The Fast of Chandanbala

Princess Vasumati was captured during a war, sold into slavery, and renamed Chandanbala. She was bought by a wealthy merchant, whose jealous wife subjected her to horrific abuse. Her head was shaved, her legs were bound in heavy iron chains, and she was locked in a dark cellar, starved for days.

Despite her tragic fall from royalty to enslaved prisoner, Chandanbala never felt anger. She accepted her suffering with perfect equanimity, spending her time in deep devotion to the Tirthankaras.

At this time, Lord Mahavira was in the 12th year of his intense spiritual practice. He took a uniquely difficult vow: he would break his six-month fast only if he received food from a princess reduced to slavery, whose head was shaved, whose legs were chained, who was crying, and who offered him boiled lentils from a winnowing basket while keeping one foot inside the threshold of a house and one outside.

Months passed. Mahavira wandered, but no one met these impossible conditions.

One day, Chandanbala's master discovered her in the cellar and, heartbroken by her state, gave her some dry, boiled lentils in a winnowing basket before rushing to get a blacksmith to cut her chains.

Chandanbala stepped to the doorway, one foot inside and one out. Just then, Lord Mahavira walked by. Overjoyed to see a holy ascetic, she offered him the lentils. Mahavira stopped, but seeing she was smiling with joy, he turned away—one condition (that she must be crying) was not met.

Seeing the great saint turn away without accepting her food, Chandanbala burst into tears of sheer anguish. Hearing her cry, Mahavira turned back. All conditions of his vow were fulfilled. He stepped forward and accepted the dry lentils from her chained hands.

In that moment of supreme, pure devotion, the gods rained flowers. Her chains shattered, her hair grew back, and she was draped in divine clothing. Chandanbala later became the head of Mahavira's female monastic order, proving that pure devotion transcends all physical suffering.