The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

251
Book XXVI
[Kaṇṇakī’s Teaching on Karma]
Flying across through the air Maṇimēkhalai reached Vañji, and
wishing to offer worship to the image both of her chaste mother
Kaṇṇakī and her father Kōvalaṉ, she reached the temple erected in
honour of the former. Standing before the image, with her head
bowed in [187] reverence, she praised the deity in the following
terms:–
‘Instead of paying the debt of a chaste wife by either dying with the
husband, or putting an end to your life on hearing of the husband’s
death, you took upon yourself the duty of vindicating your chastity.’
She prayed with tearful eyes that the chaste wife may have the
kindness to explain this unusual procedure to her. The unparalleled
goddess of chastity replied to her:
‘When not being able to suffer the calamity that befell my husband, I
caused the destruction of Madura by fire, the great Goddess of the
city, Madhurāpati, appeared before me and assured me that that was
the result of our deeds in a previous birth.
“Two princes, cousins by birth and ruling respectively in Simhapura
and Kapilain the fertile country of Kaliṅga, fell to fighting against
each other in great hatred. This war between Vasu and Kumāra left
the country desolate for six gāvudas, 106 and made it impossible for
anybody to approach on account of the prevalence of the war. A
merchant Saṅgama by name with his wife, eager after prof it, went
106 (Leagues).