Tribes in Ancient India c51.73

c51.73

Stories regarding the religious tendencies of the royal family of Videha are frequently found in ancient literature,—see, e.g. the story of King Nimi and the hawk, Jātaka, III, p. 230. Another Jātaka story relates that Videha, king of Videha, and the Bodhisattva, then king of Gandhāra, were on friendly terms, although they had never met. Once, on the fast day of the full-moon, the king of Gandhāra took a vow to keep the five moral precepts, and delivered before his ministers a discourse on the substance of the law. At that moment the demon Rāhu was overshadowing the full-moon’s orb so that the moon’s light was dimmed by an eclipse. The king observing the phenomenon thought that all trouble came from outside; he considered his royal retinue was nothing but a trouble, and that it was not proper that he should lose his light like the moon seized by Rāhu. He thereupon made over his kingdom to his ministers, took to a religious life, and having attained transcendental powers, spent the rainy season in the Himalayan regions, devoting himself to the delights of meditation.