Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c9.1419

v1.c9.1419

In a former birth Ummadanti was born in a poor family of Benares, and on a certain festal day having seen some holy women clad in robes dyed scarlet with safflower she asked her parents for a similar robe. Realising that they were too poor to afford the gift, she worked for a long time for another family, and they finally gave her a robe. When she was about to don it, after a bath in the river, she saw a disciple of Kassapa Buddha standing without any proper clothes, his robes having been stolen from the river bank. She first gave him half her garment, then, seeing how radiant he looked in it, she gave him also the other half and uttered a prayer that in a further existence she should surpass all other women in looks and be of maddening beauty.