha. At first angry about being intercepted, he shoots an arrow at the Buddha, but the arrow is miraculously prevented from meeting its target—just as, in the present text, the arrow he shoots at Queen Śyāmāvatī is stalled and turned back. This startling event arouses his respect and he becomes receptive to the advice the Buddha then gives him on combating the great enemy of belief in a self.