Āditta Jātaka

The Master told this story at Jetavana in reference to King Pasenadi of Kosala's unrivalled almsgiving, the Asadisadana, to show that wise kings of old also gave gifts to holy men with careful discernment. Jataka No. 424 of the Pali Canon preserves the tale.

The occasion was a rivalry of generosity. King Pasenadi's great gift to the Buddha and the Sangha, and the gifts of the townspeople, kept trying to outdo each other, and Queen Mallika proposed a plan: a pavilion with five hundred seats, elephants bearing parasols, noblewomen attending the monks, and four priceless gifts for the Buddha himself. Two ministers reacted differently to the offering. Kala grumbled at the king's spending, while Junha admired his generosity. Afterwards the monks discussed the king's gift in the Dhamma Hall, and the Buddha told them that wise people of old had also given only after careful examination.

Long ago in the kingdom of Sovira, in the city of Roruka, King Bharata ruled, and he was the Bodhisatta. With his chief queen, Samuddavijaya, he wished to give alms not to the greedy but to virtuous Paccekabuddhas, solitary buddhas who reach awakening alone without founding a teaching order. The queen advised that they should invite such holy ones through their own faith and virtue.

The king had a drum sounded through the city, calling the townspeople to keep the precepts. He and his household took on the fast-day observances and gave generous gifts, so that the whole city shared in the merit of the undertaking.

Then the king had a gold box of jasmine flowers brought, came down from his palace, and stood in the royal courtyard. Prostrating himself with the five points of contact, he faced one quarter and threw seven handfuls of flowers, praying that the holy ones living there would receive his alms. He did this toward the east, the south, and the west, and nobody came.

When he threw the flowers toward the north, they fell upon five hundred Paccekabuddhas dwelling in the Nandamula cave in the Himalayas. Of these, seven came flying to the palace at Roruka.

The king and queen honoured the seven and fed them for six days. On the seventh day they offered a full set of requisites, robes, beds, seats, and the rest.

After the meal the eldest Paccekabuddha gave thanks in two verses. The first speaks of a burning house: the owner saves what he can carry out, and what is left inside is lost to the fire. The second says that in a world burning with decay and death, generosity is the treasure that lasts. He then urged the king to be diligent in virtue. The other six Paccekabuddhas each gave thanks in one verse, so that eight verses were spoken in all, and none by the king. Their themes include the merit of giving to the righteous, generosity as a weapon against fear, giving as a fertile seed, and the worth of not harming living beings.

The last of the seven praised the deathless, great Nibbana, and admonished the royal couple to remain heedful. The elder flew up through the palace's peaked roof toward the Nandamula cave, taking the gifts with him, and the others departed with the requisites they had been given. The king and queen went on giving throughout their lives and reached heaven.

The Buddha closed the story by identifying the characters: the Paccekabuddha who praised Nibbana was the one who attained Nibbana, Samuddavijaya was the mother of Rahula, and King Bharata was the Buddha himself. The tale's point, recalled in defence of Pasenadi's gift, is that giving done with discernment, to the worthy and from faith and virtue, is a gift well made. Pasenadi, hearing this, could see his own great gift in the long line of kings who gave wisely before him, and the monks could see that the Buddha's earlier life had been one of the same open-handed discernment.