THE JĀTAKA
OR
STORIES OF THE BUDDHA'S FORMER BIRTHS
THE JĀTAKA
OR
STORIES OF THE BUDDHA'S
FORMER BIRTHS.
PROFESSOR E. B. COWELL.
VOL. V.
TRANSLATED BY
H. T. FRANCIS, M.A.,
EDWARDI BYLES COWELL
DOCTISSIMI DILECTISSIMI
ET
ROBERTI ALEXANDRI NEIL
DESIDERATISSIMI
PREFACE
The delay in the issue of this volume calls for a few words of explanation. I had hoped that the late Mr. Neil of Pembroke would have collaborated with me in the fifth volume of the Jātaka Translation as he had already done in Vol. III. But this was not to be, and his premature death in 1901, which was generally acknowledged to be a serious loss to the cause of Oriental learning, no less than to that of Classical scholarship, threw upon me the burden of undertaking the entire volume without his efficient aid and criticism. The beloved Master of our "Guild of Translators," the late Professor Cowell, assisted me in my task so long as his increasing years and infirmities allowed him to continue his unwearied efforts for the advancement of Oriental studies, but he was not able to give to the work that minute and careful revision which he had so generously lavished on the four preceding volumes. My labours were also somewhat prolonged by the larger proportion of this volume which had to be versified. In rendering the gāthās I have done my best to give the exact sense of the Pali, so far as it was compatible with the exigencies of a metrical version, and if the result at times should strike the reader as rather feeble and pointless, I might urge in extenuation that the original is sometimes equally prosaic and commonplace. Moreover, although I have always regarded Childers' Pali Dictionary as a work of extraordinary merit for the time at which it appeared, yet it would no doubt greatly lighten the labours of translators from the Pali,p. viii
if the mass of critical annotations now scattered throughout the Pali Text Society's Publications and various other Oriental Journals could be gathered together and embodied in the new Pali Dictionary which Professor Rhys Davids has promised us. Meanwhile I have to thank Mrs. Bode for her very useful Index to Pali words discussed in Translations which appeared in the P. T. Journal for 1897-1901.
It only remains for me to acknowledge my debt of gratitude to Professor Bendall for the kind help he has given me in the many difficulties I have referred to him, and for the readiness with which he has placed at my disposal the stores of his wide reading and critical scholarship. The sixth and last volume of the Translation, which was left unfinished by Professor Cowell, is now in the capable hands of Dr Rouse and will appear in due course edited and completed by him.
H. T. FRANCIS.
,CONTENTS.
511. KIṀCHANDA-JĀTAKAA priest who took bribes and gave false judgments is reborn to a state of suffering all day, but because he had kept half a fast-day, he enjoys great glory throughout the night. His king, who had become an ascetic, is transported by a river-nymph to the mango grove where the priest was reborn and hears the story of his alternate misery and bliss.
512. KUMBHA-JĀTAKA
How a forester accidentally discovered strong drink and how this led to the ruin of all India, until Sakka appeared on earth and by his exposition of the evils of drink induced a certain king to abstain from its use.
513. JAYADDISA-JĀTAKA
A female yakkha carries off a royal infant and rears him as her own offspring, teaching him to eat human flesh. In course of time the man-eater captures his royal brother, but sets him free on the condition that he should return as soon as he had redeemed his promise to a brahmin. The king's son surrenders himself as a victim in his father's stead, and the man-eater, who is now recognised as the king's brother, is converted and becomes an ascetic.
514. CHADDANTA-JĀTAKA
A royal elephant had two wives. One of them, owing to an imaginary slight, conceives a grudge against her lord, and afterwards, when she is reborn as the favourite wife of a certain king, she pretends to be sick, and to have seen in a dream an elephant with six tusks; and in order to recover from her sickness, she declares the possession of its tusks must be secured for her. A bold hunter, after crossing vast mountain ranges and encountering many difficulties and dangers, at length finds and slays the elephant, but the queen on receiving the tusks and hearing of the elephant's death is filled with remorse and dies of a broken heart.
p. x
515. SAMBHAVA-JĀTAKA
A king, anxious for a definition of goodness and truth, sends his brahmin chaplain to consult all the sages of India, and finally obtains the solution of his doubts from a boy only seven years old.
516. MAHĀKAPI-JĀTAKA
A husbandman, in looking for his strayed oxen, loses himself in a forest, and falling into a deep pit is rescued by a monkey. The man makes an attempt upon the life of his benefactor, and for his ingratitude is smitten with leprosy.
517. DAKARAKKHASA-JĀTAKA see MAHĀUMMAGGA-JĀTAKA
518. PAṆḌARA JĀTAKA
An ascetic worms out from a snake-king the secret wherein his strength lies and betrays him to his enemy, the garuḍa-king. The garuḍa by means of this secret vanquishes the snake, but through pity sets him free. The snake invokes a curse on the ascetic, who is swallowed up by the earth to be reborn in hell.
519. SAMBULA-JATAKA
A prince is struck with leprosy and retires into a lonely forest, accompanied by his devoted wife, who carefully watches over him. She is rescued by Sakka from an ogre, and though she is suspected by her husband, yet by her virtue and faith she recovers him of his leprosy. He returns to rule over his kingdom but shows no gratitude to his wife, until at the reproof of his father he asks her forgiveness and restores her to her rightful position.
520. GAṆḌATINDU-JĀTAKA
An unrighteous king is reproved by a tree-sprite, and, as he travels with his chaplain on a tour of inspection through his dominions, many instances of the evil effects of his unjust rule are brought to his notice. Thenceforth the king rules his kingdom righteously.
521. TESAKUṆA-JĀTAKA
A king finds a nest containing three eggs. When the young birds are hatched from them the king adopts them as his children. They all give him sound advice in the ruling of his kingdom and are promoted to high office in the state.
522. SARABHAṄGA-JĀTAKA
An archer displays wonderful feats of skill in shooting. He declines the honours offered him by his king and retires to a forest hermitage. Here he gathers around him a great company of disciples, solves the doubts of three kings as to the fate of certain notorious sinners, and converts them and a host of their followers to the ascetic life.
p. XI
523. ALAMBUSA-JĀTAKA
An ascetic by his great holiness excites the jealousy of Sakka, who sends down a heavenly nymph to seduce him. After a temporary lapse, the saint recovers his virtue and attains to a state of ecstasy.
524. SAṀKHAPĀLA-JĀTAKA
After a life of holiness a certain king is reborn in the Nāga world. Growing weary of his state of glory he returns as a snake to earth, and would have perished at the hands of a band of ruffians, had he not been rescued by a rich householder travelling that way with a large retinue. The Nāga king invites his benefactor to his heavenly mansion and keeps him there in great honour for a whole year, when he too wishes to leave the Nāga world, to become an ascetic upon earth. By a recital of all that had happened to him and the Nāga king, he converts the ruler of the land to a life of charity and good works.
525. CULLA-SUTASOMA-JĀTAKA
A king is so affected by the discovery of a grey hair on his head that he resigns his crown and resolves to become an ascetic. In spite of the entreaties of his parents, wife, children, and friends, he persists in his resolution and together with his family and a great number of his subjects enters on the religious life.
526. NAḶINIKĀ-JĀTAKA
Sakka, jealous of a holy ascetic, appears to the king of the country and declares that the drought from which the land was suffering was due to the action of this ascetic, and that the only way to remedy this evil was to overcome his virtue. To this end the king's daughter visits him, disguised as an ascetic youth, and owing to his simplicity his fall is brought about. When his father returns, he cautions his son against the wiles of womankind and brings about his restoration to his former state of holiness.
527. UMMADANTĪ-JĀTAKA
A king is bewitched by the wife of his commander-in-chief. This officer by a ruse makes the king believe that his guilty secret is generally known, and by his wise counsel persuades him to give up his infatuation.
528. MAHĀBODHI-JĀTAKA
An ascetic finds favour with a king and is preferred to high honour, thereby exciting the envy of the king's councillors, who slander him to the king and lay a plot to kill him. He is saved by a warning from a dog. Afterwards the ascetic convicts the four wicked councillors of various heresies and brings about their disgrace and exile.
p. xii
529. SONAKA-JĀTAKA
A king after many years is anxious to see again a friend of his early youth who had become a paccekabuddha, and in the form of a song he offers a reward to anyone that can tell him where he is to be found. His friend teaches a little boy a refrain to the song which he is to sing before the king and to claim the promised reward. So the king finds his friend, and owing to his instruction he abdicates in favour of his son and adopts the religious life.
530. SAṀKICCA-JĀTAKA
A prince who was eager to succeed to the throne proposes to murder his father. His friend, unable to dissuade him from his purpose, retires from the court and becomes an ascetic. The prince after the murder of his father is filled with guilty fears. His friend at length returns and, after describing all the various hells and the punishments of notorious sinners, by his admonition restores the king's peace of mind.
531. KUSA-JĀTAKA
A certain king has no heir, but at length, by the favour of Sakka, his chief queen miraculously gives birth to two sons. The elder is ill-favoured but supernaturally wise. He only consents to marry when a princess is found exactly like a golden image which he himself had fashioned. The bride is not to look upon her husband's face by daylight till she has conceived. When she accidentally discovers how ugly he is, she leaves him and returns to her father's kingdom. He follows her there and under a variety of menial disguises tries, but in vain, to win her affections. At length by Sakka's device she incurs the enmity of seven kings and is rescued from imminent death by her despised husband. He returns with her to his own country where they live happily ever after.
