The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

271 - Maṇimēkhalai feeds the Hungry
Having arranged for all these, she performed the actual worship, and
placing the begging bowl on the Buddha-seat, she invited all living
beings suffering from hunger to come in. Then there came crowds of
people speaking ‘the eighteen languages’; the blind, the deaf, the
maimed, the helpless, the dumb, the diseased, those engaged in the
performance of penance, those suffering from hunger, those
suffering from extreme poverty, these and many hundreds of
thousands of animals, all came crowding in.
To all of them, she supplied food so inexhaustibly that it was only the
hands of those that received it that felt exhausted. They all returned
after satisfying, to the full, their hunger, praising the young lady, who
appeared as if through the result of having fed [204] a very holy
person in a previous existence, and thereby brought prosperity to the
land, as an abundance of water, good land, timely rain, change of
seasons, the necessary instruments of cultivation, seeds sown properly
and yield returning in plenty, would.
At this time, there came to the grove Aṟavaṇa Aḍigaḷ with her mother
and her companion Sutamatī. She prostrated before them, and,
washing their feet, saw them seated suitably to their holiness, and
provided them with delicious food and drink. She served to them
afterwards betel and camphor, and prayed that what she long desired
may turn fruitful and true. So saying, she discarded her disguise and
made a profound obeisance again.