ဇာတက-အဋ္ဌကထာ (စ)

"The water-draught," etc. This story the Master told, whilst dwelling in Jetavana, about the subduing of evil passions. At one time, we learn, five hundred citizens of Savatthi, being householders and friends of the Tathagata, had heard the Law and had renounced the world, and been ordained as priests. Living in the house of the Golden Pavement, at midnight they indulged in thoughts of sin. (All the details are to be understood as in a previous story 1 .) At the command of the Blessed One, the Brotherhood was assembled by the Venerable Ananda. The Master sat in the appointed seat, and without asking them, "Do you indulge in thoughts of sin?" he addressed them comprehensively and in general terms: "Brethren, there is no such thing as a petty sin. A Brother must check all sins as they each arise. Wise men of old, before the Buddha came, subdued their sins and attained to the knowledge of a Pacceka-Buddha." With these words, he told them a story of the past. Once upon a time, -when Brahmadatta was king in Benares, [114] there were two friends in a certain village in the kingdom of Kasi. These had gone afield, taking with them vessels for drinking, which they laid out of the way as they broke the clods, and when they -were thirsty, went and drank water out of them. One of them, on going for a drink, husbanded the water in his own pot, and drank out of the pot of the other. In the evening, when he came out from the woodland, and had bathed, he stood thinking. "Have I done any sin to-day," thought he, "either by the door of the body, or any other?" Then he remembered how he drank the stolen water, and grief came upon him, and he cried, "If this thirst grows upon me, it will bring me to some evil birth I will ! subdue my sin." So with this stolen draught of water for cause he , gradually acquired supernatural insight, and attained the knowledge of a Pacceka-Buddha and there he stood, reflecting upon the knowledge which ; he had attained. Now the other man, having bathed, got up, saying, "Come, friend, let us go home." Said the other, " Go home thou, home is nothing to me, I am "Pooh! are Pacceka-Buddhas like you?" a Pacceka-Buddha." "What are they like, then?" "Hair two fingers long, yellow robes they wear, in Nandamula cave they live high up in Himalaya." The other stroked his head in that very moment the marks of a : layman disappeared, See on No. 412, vol, ii. i.e. word, or thought. (arammanam), and thus sunk 3 That is, he made this the subject of his meditation into an ecstatic trance. a pair of red cloths were wrapt round him, a waist-band yellow like a flash of lightning was about him tied, the upper robe of the colour of red lac was thrown over one shoulder, a dust-heap ragged cloth dingy as a stormcloud lay on his shoulder, a bee-brown earthen bowl dangled from over his left shoulder ; there he stood poised in mid-air, and having delivered a discourse, he rose and descended not until he came to the mountain-cave of Nandamula. Another man, who also lived in a village of Kasi, a land-owner, was sitting in the bazaar, when he saw a man approach leading his wife. Seeing her (and she was a woman of surpassing beauty) he broke the moral principles, and looked upon her ; then again he thought, " This desire, if it increases, will cast me into some evil birth." Being exercised in mind, he developed supernatural insight, and attained the knowledge of a Pacceka- Buddha; then poised in the air, he delivered a discourse, [115] and he also went to the Nandamula cave '. Villagers of a place in Kasi were likewise two, a father and a son, who were going on a journey together. At the entering in of a forest were robbers posted. These robbers, if they took a father and son together, would keep the son with them, and send the father away, saying, " Bring back a ransom for your son " or if two brothers, they kept the younger : and sent the elder away or if teacher and pupil, they kept the teacher ; and sent the pupil, and the pupil for love of learning would bring money and release his teacher. Now when this father and son saw the robbers lying in wait, the father said, "Don't you call me 'father,' and I will not call you 'son'." And so they agreed. So when the robbers came up, and asked how they stood to one another, they replied, "We are nothing to one another," thus telling a premeditated lie. When they came out of the forest, and were resting after the evening bath, the son examined his own virtue, and remembering this lie, he thought, "This sin, if it increases, will plunge me in some evil birth. I will subdue my sin!" Then he developed supernatural insight, and attained to the knowledge of a Pacceka-Buddha, and poised in the air delivered a discourse to his father, and he too went to the Nandamula cave. In a village of Kasi also lived a zemindar, who laid an interdict upon all slaughter. Now when the time came when offering was wont to be made to the spirits, a great crowd gathered, and said, " My lord this is ! the time for sacrifice : let us slay deer and swine and other animals, and make offering to the Goblins," he replied, "Do as you have done aforetime." The people made a great slaughter. The man seeing a great quantity of fish and flesh, thought to himself, "All these living creatures the men have slain, and all because of my word alone!" He repented: and as he stood Cf. Vidabbha-jataka, vol. i. no. 48. No. 459. 73 by the window, he developed supernatural insight, and attained to the knowledge of a Pacceka-Buddha, and poised in the air delivered a discourse, then he too went to the Nandamiila cave. Another zemindar who lived in the kingdom of Kasi, prohibited the sale of strong drink. A crowd of people cried out to him, "My lord, what shall we do? It is the time-honoured drinking festival!" He replied, "Do as you have always done aforetime." [116] The people made their festival, and drank strong drink, and fell a-quarrelling ; there were broken legs and arms, and cracked crowns, and ears torn off, and many a penalty was inflicted for it. The zemindar seeing this, thought to himself, "If I had not permitted this, they would not have suffered this misery." Even for this trifle he felt remorse then he developed supernatural insight, : and attained the knowledge of a Pacceka-Buddha, poised in the air he discoursed, and bade them be vigilant, then he too went to the Nandamiila cave. Some time afterwards, the five Pacceka-Buddhas all alighted at the gate of Benares, seeking for alms. Their upper robe and lower robe neatly arranged, with gracious address they went on their rounds, and came to the gate of the King's palace. The King was much pleased to behold them he invited them into his palace, and washed their feet, anointed ; them with fragrant oil, set before them savoury food both hard and soft, and sitting on one side, thus addressed them: "Sirs, that you in your youth have embraced the ascetic life, is beautiful at this age, you have ; become ascetics, and you see the misery of evil lusts. What was the cause of your action?" They replied as follows : " The water-draught of my own friend, although a friend, I stole Loathing the sin which I had done, I afterwards was fain To leave the world, an eremite, lest I should sin again." " I looked upon another's wife ; lust rose within my soul Loathing the sin which I had done, I afterwards was fain To leave the world, an eremite, lest I should sin again." "Thieves caught my father in a wood: to whom I did forth tell That he was other than he was— a he, I knew it well Loathing. the sin," etc. "The people at a drinking-feast full many beasts did kill, And not against my will Loathing the sin," etc. " Those persons who in former times of liquors drank their fill, Now carried out a drinking-bout, whence many suffered ill, [117] And not against my will. Loathing the sin which I had done, I afterwards was fain To leave the world, an eremite, lest I should sin again." These five stanzas they repeated one after the other. When the king had heard the explanation of each, he uttered his praise, saying, " Sirs, your asceticism becomes you well." 74 The Jdtdka. Book XL The king was delighted at the discourse of these men. He bestowed upon them cloth for outer and inner garments, and medicines, then let the Pacceka-Buddhas go away. They thanked him, and returned to the place whence they came. Ever after that the king loathed the pleasures of sense, was free from, desire, ate his choice and dainty food, but to women he would not speak, would not look at them, rose up disgusted at heart and retired to his magnificent chamber, and there he sat stared at a : white wall until he fell into a trance, and conceived within him the rapture of mystic meditation. In this rapture rapt, he recited a stanza in dispraise of desire " Out on it, out on lust, I say, unsavoury, thorn-beset Never, though long I followed wrong, such joy as this I met ! [118] Then his chief queen thought to herself, "That king heard the discoursing of the Pacceka-Buddhas, and now he never speaks to us, but buries himself despondent in his magnificent chamber. I must take him in hand." So she came to the door of that lordly chamber, and standing at the door, heard the king's rapturous utterances, in dispraise of desire. She said, " O mighty king, you speak ill of desire ! but there is no joy like the joy of sweet desire " ! Then in praise of desire she repeated another stanza : "Great is the joy of sweet desire : no greater joy than love : Who follow this attain the bliss of paradise above ! Hearing. this, the king made reply : "Perish, vile jade ! What sayst thou t Whence comes the joy of desire ? There are miseries which come to pay for it " : with which he uttered the remaining stanzas in dispraise " Ill-tasting, painful is desire, there is no worser woe : Who follow sin are sure to win the pains of hell below. "Than sword well whetted, or a blade implacable, athirst, Than knives deep driven in the heart, desires are more accurst. "A pit as deep as men are tall, where live coals blazing are, A ploughshare heated in the sun, —desires are worser far. "A poison very venomous, an oil of little ease 2 Or that vile thing to copper clings 3 —desires are worse than , these." [119] Thus the Great Being discoursed to his consort. Then he gathered his courtiers, and said, " O courtiers, do you manage the kingdom I am about to renounce the world." : Amidst the wailing and lamentation of a great multitude, he rose before them, and poised in the air, delivered a discourse. Then along the path of the wind he past to furthest Himalaya, and in a delightsome spot builded a Ought we to read 'dbliufijitva, ' did not care to eat ' ? 'Extracted oib'? (Cf. Suijruta, i. 181). Apparently some kind of poison. 3 Verdigris. ' . ; - _ . . : hermitage ; there he lived the life of a sage, until at the end of his days he became destined for the world of Brahma. The Master, having ended this discourse, added, "Brethren, there is no such thing as a petty sin the very smallest must be checked by a wise : man." Then he declared the Truths, and identified the Birth (now at the conclusion of the Truths the five hundred Brethren became established in sainthood) :— " At that time the Pacceka-Buddhas attained Nirvana, Rahula's mother was the queen consort, and I myself was the king."

"I greet the lord," etc. This story the Master told while dwelling in Jetavana, about the Great Renunciation i. One day the Brethren had assembled in the Hall of Truth. "Brother," one would say to his fellow, have been an universal "the Dasabala 2 might have dwelt in a house, he might the Seven Precious monarch in the centre of the great world, possessed 3 of surrounded with sons Things glorious with the Four Supernatural Faculties , more than a thousand ! Yet all this magnificence he renounced when he per- midnight, with Channa in company, ceived the bane that lies in desires. At mounted his horse Kanthaka, and departed on the banks of Anoma, the he : he renounced the world, and for six years he tormented River Glorious, and then attained to perfect wisdom Thus.talked Wmself with austerities, "What are you The Master entering, asked, they of the Buddha's virtues. Said the Master spiking of now, Brethren, as ye sit here?" They told him. $£K not ?he first time, Brethren, that the Renunciation. In days of yore he retired and Tathagata has made the Great gave up the ^ngdom of Benares City, which was twelve leagues in extent." So saying, he told a story ol the past. Sabbadatta reigned in the city of Once upon a time a king named now Benares is named Surundhana Ramma. The place which we call the Cullasutasoma Birth, and City in the Udaya Birth*, and Sudassana in Hardy, Manual, pp. 158 fl.; Warren, i Buddha's retirement from the world: Buddhism in Translations, § 6. one who possesses the Ten Powers or Ten Kinds of Knowledge. * Buddha : 3 See iii. 454 (p- 272 of this translation). * No. 458. * No. 525. 76 The Jataka. Booh XL Brahmavaddhana in the Sonandana Birth, and Pupphavati in the Khan- dahala 2 Birth [120] but in this Yuvanjaya Birth it is named Ramma : City. In this manner its name changes on each several occasion. At that time the king Sabbadatta had a thousand sons and to his eldest son ; Yuvafijaua he gave the viceroyalty. One day early in the morning he mounted his splendid chariot, and in great pomp went to disport him in the park. On the tree-tops, on the on all the spiders' webs and threads, grass-tips, at the ends of the branches, on the points of the rushes, he saw the dew-drops hanging like so many strings of pearls. " Friend charioteer,'' quoth he, "what is this?" "This, my lord," he replied, "is what falls in the cold weather, and they call it dew.'' The prince took his pleasure in the park for a portion of the day. In the evening, as he was returning home, he could see none of it. "Friend charioteer," said he, "where are the dew-drops? I do not see them now." "My lord," said the other, "as the sun rises higher, they all melt and sink into the ground." On hearing this, the prince was distressed, and said, " The life of us living beings is fashioned like dew-drops on the grass. I must be rid of the oppression of disease, old age, and death; I must take leave of my parents, and renounce the world." So because of the dew-drops, he perceived the Three modes of Existence 3 as it were in a blazing fire. When he came home, he went into the presence of his father in his magnificent Hall of Judgement, and greeting his father, he stood on one side, and repeated the first stanza, asking his leave to renounce the world " I greet the lord of charioteers with friends and courtiers by : The world, O King I would renounce let not my lord deny." ! : Then the king repeated the second stanza, dissuading him : " If aughtthou crave, Yuvanjana, I will fulfil it quite : If any hurt thee, I protect be thou no eremite." : [121] Hearing this, the prince recited the third stanza " No man there is that does me harm : my wishes nothing lack But I would seek a refuge, where old age makes no attack." By way of explaining this matter, the Master uttered a half-stanza : " The son speaks to his father thus, the father to his son " : The remaining half-stanza was uttered by the king : " Leave not the world, O prince ! so cry the townsfolk every one." No. 532. 2 No. 542. 3 Kamabhavo, rupabhavo, arupabhavo sense-existence, body-existence (where there : is form, but no sensual enjoyment), formless-existence. See Hardy, Manual of Budhism, p. 3, for a fuller account. No. 460. 77 The prince again repeated this stanza : "O do not from the unworldly life, great monarch, make me stay, Lest I, intoxicate with lusts, to age become a prey ! This said, the king hesitated. Then the mother was told, " Your son, my lady, is asking his father's leave to renounce the world." "What do you say?" she asked. It took her breath away. Seated in her litter of gold she went swiftly to the Hall of Judgement, and repeating the sixth stanza, asked : it is I, my dear, and I would make thee stay " I beg thee, ! • Long wish I thee, my son, to see O do not go away : ! [122] On hearing which the prince repeated the seventh stanza "Like as the dew upon the grass, when the sun rises hot, So is the life of mortal men O mother, stay me not : ! When he had said this, she begged him again and again to the same effect. Then the Great Being addressed his father in the eighth stanza " Let those that bear this litter, lift let not my mother stay : Me, mighty king from entering upon my holy way 1 ." ! When the king heard his son's words, he said, "Go, lady, in your litter, At his words her feet back to our palace of Perennial Delight." failed her:and surrounded with her company of women, she departed, and entered the palace, and stood looking towards the Hall of Judgement, and wondering what news of her son. After his mother's departure the Bodhisatta again asked leave of his father. The king could not refuse him, and said, "Have thy will, then, dear son, and renounce the world." When this consent was gained, the Bodhisatta's youngest brother, Prince Yudhitthila, greeted his father, and likewise asked leave to follow the religious and the king consented. Both brothers bade their life, now renounced worldly lusts departed from father farewell, and having the Hall of Judgement, amidst a great company of people. The queen looking upon the Great Being cried weeping, "My son has renounced the world, and the city of Ramma will be empty!" Then she repeated a couple of stanzas " Make haste,and bless thee empty now is Kammaka, I trow ! King Sabbadatta has allowed Yuvanjana to go. [123] "The eldest of a thousand, he, like gold to look upon, This mighty prince has left the world the yellow robe to don." The Bodhisatta did not at once embrace the religious life. No, he first bade farewell to his parents then taking with him his youngest ; brother, Prince Yudhitthila, he left the city, and sending back the great Tarati means technically to ' flee from the City of Destruction.' 78 The Jataka. Book XI. multitude which followed them, they both made their way to Himalaya.- There in a delightsome spot they built a hermitage, and embraced the life of a holy sage, and cultivating the transcendent rapture of meditation, they livedall their lives long upon the fruits and roots of the forest, and became destined for the world of Brahma. This matter is explained in the stanza of perfect wisdom which comes last " Yuvanjana, Yudhitthila, in holy life remain : Their father and their mother left, they break in two death's chain." When the Master had ended this discourse, he said, "This is not the first time, Brethren, that the Tathagata renounced a kingdom to follow the religious life, but it was the same before " then he identified the Birth ; " At that : time members of the present king's family were the father and mother, Ananda was Yudhitthila, and I was Yuvanjana myself."

