3. Ven. Uppalavaṇṇā
Aspiration in the Past
The future Uppalavaṇṇā was born into a worthy family in the city of Haṁsavatī, during the time of Buddha Padumuttara. On one occasion, she listened to a discourse by the Buddha in the midst of a big audience, where she saw the Buddha name a nun as the foremost among those endowed with supernormal powers. She aspired to become such a great nun in the future. She made an extraordinary offering to the Buddha and his Saṅgha for seven days. At the end of seven days, she placed seven bunches of lotus flowers at the feet of the Buddha as her tribute and expressed her aspiration to be the foremost female monastic among those endowed with supernormal powers. Buddha Padumuttara predicted that her aspiration would be fulfilled.
Various Existences
After passing away from that existence in which she made a lifelong dedication to the Buddha and the Saṅgha, she was reborn in the Tāvatiṁsa Realm. Next, she was reborn in the human world where she offered lotus flowers and alms food to a Paccekabuddha.
Ninety-one aeons ago, there appeared Buddha Vipassī during which period the future Ven. Uppalavaṇṇā was born into a rich man’s family in Bārāṇasī. She invited the Buddha and the Saṅgha to her residence and made an extraordinary offering of food. Making a gift of lotus flowers to Buddha Vipassī, she mentally wished for personal charm in her future existences.
Various Existences
After passing away from that existence, and as a result of her meritorious deeds, the rich man’s daughter was reborn as a Deva, and subsequently in the Deva or human existence. During the time of Buddha Kassapa, in the present aeon, she was the second of the seven daughters of King Kikī of Bārāṇasī and was named Princess Samaṇaguttā. In that existence she, like her eldest sister, the future Ven. Khemā, remained a spinster for life, which lasted 20,000 years. They donated a monastic complex to the Saṅgha. At her death, she was reborn in the Deva realm again.
After passing away from the Deva realm, she was reborn into a worthy family in the human world. During that existence, she donated a gold coloured piece of cloth to an Arahat, who was a disciple of Buddha Kassapa.
She passed away from that existence to be reborn as Ummādantī, the exquisitely beautiful daughter of a rich Brahmin named Tiriṭivaccha in Ariṭṭhapura, in the Province of Sivi.
For details refer to the Birth Story about the Wealthy Man’s Daughter Ummādantī (Ummādantī-jātaka, Ja 527).
Her next existence was as the daughter of a farmer in a small village. Early one morning, as she went to the farm house, she found in a pond, on her way, a freshly blooming lotus flower. She went into the pond and plucked it. In the farm house she gathered some ears of rice and roasted them into popcorn. She put the popcorn in a lotus leaf which was gathered from the pond.
At that moment, a Paccekabuddha, after rising from the attainment of cessation in his dwelling, came by way of the air and stood not far away from the farmer’s daughter. She saw him and went to the farm house to get the popcorn and the lotus flowers, and she then put the popcorn into the Paccekabuddha’s alms bowl, covered it with a lotus flower, and offered it to him.
After the Paccekabuddha had gone on awhile, she thought: “A Paccekabuddha has no use for a flower, perhaps I should get it back and wear it.” Hence, she followed after the Paccekabuddha and then asked for the lotus flower back. But then she pondered: “Well, if the Paccekabuddha did not want my gift of the flower, he would have refused to accept it at the beginning. Now that he allowed me to put it on his alms bowl, he must have liked it as a gift.” So thinking, she placed the flower back into the alms bowl.
For this wavering act, her future existences, as we shall see, were marked by mixed fortunes.
Having thus returned the gift of the lotus flower, and admitting her fault for taking it back earlier, she expressed her wish: “Venerable sir, for offering this popcorn may I be blessed with 500 sons in my future existence. This is equal to the number of popcorn flowers that make up my gift. Furthermore, for my gift of the lotus flower, may lotus flowers rise up from the earth to receive every step I make in my future existences!”
According to the life history of Uppalavaṇā, while the farmer’s daughter was
The Paccekabuddha then rose into the sky even while the girl was watching him and returned to Mount Gandhamādana where he placed the lotus flowers at the entrance to Nandamūla Cave, for use by all Paccekabuddhas as a doormat at the foot of the flight of steps.
