Vessantara-Jataka in Pali and English - MyWebSpace

Translation 484 Vessantara-Jåtaka
[Fausbøll, Jåtaka, vol. VI, p. 484]
"So spake the monarch of the gods, the great Sujampati,
Called Vāsava, well pleased to grant a boon to Phusatī."
When she had thus chosen her boons, she left that world, and was conceived in the womb
of King Madda's queen; 1 and when she was born, because her body was as it were
sprinkled with the perfume of sandal wood, on her name-day they called her by the name
Phusatī. She grew up amidst a great company of attendants until in her sixteenth year she
surpassed all other in beauty. At that time Prince Sañjaya, son of the King of Sivi, was to
be invested with the White Umbrella; the princess was sent for to be his bride, and she
was made Queen Consort at the head of sixteen thousand women; wherefore it is said—
"Next born a princess, Phusatī was to the city led
Jetuttara, and there anon to Sañjaya was wed."
Sañjaya loved her lief and dearly. Now Sakka pondering remembered how that nine of
his ten boons given to Phusatī were fulfilled. "But one is left unfulfilled," he thought, "a
goodly son; this I will fulfil for her." At that time the Great Being was in the Heaven of
the Thirty-Three, and his time was done; perceiving which Sakka approached him, and
said, "Venerable Sir, you must enter the world of men; without delay you must be
conceived in the womb of Phusatī, Queen Consort of the King of Sivi."
With these words, asking the consent of the Great Being and the sixty thousand sons of
the gods who were destined to re-birth, he went to his own place. The Great Being came
down and was re-born there, and the sixty thousand gods were born in the families of
sixty thousand courtiers. Phusatī, when the Great Being was conceived in her womb,
finding herself with child, desired six alms-halls to be built, one at each of the four gates,
one in the middle of the city, and one at her own door; that each day she might distribute
six hundred thousand pieces. The king, learning how it was with her, consulted the
fortune-tellers, who said, "Great King, in thy wife's womb is conceived a being devoted
to almsgiving, who will never be satisfied with giving." Hearing this he was pleased, and
made a practice of giving as before said.
1
Here the story proper begins; we have returned to the time referred to in the introduction
above (p. 480).