DASARATHA- JATAKA \ " Let Lakkhana" etc. —This story the Master told in Jetavana about a landowner whose father was dead. This man on his father's death was overwhelmed with sorrow leaving all his duties undone, he gave himself up to his sorrow : wholly. The Master at dawn of day looking out upon mankind, perceived that he was ripe for attaining the fruit of the First Path. Next day, after going his rounds for alms in Savatthi, his meal done, he dismissed the Brethren, and taking with him a junior Brother, [124] went to this man's house, and gave him greeting, and addressed him as he sat there in words of honey sweetness. " You are in sorrow, lay Brother?" said he. "Yes, Sir, afflicted with sorrow for my father's sake." Said the Master, " Lay Brother, wise men of old who exactly knew the eight conditions of this world 2 felt at a father's death no grief, not , even a little." Then at his request he told a story of the past. Once upon a time, at Benares, a great king named Dasaratha renounced the ways of evil, and reigned in righteousness. Of his sixteen thousand wives, the eldest and queen-consort bore him two sons and a daughter; Edited and translated by V. Pauab^ll, The Dasaratha Jataka, Copenhagen, 1871. The story is like that of the Ramayana, except that here Sita is the hero's sister, not his wife. 2 Gain and loss, fame and dishonour, praise and blame, bliss and woe. the elder son was named Rama-pandita, or Rama the Wise, the second was named Prince Lakkhana, or Lucky, and the daughter's name was the Lady Sita 1 In course of time, the queen- consort died. At her death the king was for a long time crushed by sorrow, but urged by his courtiers he performed her obsequies, and set another in her place as queen-consort. She was dear to the king and beloved. In time she also conceived, and all due attention having been given her, she brought forth a son, and they named him Prince Bharata. The king loved his son much, and said to the queen, "Lady, I offeryou a boon: choose." She accepted the offer, but put it off for the time. When the lad was seven years old, she went to the king, and said to him, "My lord, you promised a boon for my son. Will you give it me now?" '' Choose, lady," said he. " My lord," quoth she, "give my son the kingdom." The king snapt his fingers at her; "Out, vile jade !" said he angrily, "my other two sons shine like blazing fires;would you kill them, and ask the kingdom for a son of yours?" She fled in terror toher magnificent chamber, and on other days again and again asked the king for this. The king would not give her this gift. He thought within himself: "Women are ungrateful and treacherous. Thiswoman might use a forged letter or a treacherous bribe to get my sons murdered." So he sent for his sons, and told them all about it, saying : " My sons, if you live here some mischief may befall you. Go to some neighbouring kingdom, or to the woodland, and when my body is burnt, then return and inherit the kingdom which belongs to your family." Then he summoned soothsayers, and asked them the limits of his own life. They told him he would live yet twelve years longer. [125] Then he said, "Now, my sons, after twelve years you must return, and uplift the umbrella of royalty." They promised, and after taking leave of their father, went forth from the palace weeping. The Lady Sita said, "I too will go with my brothers:" she bade her father farewell, and went forth weeping. These three departed amidst a great company of people. They sent the people back, and proceeded until at last they came to Himalaya. There in a spot well-watered, and convenient for the getting of wild fruits, they built a hermitage, and there lived, feeding upon the wild fruits. Lakkhana-pandita and Sita said to Rama-pandita, " You are in place of a father to us ; remain then in the hut, and we will bring wild fruit, and feed you.'' He agreed thenceforward Rama pandita : stayed where he was, the others brought the wild fruit and fed him with it. > " Cool," which has in India the same pleasant associations as warm has for us. 80 The Jqtaka. Booh XI. Thus they lived there, feeding upon the wild fruit ; but King Dasaratha pined after his sons, and died in the ninth year. When his obsequies were performed, the queen gave orders that the umbrella should be raised over her son, Prince Bharata. But the courtiers said, " The lords of the umbrella are dwelling in the forest," and they would not allow it. Said Prince Bharata, " I will fetch back my brother Ramapandita from the forest, and raise the royal umbrella over him." Taking the five emblems of royalty', he proceeded with a complete host of the four arms 2 to their dwelling-place. Not far away he caused camp to be pitched, and then with a few courtiers he visited the hermitage, at the time when Lakkhana-pandita and Sita, were away in the woods. At the door of the hermitage sat Rama-pandita, undismayed and at ease, like a figure of fine gold firmly set. The prince approached him with a greeting, and standing on one side, told him of all that had happened in the kingdom, and failing at his feet along with the courtiers, burst into weeping. Rama-pandita neither sorrowed nor wept; emotion in his mind was none. When Bharata had finished weeping, and sat down, towards evening the other two returned with wild fruits. Rama-pandita thought — " These two are young all-comprehend- : ing wisdom like mine is not theirs. [126] If they are told on a sudden that our father is dead, the pain will be greater than they can bear, and who knows but their hearts may break. I will persuade them to go down into the water, and find a means of disclosing the truth." Then pointing out to them a place in front where there was water, he said, " You have been out too long : let this be your penance —go into that water, and stand there." Then he repeated a half-stanza: " Let Lakkhana and Sita both into that pond descend." One word sufficed, into the water they went, and stood there. Then he told them the news by repeating the other half-stanza: " Bharata says, king Dasaratha's life is at an end." When they heard the news of their father's death, they fainted. Again he repeated it, again they fainted, and when even a third time they fainted away, the courtiers raised them and brought them out of the water, and set them upon dry ground. When they had been comforted, they all sat weeping and wailing together. Then Prince Bharata thought " My brother Prince Lakkhana, and my sister the Lady Sita, cannot restrain their grief to hear of our father's death ; but Rama-pandita neither wails nor weeps. I wonder what can the reason be that he Sword, umbrella, diadem, slippers, and fan. 2 Elephants, cavalry, chariots, infantry. No. 461. 81 grieves not ! I will ask." Then he repeated the second stanza, asking the question : " Say by what power thou grievest not, Rama, when grief should be ? Though it is said thy sire is dead grief overwhelms not thee ! Then Rama-pandita explained the reason of his feeling no grief by saying, "When man can never keep a thing, though loudly he may cry, Why should a wise intelligence torment itself thereby? [127] "The young in years, the older grown, the fool, and eke the wise, For rich, for poor one end is sure: each man among them dies. "As sure as for the ripened fruit there comes the fear of fall, So surely comes the fear of death to mortals one and all. "Who in the morning light are seen by evening oft are gone, And seen at evening time, is gone by morning many a one. " If to a fool infatuate a blessing could accrue When he torments himself with tears, the wise this same would do. " By this tormenting of himself he waxes thin and pale This cannot bring the dead to life, and nothing tears avail. " Even as a blazing house may be put out with water, so The strong, the wise, the intelligent, who well the scriptures know, Scatter their grief like cotton when the stormy winds do blow. " One mortal dies —to kindred ties born is another straight Each creature's bliss dependent is on ties associate. "The strong man therefore, skilled in sacred text, Keen-contemplating this world and the next, Knowing their nature, not by any grief, However great, in mind and heart is vext. "So to my kindred I will give, them will I keep and feed, All that remain I will maintain: such is the wise mans deed. In these stanzas he explained the Impermanence of things. [129] "When the company heard this discourse of Rama-pandita, illustrating the doctrine of Impermanence, they lost all their grief. Then Prince Bharata saluted Rama-pandita, begging him to receive the kingdom of with you, Benares. "Brother," said Rama, "take Lakkhana and Site and administer the kingdom yourselves." "No, my lord, you take it." " Brother, my father commanded me to receive the kingdom at the end of bidding. After three twelve years. If I go now, I shall not carry out his government all that more years I will come." "Who will carry on the " I will not." " Then until I come, these slippers time V " You do it." of straw he gave them to shall do it," said Rama, and doffing his slippers and bidding the his brother. So these three persons took the slippers, crowd of followers. wise man farewell, went to Benares with their great occurred in theKalabahu Birth, The scholiast quotes on p. 129 a stanza which (vol. iii. p. 66 of this translation), beginning " Gain and loss - No 329 J. IV. For three years the slippers ruled the kingdom. The courtiers placed these straw slippers upon the royal throne, when they judged a cause. If the cause were decided wrongly, [130] the slippers beat upon each other 1 , and at that sign it was examined again ; when the decision was right, the slippers lay quiet. When the three years were over, the wise, man came out of the forest, and came to Benares, and entered the park. The princes hearing of his arrival proceeded with a great company to the park, and making Sita the queen consort, gave to them both the ceremonial sprinkling. The sprinkling thus performed, the Great Being standing in a magnificent chariot, and surrounded by a vast company, entered the city, making a solemn circuit right-wise; then mounting to the great terrace of his splendidpalace Sucandaka, he reigned there in righteousness for sixteen thousand years, and then went to swell the hosts of heaven. This stanza of Perfect Wisdom explains the upshot: "Years sixty times a hundred, and ten thousand more, all told, Reigned strong-armed Rama, on his neck the lucky triple fold." 2 The Master having ended this discourse, declared the Truths, and identified the Birth (now at the conclusion of the Truths, the land-owner was established : in the fruit of the First Path:) "At that time the king Suddhodana 3 was king Dasaratha, Mahamaya 3 was the mother, Rahula's mother 4 was Sita, Ananda was Bharata, and I myself was Rama-pandita."