Queen Padumā Devī
As the result of that good deed, when future Ven. Uppalavaṇṇā passed away from that existence, she was reborn in an instantaneous full-grown birth as a Deva. There, in her own existence, a lotus flower arose from the earth at her foot at every step she made. When she passed away from that Deva existence, she was reborn in the human world from a lotus flower in a big lake of lotus flowers at the foot of a mountain. A recluse living nearby, early one morning, went to the lake to wash his face and saw a lotus flower in bud which was already bigger than the other buds. While the other buds had opened up their petals into full bloom, this bud remained closed. He thought it strange and so he went into the lake and plucked it.
While in his hand, the big bud opened its petals and inside he saw a female child lying. He felt a strong sense of paternal love for the child. He took her to the hermitage along with the lotus flower and put her on a small cot. Thanks to the past merits of the baby girl, milk oozed out from the big thumb of the recluse with which he nursed her. When the first lotus flower that she lay on became withered, a new lotus flower was placed underneath her.
When the young girl could walk and romp about, lotus flowers appeared from the earth under her feet wherever she went. She had a saffron-coloured complexion. Her personal charm was superhuman and would nearly equal that of a Devakaññā. Since she was born from the lotus, her foster father, the good recluse, named her Padumavatī, “Endowed with Lotuses.” Whenever the recluse went out in search of fruit, she was left alone at the hermitage.
When Padumavatī came of age, one day, when the recluse was out gathering fruit, a hunter who happened to come to the hermitage saw her and thought: “There is no human being on earth as beautiful as this girl. I must find out what she is.” And so he waited for the return of the recluse. When the recluse was seen returning, the girl went out to meet him, took the yoke laden with fruits and the water pot from him, had her foster father seated and attended on him lovingly.
The hunter was now sure that the girl was, in fact, a human being, and after paying homage to the recluse, he sat nearby. The recluse gave him fruits and water, and then asked him: “Are you going to stay in the forest or, are you going back to your home?”
The hunter said: “I have no business in the future, sir, I am going back to my home.”
“Could you keep the experience of your meeting with the girl to yourself without letting anyone know about it?”
“If you would rather not let others know about this, sir, why should I tell others?” But he said this merely to please his kind host.
On his way home, after paying respects to the recluse, he carefully marked the trees and arranged some branches along the way from the hermitage so that he could easily recognize the path back.
Back at the city, he went to see the king who asked the purpose of his visit. He said: “Great King, I am your humble servant, a hunter. I come to report to you the presence of a most remarkable woman in the forest at the foot of the mountain, who would surely be an asset for your majesty.” He explained the circumstance of his discovery to the king. The
The king made offering to the recluse, of articles used by recluses. And then he said: “Venerable sir, what is the use of living here? Let us go to the city.” – “I am not going, Great King,” said the recluse. “You may go.” To which the king said: “Very well, venerable sir, but I am given to understand that there is a woman in your company. It is not proper for a woman to be living in the company of a recluse. I would request that the woman be allowed to go with me.”
To this direct request made by the king the recluse replied: “It is not easy for one to please many people. How could my daughter fit in with the court life with its many queens and ladies in waiting?” The king allayed the fear of the recluse, saying: “Venerable sir, if I am allowed to marry her and have given my love to her, I will make her my Chief Queen.”
Thereupon the recluse called his daughter, as he usually addressed her since childhood: “Padumavatī, my little girl!” Young Padumavatī promptly responded; she came out of the hermitage and, saluting her father, stood before him, who said: “Dear girl, you have come of age. From the moment the king has cast his eyes on you, you should not stay here any longer. Go along with the king, my girl.” – “Very well, dear father,” she said, weeping, and still standing.
The King of Bārāṇasī, wishing to prove his sincerity, showered Padumavatī with gold, silver and jewellery and anointed her as his Chief Queen immediately.
