The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c9.31

c9.31

As in this narrative, a dew-drop, so in other cases (I. 138; III. 393) a grey hair, is the ârammaṇam, the cause which gives the king the thought of renouncing the sovereign power and going into the forest. In the Cullasutasoma Jâtaka (V. 177 sq.), the father of king Sutasoma whose barber has plucked a grey hair, tries to dissuade him from his resolve and points to his minor children. “If you, O dear Sutasoma, do not have so much love for your parents, see, you have sons and daughters of tender age who cannot live without you; when they are grown up you may go into the homeless condition.” These representations, however, succeed as little in dissuading Sutasoma as the earnest prayers of his pregnant wife and his seven-year-old son who clings to his neck.