King Kalābu is a mythical figure met in the Buddhist Jātaka literature. His name is extant both in the Southern Buddhism and Northern Buddhism. Chinese Buddhists call him as "Ke-Li-Wang"（歌利王. He appears in the Jātaka story named "Kșhāntivāda jataka". In Pali 'khanti' and in Sanskrit "kșhānti" mean 'tolerance', and 'vāda' means 'teaching or view'. The name "Kșhāntivāda" is given to the ascetic who excelled at 'tolerance' in face of the brutal atrocities inflicted by the king Kalābu. He is contrasted with the hermit Kșhāntivāda. In the Buddhist literature, Kalabu is related to the Devadatta, the enemy of the Buddha, and the Kșhāntivāda was the Buddha himself in that life.
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The story runs as follows:
King Kalabu was ruling kingdom of Varanasi (Benares in modern India). One day he set off for sport and recreation with the harem. After the play, the king felt asleep on the lap of a harem concubine. Then, the other members of the harem went to enjoy the scenery of the garden. While they were roaming, they came to notice an ascetic under a tree with meditation posture. They reached him and initiated a talk. He preached the dhamma (what is good and bad) for them and the audience was immersed in his talk, forgetting the king. Meanwhile the king woke up and asked the woman where the other women-folk were. She said they were listening to an ascetic. He flew into a rage and went out looking for the ascetic. When he saw the scene in which all women were like under spell in the talk of the ascetic, he could not bear up his anger. Then, he questioned the ascetic: "What are you teaching?" The ascetic replied, "I am teaching tolerance." "What is tolerance?" "The ability to stay unmoved in face of atrocities either physical or verbal by others inflicted on oneself." "Then prove it." The king ordered his executioner to whip the ascetic. The ascetic was whipped terribly but he did not get angry. Seeing this, the king asked, "Are you still tolerant?" The ascetic calmly replied, "Yes, your Majesty." Then the king continuously ordered his executioner to cut off his various bodily parts. The ascetic was bleeding all over his body. The king finally asked, "Do you still have tolerance?" The ascetic calmly responded, "Your Majesty, tolerance is not in my bodily parts but it is in my heart. Though you can harm my body, my mind is immovable." The king had no bound to his anger. He himself trod on the chest of the ascetic and the blood gushed out of the mouth of the ascetic. Yet, the ascetic was not moved. A general of the king, who had invited the ascetic to come to the city, came to know this pathetic situation and ran to the scene. Seeing the ascetic, he applied some ointment and begged him not to curse the kingdom. The ascetic said that he had no ill-will towards the king, instead he wished that the king live long.This is the past story narrated by the Buddha. At the end the Buddha declared that this was his perfection of tolerance.
Tolerance in this life
Once we examine the Buddha's attitude held towards criticism brought against him, his teaching and community by some of his contemporaries, the perfection of tolerance he carried throughout his course of practice is well-expressed. A similar phraseology used to King Kalabu is uttered when the Buddha came to know that Suppiya, a different faith holder criticized the Buddha. Here, the Buddha's admonition reminds us of his previous life perfection of tolerance. The discourse Brahamajala sutta reports the words as follows:
"If, bhikkhus, others speak in dispraise of me, or in dispraise of the Dhamma, or in dispraise of the Sangha, you should not give way to resentment, displeasure, or animosity against them in your heart. For if you were to become angry or upset in such a situation, you would only be creating an obstacle for yourselves. If you were to become angry or upset when others speak in dispraise of us, would you be able to recognize whether their statements are rightly or wrongly spoken?"
Northern Buddhism
In the text Vajracchedika Pragnaparamita (Diamond Sutra), the Buddha refers to the king Kalabu and the sage of forberance as follows:
"Subhūti, the Pāramitā of Forbearance that the Tathāgata speaks of is not a pāramitā of forbearance. Why? Subhūti, this is like in the past when my body was cut apart by the Kali rāja: there were no notions of a self, notions of a person, notions of a being, or notions of a life. In the past, when I was being hacked limb from limb, if there were notions of a self, notions of a person, notions of a being, or notions of a life, then I would have responded with hatred and anger. Remember also that I was the Ṛṣi of Forbearance for five hundred lifetimes in the past. Over so many lifetimes there were no notions of a self, notions of a person, notions of a being, or notions of a life.