At the court of Bārāṇasī, the king’s heart was captivated by the Chief Queen so much so that since her arrival, all the other queens and ladies-in-waiting were totally neglected by the king. The womenfolk felt bitter about this and they tried to undermine the king’s affection for the Chief Queen, saying: “Great King, Padumavatī is not a human being. Where on earth have you ever seen a human being whose every step is received by a lotus flower arising from the earth? She is a demon, for sure. She is dangerous. She ought to be banished forthwith!” But the king did not say anything.
At another time, when the king was called away by duty to suppress a rising in a remote part of the kingdom, he had to leave behind Padumavatī at the palace, knowing that she was pregnant. The womenfolk at court seized this opportunity to strike. They bribed Padumavatī’s attendant into a wicked plot. She was instructed to remove the infant when the Chief Queen gave birth to her child and replace it with a piece of wood smeared with blood.
When Padumavatī delivered the child, Prince Mahā Paduma was the real offspring whom she gave birth to, as he was the only child conceived in her womb. The other sons, 499 of them, arose from the drops of her blood splattered about at child birth. The attendant duly carried out the instruction and informed the news of the Chief Queen’s delivery to the other queens. The 500 womenfolk at the court stole one child each while their mother was still resting after her labour. Then they ordered 500 wooden caskets, made by turners, to put each child in one. They placed them inside the caskets, and put seals on each.
When Queen Padumāvatī woke up and asked her assistant about her child, the latter frowned and retorted: “When did you ever give birth to a child? This is what you have delivered,” and produced the piece of wood smeared with blood. The queen was very unhappy and asked her to put it away quickly. The woman quickly complied as if eager to safeguard the queen’s honour by splitting up the piece of wood and throwing it into the fireplace in the kitchen.
The king returned from his expedition and was camping outside the city waiting for an
As she was banished from the palace, no lotus flowers appeared underneath her feet. Her good looks left her. She roamed about in the road, feeling forlorn. When an old woman saw her, she had an instinctive affection for her and said: “Where are you going, my daughter?” Padumavatī replied: “Mother, I am looking for some place for shelter.” The old woman said: “In that case, my daughter, come with me to my house,” and taking her home, fed her and put her up there.
When Padumavatī was staying at the old woman’s house, the women-folk at the court said to the king in one voice: “Great King, when you were on your military expedition, we invoked the guardian spirit of the river Ganges for your success and promised to make him offerings on your victorious return. So let the king and all of us go to the river Ganges and make offerings to the river spirit and have fun bathing in the river.” The king gladly consented and they all went to the river.
The 500 women of the court secretly carried the caskets with babies in them and went into the water with their garments on, underneath which were the hidden caskets. Once in the river, they released the caskets which floated downstream in the river. The 500 caskets grouped together in the current, floated down together, and were caught in a fishermen’s net downstream. After the king had finished bathing in the river, the fishermen also raised their net from the water and to their great surprise, found the 500 caskets, which they presented to the king. The king asked them: “What do the caskets contain?” And they answered: “We do not know what is inside them, Great King, we only believed it to be something strange.” When the 500 caskets were opened under the king’s orders, the first one to be opened happened to contain Prince Mahā Paduma.
The past merit of the 500 princelings was such that from the day of their confinement in the caskets, milk flowed from their thumbs to nourish them. Sakka also cleared the doubts in the king’s mind by inscribing inside the caskets the message: “These babies are born of Queen Padumāvatī and are the sons of the King of Bārāṇasī. They have been put inside the caskets by the 500 queens and their accomplices, who bore a grudge against the Chief Queen, and have them thrown into the river. Let the King of Bārāṇasī know these facts.”
The king, being thus enlightened, took up Prince Mahā Paduma, and ordered: “Men, harness the chariots and dress up the horses quickly! I shall now go into the city and show my love to some womenfolk.” So saying, he rode hastily into the city, entered his palace, and ordered the royal elephant fitted, for a tour of the land with a velvet bag of 1,000 pieces of money tied at the neck of the elephant, and ordered the proclamation read aloud to all the people, announcing that whoever has seen Queen Padumāvatī may take the king’s reward of 1,000 pieces of money.
