The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

247 - The King learns his Previous Life
He congratulated himself that this teaching which the holy Śrāvaka
first taught him was then coming to fruit by means of Maṇimēkhalai.
On hearing these reflections from the king, the chief minister,
Janamitra, seeing that the king’s mind was undergoing a
transformation, said:
‘Remember, O great monarch! that before my former sovereign and
yours, obtained you for a son by favour of the holy one, this land of
ours had suffered for twelve years from failure of rain, and of famine
of such severity in consequence, that the very mothers would sooner
eat their children to appease their own hunger than feed them, and in
such dire distress you appeared as a welcome rain-cloud in the worst
of summer. Since then never have rains failed, nor land its fertility;
living beings have never known hunger. If you should give up rule
and retire, all of your subjects will weep as a child at the death of the
mother. If, for the sake of life in a higher world, you choose to give up
this, living beings here will reach their end and you will be held
responsible for the calamity. This is not the teaching of Him, the first
one, who unmindful of his own life, made it his duty to protect living
beings. You are apparently labouring under some delusion.’
Hearing this, the king, not being able to resist the desire to go and the
Buddha-seat at Maṇipallavam, begged his [184] minister to bear the
responsibility for a month, of protecting his kingdom and conducting
its administration. So saying he ordered sailors to get ready ships at
the harbour and embarked. The convoy had an uninterrupted voyage
till it reached Maṇipallavam. Maṇimēkhalai seeing that that was the
fleet that brought the king, took the king round and showed him the
miraculous Buddha-seat. The seat showed to the king, as if in a clear
mirror, his anterior history. The king proclaimed with joy,