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Kaṇḍari Jātaka (No.341)

Kaṇḍari, a king of Bārāṇasī, was very handsome; each day he received one thousand boxes of perfume for his use, and his food was cooked with scented wood. His wife, Kinnarā, was very beautiful; his chaplain was Pañcālacaṇḍa. One day, Kinnarā, on looking out, saw a loathsome cripple in the shade of a jambu-tree near her window, and conceived a passion for the man. Thereafter she would wait for the king to fall asleep and would then, nightly, visit the cripple, taking him dainty foods and having her pleasure with him. One day the king, returning from a procession, saw the misshapen creature, and asked the chaplain if such a man could ever win the love of a woman. The cripple, hearing the question, proudly boasted of his intimacy with the queen. At the chaplain’s suggestion the king watched the queen’s movements that same night, and saw the cripple abuse her and strike her for being late in coming. The blow fell on her ear breaking off her ear ornament, which the king picked up.

The next day he ordered the queen to appear before him in all her ornaments, and having proved that he knew of her infidelity, handed her over to the chaplain to be executed. Pañcālacaṇḍa, pitying the woman, begged that she should be pardoned, because in being unchaste she had but obeyed the instincts common to all women. To prove his contention, Pañcālacaṇḍa took the king with him and, in disguise, they wandered through Jambudīpa, testing the virtue of various women, including that of a young bride who was being taken to her husband’s house. Convinced that all women were alike, the king spared Kinnarā’s life, but drove her out of the palace together with the cripple, and caused the jambu-tree to be cut down.

The story was among those related by the bird Kuṇāla to his friend Puṇṇamukha, testifying to the unfaithfulness of women. Kuṇāla is identified with Pañcālacaṇḍa. J.v.437‑40; J.iii.132.