" Your nature, mighty monarch" etc. This story the Master told while dwelling in Jetavana, about a Brother who had ceased to strive. This, we learn, was a young man of family, who lived in Savatthi. Having heard the Master's discoursing, he renounced the world. Fulfilling the tasks imposed by his teachers and preceptors, he learnt by heart both divisions of the Patimokkha. This last incident is an addition to the narrative in the Ramayana, ii. 115, nor is it found in Tulsl Das' Hindi version. Kambuglvo three folds on the neck, like shell-spirals, were a token of luck. : 3 Gotama Buddha's father and mother. 4 Gotama Buddha's wife. No. 462. 83 When five years were past, he said, "When I have been instructed in the mode of attaining the mystic trance, I will go dwell in the forest." Then he took leave of his teachers and preceptors, and proceeded to a frontier village in the kingdom of Kosala. The people were pleased with his deportment, [131] and he made a hut of leaves and there was attended to. Entering upon the rainy season, zealous, eager, striving in strenuous endeavour he strove after the mystic trance for the space of three months but of this not a trace could he produce. : Then he thought: "Verily I am the most devoted to worldly conditions 1 among the four classes of men taught by the Master What have I to do with living ! in the forest 1" Then he said to himself, " I will return to Jetavana 2 and there , in beholding the beauty of the Tathagata, and hearing his discourse sweet as honey, I will pass my days." So he relaxed his striving ; and setting forth he came in course of time to Jetavana. His preceptors and teachers, his friends and acquaintances asked him the cause of his coming. He informed them, and they reproved him for it, asking him why he had so done. Then they led him into the Master's presence. " Why, Brethren," said the Master, " do you lead hither a Brother against his will?" They replied, "This Brother has come hither because he has relaxed his striving." " Is this true, as they tell me V asked the Master. "Yes, Sir," said the man. Said the Master, "Why have you ceased to strive, Brother ? For a weak and slothful man there is in this religion no high fruition, no sainthood they only who make strenuous effort : accomplish this. In days long gone by you were full of strength, easy to teach : and in this way, though the youngest of all the hundred sons of the king of Benares, by holding fast to the admonition of wise men you obtained the White Umbrella." So saying, he told a story of the past. Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king in Benares, the youngest of his hundred sons was named Prince Samvara. The king gave to teach his sons in charge each of a separate courtier, with directions them each what they ought to learn. The courtier who instructed the place Prince Samvara was the Bodhisatta, wise, learned, filling a father's As each of the sons was educated, the courtiers brought to the king's son. them for the king to see. The king gave them each a province, and let them go. When the Prince Samvara had been perfected in all learning, he asked a province, what the Bodhisatta, "Dear father, if my father sends me to offered you, you am I to do?" He replied, My son, " when a province is if I go too, should refuse it, and say, My lord, I am the youngest of all : I will remain where I am, at your there will be no one about your feet : Samvara had saluted him, and was feet." Then one day, when Prince asked him, "Well, my son, have you finished standing on one side, the king your learning?" "Yes, my lord." "Choose a province." "My lord, [132] there will be emptiness about your feet let me remain here at : pleased, and consented. your feet, and in no other place !" The king was for rebirth, such as human i An arhat is called apacb, sc. devoid of conditions kleca, &c. (Childers, p. 313); padaparamo seems to mean the passion, desire, karma, opposite. . .. .„ as is shewn by line /. The quotation should include Jetavanam gantva, °- After that he remained there at the king's feet ; and again asked the Bodhisatta, "What else am I to do, father?" "Ask the king,'' said he, " for some old park."The prince complied, and asked for a park with : the fruits and flowers that there grew he made friends with the powerful men in the city. Again he asked what he was to do. " Ask the king's leave, my son," said the Bodhisatta, " to distribute the food-money within the city." So he did, and without the least neglect of any person he distributed the food-money within the city. Again he asked the Bodhisatta' s advice, and after soliciting the king's consent, distributed food within the palace to the servitors and the horses and to the army, without any omission : to messengers come from foreign countries he assigned their lodging and so forth, for merchants he fixed the taxes, all that had to be arranged he did alone. Thus following the advice of the Great Being, he made friends with every body, those in the household and those without, all in the city, the subjects of the kingdom, strangers, by his winsomeness binding them to him as it were by a band of iron : to all of them he was dear and beloved. When in due time the king lay on his deathbed, the courtiers asked him, "When you are dead, my lord, to whom shall we give the White Umbrella?" "Friends," said he, "all my sons have a right to the White Umbrella. But you may give it to him that pleases your mind." So after his when the obsequies had been performed, on the death, and seventh day they gathered together, and said " Our king bade us give : the Umbrella to him that pleases our mind. He that our mind desires is Prince Samvara." Over him therefore they uplifted the White Umbrella with its festoons of gold, escorted by his kinsmen. The Great King Samvara cleaving to the advice of the Bodhisatta reigned in righteousness. The other ninety and nine princes heard that their father was dead, and that the Umbrella had been uplifted over Saihvara. [133] "But he is the youngest of all," said they; "the Umbrella does not belong to him. Let us uplift the Umbrella over the eldest of us all." They all joined forces, and sent a letter to Samvara, bidding him resign the Umbrella or fight ; then they surrounded the city. The king told this news to the Bodhisatta, and asked what he was to do now. He answered " Great : King, you must not fight with your brothers. Divide the treasure belonging to your father into a hundred portions, and to your brothers send ninety-nine of them, with this message, 'Accept this share of your father's treasure, for fight with you I will not.' " So he did. Then the eldest of all the brothers, Prince Uposatha by name, summoned the rest together, and said to them, "Friends, there is no one able to overcome the king j and this our youngest brother, though he has been our enemy, does not remain so : but he sends us his wealth, and refuses to No. 462. 85 fight with us. Now we cannot all uplift the Umbrella at the same moment let us uplift it over one only, and let him alone be king so ; ; when we see him, we will hand over the royal treasure to him, and return to our own provinces." Then all these princes raised the siege of the city, and entered it, foes no longer. And the king told his courtiers to welcome them, and sent them to meet the princes. The princes with a great following entered on foot, and mounting the steps of the palace, and using allhumility towards the great king Samvara, sat down in a lowly place. King Samvara was seated under the White Umbrella upon a throne : great magnificence was his, and great pomp what place soever he looked ; upon, trembled and quaked. Prince Uposatha seeing the magnificence of the mighty king Samvara, thought to himself, "Our father, methinks, knew that Prince Samvara would be king after his decease, and therefore gave us provinces and gave him none;" then addressing him, repeated three stanzas : [134] " Your nature,mighty monarch, sure the lord of men well knew The other princes honoured he, but nothing gave to you. "While the king lived was it, or when a god to heaven he went, That seeing their own benefit, your kinsmen gave consent? "Say by what power, Samvara, you stand above your kin: Why do your brethren not unite from you the place to win?" On hearing this, King Samvara repeated six stanzas to explain his own character "Because, prince, I never grudge great sages what is meet: Ready to pay them honour due, I fall before their feet. "Me envying none, and apt to learn all conduct meet and right, Wise sages each good precept teach in which they take delight. " I listen to the bidding of these sages great and wise My heart is bent to good intent, no counsel I despise. "Elephant troops and chariotmen, guard royal, infantry— I took no toll of daily dole, but paid them all their fee. "Great nobles and wise counsellors waiting on me are found; abound. With food, wine, water (so they boast) Benares doth come and go, ri35l "Thus merchants prosper, and from many a realm they And I protect them. Now the truth, Uposatha, you know. his character, and then Prince Uposatha listened to this account of repeated two stanzas : in righteousness, "Then be above your kith and kin, and rule brethren you shall bless. So wise and prudent, Samvara, your and you shall be "Your treasure-heaps your brethren will defend, arch enemy."* self from his Safe from your foes Is Indra's The King of the Asuras or Titans. [136] King Saiirvara gave great honour to all his brothers. They remained with him a month and half a month ; then they said to him, " Great King, we would go and see if there be any brigands afoot in our provinces ; all happiness to your rule ! " They departed each to his province. And the king abode by the admonition of the Bodhisatta, and at the end of his days went to swell the hosts of heaven. The Master, having finished this discourse, added, "Long ago, Brother, you followed instruction, and why do you not now sustain your effort?" Then he declared the Truths and identified the Birth: (now at the conclusion of the Truths this Brother was established in the fruit of the First Path :) "At that time this Brother was the great king Samvara, Sariputta was Prince Uposatha, the Elders and secondary Elders were the other brothers, the Buddha's followers were their followers, and I myself was the courtier who advised the king."

SUPPARAK A- JATAKA \ "Men with razor-pointed" etc. This story the Master told while dwelling at Jetavana, about the Perfection of Knowledge. One day, we are told, at evening, the Brethren were awaiting the coming of the Tathagata to preach to them, and as they sat in the Hall of Truth, they were saying one to another, "Verily, Brother, the Master has great wisdom! wide wisdom! ready wisdom! swift wisdom sharp wisdom penetrating wisdom ! ! His wisdom hits on the right ! plan for the right moment wide as the world, like a mighty ocean unfathomable, ; as the heavens spread abroad in all India no wise man exists who can match : the Dasabala. As a billow that rises upon the great sea cannot reach the shore, or if it reaches the shore it breaks [137] so no man can reach the Dasabala in ; wisdom, or if he comes to the Master's feet he is broken." In these words they sang the praises of the Dasabala's Perfect Wisdom. The Master came in, and asked, "What are you talking of, Brethren, as you sit here?" They told him. He said, "Not now only is the Tathagata full of wisdom. In former days, even when his knowledge was immature, he was wise. Blind though he was, he knew by the signs of the ocean that in the ocean such and such a jewel was hid." Then he told a story of the past. Once upon a time, a king named Bharu reigned in the kingdom of Bharu. There was a seaport town named Bharukaccha, or the Marsh of Bharu. At that time the Bodhisatta was born into the family of a master Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, p. 13. mariner there ; amiable he was, and of complexion a golden brown. They gave him the name of Supparaka-kumara. He grew up with great distinction;and even when he was no more than sixteen years old, he had gained a complete mastery over the art of seamanship. Afterwards when his father died he became the head of the mariners and plied the mariner's calling wise he was, and full of intelligence ; with him aboard, : no ship came ever to harm. In time it so happened that injured by the salt water both his eyes lost their sight. After which, head of the mariners though he was, he plied no more the mariner's trade ; but resolved to live in the king's service, he approached the king to that end. And the king appointed him to the office of valuer and assessor. From that time he assessed the worth of valuable elephants, valuable horses, choice pearls and gems. One day an elephant was brought to the king, of the colour of a black rock, that hemight be the state elephant. The king gave him a glance, and commanded that he be shown to the wise man. They led the creature before him. The man passed his hand over the elephant's body, and said, "This elephant is not fit to be the elephant of state. This has the qualities of an elephant that is deformed behind. When his dam brought him forth, she could not take him on her shoulder so she let him fall on ; the ground, and thus he became deformed in his hind feet." They questioned those who had brought the elephant; and they replied that the wise man spoke the truth. [138] When the king heard of this, he was pleased, and ordered eight pieces of money to be given him. On another day, a horse was brought for the king's horse of state. This too was sent to the wise man. He felt it all over with his hand, and then said, " This is not fit to be the king's state charger. On the day this horse was born, his dam died, and so for lack of the mare's milk he did not grow properly." This saying of his was true also. When the king heard of it, he was pleased, and caused him to be presented with eight pieces more. Another day, a chariot was brought, to be the king's state chariot. This too the king sent to him. He felt it over with his hand and said, "This chariot was made out of a hollow tree, and therefore it is not fit for the king." This saying of his was true like the others. The king was pleased again when he heard of it, and gave him other eight pieces. which the Then again they brought him a precious rug of great price, "There is king sent to the man as before. He felt it all over, and said, examined and found one place here where a rat has bitten a hole." They the place, and then told the king. Pleased was the king, and ordered eight pieces to be given him again. Now the man thought, "Only eight pieces of money, with such marvels This is a barber's gift; this king must be a barber's as these to see! 88 The Jdtaka. Book XL brat. "Why should I serve such a king ? I will return to my own home." So back he went to the seaport of Bharukaccha, and there he lived. It happened that some merchants had got ready a ship, and were casting about for a skipper. "That clever Supparaka," thought they, "is a wise and skilful man; with him aboard no ship comes to harm. Blind though he be, the wise Supparaka is the best." So to him they repaired, and asked him to be their skipper. " Blind am I, friends," he replied, "and how can I sail your ship?" "Blind you may be, master," said the merchants, "but you are the best." As they pressed him unceasingly, he at length consented: "As you put it to me," says he, "I will be your skipper." [139] Then he went aboard their vessel. They sailed in their ship upon the high seas. For seven days the ship sailed without mishap then an unseasonable wind arose. Four : months the vessel tost about on a primeval ocean, until she arrived at what is called the Khuramala Sea 1 Here fish with bodies like men, and sharp razor-like snouts, dive in and out of the water. The merchants observing these asked the Great Being what that sea was named, repeating the first stanza : " Men with razor-pointed noses rising up and diving down Speak, Supparaka, and tell us by what name this sea is known?" The Great Being, at this question, conning over in mind his mariner's lore, answered by repeating the second stanza : " Merchants come from Bharukaccha, seeking riches to purvey, This is Khuramali 2 ocean where your ship has gone astray." Now it happens that in this ocean diamonds are to be found. The Great Being reflected, that if he told them this was a diamond sea, they would sink the ship in their greed by collecting the diamonds. So he told them nothing; but having brought the ship to, he got a rope, and lowered a net as if to catch fish. With this he brought in a haul of diamonds, and stored them in the ship ; then he caused the wares of little value to be cast overboard. The ship past over this sea, and came to another called Aggimala. This sea sent forth a radiance like a blazing bonfire, like the sun at midday. The merchants questioned him in this stanza " Lo an ocean like a bonfire blazing, like the sun, we see ! Speak, Supparaka, and tell us what the name of this may be?" The Great Being replied to them in the stanza next following [140] " Merchants come from Bharukaccha, seeking riches to purvey, This is Aggimali 2 ocean where your ship has gone astray." 