532. SONA-NANDA-JĀTAKA
Two brahmin brothers become ascetics and watch over their aged parents. The younger one persists in supplying them with unripe fruits, and at length is sent away by the elder brother. The younger one by the help of a powerful king, whom he had made victorious over all his rivals, regains his brother's favour and is allowed once more to minister to his father and mother.
533. CULLA-HAṀSA-JĀTAKA
A king of wild geese is caught in a fowler's snare and deserted by all except his chief captain, who refuses to leave him. The fowler is so touched by this devotion that he would have released the captive bird, but they insist on being taken before the king of the country, and after preaching the Law to him the two birds are set at liberty and return home to their kith and kin.
p. xiii
534. MAHĀ-HAṀSA-JĀTAKA
A queen has a dream about golden geese and entreats the king to bring her one. The king has a decoy lake constructed and his fowler at length captures the king of the geese. The rest of the story is like the Cullahaṁsa-Jātaka.
535. SUDHĀBHOJANA-JĀTAKA
A rich miser is seized with a great longing to have some rice porridge, and to escape having to give some to any one else he retires into a forest to cook it for himself. Sakka and other gods appear and claim a share of the porridge. The miser is converted by their admonitions, gives away all his money, and becomes an ascetic. He is afterwards called upon to award the prize of virtue to the best of four heavenly nymphs, the daughters of Sakka. He adjudges the prize to Honour, and on his rebirth in the deva world he is rewarded with the hand of this nymph and enjoys immense power.
536. KUṆĀLA-JĀTAKA
A king of birds for the instruction of his friend, a royal cuckoo, relates many instances he had known, to illustrate the deceitfulness, ingratitude, and immorality of womenkind.
537. MAHĀ-SUTASOMA-JĀTAKA
A king, who had been a yakkha in a former birth, develops a taste for human flesh and has his subjects murdered to supply himself with his favourite food. When his guilt is brought home to him, he refuses to give up his cannibalism and is driven out of his kingdom. He now dwells in a forest and preys upon all travellers that pass that way. At length he captures a king who had been his friend and teacher in early youth, but releases him on the condition that he should return after he has fulfilled a promise that he has made to a brahmin. The king returns into captivity, and the man-eater is so pleased with his good faith that he offers to grant him any four boons that he may ask of him. When asked to give up cannibalism he reluctantly consents and is eventually restored to his kingdom.
ADDITIONAL NOTES AND
CORRECTIONS.
No. 512.
Jātaka-Mālā XVII. Kumbha-Jātaka.
No. 513.
Cariyā-Piṭaka II. 9,
Jayaddisa.
No. 516.
Jātaka-Mālā XXIV. Mahākapi-Jātaka.
No. 524.
Cariyā-Piṭaka II. 10,
Saṅkhapāla.
No. 529.
Cariyā-Piṭaka III. 5,
Soṇapaṇḍita.
Page 25,
line 34, for firewood read fire-sticks or, fire-drills.
BOOK XVI. TIṀSANIPĀTA.
No. 511.
KIṀCHANDA-JĀTAKA.
[1] "Why dost thou," etc.—This story the Master told, while dwelling at Jetavana, about the observance of fast-days 1.Now one day when a number of lay Brothers and Sisters, who were keeping a fast-day, came to hear the Law, and were seated in the Hall of Truth, the Master asked them if they were keeping fast-days, and on their saying that they were, he added, "And ye do well to observe fast-days: men of old, in consequence of keeping half a fast-day, attained to great glory," and at their request he told a tale of the past.
case on, and not being able to go home, she thought, "I will not transgress the observance of the fast-day," and as the time drew near, she began to rinse her mouth. At that moment a lump of ripe mangoes was brought to the brahmin. He perceived that the woman was keeping the fast and said, "Eat this and so keep the fast." She did so. So much for the action of the brahmin. By and bye he died and was born again in the Himalaya country, in a lovely spot on the bank of the Kosiki branch of the Ganges, in a mango-grove, three leagues in extent, on a splendid royal couch in a golden palace. He was born again like one just awakened from sleep, well dressed and adorned, of exceeding beauty of form, and accompanied by sixteen thousand nymphs. All night long he enjoys this glory, for by being born as a Spirit in a phantom palace 1 his reward is corresponding to his deed. So at the approach of dawn he enters a mango-grove, and at the moment of his entrance his divine body disappears, he assumes a form as big as a palm tree, eighty cubits high, and his whole body is ablaze like a judas-tree in full flower. He has but one finger on each hand, while his nails are as big as spades, and with these nails he digs into the flesh on his back and tearing it out eats it, and mad with the pain he suffers, he gives utterance to a loud cry. At sunset this body vanishes and his divine form reappears. Heavenly dancing girls, with various musical instruments in their hands, attend upon him, and in the enjoyment of great honour he ascends to a divine palace in a charming mango-grove. Thus did he, as the result of giving a mango fruit to a woman who was keeping a fast, acquire a mango-grove, three leagues in extent, but, in consequence of receiving bribes and giving false judgments, [3] he tears and eats the flesh from off his own back, whilst, owing to the fact of his having kept half the fast, he enjoys glory every night, surrounded by an escort of sixteen thousand dancing nymphs.
About this time the king of Benares, conscious of the sinfulness of desires, adopted the ascetic life and took up his abode in a hut of leaves, in a pleasant spot on the lower Ganges, subsisting on what he could pick up. Now one day a ripe mango from that grove, the size of a large bowl, fell into the Ganges and was carried by the stream to a spot opposite the landing place used by this ascetic. As he was rinsing his mouth, he saw the mango floating in mid-stream, and crossing over he took and brought it to his hermitage and placed it in the cell where his sacred fire was kept 2. Then, splitting it up with a knife, he ate just enough to support life, and covering up the rest with the leaves of the plantain tree, he repeatedly day by day ate of it, as long as it lasted. And when it was all consumed, he could not eat any other kind of fruit, but being a slave to his appetite for dainties, he vowed he would eat only ripe mango, and
going down to the river bank he sat looking at the stream, determined never to get up till he had found a mango. So he fasted there for six consecutive days, and sat looking for the fruit, till he was dried up by the wind and heat. Now on the seventh day a goddess of the river, by reflecting on the matter, found out the reason of his action, and thinking, "This ascetic, being the slave of his appetite, has sat fasting seven days, looking at the Ganges: it is wrong to deny him a ripe mango: for without it he will perish; I will give him one." So she came and stood in the air above the Ganges, and conversing with him uttered the first stanza:
Why dost
thou on this river bank through summer heat remain?
Brahmin, what is thy secret hope? What purpose would’st thou gain?
[4] The
ascetic on hearing this repeated nine stanzas:Brahmin, what is thy secret hope? What purpose would’st thou gain?
Afloat upon
the stream, fair nymph, a mango I did see;
With outstretched hand I seized the fruit and brought it home with me.
So sweet it
was in taste and smell, I deemed it quite a prize;With outstretched hand I seized the fruit and brought it home with me.
Its comely shape might vie with biggest water-jar in size.
I hid it mid some plantain leaves, and sliced it with a knife;
A little served as food and drink to one of simple life.
My store is spent, my pangs appeased, but still I must regret,
In other fruits that I may find, no relish I can get.
I pine away; that mango sweet I rescued from the wave
Will bring about my death, I fear. No other fruit I crave.
I've told you why it is I fast, though dwelling by a stream
Whose broadening waves with every fish that swims are said to teem.
And now I pray thee tell to me, and flee thou not in fear,
O lovely maiden, who thou art, and wherefore thou art here.
Fair are the handmaids of the gods, like burnished gold are they,
Graceful as tiger brood along their mountain slopes that play.
Here also in the world of men are women fair to see,
But none amongst or gods or men may be compared to thee.
I ask thee then, O lovely nymph, endowed with heavenly grace,
Declare to me thy name and kin and whence derived thy race.
[5] Then the goddess uttered eight stanzas:
O’er this
fair stream, by which thou sitst, O brahmin, I preside,
And dwell in vasty depths below, ’neath Ganges' rolling tide.
All clad
with forest growth I own a thousand mountain caves,And dwell in vasty depths below, ’neath Ganges' rolling tide.
Whence flow as many flooded streams to mingle with my waves.
[6] Each wood and grove, to Nāgas dear, sends forth full many a rill,
And yields its store of waters blue, my ample course to fill.
Oft borne upon these tribute streams are fruits from every tree,
Rose-apples, bread-fruit, dates and figs, with mangoes one may see.
And all that grows on either bank and falls within my reach,
I claim as lawful prize, and none my title may impeach.
Well knowing this, hearken to me, O wise and learned king,
Cease to indulge thy heart's desire—renounce the cursed thing.
O ruler
erst of broad domains, thy act I cannot praise,
To long for death, in prime of youth, great folly, sure, betrays.
Brahmins
and angels, gods and men, all know thy deed and name,To long for death, in prime of youth, great folly, sure, betrays.
And saints who by their holiness attain on earth to fame—
Yea, all that wise and famous are, thy sinful act proclaim.
[7] Then the ascetic uttered four stanzas:
One who
knows how frail our life is, and how transient things of sense,
Never thinks to slay another, but abides in innocence.
Honoured
once by saints in council, owner of a virtuous name,Never thinks to slay another, but abides in innocence.
Now with sinful men conversing, thou dost win an evil fame.
Were I on thy banks to perish, nymph with comely form endowed,
Ill repute would rest upon thee, like the shadow of a cloud.
Therefore, goddess fair, I pray thee, every sinful deed eschew,
Lest, a bye-word of the people, thou have cause my death to rue.
[8] On hearing him, the goddess replied in five stanzas:
Well I know
the secret longing, thine to bear so patiently,
And I yield myself thy servant and the mango give to thee.
