འཕགས་པ་བད་ལྡན་མ་ལང་བསྟན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.5

intro.5

Kṣemavatī is mentioned in at least one other sūtra in the Kangyur¹ as one of Bimbisāra’s queens. She may well represent the same person as the Khemā who appears in the Pali literature as Bimbisāra’s consort, at first infatuated by her own beauty but later, on meeting the Buddha, becoming an arhat and bhikṣuṇī.² Here, however, she is described as a bodhisattva who has already embarked on accumulating merit on the initial stage of her “natural career” (prakṛti­caryā) and has vowed to attain awakening on the subsequent stage of her “resolution” (praṇidhāna­caryā), as implied in . In the present narrative she reinforces her previous vow and receives her “prophecy” (vyākaraṇa) of future buddhahood from the Buddha himself.³