1 There is an account of the mythological seas which follow in Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, pp. 12 ff. Sic. No. 463. 89 Now in this sea was abundance of gold. In the same manner as before, he got a haul of gold from it, and laid it aboard. Passing over this sea, the ship next came to an ocean called Dadhimala, gleaming like milk or curds. The merchants enquired its name in a stanza " Lo an ocean white and milky, white as curds we seem to see ! Speak, Supparaka, and tell us what the name of this may be?" The Great Being answered them by the stanza next following " Merchants come from Bharukaccha, seeking riches to purvey, This is Dadhimali 1 ocean where your ship has gone astray." In this sea there was abundance of silver. He procured it in the same way as before, and laid it aboard. Over this sea the ship sailed, and came to an ocean called Nilavannakusa-mala, which had the appearance of a stretch of dark kusa-grass 2 or a field of corn. , The merchants enquired its name in a stanza " Lo an ocean green and grassy, like young corn we seem to see ! Speak, Suppuraka, and tell us what the name of this may be?" He replied in the words of the stanza next following "Merchants come from Bharukaccha, seeking riches to purvey, This is Kusamali 1 ocean where your ship has gone astray." Now in this ocean was a great quantity of precious emeralds. As before, he made a haul of them, and stored them on board. Passing over this sea, the ship came to a sea called Nalamala, which had the aspect of an expanse of reeds or a grove of bamboos [141] The mer- . chants asked its name in a stanza : "Lo! an ocean like a reed-bed, like a bamboo-grove we see! Speak, Supparaka, and tell us what the name of this may be?" The Great Being replied by the following stanza : " Merchants come from Bharukaccha, seeking riches to purvey, This is Nalamali 1 ocean where your ship has gone astray." Now this ocean was full of coral of the colour of bamboos 3 . He made a haul of this also and got it aboard. After passing the Nalamali Sea, the merchants came to a sea named Valabhamukha 4 . Here the water is sucked away and rises on every Sic. 2Poa Cynosuroides. 3The scholiast explains that the sea was red, like the reeds called 'scorpion -reed' or ' crab-reed,' which are red in colour the word translated bamboo (velu) he says : ' ' may also mean 'coral.' He adds that the haul was coral, which is also the word which used at the end of the story (pavalo). The word so translated here is velwriyam, Childers renders ' a kind of precious stone, perhaps lapis lazuli '. 4 See Hardy, Manual, p. 13. It was a kind of hollow like a saucer. 90 The Jataha. Booh XI. side ; and the water thus sucked away on all sides rises in sheer precipices leaving what looks like a great pit. A wave rises on one side like a wall : a terrific roar is heard, which seems as it would burst the ear and break the heart. On sight of this the merchants were terrified, and asked its name in a stanza " Hear the awful sound terrific of a huge unearthly sea Lo a pit, and lo the waters in a steep declivity! Speak, Supparaka, and tell us what the name of this may be?" The Bodhisatta replied in this following stanza, "Merchants," etc., ending — " This Valabhamukhi ocean," etc. He went on, [142] "Friends, once a ship has got into the Valabhamukha Sea there is no returning. If this ship gets there, she will sink and go to destruction." Now there were seven hundred souls aboard this ship, and they were in fear of death ; with one voice they uttered a very bitter cry, like the cry of those who are burning in the lowest hell 1 The Great Being thought, "Except me, no other can save those; I will save them by an Act of Truth." Then he said aloud, " Friends, bathe me speedily in scented water, and put new garments upon me, prepare a full bowl, and set me in front of the ship." They quickly did so. The Great Being took the full bowl in both hands, and standing in the front of the ship, performed an Act of Truth, repeating the final stanza " Since I can myself remember, since intelligence first grew, Not one life of living creature have I taken, that I knew May this ship return to safety if my solemn words are true!" Four months the vessel had been voyaging in far distant regions and now as though endued with supernatural power, it returned in one single day to the seaport town of Bharukaccha, and even upon the dry land it went, till it rested before the mariner's door, having sprung over a space of eleven hundred cubits. The Great Being divided amongst the merchants all the gold and silver, jewels, coral, and diamonds, saying, [143] "This treasure is enough for you: voyage on the sea no more." Then he discoursed to them ; and after giving gifts and doing good his life long, he went to swell the hosts of heaven. The Master, having ended this discourse, said, " Then, Brethren, the Tathagata was most wise in former days, as he is now," and identified the Birth: "At that time the Buddha's company were the company (of merchants), and I myself was the wise Supparaka." Avici.

[144] "Small of tint," etc.— This birth will be given under the Kunala Birth 1 .

BHADDA-SALA-JATAKA 2 . " Who art thou," etc. This story the Master told while dwelling in Jetavana about doing good to one's kith and kin. At Savatthi in the house of Anathapindika there was always unfailing food for five hundred Brethren, and the same with Visakha, 3 and the king of Kosala. But in the king's palace, various and fine as was the fare given, no one was friendly to the Brethren. The result was that the Brethren never ate in the palace, but they took their food and went off to eat it at the house of Anathapindika or Visakha or some other of their trusted friends. One day the king said, "A present has been brought take this to the : Brethren," and sent it to the refectory. An answer was brought that no Brethren were there in the refectory. "Where are they gone?" he asked. They were sitting in their friends' houses to eat, was the reply. So the king after his morning meal came into the Master's presence, and asked him, "Good Sir, what is the best kind of food?" "The food of friendship is the best, great king," said he ; " even sour rice-gruel given by a friend becomes sweet." " Well, Sir, and with whom do the Brethren find friendship ?" " With their kindred, great king, or with the Sakya families." Then the king thought, what if he were to make a Sakya girl his queen-consort then the Brethren would be his : friends, as it were with their own kindred. [145] So rising from his seat, he returned to the palace, and sent a message No. 536. For the Introductory story see Dhammapada (commentary), pp. 216 ff. A famous female disciple, for whose history see Hardy, Manual, 220 ff. to Kapilavatthu 1 to this effect: "Please give me one of your daughters in marriage, for I wish to become connected with your family." On receipt of this message the Sakyas gathered together and deliberated. "We live in a place subject to the authority of the king of Kosala if we refuse a daughter, ; he will be very angry, and if we give her, the custom of our clan will be broken. What are we to do?" Then Mahanama 2 said to them, "Do not trouble about it. I have a daughter, named Vasabhakhattiya. Her mother is a slave woman, Nagamunda. by name ; she is some sixteen years of age, of great beauty and auspicious prospects, and by her father's side noble 3 We will send her, as a girl nobly born." The Sakyas agreed, and sent for the messengers, and said they were willing to give a daughter of the clan, and that they might take her with them at once. But the messengers reflected, " These Sakyas are desperately proud, in matters of birth. Suppose they should send a girl who was not of them, and say that she was so ? We will take none but one who eats along with them." So they replied, "Well, we will take her, but we will take one who eats along with you." The Sakyas assigned a lodging for the messengers, and then wondered what to do. Mahanama said " Now do not trouble about it I will find a way. : ; At my mealtime bring in Vasabhakhattiya drest up in her finery; then just as I have taken one mouthful, produce a letter, and say, My lord, such a king has sent you a letter be pleased to hear his message at once." ; They agreed; and as he was taking his meal they drest and adorned the maid. "Bring my daughter," said Mahanama, "and let her take food with me." " In a moment," said they, " as soon as she is properly adorned," and after a short delay they brought her in. Expecting to take food with her father, she dipt her hand into the same dish. Mahanama had taken one mouthful with her, and put it in his mouth; but just as he stretched out his hand for another, they brought him a letter, saying, " My lord, such a king has sent a letter to you: be pleased to hear his message at once." Said Mahanama, " Go on with your meal, my dear," [146] and holding his right hand in the dish, with his left took the letter and looked at it. As he examined the message the maiden went on eating. When she had eaten, he washed his hand and rinsed out his mouth. The messengers were firmly convinced that she was his daughter, for they did not divine the secret. So Mahanama sent away his daughter in great pomp. The messengers brought her to Savatthi, and said that this maiden was the true-born daughter of Mahanama. The king was pleased, and caused the whole city to be decorated, and placed her upon a pile of treasure, and by a ceremonial sprinkling made her his chief queen. She was dear to the king, and beloved. In a short time the queen conceived, and the king caused the proper treatment to be used and at the end of ten months, she brought forth a son whose ; colour was a golden brown. On the day of his naming, the king sent a message to his grandmother, saying, " A son has been born to Vasabhakhattiya, daughter of the Sakya king; what shall his name be?" Now the courtier who was charged with this message was slightly deaf; but he went and told the king's grandmother. When she heard it, she said, " Even when Vasabhakhattiya had never borne a son, she was more than all the world ; and now she will be the king's darling 4 ." The deaf man did not hear the word " darling " aright, but thought she said " Vidudabha ; " so back he went to the king, and told him that he was to name the prince Vidudabha. This, the king thought, must be some ancient family name, and so named him Vidudabha. After this the prince grew up treated as a prince should be. When he was at the age of seven years, having observed how the other princes received presents of toy elephants and horses and other toys from the family of their mothers' fathers, the lad said to his mother, " Mother, the 1 Headquarters of the Sakya clan, and Buddha's birthplace. A Sakya prince see Hardy, Manual, 227. : 3 Khattiya. * Vallabha. rest of them get presents from their mothers' family, but no one sends me anything Are you an orphan?" Then she replied, "My boy, your grandsires are the Sakya kings but they hve a long way off and that is why they send you ? c m,& T ^Sa n father s family ,! ' ^ en he W£ s six teen, he said, "Mother, I want to see your i « Don't speak of it, child," she said. " What , will you do when you get there ? But though she put him off, he asked her again and again. At last his mother said, [147] " Well, go then." So the lad got his father's consent, and set out with a number of followers. Vasabhakhattiya sent on a letter before him to this effect "lam living here happily let not my masters tell him any- : ; thing of the secret." But the Sakyas, on hearing of the coming of Vidudabha, sent off all their young children into the country. "It is impossible,'" said they, " to receive him with respect." When the Prince arrived at Kapilavatthu, the Sakyas had assembled in the royal rest-house. The Prince approached the rest-house, and waited. Then they said to him, " This is your mother's father, this is her brother," pointing them out. He walked from one to the other, saluting them. But although he bowed to them till his back ached, not one of them vouchsafed a greeting so ; he asked, " Why is it that none of you greet me V The Sakyas replied, " My dear, the youngest princes are all in the country;" then they entertained him grandly. After a few days' stay, he set out for home with all his retinue. Just then a slave woman washed the seat which he had used in the rest-house with milkwater, saying insultingly, " Here's the seat where sat the son of Vasabhakhattiya, the slave girl!" Aman who had left his spear behind was just fetching it, when he overheard the abuse of Prince Vidudabha. He asked what it meant. He was told that Vasabhakhattiya was born of a slave to Mahanama the Sakya. This he told to the soldiers — a great uproar arose, all shouting " Vasabha- : khattiya is a slave woman's daughter, so they say !" The Prince heard it. " Yes," thought he, " let them pour milk-water over the seat I sat in, to wash it When ! I am king, I will wash the place with their hearts' blood " ! When he returned to Savatthi, the courtiers told the whole matter to the king. The king was enraged against the Sakyas for giving him a slave's daughter to wife. He cut off all allowances made to Vasabhakhattiya and her son, and gave them only what is proper to be given to slave men and women. Some few days later the Master came to the palace, and took a seat. The king approached him, and with a greeting said, "Sir, I am told that your clansmen gave me a slave's daughter to wife. I have cut off their allowances, mother and son, and grant them only what slaves would get." Said the Master, " The Sakyas have done wrong, great king ![148] If they gave any one, they ought to have given a girl of their own blood. But, O king, this I say Vasa- : bhakhattiya is a king's daughter, and in the house of a noble king she has received the ceremonial sprinkling; Vidudabha too was begotten by a noble king. Wise men of old have said, what matters the mother's birth ? The birth of the father is the measure :and to a poor wife, a picker of sticks, they gave the position of queen consort ; and the son born of her obtained the sovereignty of Benares, twelve leagues in extent, and became King Kattha-vahana, the Wood-carrier:" whereupon he told him the story of the Katthahari Birth 1 . When the king heard this speech he was pleased; and saying to himself, " The father's birth is the measure of the man," he again gave mother and son the treatment suited to them. Now the king's commander-in-chief was a man named Bandhula. His wife, Mallika, was barren, and he sent her away to Kusinara, telling her to return to her own family. " I will go," said she, " when I have saluted the Master." She went to Jetavana, and greeting the Tathagata stood waiting on one side. "Where are you going?" he asked. She replied, "My husband has sent me home, Sir." " Why 1" asked the Master. " I am barren, Sir, I have no son." "If that is all," said he, "there is no reason why you should go. Beturn.'' She was much pleased, and saluting the Master went home again. Her husband No. 7. asked her why she had come back. She answered, " The Dasabala sent me back, my lord." "Then," said the commander-in-chief, "the Tathagata must have seen good reason." The woman soon after conceived, and when her cravings began, told him of it. " What is it you want V he asked. " My lord," said she, " I desire to go and bathe and drink the water of the tank in Vesali City where the families of the kings get water for the ceremonial sprinkling." The commander-in-chief promised to try. Seizing his