Lo! foregoing sinful pleasures, pleasures hard to be resigned,
Thou hast gained, to keep for ever, holiness and peace of mind.
He that,
freed from early bondage, hugs the chains he once forswore,And I yield myself thy servant and the mango give to thee.
Lo! foregoing sinful pleasures, pleasures hard to be resigned,
Thou hast gained, to keep for ever, holiness and peace of mind.
Rashly treading ways unholy, ever sinneth more and more.
I will grant thy earnest craving, and will bid thy troubles cease,
Guiding thee to cool recesses, where thou mayst abide in peace.
Herons, maynah birds and cuckoos, with the ruddy geese that love
Nectar from the bloom to gather, swans aloft in troops that move,
Paddy-birds and lordly peacocks, with their song awake the grove.
Saffron and kadamba blossoms lie as chaff upon the ground,
Ripest dates, the palms adorning, hang in clusters all around,
And, amidst the loaded branches, see how mangoes here abound!
[9] And singing the praises of the place she transported the ascetic thither, and, bidding him eat mangoes in this grove till he had satisfied his hunger, she went her way. The ascetic, eating mangoes till he had appeased his appetite, rested awhile. Then, as he wandered in the grove, he spied this Spirit in a state of suffering and he had not the heart to utter a word to him, but at sunset he beheld him attended by nymphs and in the enjoyment of heavenly glory and addressed him in three stanzas:
All the
night anointed, fēted, with a crown upon thy brow,
Neck and arms bedecked with jewels—all the day in anguish thou!
Many
thousand nymphs attend thee. What a magic power is this!Neck and arms bedecked with jewels—all the day in anguish thou!
How amazing thus to vary from a state of woe to bliss!
What has led to thy undoing? What the sin that thou dost rue?
Why from thine own back dost ever eat the flesh each day anew?
[10] The Spirit recognized him and said, "You do not recognize me, but I was once your chaplain. This happiness that I enjoy in the night is due to you, as the result of my keeping half the fast-day; while the
suffering I experience by day is the result of the evil that I wrought. For I was set by you on the seat of judgment, and I took bribes and gave false decisions, and was a backbiter, and in consequence of the evil that I wrought by day, I now undergo this suffering," and he uttered a couple of stanzas:
Once in
holy lore delighting I in sinful toils was cast,
Working evil for my neighbour, through the lengthening years I passed.
He that
shall, backbiting others, love on their good name to prey,Working evil for my neighbour, through the lengthening years I passed.
Flesh from his own back will ever rend and eat, as I to-day.
And so saying, he asked the ascetic why he had come here. The ascetic told all his story at length. "And now, holy sir," the Spirit said, "will you stay here or go away?" "I will not stay, I will return to my hermitage." The Spirit said, "Very well, holy sir, I will constantly supply you with a ripe mango," and by an exercise of his magic power he transported him to his hermitage, and, bidding him dwell there contentedly, he exacted a promise from him and went his way. Thenceforth the Spirit constantly supplied him with the mango fruit. The ascetic, in the enjoyment of the fruit, performed the preparatory rites to induce mystic meditation and was destined to the Brahma-world.
Footnotes
1:1 On the observance of póya (uposatha) days cf. Hardy's Eastern Monachism, p. 237: "fasting" includes doing no wrong to one's neighbour.2:1 Cf. vol. i. p. 240. 5 (Pali).
2:2 Cf. Mahāvagga, i. 15. 2.
No. 512.
KUMBHA-JĀTAKA.
"Who art thou," etc.—This story the Master, while dwelling at Jetavana, told concerning five hundred women, friends of Visākhā, who were drinkers of strong drink. Now the story goes that a drinking festival was proclaimed at Sāvatthi, and these five hundred women, after providing fiery drink for their masters, at the end of the festival thought, "We too will keep the feast," and they all went to Visākhā and said, "Friend, we will keep the feast." She replied, "This is a drinking festival. I will drink no strong drink." They said, "Do you then give an offering to the supreme Buddha: we will keep the feast." She readily assented and sent them away. And after entertaining the Master, and making him a large offering, set out at eventide for Jetavana, with many a scented wreath in her hand, to hear the preaching of the Law, attended by these Women. Now they were eager for drink, when they started with her, and, when they stood in the gabled chamber, they took strong drink, and then accompaniedVisākhā into the presence of the Master. Visākhā saluted the Master and sat respectfully on one side. Some of the other women danced even before the Master; some sang; others made improper movements with their hands and feet; others quarrelled. The Master, in order to give them a shock, emitted a ray of light from his eyebrow; and this was followed by blinding darkness. These women were terrified and frightened with the fear of death, and so the effect of the strong drink wore off The Master, disappearing from the throne on which he was seated, took his stand on the top of Mount Sineru, and emitted a ray of light from the hairs between his eyebrows 1, like as if it had been the rising of a thousand moons. The Master, just as he stood there, to produce a sensation amongst these women, spoke this stanza:
2No place for laughter here,
no room for joy,
The flames of passion suffering worlds destroy.
Why overwhelmed in darkest night, I pray,
Seek ye no torch to light you on your way?
At the end
of the stanza all the five hundred women were established in the fruition of
the First Path. The Master came and sat down on the Buddha seat, in the shade
of the Perfumed Chamber. Then Visākhā saluted him and asked, "Holy sir,
whence has arisen this drinking of strong drink, that does violence to a man's
honour and to a tender conscience?" And telling her he related a story of
the past.The flames of passion suffering worlds destroy.
Why overwhelmed in darkest night, I pray,
Seek ye no torch to light you on your way?
spot. Now not far from here lived an ascetic, named Varuṇa. The forester at other times also used to visit him, and the thought now struck him, "I will drink this liquor with the ascetic." So he filled a reed-pipe with it, and taking it together with some roast meat he came to the hut of leaves and said, "Holy sir, [13] taste this liquor," and they both drank it and ate the meat. So from the fact of this drink having been discovered by Sura and Varuṇa, it was called by their names (surā and vāruṇī). They both thought, "This is the way to manage it," and they filled their reed-pipes, and taking it on a carrying-pole they came to a neighbouring village, and sent a message to the king that some wine merchants had come. The king sent for them and they offered him the drink. The king drank it two or three times and got intoxicated. This lasted him only one or two days. Then he asked them if there was any more. "Yes, sir," they said. "Where?" "In the Himalayas, sir." "Then bring it here." They went and fetched it two or three times. Then thinking, "We can't always be going there," they took note of all the constituent parts, and, beginning with the bark of the tree, they threw in all the other ingredients, and made the drink in the city. The men of the city drank it and became idle wretches. And the place became like a deserted city. Then these wine merchants fled from it and came to Benares, and sent a message to the king, to announce their arrival. The king sent for them and paid them money, and they made wine there too. And that city also perished in the same way. Thence they fled to Sāketa, and from Sāketa they came to Sāvatthi. At that time there was a king named Sabbamitta in Sāvatthi. He shewed favour to these men and asked them what they wanted. When they said, "We want the chief ingredients and ground rice and five hundred jars," he gave them everything they asked for. So they stored the liquor in the five hundred jars, and, to guard them, they bound cats, one to each jar. And, when the liquor fermented and began to escape, the cats drank the strong drink that flowed from the inside of the jars, and getting intoxicated they lay down to sleep; and rats came and bit off the cats' ears, noses, teeth and tails. The king's officers came and told the king, "The cats have died from drinking the liquor." [14] The king said, "Surely these men must be makers of poison," and he ordered them both to be beheaded and they died, crying out, "Give us strong drink, give us mead 1." The king, after putting the men to death, gave orders that the jars should be broken. But the cats, when the effect of the liquor wore off, got up and walked about and played. When they saw this, they told the king. The king said, "If it were poison, they would have died; it must be mead; we will drink it." So he had the city decorated, and set up a pavilion in the palace yard and taking his seat in this splendid pavilion on a royal throne with a white umbrella raised over it, and surrounded by
his courtiers, he began to drink. Then Sakka, the king of heaven, said, "Who are there that in the duty of service to mother and the like diligently fulfil the three kinds of right conduct?" And, looking upon the world, he saw the king seated to drink strong drink and he thought, "If he shall drink strong drink, all India will perish: I will see that he shall not drink it." So, placing a jar full of the liquor in the palm of his hand, he went, disguised as a brahmin, and stood in the air, in the presence of the king, and cried, "Buy this jar, buy this jar." King Sabbamitta, on seeing him standing in the air and speaking after this manner, said, "Whence can this brahmin come?" and conversing with him he repeated three stanzas:
Who art
thou, Being from on high,
Whose form emits bright rays of light,
Like levin flash athwart the sky,
Or moon illuming darkest night?
To ride the
pathless air upon,Whose form emits bright rays of light,
Like levin flash athwart the sky,
Or moon illuming darkest night?
To move or stand in silent space—
Real is the power that thou hast won,
And proves thou art of godlike race.
Then, brahmin, who thou art declare,
And what within thy jar may be,
[15] That thus appearing in mid air,
Thou fain wouldst sell thy wares to me.
Then Sakka said, "Hearken then to me," and, expounding the evil qualities of strong drink, he said:
This jar
nor oil nor ghee doth hold,
No honey or molasses here,
But vices more than can be told
Are stored within its rounded sphere.
Who drinks
will fall, poor silly fool,No honey or molasses here,
But vices more than can be told
Are stored within its rounded sphere.
Into some hole or pit impure,
Or headlong sink in loathsome pool
And eat what he would fain abjure.
Buy then, O king, this jar of mine,
Full to the brim of strongest wine.