Padumavatī, on hearing the proclamation, said to the old women: “Mother, take that 1,000 from the neck of the royal elephant!” The old women said: “Daughter, I dare not do it.” Padumavatī urged her thrice to do so. Then the old lady said: “Daughter, what should I say in taking the reward?” Just say, mother: “I have seen Queen Padumāvatī!” The old lady then made herself bold to claim the reward.
The king’s men asked her: “Have you actually seen Queen Padumāvatī?” – “I have not seen her myself,” she said, “but my daughter has.”
“Where is your daughter now?” the men asked. And they were let to her house by the old lady. They recognized their queen and prostrated themselves before her. The old lady,
The king’s men then made an enclosure of white cloth around the humble house which Padumavatī was staying, posted guards around it, and reported their discovery to the king. The king sent a golden palanquin to her.
Padumavatī, however, insisted that she deserved more ceremony on returning to the palace. She had a canopied walk decorated with gold stars set up all along the way to the palace with exquisite carpets. She also demanded that her regal paraphernalia be sent to her. “I am walking there,” she said, “let my greatness be seen by all the citizens.” The king ordered that every wish of the Chief Queen must be complied with. Then Queen Padumāvatī, outfitted with full regalia, announced: “I am now going to the palace.” Thereupon every step she made, a lotus flower arose from the earth through the exquisite carpets. Thus letting all the people witness her greatness as she entered the palace. After that, she gave the rich carpets to the old lady as a token of the gratitude she owed to her.
The king summoned the 500 women-folk to court and said to Queen Padumāvatī: “My Queen, I give these 500 women as slaves to you.” The queen said: “King, let the whole city know about this giving of the 500 ladies to me.” The king had the fact of this assignment of the 500 women to Queen Padumāvatī proclaimed throughout the city by the beat of the gong. Having been satisfied with the public knowledge of the assignment, Queen Padumāvatī said to the king: “Great King, do I have the authority of emancipating my own slaves?” To which the king replied: “Queen, you have the right to do whatever you wish with them.” – “In that case, king,” she said, “let those men, who had made the proclamation of the assignment, make another round of proclamation to the effect that all the 500 slaves assigned to Queen Padumāvatī are hereby granted their freedom by the queen.” Then the queen entrusted the 499 princelings to the care of the emancipated women while she took charge of looking after Prince Mahā Paduma.
When the 500 princelings were of playing age, the king provided all sort of things in the royal gardens for the boys to play with. When they were sixteen years of age, one day, while they were playing in the royal lakes, where the lotuses (paduma) were growing in profusion, they observed the blossoming of the lotus flowers as well as the withering away and dropping off of old flowers which, thanks to their acquisition of sufficient merit, struck their young hearts as a phenomenon worth reflecting on. And this was how they reflected: “Even these lotus flowers, dependent only on temperature and nutrient, are subject to ageing; how could our bodies, dependent on four factors: productive deeds (kamma), mind, temperature and nutrient, escape the same fate? We are likewise subject to ageing and death.”
They reflected deeply on that phenomena of the impermanence of conditioned existence, gained insight into the nature of mind-and-matter, and attained Awakening on their own, without being taught by anyone. This is called the knowledge of Independent Awakening (Pacceka-bodhi-ñāṇa), which leads to the four noble path-knowledges. In other words, they became Paccekabuddhas. Then rising from their respective seats, they each sat cross-legged on a lotus flower by means of their supernormal powers.
Late in the evening, the attendants of the princelings reminded them: “Lords, it is time to go home.” The 500 Paccekabuddhas did not say anything. So the attendants went to the palace and reported the matter to the king about how the princes remained silent, all of them sitting on the lotus flowers. The king merely said: “Let my sons remain as they wish.”
The 500 Paccekabuddhas were placed under guard during the whole night as
Queen Padumāvatī, after enjoying deep satisfaction on regaining her 500 sons, was now shocked by the sudden loss of them again, and she did not survive the shock.
