Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c31.2281

v2.c31.2281

The deity of the tree was alarmed and, on the advice of Sakka, appeared before the man-eater (who is called in the context porisāda) and demanded that he should bring Sutasoma, Prince of Kuru, to complete the number of his victims. Sutasoma had been the man-eater’s friend and private tutor (piṭṭhācariya) at Takkasilā. Anxious to appease the deity, the man-eater went to Sutasoma’s park and there waited for him hidden in the pond, when Sutasoma came to take his ceremonial bath on the festival-day of Phussa. On the way to the park, Sutasoma met a brahmin, Nanda, who offered, for four thousand pieces, to teach him four verses learnt from Kassapa Buddha. Sutasoma promised to learn them on his return from the park, but there he was caught by the porisāda. Promising to return to the porisāda, Sutasoma obtained leave to keep his appointment with Nanda. This promise fulfilled, Sutasoma returned to the porisāda and went with him to the banyan-tree. There he told the porisāda of the verses he had learnt from Nanda, reciting them to him, and discoursing on the virtues of Truth. The porisāda was greatly pleased and offered Sutasoma four boons. Sutasoma chose as his first boon that the porisāda should live for one hundred years; as his second, that the captive kings should be released; as his third, that their kingdoms should be restored; and as his fourth, that the porisāda should give up his cannibalism. Only very reluctantly did the porisāda agree to the fourth. Sutasoma then took him back to Benares, where he restored to him his kingdom, having first assured the people that the king would never return to his former vicious habits. Sutasoma then returned to Indapatta. In gratitude for the tree-sprite’s intervention, a lake was dug near the banyan-tree and a village founded near by, whose inhabitants were required to make offerings to the tree. This village, built on the spot where the porisāda was converted, came to be called Kammāsadamma.