Who drinks, with wits distracted quite,
Like grazing ox that loves to stray,
[16] Wanders in mind, a helpless wight,
And sings and dances all the day.
Buy then &c.
Who drinks will run all shamelessly,
Like nude ascetic thro’ the town,
And late take rest—so dazed is he—
Forgetting when to lay him down.
Buy then &c.
Who drinks, like one moved with alarm,
Totters, as tho’ he could not stand,
And trembling shakes his head and arm,
Like wooden puppet worked by hand.
Buy then &c.
Who drink
are burned to death in bed,
Or else a prey to jackals fall,
To bondage or to death are led,
And suffer loss of goods withal.
Buy then &c.
Who drinks
is lost to decencyOr else a prey to jackals fall,
To bondage or to death are led,
And suffer loss of goods withal.
Buy then &c.
And talks of things that are obscene,
Will sit undressed in company,
Is sick and every way unclean.
Buy then &c.
Uplifted is the man that drinks,
His vision is by no means clear,
The world is all my own, he thinks,
I own no earthly lord as peer.
Buy then &c.
Wine is a thing of boastful pride,
An ugly, naked, cowardly imp,
To strife and calumny allied,
A home to shelter thief and pimp.
Buy then &c.
Tho’ families may wealthy be,
And countless treasures may enjoy,
Holding earth's richest gifts in fee,
This will their heritage destroy.
Buy then &c.
Silver and gold and household gear,
Oxen and fields and stores of grain—
All, all is lost: strong drink, I fear,
Has proved of wealthy home the bane.
Buy then &c.
[17] The man that drinks is filled with pride,
And his own parents will revile,
Or, ties of blood and kin defied,
Will dare the marriage bed defile.
Buy then &c.
She too that drinks will in her pride
Her husband and his sire revile,
And, dignity of race defied,
A slave to folly will beguile.
Buy then &c.
The man that drinks will dare to slay
A righteous priest or brahmin true,
And then in suffering worlds for aye
The sinful deed will have to rue.
Buy then &c.
Who drink will sin in triple wise,
In word, in action, and in thought,
Then sink to Hell, to agonize
For all the evil they have wrought.
Buy then &c.
The man from whom men beg in vain,
E’en at the cost of heaps of gold,
From him when drunk their point they gain
And readily the lie is told.
Buy then &c.
Should one
that drinks a message bear
And lo! some great emergency
Should suddenly arise, he'll swear
The thing has slipped his memory.
Buy then &c.
E’en modest
folk, intoxicateAnd lo! some great emergency
Should suddenly arise, he'll swear
The thing has slipped his memory.
Buy then &c.
With wine, will most indecent be,
And wisest men, when drunk, will prate
And babble very foolishly.
Buy then &c.
Thro’ drink men, fasting, lie about,
The hard bare ground their resting place,
Huddled like swine, a shameless rout,
They undergo most foul disgrace.
Buy then &c.
Like oxen smitten to the ground
1Collapsing, in a heap they lie;
[18] Such fire is in strong liquor found,
No power of man with it can vie.
Buy then &c.
When all men, as from deadly snake,
In terror from the poison shrink,
What hero bold enough to slake
His thirst from such a fatal drink?
Buy then &c.
’Twas after drinking this, I ween,
The 2Andhakas and Vṛishṇi race,
Roaming along the shore, were seen
To fall, each by his kinsman's mace.
Buy then &c.
Angels infatuate with wine
Fell from eternal heaven, O king,
With all their magic power divine:
Then who would taste the accursed thing?
Buy then &c.
Nor curds nor honey sweet is here,
But evermore remembering
What's stored within this rounded sphere,
Buy, prithee, buy my jar, O king.
[19] On hearing this the king, recognizing the misery caused by drink, was so pleased with Sakka that he sang his praises in two stanzas:
[20]
No parents
had I sage to teach, like thee,
But thou art kind and merciful, I see;
A seeker of the Highest Truth alway;
Therefore I will obey thy words to-day.
Lo! five
choice villages I own are thine,But thou art kind and merciful, I see;
A seeker of the Highest Truth alway;
Therefore I will obey thy words to-day.
Twice fifty handmaids, seven hundred kine,
And these ten cars with steeds of purest blood,
For thou hast counselled me to mine own good.
Sakka on hearing this revealed his godhead 1 and made himself known, and standing in the air he repeated two stanzas:
These
hundred slaves, O king, may still be thine,
And eke the villages and herds of kine;
No chariots yoked to high-bred steeds I claim;
Sakka, chief god of Thirty Three, my name.
Enjoy thy
ghee, rice, milk and sodden meat,And eke the villages and herds of kine;
No chariots yoked to high-bred steeds I claim;
Sakka, chief god of Thirty Three, my name.
Still be content thy honey cakes to eat.
Thus, king, delighting in the Truths I've preached,
Pursue thy blameless path, till Heaven is reached.
Thus did Sakka admonish him and then returned to his abode in Heaven. And the king, abstaining from strong drink, ordered the drinking vessels to be broken. And undertaking to keep the precepts and dispensing alms, he became destined to Heaven. But the drinking of strong drink gradually developed in India.
Footnotes
6:1 This manifestation is abundantly illustrated in Buddhist art, especially in that of the Mahāyāna school.6:2 Dhammapada, p. 146.
6:3 Of different kinds, Terminalia Chebula and Emblica officinalis.
7:1 Another reading has, "Wine, O king, mead, O king."
10:1 Pattakkhandhā. Cf. note on Cullavagga, iv. 4. 7, Translation by Davids and Oldenberg, p. 13.
10:2 See Wilson's Vishṇu Purāṇa (Hall's ed.), vol. v. pp. 147-149. Cf. Jātaka, vol. IV. 81, vol. v. 267.
No. 513.
JAYADDISA-JĀTAKA.
[21] "Lo! after," etc.—This story the Master told of a Brother who supported his mother. The introductory story is like that told in the 2Sāma Birth. But on this occasion the Master said, "Sages of old gave up the white umbrella with its golden wreath to support their parents," and with these words he told a story of the past.again appeared and seized the child. The queen uttered a loud cry of "Ogress," and armed soldiers, running up when the alarm was given by the queen, went in pursuit of the ogress. Not having time to devour the child, she fled and hid herself in a sewer. The child, taking the ogress for its mother, put its lips to her breast, and she conceived a mother's love for the infant, and repairing to a cemetery she hid him in a rock-cave and watched over him. And as he gradually grew up, she brought and gave him human flesh, and they both lived on this food. The boy did not know that he was a human being; but, though he believed himself to be the son of the ogress, he could not get rid of or conceal his bodily form. So to bring this about she gave him a certain root. And by virtue of this root he concealed his form and continued to live on human flesh. Now the ogress went away to do service to the great king Vessavaṇa 1, and died then and there. But the queen for the fourth time [22] gave birth to a boy, and because the ogress was now dead, he was safe, and from the fact of his being born victorious over his enemy the ogress, he was called Jayaddisa (prince Victor). As soon as he was grown up and thoroughly educated in all learning, he assumed the sovereignty by raising the umbrella, and ruled over the kingdom. At that time his queen consort gave birth to the Bodhisatta, and they called him prince Alīnasattu. When he grew up and was fully instructed in all learning, he became viceroy. But the son of the ogress by carelessly destroying the root was unable to hide himself, but living in the cemetery he devoured human flesh in a visible form. People on seeing him were alarmed, and came and complained to the king: "Sire, an ogre in a visible shape is eating human flesh in the cemetery. In course of time he will find his way into the city and kill and eat the people. You ought to have him caught." The king readily assented, and gave orders for his seizure. An armed force was stationed all round the city. The son of the ogress, naked and horrible to look upon, with the fear of death upon him, cried aloud and sprang into the midst of the soldiers. They, with a cry of "Here's the ogre," alarmed for their very lives, broke into two divisions and fled. And the ogre, escaping from thence, hid himself in the forest and no longer approached the haunts of men. And he took up his abode at the foot of a banyan tree near a high-road through the forest, and as people travelled by it, he would seize them one by one, and entering the wood killed and ate them. Now a brahmin, at the head of a caravan, gave a thousand pieces of money to the warders of the forest, and was journeying along the road with five hundred waggons. The ogre in human shape leaped upon them with a roar. The men fled in terror and lay grovelling on the ground. He seized the brahmin, And
being wounded by a splinter of wood as he was fleeing, and being hotly pursued by the forest rangers, he dropped the brahmin and went and lay down at the foot of the tree where he dwelt. On the seventh day after this, king Jayaddisa proclaimed a hunt and set out from the city. Just as he was starting, [23] a native of Takkasilā, a brahmin named Nanda, who supported his parents, came into the king's presence, bringing four stanzas, each worth a hundred pieces of money 1. The king stopped to listen to them, and ordered a dwelling-place to be assigned to him. Then going to the chase, he said, "That man on whose side the deer escapes shall pay the brahmin for his verses." Then a spotted antelope was started, and making straight for the king escaped. The courtiers all laughed heartily. The king grasped his sword, and pursuing the animal came up with it after a distance of three leagues, and with a blow from his sword he severed it in two and hung the carcase on his carrying-pole. Then, as he returned, he came to the spot where the man-ogre was sitting, and after resting for a while on the kuça grass, he essayed to go on. Then the ogre rose up and cried "Halt! where are you going? You are my prey," and seizing him by the hand, he spoke the first stanza:
Lo! after
my long seven days' fast
A mighty prey appears at last!
Pray tell me, art thou known to fame?
I fain would hear thy race and name.
The king
was terrified at the sight of the ogre, and, becoming as rigid as a pillar, was
unable to flee; but, recovering his presence of mind, he spoke the second
stanza:A mighty prey appears at last!
