Vol. 11 · pages 206–210

187 CONVERSION OF THE LOW AND THE LOWLY II swoon, so that her husband and kinsfolk said “She is dead !” And they bore her to the cemetery and prepared to cremate her body. 2. But on account of the storm of wind and rain the fire would not burn. So they went away leaving Sopaka’s mother on the funeral pyre. 3. Sopaka’s mother was not then dead. She died afterwards. Before her death she gave birth to a child. 4. The child was adopted by the watchman of the cemetery and was brought up by him along with his own child Suppiya. The child was known by the name of the community Sopaka to which its mother belonged. 5. The Blessed Lord one day happened to pass by the cemetery. Sopaka, seeing the Lord, approached him. After saluting the Lord he asked his permission to join him as his disciple. 6. Sopaka was then only seven years old. So the Lord asked him to obtain his father’s consent. 7. Sopaka went and fetched his father. The father saluted the Lord and requested him to admit his son to the Order. 8. Notwithstanding that he belonged to the pariah community the Lord admitted him to the Order and instructed him in the doctrine and discipline. 9. Sopaka later became a Thera. 10. Suppiya and Sopaka had grown together from childhood and Sopaka having been adopted and brought up by Suppiya’s father, Suppiya learned the Lord’s doctrine and discipline from his companion, Sopaka, and requested Sopaka to admit him to the Order, although Sopaka belonged to a community which was lower in rank than the community to which Suppiya belonged. 11. Sopaka agreed and Suppiya, a member who belonged to the despised community whose occupation was to perform the duties of watchmen in the cemetery, became a Bhikku.

188 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES II § 4. Conversion of Sumangala and other Low Castes 1. Sumangala was a peasant of Shravasti. He earned his living by work in the fields, working with a little sickle, plough and spade. 2. Channa was a native of Kapilavatsu and was a slave in the house of Suddhodana. 3. Dhanniya was a resident of Rajagraha. He was a potter. 4. Kappata-Kuxa was a native of Shravasti. The only way he knew of, to support himself, was to go about, clad in rags, pan in hand, seeking for rice-grains. Hence he became known as Kappata-Kura—“Rags and-rice.” When grown up, he maintained himself by selling grass. 5. All of them sought from the Buddha permission to become Bhikkus and enter the Order. The Buddha without hesitation and without caring for their low birth or their previous condition, admitted them into the Order. §5. Conversion of Supprabuddha, the Leper 1. Once the Exalted One was staying near Rajagraha, in the bamboo grove, at the squirrels’ feeding-ground. 2. Now there lived in Rajagraha at that time a certain man, who was a leper, named Supprabuddha, a poor, wretched, miserable creature. 3. And it happened at that time that the Exalted One was sitting there in the midst of a great multitude, teaching the Dhamma. 4. And Supprabuddha, the leper, saw from afar the multitude gathered together, and at the sight he thought, “Without a doubt an alms-giving of food, both hard and soft, is toward yonder. Suppose I draw near to yonder crowd, I might get there something to eat, food soft or hard.” 5. So Supprabuddha, the leper, drew near that crowd, and he beheld the Exalted One sitting there amid

189 CONVERSION OF THE LOW AND THE LOWLY II a great crowd, preaching the Norm. So, seeing the Exalted One he thought : “No. There is no almsgiving here of food. It is Gotama the Samana preaching the Dhamma in the assembly. Suppose I were to listen to his teaching.” 6. So he sat down at one side, thinking, “I too will listen to the teaching.” 7. Now the Exalted One, reading with His thought the thoughts of that whole gathering, said to Himself, “Who, I wonder, of these present, is able to grasp the Truth ?” Then He saw Supprabuddha, the leper, sitting in the crowd : and at the sight of him He knew, “This one can grasp the Truth.” 8. So for the sake of Supprabuddha, the leper, the Master preached a sermon, dealing in due order with these topics. On alms-giving, on the holy life, and on the heaven-world : and He pointed out the meanness and vileness of sensual desires and the profit of freedom from the asavas. 9. Now when the Exalted One saw that the heart of Supprabuddha, the leper, was softened, pliant, set free, elated, and full of faith, then He set forth to him the Dhamma most excellent of the Buddha, to wit, suffering, the cause of suffering, the ceasing of suffering, and the path. 10. Then, just as a white cloth, free from stains, is ready to receive the dye, even so in Supprabuddha, the leper, as he sat there in that very place, arose the pure stainless insight of the Truth, the knowledge that whatsoever hath a beginning, that also must have an end. And Supprabuddha, the leper, saw the Truth, reached the Truth, perceived the truth, plunged into the Truth, crossed beyond doubting, was freed from all questionings, won confidence, and needing nothing further, being established in the Master’s teaching, sprang up from his seat and drew near to Him, and there he sat down at one side. 11. So seated he said to the Exalted One, “Excellent, O Lord Excellent, O, Lord, just as if, Lord, one should lift up the fallen, discover the hidden,

190 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES II point out the way to one bewildered, show a light in the gloom, saying, ‘Now they who have eyes to see can see shapes,’ even so in diverse ways has the Exalted One expounded the truth. I, even I, Lord, do go for refuge to the Exalted One, to the Norm and to the Order of Brethren. May the Exalted One accept me as His follower, as one who from this time forth even to life’s end has gone to refuge in Him.” 12. Thereupon Supprabuddha, the leper, being taught, established, roused, and made happy by the Exalted One’s pious talk, praised and welcomed His words, gave thanks and rose up from his seat, saluted the Exalted One by the right, and went away. 13. Unfortunately it came to pass that a young calf flung the leper Supprabuddha down and gored him to death.

PART VII Conversion of Women 1. Conversion of Mahaprajapati Gotami, Yeshodhara and her Companions. 2. Conversion of Prakrati, a Chandalika.