bow, strong as a thousand bows, he put his wife in a chariot, and left Savatthi, and drove his chariot to Vesali. Now at this time there lived close to the gate a Licchavi named Mahali 1, who had been educated by the same teacher as the king of Kosala's general, Bandhula. This man was blind, and used to advise the Licchavis on all matters temporal and spiritual. Hearing the clatter of the chariot as it went over the threshold, he said, " The noise of the chariot of Bandhula the Mallian ! [149] This day there will be fear for the Licchavis !" By the tank there was set a strong guard, within and without above it was spread an iron net ; not ; even a bird could find room to get through. But the general, dismounting from his car, put the guards to flight with the blows of his sword, and burst through the iron network, and in the tank bathed his wife and gave her to drink of the water then after bathing himself, he set Mallika in the chariot, and left the ; town, and went back by the way he came. The guards went and told all to the Licchavis. Then were the kings of the Licchavis angry ; and five hundred of them, mounted in five hundred chariots, departed to capture Bandhula the Mallian. They informed Mahali of it, and he said, "Go not! for he will slay you all." But they said, "Nay, but we will go." " Then if you come to a place where a wheel has sunk up to the nave, you must return. If you return not then, return back from that place when you hear the noise of a thunderbolt. If then you turn not, turn back from that place where you shall see a hole in front of your chariots. Go no further !" But they did not turn back according to bis word, but pursued on and on. Mallika espied them and said, " There are chariots in sight, my lord." " Then tell me," said he, " when they all look like one chariot." When they all in a line looked like one, she said, " My lord, I see as it were the head of one chariot." " Take the reins, then," said he, and gave the reins into her hand he stood upright in : the chariot, and strung his bow. The chariot-wheel sank into the earth navedeep. The Licchavis came to the place, and saw it, but turned not back. The other went on a little further, and twanged the bow string then came a ; noise as the noise of a thunderbolt, yet even then they turned not, but pursued on and on. Bandhula stood up in the chariot and sped a shaft, and it cleft the heads of all the five hundred chariots, and passed right through the five hundred kings in the place where the girdle is fastened, and then buried itself in the earth. They not perceiving that they were wounded pursued still, shouting, "Stop, holloa, stop!" Bandhula stopt his chariot, and said, "You are dead men, and I cannot fight with the dead." " What " said they, " dead, ! such as we now are ? " " Loose the girdle of the first man," said Bandhula. [150] They loosed his girdle, and at the instant the girdle was loosed, he fell dead. Then he said to them, " You are all of you in the same condition go : to your homes, and set in order what should be ordered, and give your directions to your wives and families, and then doff your armour." They did so, and then all of them gave up the ghost And Bandhula conveyed Mallika to Savatthi. She bore twin sons sixteen times in succession, and they were all mighty men and heroes, and became perfected in all manner of accomplishments. Each one of them had a thousand 1 Called Maha-licchavi in Dhammapada (p. 219). - This is a variation of a well-known incident. A headsman slices off a man's head so skilfully, that the victim does not know it is done. The victim then takes a pinch of snuff, sneezes, and his head falls off. Another form is Two men dispute, : and one swings his sword round. They go on talking, and by and bye the other gets up to depart, and falls in two parts. men to attend him, and when they went with their father to wait on the king, they alone filled the courtyard of the palace to overflowing. One day some men who had been defeated in court on a false charge, seeing Bandhula approach, raised a great outcry, and informed him that the judges of the court had supported a false charge. So Bandhula went into the court, and judged the case, and gave each man his own. The crowd uttered loud shouts of applause. The king asked what it meant, and on hearing was much pleased; all those officers he sent away, and gave Bandhula charge of the judgement court, and thenceforward he judged aright. Then the former judges became poor, because they no longer received bribes, and they slandered Bandhula in the king's ear, accusing him of aiming at the kingdom himself. The king listened to their words, and could not control his suspicions. "But," he reflected, " if he be slain here, I shall be blamed." He suborned certain men to harry the frontier districts ;then sending for Bandhula, he said, " The borders are in a blaze; go with your sons and capture the brigands." With him he also sent other men sufficient, mighty men of war, with instructions to kill him and his two-and-thirty sons, and cut off their heads, and bring them back. While he was yet on the way, the hired brigands got wind of the general's coming, and took to flight. He settled the people of that district in their homes, and quieted the province, and set out for home. Then when he was not far from the city, those warriors cut off his head and the heads of his sons. On that day Mallika had sent an invitation to the two chief disciples along with five hundred of the Brethren. Early in the forenoon a letter was brought to her, with news that her husband and sons had lost their heads. [151] When she heard this, without a word to a soul, she tucked the letter in her dress, and waited upon the company of the Brethren. Her attendants had given rice to the Brethren, when bringing in a bowl of ghee they happened to break the bowl just in front of the Elders. Then the Captain of the Faith said, " Pots are made to be broken do not trouble about it." The lady produced her letter ; from the fold of her dress, saying, " Here I have a letter informing me that my husband and his two-and-thirty sons have been beheaded. If I do not trouble about that, am I likely to trouble when a bowl is broken ?" The Captain of the Faith now began, "Unseen, unknown 1 ," and so forth, then rising from his seat uttered a discourse, and went home. She summoned her two-and-thirty daughters-in-law, and to them said, "Your husbands, though innocent, have reaped the fruit of their former deeds. Do not you grieve, nor commit a sin of the soul worse even than the king's." This was her advice. The king's spies hearing this speech brought word to him that they were not angry. Then the king was distrest, and went to her dwelling, and craving pardon of Mallika and her sons' wives, offered a boon. She replied, "Be it accepted. She set out the funeral feast, and bathed, and then went before the king. 'My lord " said she, " you granted me a boon. I want nothing but this, that you our own permit my two-and-thirty daughters-in-law and me to go back to " The king consented. Each of her two-and-thirty sons wives she sent homes the city away to her home, and herself returned to the home of her family in of Kusinara. And the king gave the post of commander-in-chief to one Digha-karayana, sister's son to the general Bandhula. But he^ went about picking faults in the king and saying, "He murdered my uncle. devoured by Evir after the murder of the innocent Bandhula the king was remorse, and had no peace of mind, felt no joy in being king. At that time the Master dwelt near a country town of the Sakyas, named Ulumpa. Thither pitched a camp not far from the park, and with a few went the king, monastery to salute the Master. The five symbols attendants went to the entered the Perfumed Chamber of royalty* he handed to Karayana, and alone All that followed must be described as in the Dhammacefaya Sutta. When he of men here below:" and Sutta-Nipata 574: "Unseen, unknown, is the i life Sallasutta. so forth, for twenty stanzas. This is the 2 See above, p. 80 note. entered the Perfumed Chamber, Karayana took those symbols of royalty, [152] and made Vidudabha king and leaving behind for the king one horse and a ; serving woman, he went to Savatthi. After a pleasant conversation with the Master, the king on his return saw no army. He enquired of the woman, and learnt what had been done. Then set out for the city of Rajagaha, resolved to take his nephew with him 1 and , capture Vidudabha. It was late when he came to the city, and the gates were shut and lying down in a shed, exhausted by exposure to wind and sun, he : died there. When the night began to grow brighter, the woman began to wail, "My lord, the king of Kosala is past help 1" The sound was heard, and news came to the king. He performed the obsequies of his uncle with great magnificence. Vidudabha once firmly established on the throne remembered that grudge of his, and determined to destroy the Sakyas one and all to which end he set ; out with a large army. That day at dawn the Master, looking forth over the world, saw destruction threatening his kin. " I must help my kindred," thought he. In the forenoon he went in search of alms, then after returning from his meal lay down lion-like in his Perfumed Chamber, and in the evening-time, having past through the air to a spot near Kapilavatthu, sat beneath a tree that gave scanty shade. Hard by that place, a huge and shady banyan tree stood on the boundary of Vidudabha's realms. Vidudabha seeing the Master approached and saluting him, said, "Why, Sir, are you sitting under so thin a tree in all this heat ? Sit beneath this shady banyan, Sir." He replied, " Let be, king the shade of my kindred keeps me cool." "The Master," thought the other, ! " must have come here to protect his clansmen." So he saluted the Master, and returned again to Savatthi. And the Master rising went to Jetavana. A second time the king called to mind his grudge against the Sakyas, a second time he set forth, and again saw the Master seated in the same place, then again returned. A fourth time he set out; and the Master, scanning the former deeds of the Sakyas, perceived that nothing could do away with the effect of their evildoing, in casting poison into the river ; so he did not go thither the fourth time. Then king Vidudabha slew all the Sakyas, beginning with babes at the breast, and with their hearts' blood washed the bench, and returned. On the day after the Master had gone out for the third time and returned, he, [153] having gone his rounds for alms, and his meal over, was resting in his Perfumed Chamber, the Brethren gathered from all directions into the Hall of Truth, and seating themselves, began to tell of the virtues of the Great Being " Sirs, the Master but showed himself, and turned the king back, and : set free his kinsmen from fear of death. A helpful friend is the Master to his clan !" The. Master entered, and asked what they talked of as they sat there. They told him. Then he said, " Not now only, Brethren, does the Tathagata act for the benefit of his kinsmen; he did the same long ago." With these words, he told a story of the past. Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta ruled as king in Benares, and observed the Ten Royal Virtues, he thought to himself: "All over India the kings live in palaces supported by many a column. There is no marvel, then, in a palace supported by many columns; but what if I make a palace with one column only to support it? Then I shall be the chiefest king of all kings !" So he summoned his builders, and told them to build him a magnificent palace supported on one column. " Very good," said they, and away they went into the forest. There they beheld many a tree, straight and great, worthy to be the The quotation should begin at bhagineyyam, since the king was alone. No. 465. 97 single column of such a palace. " Here are these trees," said they, " but the road is rough, and we can never transport them; we will go ask the king about it." When they did so, the king said, "By hook or by crook you must bring them, and that quickly." But they answered, " Neither by hook nor by crook can the thing be done." " Then," said the king, "search for a tree in my park." The builders went to the park, and there they espied a lordly sal tree, straightand well grown, worshipt by village and town, and to it the royal family also werewont to pay tribute and worship ; and they told the king. Said the king, " In my park ye have found me a tree good go and cut it down." " So be it," said they, and repaired to the park, with their hands full of perfumed garlands and the like ; then hanging upon it a five-spray garland 1 , and encircling it with a string, fastening to it a nosegay of flowers, and kindling a lamp, they did worship, explaining, [154] "On the seventh day from now we shall cut down this tree it is the king's command so to cut it down. Let the : deities who dwell in this tree go elsewhither, and not unto us be the blame." The god who dwelt in the tree hearing this, thought to himself " These builders are determined to cut down this tree, and to destroy my place of dwelling. Now my life only lasts as long as this my abiding place. And all the young sal trees that stand around this, where dwell the deities my kinsfolk, and they are many, will be destroyed. My own destruction does not touch me so near as the destruction of my children : therefore I must protect their lives." Accordingly at the hour of midnight, adorned in divine splendour, he entered into the magnificent chamber of the king, and filling the whole chamber with a bright radiance, stood weeping beside the king's pillow. At sight of him the king, overcome by terror, uttered the first stanza : "Who art thou, standing high in air, with heavenly vesture swathed: Whence come thy fears, why flow the tears in which thine eyes are bathed V On hearing which the king of the gods repeated two stanzas: " Within thy realm, King, they know me as the Lucky Tree For sixty thousand years I stood, and all have worshipt me. " Though many a town and house they made, and many a king's dwelling, Yet me they never did molest, to me no harm did bring Then even as they did worship pay, so worship thou, King ! [155] Then the king repeated two stanzas : "But such another mighty trunk I never yet did see, So fine a kind in girth and height, so thick and strong a tree. "A lovely palace I will build, one column for support: There I will place thee to abide—thy life shall not be short." i See note in vol. ii. p. 72. J. IV. 7 98 The Jdtaka. Book XII On hearing this the king of the gods repeated two stanzas : "Since thou art bent to tear my body from me, cut me small, And cut me piecemeal limb from limb, O King, or not at all. [156] "Cut first the top, the middle next, then last the root of me : And if thou cut me so, King, death will not painful be." Then the king repeated two stanzas : "First hands and feet, then nose and ears, while yet the victim lives, And last of all the head let fall a painful death this gives. " Lucky Tree woodland king what pleasure eouldst thou feel, ! ! Why, for what reason dost thou wish to be cut up piecemeal?" Then the Lucky Tree answered by repeating two stanzas "The reason (and a reason 'tis full noble) why piecemeal I would be cut, O mighty king ! come listen while I tell. " My kith and kin all prospering round me well-sheltered grow : These I should crush by one huge fall, and great would be their woe." [157] The king, hearing this, was much pleased: '"Tis a worthy god this," thought he, " he does not wish that his kinsfolk should lose their dwelling-place because he loses his; he acts for his kinsfolk's good." And he repeated the remaining stanza : " Lucky Tree woodland king thy thoughts must noble be ! ! Thou wouldst befriend thy kindred, so from fear I set thee free." The king of the gods, having discoursed to this king, then departed. And the king being established according to his admonition, gave gifts and did other good deeds, till he went to fill the hosts of heaven. The Master having ended this discourse said " Thus it is, Brethren, that : the Tathagata acts so as to do good to his kith and kin ; " and then he identified the Birth " At that time Ananda was the king, the followers of the Buddha : were the deities which were embodied in the young saplings of the sal tree, and I was myself Lucky Tree, the king of the gods."

