This Amar Chitra Katha comprises of two tales, Amrapali and Upagupta. The dancer Amrapali's conversion to Buddha's sangha is told in the Maha-Parinibbana Sutta and in Malasarvastivadas. The garden that Amrapali gave up to Lord Buddha was still in existence when Fa-Hien visited India during the Gupta age.
Upagupta was a disciple of Buddha. For him, ahimsa (non-violence) did not merely mean desisting from violence, but also indulging in positive acts and showing compassion. When the much-admired Vasavadatta was shunned by society and had nowhere to go, Upagupta took her to his hermitage.
King Kusha is an adaptation of the Kusha Jataka. It is a romantic account of the ugly but wise and talented King Kusha of Kushavati and his love for the beautiful but vain Princess Prabhavati of Sagala.
This Amar Chitra Katha comprises of multiple stories. The first, "The Acrobat", is about Ugrasena's transformation from the royal treasurer's son to an acrobat to a follower of Buddha. In the second story, "The Harvest", Buddha teachers a farmer about the benefits of detachment. Buddha explains the ills of desire to the young Prince Kumara in the third story, "The Golden Maiden". And finally, 'Buddha and Krishna Gautami" is one of the more famous stories, wherein Buddha teaches the distraught Gautami about the inevitability of truth.
King Pradyota of Ujjaini is disturbed to learn from his minister that King Udayana of Kaushambi is a greater king than he is. He tricks Udayana into captivity. Pradyota then wants Udayana to teach him the secret of taming elephants. Udayana refuses to do so until Pradyota himself pays him the homage due to a great guru. As Pradyota's pride does not permit this, he sends his lovely daughter Vasavadatta to Udayana for the lessons, with a curtain screen separating them. Vasavadatta is told her teacher is a leper, and Udayana is told that his pupil is a hunch-backed relative of Pradyota.
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