A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s5.75

v2.c19.s5.75

Opposition to the "naked ascetics" is also shown in the story of Visākhā,[^2) which is interesting enough for several reasons; though its moral aims at nothing more than to show that the rich and pious lay-adherent is blessed with tremendous wealth, only because in a former existence she had done great honour to the Buddha of that time, and that, in her new existence also, she is working out a good Karman by spending her wealth in magnificent donations to the Buddhist monastic order. Some of the stories are merely versions of such as already occur in books of the Tipiṭaka. Thus, for example, the story of the Arhat Godhika,[^3) who cuts his throat in order to enter Nirvāṇa, whereupon Māra vainly searches for a trace of him, is only a slightly different form of the legend related in the Saṃyuttanikāya.[^4) As in the Jātaka book, in this collection, too, humour occasionally comes into its own; evidence of this is the fable of the obstinate donkey,[^5) told in the