Note 3 — Chapter XXV · VAIŚÂLÎ. THE TOPE CALLED ‘WEAPONS LAID DOWN.’ THE COUNCIL OF VAIŚÂLÎ.

Âmbapâlî, Âmrapâlî, or Âmradarikâ, ‘the guardian of the Âmra (probably the mango) tree,’ is famous in Buddhist annals. See the account of her in M. B., pp. 456–8. She was a courtesan. She had been in many narakas or hells, was 100,000 times a female beggar, and 10,000 times a prostitute; but maintaining perfect continence during the period of Kâśyapa Buddha, Śâkyamuni’s predecessor, she had been born a devi, and finally appeared in earth under an Âmra tree in Vaiśâlî. There again she fell into her old ways, and had a son by king Bimbisâra; but she was won over by Buddha to virtue and chastity, renounced the world, and attained to the state of an Ârhat. See the earliest account of Âmbapâlî’s presentation of the garden in ‘Buddhist Suttas,’ pp. 30–33, and the note there from Bishop Bigandet on pp. 33, 34.