The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

186
Book XI
[The Magic Bowl]
Maṇimēkhalai walked about admiring the beauty of the sand dunes,
flower gardens and cool tanks. In a short while there appeared before
her a lady who accosted her:
‘Who are you that have arrived here alone like a woman who had
suffered shipwreck?’
Maṇimēkhalai enquired in reply to which of her births the question
referred, answering the question none the less that in her previous
birth she went by the name Lakṣmī and was the wife of a prince called
Rāhuḷa.
In the present birth, she was the daughter of Mādhavī, a dancing
woman. She was known by the name Maṇimēkhalai, and she was
brought to that particular spot of that island by the Goddess
Maṇimēkhalā from the pleasure garden just outside of her native city
Kāvēripaṭṭiṇam. She concluded by saying that by means of her
worship of the ‘Buddha-seat’ in front of them she had learnt her
previous birth.
So saying she wished to know who the other lady was. The lady
replied that in the neighbourhood of that island there [138] was
another called Ratnadvīpa.
‘There on the high peak of the hill Samantakūṭa there are the
footprints of the Buddha. Having offered worship at the footprints I
came to this island long ago. Since then I have remained here keeping