Pray tell me, art thou known to fame?
I fain would hear thy race and name.
Jayaddisa,
if known to thee,
Pañcāla's king I claim to be:
Hunting thro’ fen and wood I stray:
Eat thou this deer; free me, I pray.
[24] The
ogre, on hearing this, repeated the third stanza:Pañcāla's king I claim to be:
Hunting thro’ fen and wood I stray:
Eat thou this deer; free me, I pray.
To save thy
skin, thou offerest me for food
This quarry, king, to which my claim is good:
Know I will eat thee first, and yet not balk
My taste for venison: cease from idle talk.
The king,
on hearing this, called to mind the brahmin Nanda, and spoke the fourth stanza:This quarry, king, to which my claim is good:
Know I will eat thee first, and yet not balk
My taste for venison: cease from idle talk.
Should I
not purchase the release I crave,
Yet let me keep the promise that I gave
A brahmin friend. To-morrow's dawn shall see
My honour saved, and my return to thee.
Yet let me keep the promise that I gave
A brahmin friend. To-morrow's dawn shall see
My honour saved, and my return to thee.
The ogre, on hearing this, spoke the fifth stanza:
Standing so
near to death, what is the thing
That thus doth sorely trouble thee, O king?
Tell me the truth, that so perhaps we may
Consent to let thee go for one brief day.
[25] The
king, explaining the matter, spoke the sixth stanza:That thus doth sorely trouble thee, O king?
Tell me the truth, that so perhaps we may
Consent to let thee go for one brief day.
A promise
once I to a brahmin made;
That promise still is due, that debt unpaid:
The vow fulfilled, to-morrow's dawn shall see
My honour saved, and my return to thee.
On hearing
this, the ogre spoke the seventh stanza:That promise still is due, that debt unpaid:
The vow fulfilled, to-morrow's dawn shall see
My honour saved, and my return to thee.
A promise
to a brahmin thou hast made;
That promise still is due, that vow unpaid.
Fulfil thy vow, and let to-morrow see
Thy honour saved and thy return to me.
And having
thus spoken, he let the king go. And he, being allowed to depart, said,
"Do not be troubled about me; I will return at daybreak," and, taking
note of certain landmarks by the way, he returned to his army, and with this
escort made his entrance into the city. Then he summoned the brahmin Nanda,
seated him on a splendid throne, and, after hearing his verses, presented him
with four thousand pieces of money. And he made the brahmin mount a chariot and
sent him away, bidding his servants conduct him straight to Takkasilā. On the
next day, being anxious to return, he called his son, and thus instructed him.That promise still is due, that vow unpaid.
Fulfil thy vow, and let to-morrow see
Thy honour saved and thy return to me.
Escaped
from cruel goblin he did come
Full of sweet longings to his lovely home:
[26] His word to brahmin friend he never broke,
But thus to dear Alīnasattu spoke.
"My
son, reign thou anointed king to-dayFull of sweet longings to his lovely home:
[26] His word to brahmin friend he never broke,
But thus to dear Alīnasattu spoke.
Ruling o’er friend and foe with righteous sway;
Let no injustice mar thy happy state;
I now from cruel goblin seek my fate."
Fain would
I learn what act or word
Lost me the favour of my lord,
That thou shouldst raise me to the throne
Which, losing thee, I would not own.
The king,
on hearing this, spoke the next stanza:Lost me the favour of my lord,
That thou shouldst raise me to the throne
Which, losing thee, I would not own.
Dear son, I
fail to call to mind
A single word or act unkind,
But now that honour's debt is paid,
I'll keep the vow to ogre made.
A single word or act unkind,
But now that honour's debt is paid,
I'll keep the vow to ogre made.
[27] The prince, on hearing this, spoke a stanza:
Nay, I will
go and thou stay here;
No hope of safe return, I fear.
But shouldst thou go, I'll follow thee
And both alike will cease to be.
On hearing
this, the king spoke a stanza:No hope of safe return, I fear.
But shouldst thou go, I'll follow thee
And both alike will cease to be.
With thee
doth moral law agree,
But life would lose all charm for me,
If on wood-spit this ogre grim
Should roast and eat thee, limb by limb.
Hearing
this, the prince spoke a stanza:But life would lose all charm for me,
If on wood-spit this ogre grim
Should roast and eat thee, limb by limb.
If from
this ogre thou wilt fly,
For thee I am prepared to die:
Yea, gladly would I die, O king,
If only life to thee I bring.
[28] On
hearing this the king, recognizing his son's virtue, accepted his offer,
saying, "Well, go, dear son." And so he bade his parents farewell and
left the city.For thee I am prepared to die:
Yea, gladly would I die, O king,
If only life to thee I bring.
Then the
brave prince to his dear parents bade
A last farewell, with low obeisance made.
A last farewell, with low obeisance made.
His sire
with outstretched arms, his son to stay,
Wept sore. His mother, grieving, swooned away.
And, thus
making clear the prayer uttered by the father and the Act of Truth repeated by
the mother and sister and wife, he uttered yet four more stanzas:Wept sore. His mother, grieving, swooned away.
But when
his son had vanished quite
From his despairing father's sight,
With hands upraised the gods he praised
Kings Varuna and Soma hight,
Brahma and lords of Day and Night.
By these kept safe and sound of limb,
Escape, dear son, from ogre grim."
From his despairing father's sight,
With hands upraised the gods he praised
Kings Varuna and Soma hight,
Brahma and lords of Day and Night.
By these kept safe and sound of limb,
Escape, dear son, from ogre grim."
[29]
"As
Rāma's fair-limbed mother won 1
Salvation for her absent son,
When woods of Daṇḍaka he sought,
So for my child is freedom wrought;
And by this Act of Truth I've charmed
The gods to bring thee home unharmed."
"Brother,
in thee no fault at allSalvation for her absent son,
When woods of Daṇḍaka he sought,
So for my child is freedom wrought;
And by this Act of Truth I've charmed
The gods to bring thee home unharmed."
Open or secret I recall;
And by this Act of Truth I've charmed
The gods to bring thee home unharmed."
"Void of offence art thou to me,
I too, my lord, bear love to thee;
And by this Act of Truth I've charmed
The gods to bring thee home unharmed."
Whence art
thou, youth so fair and fine?
Knowest thou this forest realm is mine?
They hold their lives but cheap who come
Where savage ogres find a home.
Hearing
this, the youth spoke this stanza:Knowest thou this forest realm is mine?
They hold their lives but cheap who come
Where savage ogres find a home.
I know thee,
cruel ogre, well;
Within this forest thou dost dwell.
Jayaddisa's true son stands here:
Eat me and free my father dear.
Then the
ogre spoke this stanza:Within this forest thou dost dwell.
Jayaddisa's true son stands here:
Eat me and free my father dear.
Jayaddisa's
true son I know;
Thy looks confess that it is so.
[31] A hardship surely ’tis for thee
To die, to set thy father free.
Then the
youth spoke this stanza:Thy looks confess that it is so.
[31] A hardship surely ’tis for thee
To die, to set thy father free.
No mighty
deed is this, I feel,
To die, and for a father's weal
And mother's love to pass away
And win the bliss of heaven for aye.
On hearing
this, the ogre said, "There is no creature, prince, thatTo die, and for a father's weal
And mother's love to pass away
And win the bliss of heaven for aye.
is not afraid of death. Why are not you afraid?" And he told him the reason and recited two stanzas:
No evil
deed of mine at all,
Open or secret, I recall:
Well weighed are birth and death by me,
As here, so ’tis in worlds to be.
Eat me
to-day, O mighty one,Open or secret, I recall:
Well weighed are birth and death by me,
As here, so ’tis in worlds to be.
And do the deed that must be done.
I'll fall down dead from some high tree,
Then eat my flesh, as pleaseth thee.
[32] The ogre, on hearing his words, was terrified and said, "One cannot eat this man's flesh"; and, thinking by some stratagem to make him run away, he said:
If ’tis thy
will to sacrifice
Thy life, young prince, to free thy sire,
Then go in haste is my advice
And gather sticks to light a fire.
Having so
done, the youth returned to him.Thy life, young prince, to free thy sire,
Then go in haste is my advice
And gather sticks to light a fire.
Then the
brave prince did gather wood
And, rearing high a mighty pyre,
Cried, lighting it, "prepare thy food;
See! I have made a goodly fire."
And, rearing high a mighty pyre,
Cried, lighting it, "prepare thy food;
See! I have made a goodly fire."
Stand not
and gaze in dumb amaze,
Take me and slay, and eat, I pray,
[33] While still alive, I will contrive
To make thee fain to eat to-day.
Then the
ogre, hearing his words, spoke this stanza:Take me and slay, and eat, I pray,
[33] While still alive, I will contrive
To make thee fain to eat to-day.
One so
truthful, kindly, just,
Surely never may be eaten,
Or his head, who eats thee, must
Be to sevenfold pieces beaten.
The prince,
on hearing this, said, "If you do not want to eat me, why did you bid me
break sticks and make a fire?" and when the ogre replied, "It was to
test you; for I thought you would run away," the prince said, "How
now will you test me, seeing that, when in an animal form, I allowedSurely never may be eaten,
Or his head, who eats thee, must
Be to sevenfold pieces beaten.
Sakka, king of heaven, to put my virtue to the test?" And with these words he spoke this stanza:—
1To Indra once like
some poor brahmin drest
The hare did offer its own flesh to eat;
Thenceforth its form was on the moon imprest;
That gracious orb as Yakkha now we greet.