SAMUDDA-VANIJA- JATAKA \ [158] "Others sow," etc. —This story the Master told while dwelling at Jetavana, about Devadatta, when he had gone down into Hell, taking with him five hundred families. The introductory story is given in Dhammapada, p. 147 fi. No. 466. 99 Now Devadatta, when the Chief Disciples 1 had gone away, taking his followers with them 2 , being unable to swallow his pain, spat up hot blood from his mouth, and departed ; then tormented by great agony, as he remembered the virtues of the Tathagata, he said to himself, " I for nine months have thought evil of the Tathagata, but in the Master's heart is never a sinful thought for me in the eighty chief elders is no malice towards me ; by my ; own deeds that I have done I am become all forlorn, and I am renounced by the Master, by the great Elders, by Elder Rahula chief of my family 3 and , by all the royal clans of the Sakyas. go to the Master, and reconcile I will myself with him." So beckoning to his followers, he caused himself to be carried in a litter, and travelling always by night made his way to the city of Kosala. Ananda the Elder told the Master, saying, " Devadatta is coming, they say, to make his peace with you."—" Ananda, Devadatta shall not see me." Again when he had arrived at the city of Savatthi, the Elder told it to the Master and the Blessed One replied as before. When he was at the gate of Jetavana, and moving towards the Jetavana lake, his sin came to a head a fever arose in : his body, and desiring to bathe and drink, he commanded them to let him out of the litter, that he might drink. No sooner had he alighted, and stood upon the ground, than before he could refresh himself the great earth gaped, a flame arose from the nethermost hell of Avici and surrounded him. Then he knew that his deeds of sin had come to a head, and remembering the virtues of the Tathagata, he repeated this stanza 4 : "With these my bones to that supremest Being, Marked with an hundred lucky marks, all-seeing, God, more than God, who man's bull-spirit tames, With all my soul to Buddha I am fleeing !" But in the very act of taking refuge, he was doomed to the Hell Avici. And there were five hundred families of his attendants, which families following him reviled the Dasabala, and abused him, and in the Avici hell were born, they also. Thus he went to Avici, taking with him five hundred families. So one day they were talking in the Hall of Truth " Brother, the sinful : Devadatta, [159] through greed of gain, set his anger causelessly against the Supreme Buddha, and with no regard for the terrors of the future, with five hundred families was doomed to hell." The Master entering asked of what they were speaking they told him. Said he, "Brethren, Devadatta being greedy of : gain and honour had no eye for the terrors of the future and in former times, ; as now, regarding not the terrors of the future, he with his followers through greed of present happiness came to utter ruin." So saying, he told them a story of the past. Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, there containing a thousand stood near Benares a great town of carpenters, families. The carpenters from this town used to profess that they would make a bed, or a chair, or a house, and after receiving a large advance The from men's hands, they proved able to make nothing whatever. people used to upbraid every carpenter they met with, and interfered 1 Sariputta and Moggallana. 2 Of. Hardy, Buddhism, p. 328. 3 Devadatta was brother-in-law of the Buddha. * Dhammapada, p. 148. 100 The Jataka. Booh XII. with them. So those debtors were so much harassed that they could live there no longer."Let us go into some foreign land," said they, " and find some place or other to dwell in " so to the forest they went. ; They cut down trees, they built a mighty ship, and launched her in the river, and took her away from that town, and at a distance of some threequarters of a league they laid her up. ' Then in the middle of the night they returned to the town to fetch their families, whom they conveyed on board ship, and then proceeded in due course to the ocean. There they sailed at the wind's will, until they reached an island that lay in the midst of the sea. Now in that island grew wild all manner of plants and wild fruit-trees, rice, sugar-cane, banana, mango, rose-apple, jack, cocoanut, and what not. There was another man who had been shipwrecked and had taken possession of that island before them, and lived therein, eating the rice and enjoying the sugar-cane and all the rest, by which he had grown stout and sturdy ; naked he went, and his hair and beard were grown long. The carpenters thought, "If yonder island is haunted of demons, we shall all perish ; so we will explore it." Then seven brave men [1 60] and strong, arming them with the five kinds of weapons disembarked and explored that island. , At that moment the castaway had just broken his fast, and drunk of the juice of the sugar-cane, and in high contentment was lying on his back in a lovely spot, cool in the shade on some sand which glistered like silver plate and he was thinking, " No such happiness as this have they ; who dwell in India, that plough and sow better to me is this island than ; India " He sang for joy, and was at the height of bliss. ! The Master, to explain how this castaway sang for joy and bliss, repeated the first stanza : "Others sow and others plough, Living by the sweat o' the brow In my realm they have no share India? this is better far!" The scouts who were exploring the isle caught the sound of his singing, and said, " It seems the voice of man that we hear let us make ; acquaintance with him." Following the sound, they came upon the man, but his aspect horrified them. " 'Tis a goblin !" they cried, and put arrow to bow. When the man saw them, he was in fear of being wounded, so he called out— "I am no goblin, sirs, but a man spare my : See vol. ii. p. 147, note. a Sword, spear, bow, shield, axe. life!" — "What!" said they, "do men go all naked and defenceless like yon?" and asked him again and again, only to receive the same answer, that he was- a man. At last they approached him, and all began to talk pleasantly together, and the new-comers asked how he came thither. The other told them the truth of it. "As a reward for your good deeds you have come hither," said he, " this is a first-rate island. No need here to work with your hands for a living of rice and sugar-cane, and all the ; rest, there is no end here, and all growing wild you may live here ; without anxiety.'' "Is there nothing else," they asked, [161] "to hinder our living here?" "No fear is there but this: the isle is haunted by demons, and the demons would be incensed to see the excretions of your bodies ; so when you would relieve yourselves, dig a hole in the sand and hide it there. That is the only danger; there is no other; only always be careful on this point." Then they took up their abode in the place. But among these thousand families there were two master workmen, one at the head of each five hundred of them ; and one of these was foolish and greedy of the best food, the other wise and not bent on getting the best of everything. In course of time as they continued to dwell there, all grew stout and sturdy. Then they thought, "We have not been merry men this long time 1 : we will make some toddy from the juice of the sugar-cane." So they caused the strong drink to be made, and being drunken, sang, danced, sported, then in thoughtlessness relieved themselves here, there, and everywhere without hiding it, so that they made the island foul and disgusting.The deities were incensed because these men made their playing-place all foul. "Shall we bring the sea over it," they deliberated, " — and cleanse the island ? This is the dark fortnight now : our gathering is broken up. Well, on the fifteenth day from now, at the first of the full moon, at the time of the moon's rising, we will bring up the sea and make an end of them all." Thus they fixed the day. At this a righteous deity who was one of them thought, "I would not that these should perish before my eyes." So in his compassion, at the time when the men were sitting at their doors in pleasant converse, after their evening meal, he made the whole island one blaze of light, and adorned in all splendour stayed poised in the air towards the north, and spoke to them thus "O ye carpenters the deities are wroth with you. : ! Dwell no longer in this place, for in half a month from this time, the 1 There seems to be something wrong with the text as it stands, the meaning is : : "For a long time these have not been heroes." But the word sv.ro is used idiomatically, suro hutva 'as bold as brass,' i. 262. 30, ii. 119. 22. It might well be used of 'Dutch courage.' Or perhaps sura (brandy) in some form may lurk here. 102 The Jataka. Booh XII deities will bring up the sea, [162] and destroy you one and all. Therefore flee from this place." And he repeated the second stanza : days the moon will rise to view " In thrice five Then from the sea a mighty flood is due This mighty island to o'erwhelm then haste, : Elsewhere take shelter, that it hurt not you." With this advice, he returned to his own place. He gone, another comrade of his, a cruel god, thought, "Perhaps they will follow his advice and escape; I will prevent their going, and bring them all to utter destruction.'' So adorned in divine splendour, he made a great blaze of light over the whole place, and approaching them, remained poised in the air towards the south, as he asked, " Has there been a god here?" was the reply. " What did he tell you 1 " They " There has," answered, "Thus and thus, my lord." He then said, "This god does not wish you to live here, and in anger speaks. Go not elsewhither, but stay even here." And with these words, he repeated two stanzas "To me by many signs it is made clear, That mighty ocean flood of which you hear Shall never this great island overwhelm : Then take your pleasure, grieve not, never fear. "Here you have lit upon a wide abode, Full of all things to eat, of drink and food; I see no danger for you come, enjoy : Unto all generations this your good." [163] Having thus in these two stanzas offered to relieve their anxiety, he departed. When he was gone, the foolish carpenter lifted up his voice, and paying no heed to the saying of the righteous deity, he cried, " Let your honours listen to me !" and addressed all the carpenters in the fifth stanza "That god, who from the southern quarter clear Cries out, All safe from him the truth we hear ! Fear or fear not, the northern knows no whit: Why grieve, then 1 take your pleasure —never fear " ! On hearing him, the five hundred carpenters who were greedy of good things inclined to the counsel of the foolish carpenter. But then the wise carpenter refused to hearken to his saying, and addressing the carpenters repeated four stanzas "While these two goblins gainst each other cry, One calling fear, and one security, Come hear my rede, lest soon and out of hand Ye all together perish utterly. " Let us join all to build a mighty bark, A vessel stout, and place within this ark All fittings if this southern spoke the truth, : And the other said but folly, off the mark ; — ; No. 466. 103 "This vessel for us good at need shall be; Nor will we leave this isle incontinent But if the northern god spake truthfully, The southern did but foolishness present [164] Then in the ship we all embark together, And where our safety lies, all hie us thither. " Take not for best or worst what first you hear But whoso lets all pass within the ear, And then deliberating takes the mean, That man to safest harbourage will steer 1 ." After this, he again said " Come now, let us follow the words of both : the deities. Let us build a ship, and then if the words of the first be we will climb and depart; but if the words of the true, into that ship we will put the ship out of the way, and dwell here.'' other be true, When he had thus spoken, said the foolish carpenter [165] " Go to you : ! see a crocodile in a teacup ! you are too-too slow ! The first god spake in anger against us, the second in affection. If we leave this choicest of isles, whither shall we go? But if you needs must go, take your tail with you, and make your ship we want no ship, we : ! The wise man with those that followed him, built a ship, and put all the fittings aboard, and he and the whole company stood in the ship. Then on the day of the full moon, at the time of moon-rising, up from the ocean a wave arose, and knee-deep it swept over the whole island. The wise man, when he observed the rising of the wave, cast loose the ship. Those of the foolish carpenter's party, five hundred families they were, sat still, saying to one another, " A wave has arisen, to sweep over the island, but it will be no deeper." Then the ocean-wave rose waistdeep, man-deep, deep as a palm-tree, as seven palm-trees, and over the whole island it rolled. The wise man, fertile in resource, not snared by greed of good things, departed in safety; but the foolish carpenter, greedy of good things, not regarding the fear of the future, with five hundred families was destroyed. The other three stanzas, full of instruction, illustrating this matter, are stanzas of the Perfect Wisdom : "As through mid-ocean, by the deeds they did, The traders scaped away in happiness So wise men, comprehending what lies hid Within the future, will no jot transgress. "Fools in their folly, eaten up with greed Who future dangers do not comprehend, Sink overwhelmed, in face of present need, As these in middest-ocean found their end. This metaphor is not in the Pali. [166] "Accomplish then the deed before the need, Let not lack hurt me of the needful thing. Who timely do the necessary deed Come time, come never into suffering." When the Master had ended this discourse, he said " Not now for the first : time, Brethren, but formerly also, has Devadatta been ensnared by pleasures of the present, and without a look to the future, has come to destruction with all his companions." So saying, he identified the Birth " At that time, : Devadatta was the foolish carpenter, Kokalika was the unrighteous deity that stood in the southern region, Sariputta was the deity who stood in the northern part, and I was myself the wise carpenter."

