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Kaccāni Jātaka (No.417)

A young man devoted himself, after his father’s death, entirely to his mother, until the latter, much against his will, brought him a wife. The wife plotted to estrange mother and son, and the old woman had to leave the house. The wife, having given birth to a son, went about saying that if the mother-in-law had been with her such a blessing would have been impossible. When the old woman heard of this, she felt that such things could only be said because Truth (Dhamma) was dead and, going into the cemetery, she started to perform a sacrifice in memory of the Truth. Sakka’s throne becoming heated, he came down and, hearing her story, reconciled the old woman with her son and daughter-in-law by means of his great power. In the stanza spoken by Sakka, the old woman is addressed as Kaccāni and Kātiyānī. The scholiast explains that she belonged to the Kaccānagotta.

The story was related to a young man of Sāvatthi who looked after his aged mother until his wife came; then the wife undertook to tend her and for some time did her duties well. Later, she grew jealous of her husband’s love for his mother, and contrived by various means to make the son angry with the old woman. Finally, she asked her husband to choose between herself and his mother. The young man, without hesitation, stood up for his mother, and the wife, realising her folly, mended her ways. J.iii.422‑8.