Note 294:7 — Chapter XXIX
Reading edition
John, iv. 1-11.
Just as the Samaritan woman wondered that Jesus, a Jew, should ask drink of her, one of a nation with whom the Jews had no dealings, so this young Matangi warned Ananda of her caste, which rendered it unlawful for her to approach a monk. And as Jesus continued, nevertheless, to converse with the woman, so Ananda did not shrink from this outcast damsel. And as the disciples "marvelled" that Jesus should have conversed with this member of a despised race, so the respectable Brahmans and householders who adhered to Brahmanism were scandalized to learn that the young Matangi had been admitted to the order of mendicants.