- མཛེས་མ།
- mdzes ma
- sundarī
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- Person
- Sundarī
- མཛེས་མ།
- mdzes ma
- sundarī
This refers to the beautiful wandering female mendicant Sundarī, who in one of the stories of the life of the Buddha is enlisted by some heretics, jealous of the Buddha’s fame, to tempt the Buddha to have sex with her and thus destroy his reputation as a virtuous sage. She pretends to do so, and the heretics, believing her story, then hire some drunkards to murder her and bury her body under a pile of flowers near the Buddha’s monastery in order to make the public believe that the Buddha has ravished and killed her. As the rumour spreads, the citizenry is at first outraged but are then led to reconsider the story told by the Buddha’s monks, who pass on their master’s advice to avoid unsubstantiated hearsay and rumors. The truth eventually comes to light when King Prasenajit sends his secret service to investigate the matter, and the true perpetrators are brought to justice. This story is found in the Sundarīsutta, Udāna 4.8.