Kandari Jataka: The Queen’s Affair and Attachment

In a previous life, the Bodhisatta was a wise chaplain in the court of a king. The king’s queen consort, known for her beauty, was secretly involved in an affair with a loathsome and deformed man who lived by the palace wall under the shade of a rose apple tree. Despite the man’s physical unattractiveness, the queen became infatuated with him. Every night, after the king fell asleep, she would secretly climb out of her window, descend the palace wall using a rope, and rendezvous with her lover. Afterward, she would return to her room, cover herself with perfume, and lie next to the king as though nothing had happened.

One day, after the king had made a solemn procession around the city, he happened to see the loathsome man. Curious, the king asked his chaplain, the Bodhisatta, if any woman would ever be attracted to such a man. The deformed man, overhearing the king’s words, proudly replied that only the rose apple tree knew his secret. The Bodhisatta, noticing the man’s pride, realized what was happening and suspected the queen’s infidelity.

That night, the Bodhisatta advised the king to pretend to fall asleep and follow the queen. When the king did so, he saw the queen’s lover slap her for being late, and one of the queen’s prized lion-head earrings fell at the king’s feet. The king, deeply hurt, returned to his chamber with the earring and waited until morning.

The next day, the king summoned the queen and demanded that she appear wearing all the jewelry he had given her. The queen arrived, but only had one earring, explaining that the other was being repaired by the goldsmith. To expose her lie, the king had the goldsmith summoned. Upon hearing the truth, the king threw the missing earring at her feet and ordered that the queen be executed. The Bodhisatta intervened, asking the king to spare her life. He argued that the queen’s actions were not unusual, but rather a reflection of how all women behaved. The Bodhisatta offered to prove his point.

The king agreed, and the two men set out on a journey in disguise. In the countryside, they encountered a wedding procession, and the Bodhisatta set up a screen around the king. He claimed that his pregnant wife needed assistance, and the bride’s father, believing it would be auspicious for his daughter to help with the delivery, sent the bride into the screen. The moment the bride saw the king, she became infatuated with him and offered herself to him. Outside, she announced that she had given birth to a beautiful baby boy.

The Bodhisatta continued to demonstrate that all women, regardless of their station or relationship, were the same. After returning to the palace, the king, convinced by the Bodhisatta’s lesson, spared the queen’s life but exiled her from the palace, choosing a new chief queen. He also sent the loathsome man away and cut off the rose apple tree branch that reached over the palace wall.

In the Lifetime of the Buddha:

This story was told by the Buddha to a group of five hundred new disciples who had been ordained as a form of atonement after a dispute between the Buddha’s Sakya clan and a neighboring clan. The dispute, which had arisen over water rights, had nearly led to war. However, the Buddha mediated and helped both clans resolve their differences peacefully. As an act of repentance, both clans sent two hundred fifty princes to become disciples.

However, these princes were not fully committed to their spiritual path and remained discontented, largely due to lingering attachments to their former wives. To help them overcome their dissatisfaction, the Buddha shared a sermon he had given in a previous life when he was born as a cuckoo. In that life, he had lectured on the inherent wickedness of women, and the Kandari Jataka was one of the stories he used as an example. The Buddha used this story to illustrate how attachment to worldly desires, including those related to women, could hinder spiritual progress.

Moral:

The primary lesson of the Kandari Jataka is a cautionary tale about the deceptive and untrustworthy nature of women, as seen from the perspective of the Bodhisatta’s previous life. However, this narrative also sheds light on the importance of understanding human nature and attachments. It suggests that attachment to worldly desires, especially in the form of lust or material gain, can lead to moral decay and hinder one’s spiritual development.

In the context of the Buddha’s teachings, this story served as a way to help the new disciples understand the importance of overcoming worldly attachments, especially those tied to desires for pleasure or personal gain. While the story itself may reflect the biases of its time, the Buddha used it as a tool to challenge his followers to confront their own attachments and seek spiritual liberation beyond the distractions of the material world.