Existence as a Farm Hand
After passing away from that existence, she was reborn, as a woman, into a family of labourers, in a village near a city gate in Rājagaha. She married, and went to live with her husband’s family. One day, while she was carrying some gruel for her husband, who was working in the field, she saw eight of the 500 Paccekabuddhas travelling through the air. She went quickly to her husband and said: “Lord, look at those Paccekabuddhas! Let us invite them to an offering of aims food.” But the husband, who was a simpleton, did not know what a Paccekabuddha was. He said to her: “Dear wife, they are called monastic-birds. They are also found in other places too, and at other times are also seen flying about. They are not Paccekabuddhas, they are just strange birds.”
As the couple were still discussing this, the eight Paccekabuddhas descended to the ground not far away from them. The wife offered her share of meal for the day to the eight Paccekabuddhas and invited them for the next day’s offerings. The Paccekabuddhas said: “Very well, supporter, let your offerings be for eight recipients only. And let your accommodation be for eight invitees only. When you see many other Paccekabuddhas besides ourselves, your devotion will grow even greater.” Then the woman who in her previous existence had been the mother of the Paccekabuddhas, prepared eight seats and offerings for eight Paccekabuddhas.
The eight invitees said to the remaining Paccekabuddhas: “Do not go elsewhere today for alms food, but bestow welfare to your mother in your previous existence.” Those other Paccekabuddhas agreed, and all the 500 of them went through the sky to their former mother’s residence. The mother in her past existence who had wished to see all the 500 sons, now Paccekabuddhas, did not have any worry about the insufficiency of her offerings. She invited all 500 into her house and offered eight seats. When the eight had taken their seats the ninth Paccekabuddha created another eight seats through his supernormal powers and sat there; and so on until the last of the 500 was seated and her house was expanded through their supernormal powers.
The farm labourer, the mother in the previous existence, who had prepared alms food for eight Paccekabuddhas went on serving it to all 500, and as much as needed by them. Then she brought eight stalks of lotus flowers, and placing them before the original eight invitees, offered them, saying: “Venerable sirs, for this act of merit, may I be born with a complexion like the colour of the inside of the pollen chamber of this brown lotus.” The 500 Paccekabuddhas said complimentary words for her good deed, and went back to Mount Gandhamādana through the sky.
Ascetic Life in Her Final Existence
The farm hand, who was the future Ven. Uppalavaṇṇā, lived a life full of meritorious deeds and at the end of her lifespan was reborn in the Deva realm. During the time of Buddha Gotama, she was reborn into the family of a rich man in Sāvatthī. She was born with a complexion like the inner side of the pollen chamber of the brown lotus and hence was
Her father was in a quandary, he did not know how to reply to so many proposals from the worthy men. Not wishing to disappoint them, as a final resolve, he asked his daughter: “Dear daughter, would you become a nun?” Now Uppalavaṇṇā, being the bearer of the last burden of sentient existence, was extremely delighted to hear these words, as though rarefied scented oil, refined 100 times over, were poured upon her head. “Yes, father, I would like to become a nun,” she replied gladly.
As such, he sent his daughter Uppalavaṇṇā to the nunnery, after paying great honour to her. Uppalavaṇṇā became a nun. Not long after, she was assigned to tidy up and light up the outside of the Hall of Discipline (Sīmā). There she observed the flame arising in a lamp which she used as her subject of meditation. She concentrated on the element of heat in that flame, and achieved absorption (jhāna). Basing that concentration as object of insight meditation, through contemplating the three characteristics of physical and mental phenomena, she gained insight into conditioned phenomena and soon became an Arahat. As the result of her past aspiration to be outstanding in supernormal powers, she became endowed with facility in absorption practice, which is the essential asset in bringing into effect her supernormal powers.
Foremost Title Achieved
The day Ven. Uppalavaṇṇā displayed her miraculous powers was during the Buddha’s seventh year after his Awakening. Before doing so, she first asked the Buddha: “Venerable sir, may the Fortunate One allow me to display my miraculous powers.” Referring to this, the Buddha, on another occasion when outstanding nuns were named at a congregation, declared:
Etad-aggaṁ bhikkhave mama sāvikānaṁ bhikkhunīnaṁ
iddhimantīnaṁ yad-idaṁ Uppalavaṇṇā.
Monastics, among my female monastic disciples endowed with supernormal powers, Uppalavaṇṇā is the foremost (etad-agga).