Santakāya Thera

He was never guilty of any improper movement of hand or foot, but always carried himself with composure and dignity. This was because his mother was a lioness. For a lioness, when she has eaten prey, goes into her cave where she lies, for seven days, on a bed of red arsenic and yellow orpiment. When she rises on the seventh day, if she finds the bed disturbed by any movement on her part, she again lies down for seven days, saying: "This does not become your birth or lineage." When the monks praised Santakāya to the Buddha, he held up the Elder as an example to be followed. Dhp.iv.113f.

Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, G P Malalasekera (1899-1973), which is available as printed version from