[34] The
ogre, on hearing this, let the prince go and said,The hare did offer its own flesh to eat;
Thenceforth its form was on the moon imprest;
That gracious orb as Yakkha now we greet.
As the
clear moon from Rāhu's grip set free
Shines at midmonth with wonted brilliancy,
So too do thou, Kampilla's lord of might,
Escaped from ogre, shed the joyous light
Of thy bright presence, sorrowing friends to cheer,
And bring back gladness to thy parents dear.
And saying,
"Go, heroic soul," he let the Great Being depart. And having made the
ogre humble, he taught him the five moral laws, and, wishing to put it to the
test whether or not he was an ogre, he thought, "The eyes of ogres are red
and do not wink. They cast no shadow and are free from all fear. This is no
ogre; it is a man. They say my father had three brothers carried off by an
ogress; two of them must have been devoured by her, and one will have been
cherished by her with the love of a mother for her child: this must be he. I
will take him with me and tell my father, and have him established on the
throne." And so thinking he cried, "Ho! Sir, you are no ogre; you are
my father's elder brother. Well, come with me and raise your umbrella as emblem
of sovereignty in your ancestral kingdom." And when he replied, "I am
not a man," the prince said, "You do not believe me. Is there any one
you will believe?" "Yes," he said, "there is in such and
such a place an ascetic gifted with supernatural vision." So he took the
ogre with him and went there. The ascetic no sooner caught sight of them than
he said, "With what object are you two descendants from a common ancestor
walking here?" And with these words he told them how they were related.
The man-eater believed and said, "Dear friend, do you go home: as for me,
I am born with two natures in one form. I have no wish to be a king. I'll
become an ascetic." So he was ordained to the religious life by the
ascetic. Then the prince saluted him and returned to the city.Shines at midmonth with wonted brilliancy,
So too do thou, Kampilla's lord of might,
Escaped from ogre, shed the joyous light
Of thy bright presence, sorrowing friends to cheer,
And bring back gladness to thy parents dear.
Then did
bold prince Alīnasattu pay
All due obeisance to that ogre grim,
And free once more did wend his happy way
Back to Kampilla, safe and sound of limb.
All due obeisance to that ogre grim,
And free once more did wend his happy way
Back to Kampilla, safe and sound of limb.
And when the youth reached the city, the Master explained to the townsfolk and the rest what the prince had done, and spoke the last stanza:
Thus faring
forth afoot from town and country side,
Lo! eager throngs proclaim
The doughty hero's name,
Or as aloft on car or elephant they ride
With homage due they come
To lead the victor home.
Lo! eager throngs proclaim
The doughty hero's name,
Or as aloft on car or elephant they ride
With homage due they come
To lead the victor home.
[36] The region where the ogre was tamed by the Great Being Sutasoma was to be known as the town of Mahākammāsadamma 1.
Footnotes
11:1 Should we not read devatta- for devadatta-?11:2 Vol. VI. No. 540. Cf. also vol. IV. No. 510 Ayogharajātaka.
12:1 One of the four great demon-kings, the Hindū Plutus.
13:1 He ultimately gets four thousand pieces.
16:1 See Rāmāyaṇa, book iii.
18:1 See No. 316 Sasajātaka, vol. iii. p. 34 (English version). The commentary adds that in the present Kalpa the moon is marked by a yakkha instead of a hare.
19:1 The founding of a place of this name occurs at the end of the Mahāsutasoma-Jātaka, vol. v. p. 511.
No. 514.
CHADDANTA-JATAKA. 1
"Large-eyed and peerless one," etc.—This was a story the Master, while sojourning at Jetavana, told of a female novice. A girl of good family at Sāvatthi, they say, recognizing the misery of the lay life, embraced asceticism, and one day went with other Sisters to hear the Law from the Bodhisatta, as he sat preaching from a magnificent throne, and observing his person to be endued with extreme beauty of form arising from the power of illimitable merit, she thought, "I wonder whether in a former existence those I once ministered to were this man's wives." Then at that very moment the recollection of former existences came back to her. "In the time of Chaddanta, the elephant, I was previously existing as this man's wife." And at the remembrance great joy and gladness sprang up in her heart. In her joyous excitement she laughed aloud as she thought, "Few wives are well disposed to their husbands; most of them are ill disposed. I wonder if I were well or ill disposed to this man." And calling back her remembrance, she perceived that she had harboured a slight grudge in her heart against Chaddanta, the mighty lord of elephants, who measured one hundred and twenty cubits, and had sent Sonuttara, a hunter, who with a poisoned arrow wounded and killed him. Then her sorrow awoke and her heart grew hot within her, and being unable to control her feelings, bursting into sobs she wept aloud. On Seeing this the Master broke into a smile, and on being asked by the assembly of the Brethren, "What, Sir, was the cause of your smiling?" he said, "Brethren, this young Sister wept, on recalling a sin she once committed against me." And so saying he told a story of the past.breadth. Next to this, and encircling it, was a thicket of pure blue lotus, a league in extent. Then came white and red lotuses, red and white lilies, and white esculent lilies, each also a league in extent and each encircling the one before. Next to these seven thickets came a mixed tangle of white and other lilies, also a league in extent, and encircling all the preceding ones. Next, in water as deep as elephants can stand in, was a thicket of red paddy. Next, in the surrounding water, was a grove of small shrubs, abounding in delicate and fragrant blossoms of blue, yellow, red and white. So these ten thickets were each a league in extent. Next came a thicket of various kinds of kidney beans. Next came a tangle of convolvulus, cucumber, pumpkin, gourd and other creepers. Then a grove of sugar-cane of the size of the areca-nut tree. Then a grove of plantains with fruit as big as elephant's tusks. [38] Then a field of paddy. Then a grove of bread-fruit of the size of a water jar. Next a grove of tamarinds with luscious fruit. Then a grove of elephant-apple trees. Then a great forest of different kinds of trees. Then a bamboo grove. Such at this time was the magnificence of this region—its present magnificence is described in the Samyutta Commentary—but surrounding the bamboo grove were seven mountains. Starting from the extreme outside first came Little Black Mountain, next Great Black Mountain, then Water Mountain, Moon Mountain, Sun Mountain, Jewel Mountain, then the seventh in order Golden Mountain. This was seven leagues in height, rising all round the lake Chaddanta, like the rim of a bowl. The inner side of it was of a golden colour. From the light that issued from it lake Chaddanta shone like the newly risen sun. But of the outer mountains, one was six leagues in height, one five, one four, one three, one two, one a single league in height. Now in the north-east corner of the lake, thus girt about with seven mountains, in a spot where the wind fell upon the water, grew a big banyan tree. Its trunk was five leagues in circumference and seven leagues in height. Four branches spread six leagues to the four points of the compass, and the branch which rose straight upwards was six leagues. So from the root upwards it was thirteen leagues in height, and from the extremity of the branches in one direction to the extremity of the branches in the opposite direction it was twelve leagues. And the tree was furnished with eight thousand shoots and stood forth in all its beauty, like to the bare Jewel Mount. But on the west side of lake Chaddanta, in the Golden Mount, was a golden cave, twelve leagues in extent. Chaddanta the elephant king, with his following of eight thousand elephants, in the rainy season lived in the golden cave; in the hot season he stood at the foot of the great banyan tree, amongst its shoots, welcoming the breeze from off the water. Now one day they told him, "The great Sāl grove is in flower." So attended by his herd he was
minded to disport himself in the Sāl grove, [39] and going thither he struck with his frontal globe a Sāl tree in full bloom. At that moment Cullasubhaddā stood to windward, and dry twigs mixed with dead leaves and red ants fell upon her person. But Mahāsubhaddā stood to leeward, and flowers with pollen and stalks and green leaves fell on her. Thought Cullasubhaddā, "He let fall on the wife dear to him flowers and pollen and fresh stalks and leaves, but on my person he dropped a mixture of dry twigs, dead leaves and red ants. Well, I shall know what to do!" And she conceived a grudge against the Great Being. Another day the king elephant and his attendant herd went down to lake Chaddanta to bathe. Then two young elephants took bundles of usīra root in their trunks and gave him a bath, rubbing him down as it were mount Kelāsa. And when he came out of the water, they bathed the two queen elephants, and they too came out of the water and stood before the Great Being. Then the eight thousand elephants entered the lake and, disporting themselves in the water, plucked various flowers from the lake, and adorned the Great Being as if it had been a silver shrine, and afterwards adorned the queen elephants. Then a certain elephant, as he swam about the lake, gathered a large lotus with seven shoots and offered it to the Great Being. And he, taking it in his trunk, sprinkled the pollen on his forehead and presented the flower to the chief elephant, Mahāsubhaddā. On seeing this her rival said, "This lotus with seven shoots he also gives to his favourite queen and not to me," and again she conceived a grudge against him. Now one day when the Bodhisatta had dressed luscious fruits and lotus stalks and fibres with the nectar of the flower, and was entertaining five hundred pacceka buddhas, Cullasubhaddā offered the wild fruits she had got to the pacceka buddhas, and she put up a prayer to this effect: "Hereafter, when I pass hence, may I be reborn as the royal maiden Subhaddā in the Madda king's family, and on coming of age may I attain to the dignity of queen consort to the king of Benares. Then I shall be dear and charming in his eyes, and in a position to do what I please. So I will speak to the king and send a hunter with a poisoned arrow to wound and slay this elephant. [40] And thus may I be able to have brought to me a pair of his tusks that emit six-coloured rays." Thenceforth she took no food and pining away in no long time she died, and came to life again as the child of the queen consort in the Madda kingdom, and was named Subhaddā. And when she was of a suitable age, they gave her in marriage to the king of Benares. And she was dear and pleasing in his eyes, and the chief of sixteen thousand wives. And she recalled to mind her former existences and thought, "My prayer is fulfilled; now will I have this elephant's tusks brought to me." Then she anointed her body with common oil, put on a soiled robe, and lay in bed pretending to be
sick. The king said, "Where is Subhaddā?" And hearing that she was sick, he entered the royal closet and sitting on the bed he stroked her back and uttered the first stanza:
Large-eyed
and peerless one, my queen, so pale, to grief a prey,
Like wreath that's trampled under foot, why fadest thou away?
