Once upon a time in one of his many incarnations Lord Gautama Buddha was king of a herd of elephants. The herd lived happily in the mythical Himawunta Forest. The Elephant King's name was Saardan and he was pure white. Also he had two elephant queens; Maha Thubadda and Sula Thubadda.
One day while the herd was playing on the banks of a lake, Saardan, the Elephant King playfully gave Sula Thubadda a bouquet of flowers. But as luck might have it it was infested with red ants. Sula Thubadda became very angry and harboured ill-will toward the Elephant King and vowed that in her next incarnation she be born to extract revenge for the slight she suffered. As the story goes, Sula Thubadda died and was reborn and consequently became Queen of King Bramadutta in the Kingdom of Varanasi.
Then she remembered her vows to take revenge upon Saardan, the Elephant King and started planning. She pestered the King that she wants to wear ivory earrings from the great tusks of Saardan , the Elephant King who lived inside Himawunta Forest. Finally the king gave in and summoned a famous hunter, Thaw Note Hto, to bring him the tusks of the great white elephant.
The hunter travelled to Himawunta Forest for 7 years, 7 months and 7 days until he got to the lake where the great Saadan Elephant King and his herd bath daily. Then he dug a large hole in the earth where the great elephant usually stands after coming out of the water, covered it and hid inside with just a small hole to shoot his arrow through.
The unsuspecting Saardan Elephant King came out of the water and as he always normally do stood above the hole where the hunter hid. Thaw Note Hto, shot his arrow through the small aperture and the force was so great that the arrow pierced the body and came out of the elephant's back. The herd was terror-stricken and run off in all directions to find the killer but the elephant king deduced that as the arrow came from beneath his navel the archer must be under him, hidden underground. He was then able to expose the hunter and asked him why he had shot him as they had never been enemies before. The hunter Thaw Note Hto replied" It is the Queen who wished to make ivory earrings out of your tusks and it was the king who sent me on this errand. And I am but an instrument of their scheming. Out of these three co-conspirators is it fair that I, the simple luckless and ignorant servant, am to be singled out and penalized for this hideous deed!"
The elephant king in his magnanimity not only spared the hunter's life but also sawed off the two tusks himself for the hunter to take back to the Queen.
The great hunter, Thaw Note Hto, arrived back at the palace and presented the two tusks to the Queen, whom on seeing the proof of her former partner's love for her fell down dead on the spot with remorse.
This is one of the greatest stories from the life of Lord Buddha in one of his incarnations. But the words of hunter, Thaw Note Hto, had become a famous cliche among young couples whenever they want to expressed their feelings of unjust treatment by third parties.
"IT WAS THE QUEEN WHO WISH FOR THE IVORY"
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