z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 03.indd MK SJ+YS 5 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 197
CONVERSION OF WOMEN
197
He saw a girl on the river bank filling her pot. Ananda asked her to give him some water.
The girl, whose name was Prakrati, refused, saying she was a Chandalika.
Ananda said, “I am concerned with water. I am not concerned with your caste.” The girl then gave him some water from her pot.
Thereafter Ananda left for Jetavana. The girl followed him and saw where he was staying and found that his name was Ananda and that he was a follower of the Buddha.
On returning home she told her mother Matangi what had happened and falling on the ground started weeping.
The mother asked for the cause of her weeping. The girl told the whole story, and said, “If you wish to marry me I can only marry Ananda. I will not marry anybody else.”
The mother started on an inquiry. On return she told the girl that such a marriage was impossible for Ananda was under a vow of celibacy.
On hearing this news the girl was filled with extreme sorrow and gave up food. She was not prepared to take things as though it was a decree of fate. So she said: “Mother, you know the art of sorcery, don’t you ? Why don’t you employ it to achieve our purpose?” The mother said, “I will see what can be done.”
Matangi invited Ananda to her house for a meal. The girl became very happy. Matangi then told Ananda that her daughter was very anxious to marry him. Ananda replied, “I am vowed to be celibate and therefore I cannot marry any woman.”
“If you do not marry my daughter, she will commit suicide, so attached she is to you,” Matangi told Ananda. “But I cannot help,” replied Ananda.
Matangi went inside and told her daughter that Ananda refused to marry her.
The girl cried: “Mother, where is your sorcery ?” The mother said, “My sorcery cannot win against the Tathagata.”
II