On hearing
this she spoke the second stanza:Like wreath that's trampled under foot, why fadest thou away?
As it would
seem, all in a dream, a longing sore I had;
My wish is vain this boon to gain, and that is why I'm sad.
The king,
on hearing this, spoke a stanza:My wish is vain this boon to gain, and that is why I'm sad.
All joys to
which in this glad world a mortal may aspire,
Whate’er they want is mine to grant, so tell me thy desire.
On hearing
this the queen said, "Great king, my desire is hard to attain; I will not
now say what it is, but I would have all the hunters that there are in your
kingdom gathered together. [41] Then will I tell it in the midst of them."
And to explain her meaning, she spoke the next stanza:Whate’er they want is mine to grant, so tell me thy desire.
Let hunters
all obey thy call, within this realm who dwell,
And what I fain from them would gain, I'll in their presence tell.
The king
agreed, and issuing forth from the royal chamber he gave orders to his
ministers, saying, "Have it proclaimed by beat of drum that all the
hunters that are in the kingdom of Kāsi, three hundred leagues in extent, are
to assemble." They did so, and in no long time the hunters that dwelt in
the kingdom of Kāsi, bringing a present according to their means, had their
arrival announced to the king. Now they amounted in all to about sixty
thousand. And the king, hearing that they had come, stood at an open window and
stretching forth his hand he told the queen of their arrival and said:And what I fain from them would gain, I'll in their presence tell.
Here then
behold our hunters bold, well trained in venery,
Theirs is the skill wild beasts to kill, and all would die for me.
The queen,
on hearing this, addressed then and spoke another stanza:Theirs is the skill wild beasts to kill, and all would die for me.
Ye hunters
bold, assembled here,
Unto my words, I pray, give ear:
Dreaming, methought an elephant I saw,
Six-tusked 1 and white without a flaw:
His tusks I crave and fain would have;
Nought else avails this life to save.
The
hunters, on hearing this, replied:Unto my words, I pray, give ear:
Dreaming, methought an elephant I saw,
Six-tusked 1 and white without a flaw:
His tusks I crave and fain would have;
Nought else avails this life to save.
Ne’er did
our sires in times of old
A six-tusked elephant behold:
[42] Tell us what kind of beast might be
That which appeared in dreams to thee.
A six-tusked elephant behold:
[42] Tell us what kind of beast might be
That which appeared in dreams to thee.
After this still another stanza was spoken by them:
Four
points, North, South, East, West, one sees,
Four intermediate are to these,
Nadir and zenith add, and then
Say at which point of all the ten
This royal elephant might be,
That in a dream appeared to thee.
After these
words Subhaddā, looking at all the hunters, spied amongst them one that was
broad of foot, with a calf swollen like an alms basket, big in the knee and
ribs, thick-bearded, with yellow teeth, disfigured with scars, conspicuous
amongst them all as an ugly, hulking fellow, named Sonuttara, who had once been
an enemy of the Great Being. And she thought, "He will be able to do my
bidding," and with the king's permission she took him with her and,
climbing to the highest floor of the seven-storeyed palace, she threw open a
window to the North, and stretching forth her hand towards the Northern Himalayas
she uttered four stanzas:Four intermediate are to these,
Nadir and zenith add, and then
Say at which point of all the ten
This royal elephant might be,
That in a dream appeared to thee.
Due north,
beyond seven mountains vast,
One comes to Golden Cliff at last,
A height by goblin forms possessed
And bright with flowers from foot to crest.
Beneath
this goblin peak is seenOne comes to Golden Cliff at last,
A height by goblin forms possessed
And bright with flowers from foot to crest.
A cloud-shaped mass of darkest green,
[43] A royal banyan tree whose roots
Yield vigour to eight thousand shoots.
There dwells invincible in might
This elephant, six-tusked and white,
With herd eight thousand strong for fight.
Their tusks to chariot-poles are like,
Wind-swift are they to guard or strike.
Panting and grim they stand and glare,
Provoked by slightest breath of air,
If they one born of man should see,
Their wrath consumes him utterly.
Sonuttara on hearing this was terrified to death and said:
Turquoise
or pearls of brilliant sheen,
With many a gold adornment, queen,
In royal houses may be seen.
[44] What wouldst thou then with ivory do,
Or wilt thou slay these hunters true?
Then the
queen spoke a stanza:With many a gold adornment, queen,
In royal houses may be seen.
[44] What wouldst thou then with ivory do,
Or wilt thou slay these hunters true?
Consumed
with grief and spite am I,
When I recall my injury.
Grant me, O hunter, what I crave,
And five choice hamlets thou shalt have.
And with
this she said, "Friend hunter, when I gave a gift to the pacceka buddhas,
I offered up a prayer that I might have it in my power to kill this six-tusked
elephant and get possession of a pair of his tusks.When I recall my injury.
Grant me, O hunter, what I crave,
And five choice hamlets thou shalt have.
This was not merely seen by me in a vision, but the prayer that I offered up will be fulfilled. Do thou go and fear not." And so saying she reassured him. And he agreed to her words and said, "So be it, lady; but first make it clear to me and tell me where is his dwelling-place," and inquiring of her he spoke this stanza:
Where
dwells he? Where may he be found?
What road is his, for bathing bound?
Where does this royal creature swim?
Tell us the way to capture him.
[45] Then
by recalling her former existence she clearly saw the spot and told him of it
in these two stanzas:What road is his, for bathing bound?
Where does this royal creature swim?
Tell us the way to capture him.
Not far
this bathing-place of his,
A deep and goodly pool it is:
There bees do swarm and flowers abound,
And there this royal beast is found.
Now
lotus-crowned, fresh from his bathA deep and goodly pool it is:
There bees do swarm and flowers abound,
And there this royal beast is found.
He gladly takes his homeward path,
As lily-white and tall he moves
Behind the queen he fondly loves.
Sonuttara on hearing this agreed, saying, "Fair lady, I will kill the elephant and bring you his tusks." Then in her joy she gave him a thousand pieces and said, "Go home meanwhile, and at the end of seven days you shall set out thither," and dismissing him she summoned smiths and gave them an order and said, "Sirs, we have need of an axe, a spade, an auger, a hammer, an instrument for cutting bamboos, a grass-cutter, an iron staff, a peg, an iron three-pronged fork; make them with all speed and bring them to us." And sending for workers in leather, she charged them, saying, "Sirs, you must make us a leather sack, holding a hogshead's weight; we have need of leather ropes and straps, shoes big enough for an elephant, and a leather parachute: make them with all speed and bring them to us." And both smiths and workers in leather quickly made everything [46] and brought and offered them to her. Having provided everything requisite for the journey, together with firewood and the like, she put all the appliances and necessaries for the journey, such as baked meal and so forth, in the leather sack. The whole of it came to about a hogshead in weight. And Sonuttara, having completed his arrangements, arrived on the seventh day and stood respectfully in the presence of the queen. Then she said, "Friend, all appliances for your journey are completed: take then this sack." And he being a stout knave, as strong as five elephants, caught up the sack as if it had been a bag of cakes, and, placing it on his hips, stood as it were with empty hands. Cullasubhaddā gave the provisions to the hunter's attendants and, telling the king, dismissed Sonuttara. And he, with an obeisance to the king and queen, descended from the palace and, placing his goods in a chariot, set out
from the city with a great retinue, and passing through a succession of villages and hamlets reached the frontiers. Then he turned back the people of the country and went on with the dwellers on the borders till he entered the forest, and passing beyond the haunts of men he sent back the border people too, and proceeded quite alone on a road to a distance of thirty leagues, traversing a dense growth of kuça and other grasses, thickets of basil, reeds and rest-harrow, clumps of thick-thorn and canes, thickets of mixed growth, jungles of reed and cane, dense forest growth, impenetrable even to a snake, thickets of trees and bamboos, tracts of mud and water, mountain tracts, eighteen regions in all, one after another. The jungles of grass he cut with a sickle, the thickets of basil and the like he cleared with his instrument for cutting bamboos, the trees he felled with an axe, and the oversized ones he first pierced with an auger. Then, pursuing his way, he fashioned a ladder in the bamboo grove and climbing to the top of the thicket, he laid a single bamboo, which he had cut, over the next clump of bamboos, and thus creeping along on the top of the thicket he reached a morass. [47] Then he spread a dry plank on the mud, and stepping on it he threw another plank before him and so crossed the morass. Then he made a canoe and by means of it crossed the flooded region, and at last stood at the foot of the mountains. Then he bound a three-pronged grappling-iron with a rope and flinging it aloft he caused it to lodge fast in the mountain. Then climbing up by the rope he drilled the mountain with an iron staff tipped with adamant, and knocking a peg into the hole he stood on it. Then drawing out the grappling-iron he once more lodged it high up on the mountain, and from this position letting the leather rope hang down, he took hold of it and descended and fastened the rope on the peg below. Then seizing the rope with his left hand and taking a hammer in his right he struck a blow on the rope, and having thus pulled out the peg he once more climbed up. In this way he mounted to the top of the first mountain and then commencing his descent on the other side, having knocked as before a peg into the top of the first mountain and bound the rope on his leather sack and wrapped it round the peg, he sat within the sack and let himself down, uncoiling the rope like a spider letting out his thread. Then letting his leather parachute catch the wind, he went down like a bird—so at least they say. Thus did the Master tell how in obedience to Subhaddā's words the hunter sallied forth from the city and traversed seventeen different tracts till he reached a mountainous region, and how he there crossed over six mountains and climbed to the top of Golden Cliff:
The hunter
hearing, unalarmed,
Set forth with bow and quiver armed,
And crossing o’er seven mountains vast
Reached noble Golden Cliff at last.
