Janapada Kalyani Nanda was considered to be the prettiest maiden of the janapada kingdom. She was engaged to marry to Nanda, the half brother of Gotama Buddha. Hence, she earned the sobriquet of Janapada Kalyani, which means the “Grace of the Kingdom”. She belonged to a noble family.
She was much engaged to the prince of the kingdom and she seriously fall in deep love with her future groom and was over-joyed with the hope of her marriage with him.
Just on the same day before her marriage when all preparations for the ceremony were being made, the Buddha arrived at the palace and sent for Nanda, the groom. After a little while, she saw him walking out with the Buddha and thought that he would be back soon. But to her discontent the groom did not return because the Buddha had taken him to his place to teach him to refuse the house-hold life and become a priest.
When all the preparations for her marriage were taking place; she ornamented out in her finest dress and sat in the mandap decorated with flowers and with the banana stems raised on the four of it's corners, the news of Nanda’s rejection was announced all of a sudden. The news came as a blow on the bride-in-waiting. Shocked and terribly hurt, she fainted down with a great pain.