The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

253 - Kaṇṇakī’s Teaching on Karma
then follow the teaching of “the Piṭakas of the Great One”. This is
what is going to happen.’
Having said this, she gave Maṇimēkhalai to understand that, being
the young woman that she was, nobody would teach her the highest
truths of religion, and therefore she exhorted her to assume another
form more suitable for learning these truths. Maṇimēkhalai
accordingly assumed the form of an old hermit by making use of the
mantra which Goddess Maṇimēkhalā had taught her. In this guise she
went to the temples, to the platforms, to the halls, to the gardens, to
the tanks, wherever those devoted to penance, those who by [189]
discipline had attained to the control of their passions, those who by
great learning had attained to the knowledge of the right path, all
round the fortification of the city.
The ruling sovereign of this city, the great Cēra Śenguṭṭuvaṉ, having
reduced all the land to the same condition as that of his own hill
country, had marched at the head of his army up to the banks of the
Ganges, crossing over to its northern bank by means of boats,
defeated many kings, including Kanaka and Vijaya; and, bringing a
stone from the Himalayas carried on the heads of the defeated kings,
celebrated the binding of the fillet of victory by wearing the garland
of Vāhai. This great capital continued to be her residence till, by the
ripening of the causes, she was ready to receive the teaching of the
Four Great Truths.