KAMA- JATAKA 1 . [167] "He that desires,'' etc. This story the Master told while dwelling at Jetavana, about a certain brahmin. A brahmin, so they say, who dwelt at Savatthi, was felling trees on the bank of the AciravatI, in order to cultivate the land. The Master perceiving his destiny 2, when he visited Savatthi for alms, went out of his road to talk sweetly with him. " What are you doing, brahmin 1" he asked. " Gotama," said the man, "I am cutting a space free for cultivation." "Very good," he replied, "go on with your work, brahmin." In the same manner the Master came and talked with him when the felled trunks were all away, and the man was clearing his acre, and again at plowing time, and at making the little embanked squares for water 3 .Now on the day of sowing, the brahmin said, " To-day, O Gotama, is my plowing festival 4 When this corn is ripe, I will give alms in plenty to the Order, with the Buddha at their head." The Master accepted his offer, and went away. On another day he came, and saw the brahmin watching the corn. "What are you doing, brahmin ?" asked he. "Watching the corn, Gotama !" " Very good, brahmin," said the Master, and away he went. Then the brahmin thought, " How often Gotama the ascetic comes this way Without doubt he ! wants food. Well, food I will give him." On the day when this thought came into his mind, when he went home, there he found the Master come also. Thereat arose in the brahmin a wondrous great confidence. By and bye, when ripe was the corn, the brahmin resolved, to-morrow he would reap the field. But while he lay in bed, in the upper reaches of the Aciravati the rain poured in bucketsful down came a flood, and carried the : whole crop away to the sea, so that not one stalk was left. When the flood See No. 228 (ii. p. 149 of this translation). I.e. his capacity in the spiritual life. 3 Eefer to the following passage in Vedantaparibhasha 'yatha tadagodakam : kulyatmana kedaran pravicya tadvadeva catuskonadyakaram bhavati.' (For this note I am indebted to Prof. Cowell.) See also Sleeman, Uambles <&c. ii, 178. 4 There was a great yearly ceremony of this kind, at which the King held the plough see Hardy's Manual of Buddhism, p. 150. ; subsided, and the brahmin beheld the destruction of his crops, he had not the strength to stand: pressing his hand to his heart (for he was overcome with great sorrow) he went weeping home, and lay down lamenting. In the morning the Master saw this brahmin overwhelmed with his woe, and thought he, "I will be the brahmin's support." So next day, after his alms-round in Savatthi, on his return from receipt of food he sent the Brethren back to their monastery, and himself with the junior who attended him visited the man's house. [168] When the brahmin heard of his coming, he took heart, thinking " My friend — must be come for a kindly talk." He offered him a seat the Master entering ; sat upon the seat indicated, and asked, " Why are you downhearted, brahmin ? what has happened to displease you?" "0 Gotama!" said the man, "from the time that I cut down the trees on the bank of the Aciravati, you know what I have been doing. I have been going about, and promising gifts to you when that crop should be ripe: now a flood has carried off the whole crop, away to the sea, nothing is left at all Grain has been destroyed to the amount ! of a hundred waggon-loads, and so I am deep in grief!" "Why, will what is lost come back for grieving?" — — "No, Gotama, that will it not." "If that is so, why grieve ? The wealth of beings in this world, or their corn, when they have it, they have it, and when it is gone, why, gone it is. No composite thing but is subject to destruction ; do not brood over it." Thus comforting him, the Master repeated the Kama 1 Scripture as appropriate to his case. At the conclusion of the Kama, the mourning brahmin was established in the Fruit of the First Path. The Master having eased him of his pain, arose from his seat, and returned to the monastery. All the town heard how the Master had found such a brahmin pierced with the pangs of grief, had consoled him and established him in the Fruit of the First Path. The Brethren talked of it in the Hall of Truth " Hear, : Sirs! The Dasabala made friends with a brahmin, grew intimate, took his opportunity to declare the Law to him, when pierced with the pangs of grief, eased him of pain, established him in the Fruit of the First Path!" The Master came in, and asked, "What speak ye of, Brethren, as ye sit here together ?" They told him. He replied, " This is not the first time, Brethren, :" and with these words I have cured his grief, but I did the same long, long ago he told a story of the past. Once upon a time, Brahmadatta king of Benares had two sons. To the elder he gave the viceroyalty, the younger he made commanderin-chief. Afterwards when Brahmadatta was dead, the courtiers were for making the elder son king by the ceremonial sprinkling. But he said, " I care nought for a kingdom let my younger brother have it." : They begged and besought him, but he would none of it; and the younger was sprinkled to be king. The elder cared not for the viceroyalty, or any such thing and when they begged him to remain, and feed on the ; fat of the land, " Nay," quoth he, " I have nothing to do in this city," [169] and he departed from Benares. To the frontier he went; and dwelt with a rich merchant's family, working with his own hands. These after a while, learning that he was a king's son, would not allow him to work, but waited upon him as a prince should be attended. Now after a time the king's officers came to that village, for taking a survey of the fields. Then the merchant came to the prince, and said, i Kamamttam: in Sutta-Nipata, iv. i. (p. 146). See first stanza below. 106 The Jdtalca. Book XII. " My lord, we support you ; will you send a letter to your younger brother, and procure for us remission of taxes?" To this he agreed, and wrote as follows: "I am living with the family of such a merchant; 1 pray you remit their taxes for my sake.'' The king consented, and so did. Thereupon all the villagers, and the people of the country side, came to him, and said, " Get our taxes remitted, and we will pay taxes to you." For them too he sent his petition, and got the taxes remitted. After that the people paid their taxes to him. Then his receipts and honour were great ; and with this greatness grew his covetousness also. So by degrees he asked for all the district, he asked for the office of viceroy, and the younger brother gave it all. Then as his greed kept growing, he was not content even with viceroyalty, and determined to seize the kingdom; to which end he set out with a host of people, and taking up a position outside the city, sent a letter to his younger brother — "Give me the kingdom, or fight for it.'' The younger brother thought " This fool refused once kingdom, : and viceroyalty, and all ; and now says he, I will take it by battle If I ! " slay him in battle, it will be my shame ; what care I for being king ? So he sent a message, " I have no wish to fight you may have the : kingdom." The other accepted it, and made his younger brother viceroy. Thenceforward he ruled the kingdom. But so greedy was he, that one kingdom could not content him, but he craved for two kingdoms, then for three, [170] and yet saw no end to his greed. At that time Sakka, king of the Gods, looked abroad " Who ai-e : they," thought he, "carefully tend their parents? who give alms and do good? who are in the power of greed?" He perceived that this man was subject to greed : "Yon fool," thought he, "is not satisfied with being king of Benares. Well, I will teach him a lesson." So in the guise of a young brahmin, he stood at the door of the palace, and sent in word, that at the door stood a clever young man. He was admitted, and wished victory to the king then the king said, " Why have you come ? ; "Mighty King!" he answered, "I have a thing to say to you, but I desire privacy." By power of Sakka, at that very instant the people retired. Then said the young man, " O great king I know three cities, ! prosperous, thronged with men, strong in troops and horses : of these by my own power I will obtain the lordship, and deliver it to you. But you must make no delaying, and go at once." The king being full of covetise gave his consent. (But by Sakka's power he was prevented from asking, "Who are you? whence come? and what are you to receive?") So much Sakka said, and then returned to the abode of the Thirty-three. Then the king summoned his courtiers, and thus addressed them . The quotation of the youth's words begins at tini. " A youth has been here, promising to capture and give me the lordship of three kingdoms Go, look for him ! Send the drum a-beating about ! the city, assemble the army, make no delay, for I am about to take three kingdoms!" "0 great king!" they said, "did you offer hospitality to the young man, or did you ask where he dwelt V " No, no, I offered him no hospitality, I did not ask where he dwelt: go, and look for him !" They searched, but found him not ; they informed the king, they could not in the whole city find the young man. On hearing this the king became gloomy. "The lordship over three cities is lost," he thought again and again: "I am shorn of great glory. Doubtless the young man went away angry with me, that I gave him no money for his expenses, nor a place to dwell in." [171] Then in his body, full of greed, a burning arose; as the body burnt, his bowels were moved to a bloody flux; as the food went in, so it came out; physicians could not cure him, the king was exhausted. His illness was bruited abroad all through the city. At that time, the Bodhisatta had returned to his parents in Benares from Takkasila, after mastering all branches of learning. He hearing the news about the king, proceeded to the palace door, with intent to cure him, and sent in a message, that a young man was there ready to cure the king. The king said, " Great and most renowned physicians, known far and near, are not able to cure me what can a young lad do ? : Pay his expenses, and let him depart." The young man made answer, " I want no fee for my physic, but I will cure him let him simply ; and solely pay me the price of my remedy." When the king heard this, he agreed, and admitted him. The young man saluted the king, " Fear nothing, O king " said he ! "I will cure you ; do but tell me the ; origin of your disorder." The king answered in wrath, "What is that to you 1 make up your medicine." " O great king," quoth he, " it is the way of physicians, first to learn whence the disease arises, then to make a remedy to suit." " Well, well, my son," said the king, and proceeded to tell the origin of the disease, beginning where that young man had come, and made his promise, that he would take and give to him the lordship over three cities. " Thus, my son, the disease arose from greed ; now cure it if you can." "What, O king !" quoth he, "can you capture those cities by grieving?" — "Why no, my son."— "Since that is so, why grieve, O great king? Every thing, animate or inanimate, must pass away, and leave all behind, even its own body. [172] Even should you obtain rule over four cities, you could not at one time eat four plates of food, recline on four couches, wear four sets of robes. You ought not to be the slave of desire ; for desire, when it increases, allows no release from the four states of suffering." Thus having admonished him, the Great Being declared the Law in the following stanzas : 108 The Jataka. Booh XII " He that desires a thing, and then this his desire fulfilment blesses, Sure a glad-hearted man is he, because his wish he now possesses 1 . "He that desires a thing, and then this his desire fulfilment blesses, Desires throng on him more and more, as thirst in time of heat oppresses. " As in the horndd kine, the horn with their growth larger grows : So, in a foolish undisoerning man, that nothing knows, While grows the man, the more and more grows thirst, and craving grows "Give all the rice and corn on earth, slave-men, and kine, and horse, Tis not enough for one this know, and keep a righteous course. : "A king that should subdue the whole world wide, The whole wide world up to the ocean bound, With this side of the sea unsatisfied Would crave what might beyond the sea be found. "Brood on desires within the heart content will ne'er arise. Who turns from these, and the true cure descries, He is content, whom wisdom satisfies. " Best to be full of wisdom these no lust can set afire : Never the man with wisdom filled is slave unto desire. " Crush your desires, and little want, not greedy all to win : He that is like the sea is not burnt by desire within, But like a cobbler, cuts the shoe according to the skin. [173] "For each desire that is let go a happiness is won: He that all happiness would have, must with all lust have done." [174] But as the Bodhisatta was repeating these stanzas, his mind being concentrated on the king's white sunshade, there arose in him the mystic rapture attained through white light 2 The king on his part became whole and well; he arose in joy from his seat, and addressed him thus " When all those physicians could not heal me, a wise youth has : made me whole by the medicine of his wisdom " And he then repeated ! the tenth stanza [175] "Eight verses have you uttered, worth a thousand pieces each: Take, O great brahmin take the sum, for sweet is this your speech." ! At which the Great Being repeated the eleventh : "For thousands, hundreds, million times a million 4 nought care I:, As the last verse I uttered, in my heart desire did die." More and yet more delighted, the king recited the last stanza in praise of the Great Being : " Wise and good is indeed this youth, all the lore of all worlds knowing All desire in very truth is mother of misery by his showing." 1 Sutta-Nipata, iv. 1 (p. 146), verse 766. This ia one of the ten kinds of Kasina, or ways in which the devotee may fall into the mystic trance. See Childers, s.v. s Beginning with the second, those which explain the misery of desire are eight,' ' quoth the Scholiast. The first stanza, it will be remembered, is a quotation from Sutta-Nipata, and possibly may have been added later. 4 The number nahutam is 1 followed by 28 ciphers. "Great king!" said the Bodhisatta, "be circumspect, and walk in righteousness." Thus admonishing the king, he passed through the air to Himalaya, and living the life of a recluse, while life lasted, cultivated the Excellences, and became destined for the world of Brahma. This discourse ended, the Master said, "Thus, Brethren, in former days as now, I made this brahmin whole :" so saying, he identified the Birth "At : that time this brahmin was the king, and I was the wise young man."

