法苑珠林 8.94

8.94

As the Pusa benxing jing says: Not far from the city of Kapilavastu at that time, there was another city named Devadaha. In that city of Devadaha, there was an eminent and wealthy Śākya elder named Suprabuddha (Shanxue), extremely wealthy with abundant treasures, rich in property, and fully endowed with majesty and virtue; everything accorded with his wishes naturally without any lack, and his residence was no different from the palace of King Vaiśravaṇa. That Śākya elder fathered eight daughters: the first was named Yi (Manī); the second, Wubiyi (Anupamā); the third, Dayi (Mahāmanī); the fourth, Wubianyi (Anantamanī); the fifth, Fa'yi (Keśinī); the sixth, Heiniu (Kṛṣṇā); the seventh, Shouniu (Kṛśā); and the eighth, Mahāprajāpatī (in the language of Sui, 'Great Wisdom', also called 'Brahmā Heaven'). This 'Brahmā Heaven' was the youngest among the daughters. On the day she was born, the brāhmaṇa masters skilled in physiognomy observed and divined her bodily marks, saying: 'If this girl marries and bears a son, he will surely become a wheel-turning sage king (cakravartin) ruling over the four quarters of the world, with the seven treasures appearing spontaneously, possessing a thousand sons, and governing the people even without the use of whips or canes.' When Suprabuddha's daughters gradually grew to adulthood and were eligible for marriage, King Śuddhodana heard that within his own realm there was a Śākya of great wealth and nobility who had fathered eight daughters of upright beauty with few peers, and that the physiognomists had divined that one daughter was destined to bear a noble son. Having heard these words, King Śuddhodana said: 'I should now seek this girl to be my consort, so that the lineage of my Ikṣvāku wheel-turning sage kings will not be broken.' (This is what the Vinaya masters say. Furthermore, they say that Mahāprajāpatī is the mother of the bodhisattva; this relies on the text of the Apadāna-sūtra. Furthermore, the Apadāna-sūtra says: 'King Śuddhodana is my father; Lady Māyā is my mother.' Examining various sūtra texts, this meaning is factual.) King Śuddhodana then sent an envoy to the home of the great elder Suprabuddha to seek Mahāprajāpatī to be his consort. Prajāpatī (in the language of Sui, 'Source of Life').