Set forth with bow and quiver armed,
And crossing o’er seven mountains vast
Reached noble Golden Cliff at last.
Gaining the
goblin-haunted height,
What cloud-shaped mass bursts on his sight?
A royal banyan ’tis whose roots
Support eight thousand spreading shoots.
[48] There
stood invincible in mightWhat cloud-shaped mass bursts on his sight?
A royal banyan ’tis whose roots
Support eight thousand spreading shoots.
An elephant six-tusked and white,
With herd eight thousand strong for fight;
Their tusks to chariot-poles are like:
Wind-swift are they to guard or strike.
Hard by a pool—’tis full to the brim,
Fit place for royal beast to swim;
Its lovely banks with flowers abound
And buzzing bees swarm all around.
Marking the way the creature went
Whene’er on bathing thought intent,
He sunk a pit, to deed so mean
Urged by the wrath of spiteful queen.
Here follows the story from beginning to end: the hunter, it is said, after seven years, seven months and seven days, having reached the dwelling-place of the Great Being in the manner related above, took note of his dwelling-place and dug a pit there, thinking, "I will take my stand here and wound the lord of elephants and bring about his death." Thus did he arrange matters and went into the forest and cut down trees to make posts and prepared a lot of material. [49] Then when the elephants went to bathe, in the spot where the king elephant used to stand, he dug a square pit with a huge mattock, and the soil that he dug out he sprinkled on the top of the water, as if he were sowing seed, and on the top of stones like mortars he fixed posts, and fitted them with weights and ropes and spread planks over them. Next he made a hole of the size of an arrow and threw on the top earth and rubbish, and on one side he made an entrance for himself, and so, when the pit was finished, at break of day he fastened on a false top knot and donned robes of yellow and, taking his bow and a poisoned arrow, he went down and stood in the pit.
The pit
with planks he first did hide,
Then bow in hand he got inside,
And as the elephant passed by,
A mighty shaft the wretch let fly.
The wounded
beast loud roared with painThen bow in hand he got inside,
And as the elephant passed by,
A mighty shaft the wretch let fly.
And all the herd roared back again:
Crushed boughs and trampled grass betray
Where panic flight directs their way.
Their lord had well nigh slain his foe,
So mad with pain was he, when lo!
A robe of yellow met his eyes,
Emblem of sainthood, priestly guise
And deemed inviolate by the wise.
[50] The Master, falling into conversation with the hunter, spoke a couple of stanzas:
Whoso is
marred with sinful taint
And void of truth and self-restraint,
Though robed in yellow he may be,
No claim to sanctity has he.
But one
that's free from sinful taint,And void of truth and self-restraint,
Though robed in yellow he may be,
No claim to sanctity has he.
Endued with truth and self-restraint,
And firmly fixed in righteousness,
Deserves to wear the yellow dress.
The beast
with mighty shaft laid low,
Unruffled still, addressed his foe:
"What object, friend, in slaying me,
And, pray, who instigated thee?"
Unruffled still, addressed his foe:
"What object, friend, in slaying me,
And, pray, who instigated thee?"
The king of
Kāsi's favoured queen
Subhaddā told me she had seen
Thy form in dreams, "and so," said she,
"I'll have his tusks; go, bring them me."
Hearing
this, and recognizing that this was the work of Cullasubhaddā, he bore his
sufferings patiently and thought, "She does not want my tusks; she sent
him because she wished to kill me," and, to illustrate the matter, he
uttered a couple of stanzas:Subhaddā told me she had seen
Thy form in dreams, "and so," said she,
"I'll have his tusks; go, bring them me."
Rich store
of goodly tusks have I,
Relics of my dead ancestry,
And this well knows that cursed dame,
’Tis at my life the wretch doth aim.
[52] Rise,
hunter, and or ere I die.Relics of my dead ancestry,
And this well knows that cursed dame,
’Tis at my life the wretch doth aim.
Saw off these tusks of ivory:
Go bid the shrew be of good cheer,
"The beast is slain; his tusks are here."
Hearing his words the hunter rose up from the place where he was sitting and, saw in hand, came close to him to cut off his tusks. Now the elephant, being like a mountain eighty cubits high, was but ineffectually cut. For the man could not reach to his tusks. So the Great Being, bending his body towards him, lay with his head down. Then the hunter climbed up the trunk of the Great Being, pressing it with his feet as though it were a silver rope, and stood on his forehead as if it had been
Kelāsa peak. Then he inserted his foot into his mouth, and striking the fleshy part of it with his knee, he climbed down from the beast's forehead and thrust the saw into his mouth. The Great Being suffered excruciating pain and his mouth was charged with blood. The hunter, shifting about from place to place, was still unable to cut the tusks with his saw. So the Great Being letting the blood drop from his mouth, resigning himself to the agony, asked, saying, "Sir, cannot you cut them?" And on his saying "No," he recovered his presence of mind and said, "Well then, since I myself have not strength enough to raise my trunk, do you lift it up for me and let it seize the end of the saw." The hunter did so: and the Great Being seized the saw with his trunk and moved it backwards and forwards, and the tusks were cut off as it were sprouts. Then bidding him take the tusks, he said, "I don't give you these, friend hunter, because I do not value them, [53] nor as one desiring the position of Sakka, Māra or Brahma, but the tusks of omniscience are a hundred thousand times dearer to me than these are, and may this meritorious act be to me the cause of attaining Omniscience." And as he gave him the tusks, he asked, "How long were you coming here?" "Seven years, seven months, and seven days." "Go then by the magic power of these tusks, and you shall reach Benares in seven days." And he gave him a safe conduct and let him go. And after he had sent him away, before the other elephants and Subhaddā had returned, he was dead.
The hunter
then the tusks did saw
From out that noble creature's jaw,
And with his shining, matchless prize
Home with all speed he quickly hies.
From out that noble creature's jaw,
And with his shining, matchless prize
Home with all speed he quickly hies.
Sad at his
death and full of fright,
The herd that took to panic flight,
Seeing no trace of cruel foe,
Returned to find their chief laid low.
The herd that took to panic flight,
Seeing no trace of cruel foe,
Returned to find their chief laid low.
you with the necessaries of life has died from the wound of a poisoned arrow. Come and see where his dead body is exposed." And the five hundred pacceka buddhas passing through the air alighted in the sacred enclosure. At that moment two young elephants, lifting up the body of the king elephant with their tusks, and so causing it to do homage to the pacceka buddhas, raised it aloft on a pyre and burned it. The pacceka buddhas all through the night rehearsed scripture texts in the cemetery. The eight thousand elephants, after extinguishing the flames, first bathed and then, with Subhaddā at their head, returned to their place of abode.
They wept
and wailed, as it is said,
Each heaping dust upon his head,
Then slow returning home were seen,
Behind their ever gracious queen.
Each heaping dust upon his head,
Then slow returning home were seen,
Behind their ever gracious queen.
The hunter
straight to Kāsi hies
Bearing his bright and matchless prize
—The noble creature's tusks, I mean,
Cheering all hearts with golden sheen—
And to that royal dame he said,
"Here are his tusks: the beast is dead."
Bearing his bright and matchless prize
—The noble creature's tusks, I mean,
Cheering all hearts with golden sheen—
And to that royal dame he said,
"Here are his tusks: the beast is dead."
His tusks
no sooner did she see
—Her own dear lord of old was he
Than straight her heart through grief did break
And she, poor fool, died for his sake.
—Her own dear lord of old was he
Than straight her heart through grief did break
And she, poor fool, died for his sake.
When he,
almighty and all wise,
Broke into smiles before their eyes,
Straightway these holy Brethren thought,
"Sure Buddhas never smile for nought."
"She
whom you used to see," he said,Broke into smiles before their eyes,
Straightway these holy Brethren thought,
"Sure Buddhas never smile for nought."
"A yellow-robed ascetic maid,
Was erst a queen and I," he cried,
Was that king elephant who died."
"The wretch who took those tusks so white,
Unmatched on earth, so shining bright,
[56] And brought them to Benares town
Is now as Devadatta known."
Buddha from his own knowledge told
This long drawn tale of times of old,
In all its sad variety,
Though free from pain and grief was he.
That elephant of long ago
Was I, the king of all the band,
And, Brothers, I would have you so
This Birth aright to understand.
These stanzas were recorded by elders as they chanted the Law and sang the praises of the Lord of all Power.
[57] And on hearing this discourse a multitude entered the First Path, but the Sister afterwards by spiritual insight attained to Sainthood.
Footnotes
20:1 In the Journal Asiatique for 1895, tom. v., N. S., will be found a careful study by M. L. Feer of the Chaddanta-Jātaka, based on a comparison of five different versions—two Pali, one Sanskrit, two Chinese.23:1 The Scholiast explains chabbisāna (Sanskrit shaḍvishāna) six-tusked as chabbaṇṇa six-coloured, perhaps more completely to identify the hero of the story with the Buddha.
Om Tat Sat
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