It was the reign of Bimbisar in Magadha. Buddha was in search of enlightenment or bodhi. The sixteen Mahajanapads were spread over the Ganges valley,of which the Vajji confederacy was the strongest,with the Licchabi clan at it's head and it's capital at Baishali. One early morning when Mahanama was strolling in the mango orchard he was taking care of in Baishali,he heard the cry of a baby. He followed the sound of the cry and found under a mango tree a baby girl crying her heart out. He took pity on the abandoned baby,picked her up and took her home to his wife. The girl was as tender as new grown mango leaves and named her Amrapali or Ambapali, tender mango leaves. Ambapali grew up to be the fairest girl in Baishali and skilled in dancing. In a public performance of her dance the King of Licchabi clan and the head of the Vajji confederacy,Manudev was charmed by her beauty, and wanted her for himself. He was in search of a means to get her to his bed. On the night of Ambali's marriage Manudev hired assasins to murder Ambaali's would be husband and got him killed. Ambapali lost her first chance of leading the life of a married woman and lead a quiet peaceful life. Manudev arranged a conference of the confederacy and it was unanimously decided that Ambapali was dangerous for the state because her beauty and charm would cause youngmen to fight among themselves to possess her, so she should never be a single man's wife, but a Nagarbadhu, a woman to be enjoyed by all the males of the city of Baishali,who was ready to pay her price.So Ambapali became the Nagarbadhu, court danseuse, but she enjoyed the privilege of rejecting any man who came to her whom she did not like,and got a palace of her own. Magadha and the Licchavis were always at war and in one such attack of Magadha on Vaishali, the Magadha king Bimbisar came to Vaishali at the head of his army,and visited Ambapali in disguise. He was a skilled musician as Ambapali was a dancer per excellence, and both fell in love and spent days and nights together, till Ambapali saw the royal insignia on Bimbisar's ring,and discovered his true identity. She requested him to go back with his army,and leave Vaishali in peace. Bimbisar went back and never again declared war on Vaishali during his lifetime. Few months later Ambapali gave birth to a son,and Bimbisar recognised him as.his own.He was given the name of Vimala Kondanna. Buddha had attained bodhi, and visited Vaishali with a groupe of his disciples. He stayed in the mango orchard where Ambapali was found and Ambapali went to visit him. He glimpsed at her and his eyes dazzled. He closed his eyes and told his disciples to close their eyes too.Ambapali went back but never forgot his serene face. Late in life Ambapali became a Buddhist nun,a theri and wrote a poem, lamenting for her lost beauty, and in this way underlining the changeable and shortlivedness of all things,the basic tenet of Buddhist philosophy, immortalized in the Therigatha, a collection of poems by Buddhist mins
