King Asoka and Buddhism - Urban Dharma

interpretation of Kṣemendra seems to be of later origin andcan be explained, evidently, by his desire to portray Aśoka asan ideal Buddhist king noted for his kindness and patienceand capable of controlling his terrible wrath.” 57Developments in the tale of Asaṃdhimittā in the Pali traditionare a bit more complicated, however, and involve newadditions to her legend. As we have seen, the Mahāvaṃsa (atleast as it was edited by Mahānāma in the fifth century) doesnot provide much information about her. Later Pali traditions,however, were to go on and expand her story. Thus in threetexts, the already mentioned Dasavatthuppakaraṇa, the so-calledCambodian or Extended Mahāvaṃsa (9 th – 10 th centuries?), andthe 15 th century Thai cosmological text, the Trai Bhūmi Kathā,we find her tale more fully developed and her merits magnified.These sources, too, do not hesitate in reworking the storyof the gift of honey, for they now add to the Mahāvaṃsa accountan accessory gift of a piece of cloth made by Asaṃdhimittā tothe same pratyekabuddha. They then relate a long tale thatmay be summarized as follows:One day, King Aśoka, whose tremendous merits resultedin his being daily provided with all sorts of luxuries and foodstuffsby the gods, saw Asaṃdhimittā enjoying a heavenlypiece of sugarcane, and jokingly he mocked her for consumingwhat she had not karmically earned. His teasing upset her;she felt that he thought that she had no merit of her own, and,in a pout, she replied that everything she enjoyed was due toher own good merits. Now it was time for Aśoka to get upset.“Oh, is that so?” he replied, and he demanded, as a test of hermerit, that she procure him sixty thousand monastic robes bythe next day for an offering to the community of monks. NowAsaṃdhimittā did not know what to do. But, in the middle of166