The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

267 - Maṇimēkhalai feeds the Hungry
Buddha which was superior to them all, and came in search of
Aṟavaṇa Aḍigaḷ.
Having said this, she told him that it was her good fortune that
brought her to the presence of him who had assumed the holy garb of
a Buddhist mendicant. He said in reply:
‘Listen, dear one, having heard of the calamity that befell both your
father and mother and the consequent destruction of Madura, I
resolved to give up the life of a householder which was but a delusion,
since the time had come for me to adopt the life of a Buddhist
mendicant.
Feeling convinced that this body and all the wealth that I had
acquired through life were alike unstable, I took up this life and
resolved to adopt the path of the Dharma.
Having assumed such a life how I happened to come to this city, I
shall recount now. Once on a former occasion when the great Cēra
king, the ruler of the Kuṭṭuvaṉ, who planted his emblem of the bow
on the Himalayas with the ladies of the household entered this grove
and remained here in the pleasance for recreation, a few
Dharmacāraṇas who, having worshipped the hill Samanoli in the
island of Lanka and, passing round in circumambulation, made up
their minds to get down to earth as the time for setting the king on the
good path had come. Seeing them on this rock, he offered worship to
them as a result of previous good deeds, and, washing their feet in due
form, offered to them food prepared of “the four kinds and the six
flavours.”
Having done this, he praised their condescension and offered them
worship with due hospitality along with his whole court. On that
occasion these holy ones expounded to him the sufferings of birth and