The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

248 - The King learns his Previous Life
‘I have learned all of my previous birth; I have rid myself of all that
was evil. Oh, the Goddess of Learning at southern Madura, the home
of Tamil, was it not you that offered me the inexhaustible bowl when
at dead of night and in pouring rain, I was in great sorrow at not being
able to give food to those that sought it of me; and was it not you, the
Divine One! that destroyed my birth? Whether I should be born
among the gods or in the Brahma world, I shall never give up the
maintenance and protection of living beings.’
So saying, he went south-east along with Maṇimēkhalai, and the two
rested for a while on the bank of the tank Gōmukhī. There then
appeared before them the Goddess of the Isle who addressed the king
in the following words:
‘Oh, king, who relieved the pangs of hunger, those that had forgotten
you when last you came here, returned here afterwards in search of
you; knowing that you had died they gave up their life in the manner
that you yourself did. These are the bones of the nine Śeṭṭhis that died
thus, and these, of their servants who maintained by them in life, paid
their debt to their masters by loyalty in death. Your bones are covered
with sand under the Punnai 104 tree. By giving up your life, you have
made yourself responsible for the lives of those who gave [185] it up
for yourself. Please consider whether you are not responsible for their
death.’
So saying she turned round to Maṇimēkhalai and explained to her
how the city of her birth Kāvēripaṭṭiṇam was swallowed up by the
sea.
104 (Sans. Punnāga, Alexandrian Laurel, Calophyllum mophyllum).