[176] " Thus spake," etc. This story the Master told while dwelling at Jetavana, for the instruction of the King of Kosala. At one time, they say the king, intoxicated with power, and devoted to the pleasures of sin, held no court of justice, and grew remiss in attending upon the Buddha. One day he remembered the Dasabala; thought he, "I must visit him." So after breaking his fast, he ascended his magnificent chariot, and proceeding to the monastery, greeted him and took a seat. " How is it, great Bang," asked the Bodhisatta, "that you have not showed yourself for so long?" "O, sir," replied the king, "I have been so busy, that there has been no opportunity of waiting upon you." " Great King," quoth he, " not meet is it to neglect such as I am, who can give admonition, Supreme Buddhas, dwelling too in a monastery in front. A king ought to rule vigilant in all kingly duties, to his subjects like mother or father, forsaking all evil courses, never omitting the ten virtues of a king. When a king is righteous, those who surround him are righteous also. No marvel were it, in truth, if under my instruction you were to rule in righteousness; but wise men of old, even when there was no teacher to instruct them, by their own understanding established in the threefold practice of well-doing, declared the Law to a great multitude of people, and with all their attendants went to swell the hosts of heaven." With these words, at his request, the Master told a story of the past. Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as son of his Queen Consort. They gave him the name of Prince Janasandha. Now when he came of age, and had returned from Takkasila, where he had been educated in all accomplishments, the king gave a general pardon to all prisoners, and gave him the viceroyalty. Afterwards when his father died, he became king, and then he caused to be built six almonries : at the four gates of the city, in the midst of it, and at the palace gate. There day by day he used to distribute six hundred thousand pieces of money, and stirred up all India with his almsgiving the prison doors he opened for good and all, the places of : execution he destroyed, all the world he protected with the four sorts of beneficence , [177] he kept the five virtues, observed the holy fast-day, and ruled in righteousness. From time to time he would gather together his subjects, and declare the Law to them " Give alms, practise virtue, : righteously follow your business and calling, educate yourselves in the days of your youth, gain wealth, do not behave like a village cheat or a dog, be not harsh nor cruel, do your duty in caring for mother and for father, in family life honour your elders.'' Thus he con6rmed multitudes of people in good living. Once on the holy day, fifteenth of the fortnight, having undertaken to keep the holy day, he thought to himself, " I will declare the Law to the multitudes, for the continual increase of good and blessing to them, and to make them vigilant in their life." Then he caused the drum to beat, and beginning with the women of his own household, gathered together all the people of the city. In the courtyard of his palace he sat, on a splendid couch set apart, beneath a pavilion adorned with jewels, and declared the Law in these words " O people of the city to you I will : ! declare the practices that will cause you suffering, and those which will not. Be vigilant, and hear with care and attention." The Master opened his mouth, a precious jewel among mouths, full of truth, and with a voice sweet as honey explained this address of the king of Kosala : "Thus spake King Janasandha: Ten things in truth there be, Which if a man omit to do, he suffers presently. "Not to have got nor gathered store in time, the heart torments; To think he sought no wealth before he afterwards repents. "How hard is life for men untaught! he thinks, repenting sore That learning, which he now might use, he would not learn before. "A slanderer once, dishonest once, a backbiter unkind, Cruel, and harsh was I: good cause for sorrow now I find. [178] " A slayer was I, merciless, and to no creature gave, Contemptible: for this (quoth he) much sorrow now I have. "When I had many wives (thinks he) to whom I owed their due, I left them for another's wife; which now I dearly rue. "When plenteous store of food and drink there was, he sorrows sore, To think he never gave a gift in the old time before. "He grieves to think that when he could, he would not care and tend Mother and father, now grown old, their youth now at an end 2 . Liberality, Affability, Impartiality, Good Rule. Compare Sutta-Nipata, 98, 124. No. 468. Ill "To have slighted teacher, monitor, or father, who would try To gratify his every wish, causes deep misery. " To have treated brahmins with neglect, ascetics many a one Holy, and learned, in the past, makes him repent anon. "Sweet is austerity performed, a good man honoured well: That he did no such thing before 'tis sad to have to tell. "Who these ten things in wisdom brings to full accomplishment, And to all men .his duty does, will never need repent." [180] Thus twice in the month did the Great Being discourse in the same way to the multitude. And the multitude, established in his admonition, fulfilled these ten things, and became destined for heaven. When the Master had ended this discourse, he said, "Thus, great king, wise men of old, untaught and from their own intelligence, declared the Law, and established multitudes in the way to heaven." With these words, he identified the Birth : "At that time the Buddha's followers were the people, and I was myself King Janasandha."

"A black, black hound," etc. This story the Master told while dwelling at Jetavana, about living for the benefit of the world. One day, they say, the Brethren as they sat in the Hall of Truth, were talking together. "Sirs," one would say, "the Master, ever practising friendship towards the multitudes of the people, has forsaken an agreeable abode, and lives just for the good of the world. He has attained supreme wisdom, yet of his own accord takes bowl and robe, and goes on a journey of eighteen leagues or more. For the Five Elders he set a-rolling the Wheel of the Law; on the fifth day of the half-month he recited the Anattalakkhana 2 Scriptures, and bestowed sainthood upon them all; he went to Uruvela and , to the ascetics with matted hair he showed miracles three thousand and half a thousand, and persuaded them to join the Order; at Gayasisa he recited the Discourse upon Fire, and bestowed sainthood upon a thousand of these ascetics 1 The five who accompanied Buddha when he began his life as an ascetic : Anfia- kondanna, Bhaddiya, Vappa, Assaji, Mahanama. See Hardy, Manual, p. 165. 2 Hardy, p. 188. He there preached to the fire-worshippers. 3 Now Brahmayoni, a mountain near Gaya. See Hardy, p. 191. to Mahakassapa 1 when he had gone forward three miles to meet him, after , three discourses he gave the higher Orders all alone, after the noon-day meal, ; he went a journey of forty -five leagues, and then established in the Fruit of the Third Path Pukkusa (a youth of very good birth) to meet Mahakappina 1 ; he went forward a space of two thousand leagues, and bestowed sainthood upon him; alone, in the afternoon he went a journey of thirty leagues, and established in sainthood that cruel and harsh man Angulimala 2 thirty leagues ; also he traversed, and established Alavaka 3 in the Fruit of the First Path, and saved the prince; in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three he dwelt three months, and taught full comprehension of the Law to eight hundred millions of deities 4 to Brahma's world he went, and destroyed the false doctrine of Baka ; Brahma 6 and bestowed sainthood on ten thousand Brahmas ; every year he goes , on pilgrimage in three districts, and to such men as are capable of receiving, he gives the Refuges, the Virtues, and the fruits of the different stages; [181] he even acts for the good of snakes and garula birds and the like, in many ways." In such words they praised the goodness and worth of the Dasabala's life for the good of the world. The Master came in, and asked what they talked of as they sat there? They told him. "And no wonder, Brethren," said he. "I who now in my perfect wisdom would live for the world's good, even I in the past, in the days of passion, lived for the good of the world." So saying, he told a story of the past. Once upon a time, in the days of the Supreme Buddha Kassapa, there reigned a king named Usinara. It was a long time after the Supreme Buddha Kassapa had declared the Four Truths, and liberated multitudes of people from bondage, and had been translated to swell the number of those who dwell in Nirvana and the religion had fallen into decay. ; The Brethren gained their livelihood in the twenty-one unlawful ways ; they associated with the Sisters, and sons and daughters were born to them; Brethren forsook the duties of the Brotherhood, and Sisters forsook the duties of Sisters, lay Brethren and Sisters the duties of such, brahmins did no longer the duties of a brahmin men for the most part : followed the ten paths of evil-doing, and as they died thus filled the hosts of all states of suffering. Then Sakka, observing that no new deities came into being, looked abroad upon the world ; and then he perceived how men were born into states of suffering, and that the religion of the Buddha had decayed. "What shall I do, now?" he wondered. - "Ah, I have it!" thought he : "I will scare and terrify mankind ; and when I see they are terrified, 1 See 3. P. T. S. 1888, p. 67. 2 Hardy, p. 249. 8 This was a tree-demon, who claimed sacrifice of one victim every day. The King's own son was to be eaten, when Buddha saved him. Hardy, p. 261. 4 Hardy, p. 298. 6 The beings who dwelt in the three worlds of Brahma were called brahma.' ' The story alluded to here is given in No. 405 (iii. 219 of this translation); Hardy, Manual, p. 336. Cp. ii. p. 57 of this translation. I will console them, I will declare the Law, I will restore religion which has decayed, I will make it last for another thousand years!" With this resolve, he made the god Matali 1 into the shape of a huge black hound, of pure breed, having four tusks as big as a plantain, horrible, with a hideous shape and a fat belly, as of a woman ready to be delivered of a child; him fastening with five-fold chain, [182] and putting on him a red wreath, he led by a cord. Himself he put on a pair of yellow garments, and bound his hair behind his head, and donned a red wreath taking a ; huge bow, fitted with bowstring of the colour of coral, and twirling in his fingers a javelin tipt with adamant, he assumed the aspect of a forester, and descended at a spot one league away from the city. "The world is doomed to destruction, is doomed to destruction " he called out thrice ! with a loud sound, so that he terrified the people and when he reached; the entering in of the city, he repeated the cry. The people on seeing the hound were frightened, and hasted into the city, and told the king what had happened. The king speedily caused the city gates to be closed. But Sakka overleapt the wall, eighteen cubits in height, and with his hound stood within the city. The people in terror ran away into the houses, and made the doors fast. Big Blackie gave chase to every man he saw, and scared them, and finally entered into the king's palace. The people who in their fright had taken refuge in the courtyard, ran into the palace, and shut to the door. And as for the king, he with the ladies of his household went up on the terrace. Big Blackie raised his forefeet, and putting them in at the window roared a great roar ! The sound of his roaring reached from hell to the highest heaven the : whole universe was one great roar. The three great roars that were the loudest ever heard in India are these the cry of king Punnaka in the : Punnaka 2 Birth, the cry of the snake-king Sudassana in the Bhiiridatta Birth and this roar in the Maha-Kanha Birth, or the story of Big , Blackie 4 The people were terrified and horrified, and not a man of them could say a word to Sakka. The king plucked up heart, and approaching the window, cried out to Sakka " Ho, huntsman [183] why did your hound roar?" Quoth he, ! " The hound is hungry." " Well," said the king, " I will order some food to be given him." So he told them to give him his own food, and the food of all his household. The hound seemed to make but one mouthful of the whole, then roared again. Again the king put his question. " My hound is still hungry," was the reply. Then he had all the food of 1 His charioteer. a No such title occurs in this collection, a No. 543 (vi. 157). *Pour sounds are given as proverbial by Hardy, Manual, p. 263 ; two of which are the first and third of these. J. IV. 8 his elephants and horses and so forth brought and given to him. This also he finished off all at once ; and then the king had all the food in the city given him. He swallowed this in like manner, and roared again. Said the king, "This is no hound. Beyond all doubt he is a goblin. I will ask him wherefore he is come." So 'terrified with fear, he asked his question by repeating the first stanza : "A black, black hound, with five cords bound, with fangs all white of hue, Majestic, awful —mighty one ! what makes he here with you ?" On hearing this, Sakka repeated the second stanza : " Not to hunt game the BlackHound came, but he shall be of use To punish men, Uslnara, when I shall let him loose." Then said the king, "What, huntsman! will the hound devour the flesh of all men, [184] or of your enemies only?" "Only my enemies, great king." " And who are your enemies 1 " " Those, O king, who love unrighteousness, and walk wickedly." "Describe them to us," he asked. And the king of the gods described them in the stanzas : "When the false Brethren, bowl in hand, in one robe clad, shall choose Tonsured the plough to follow, then the Black Hound I will loose. " When Sisters of the Order shall in single robe be found, Tonsured, yet walking in the world, I will let loose the Hound. " What time ascetics, usurers, protruding the upper lip, Foul-toothed and filthy-haired shall be— the Black Hound I'll let slip. "When brahmins, skilled in sacred books and holy rites, shall use Their skill to sacrifice for pelf, the Black Hound shall go loose. "Whoso his parents now grown old, their youth now come to an end, Would not maintain, although he might 1 gainst him the Hound I'll send. , "Who to his parents now grown old, their youth now come to an end, Cries, Fools are ye ! gainst such as he the Black Hound I will send. "When men go after others' wives, of teacher, or of friend, Sister of father, uncle's wife, the Black Hound I will send. "When shield on shoulder, sword in hand, full-armed as highway men They take the road to kill and rob, I'll loose the Black Hound then. " When widows' sons, with skin groomed white, in skill all useless found, Strong-armed, shall quarrel and shall fight, then I will loose the Hound. "When men with hearts of evil full, false and deceitful men, Walk in and out the world about, I'll loose the Black Hound then." [186] When he had thus spoken, " These," said he, " are my enemies, O king " and he made as though he would let the hound leap forth and ! devour all those who did the deeds of enemies. But as all the multitude was terror-struck, he held in the hound by the leash, and seemed as Thus far the two verses occur in Sutta-Nipata, 98 and 124. No. 469. 115 it were to fix him to the spot ; then putting off the disguise of a hunter, by his power he rose and poised himself in the air, all blazing as it appeared, and said " O great king, I am Sakka king of the gods : Seeing that the world was about to be destroyed, I came hither. Now indeed men as they die are filling the states of suffering, because their deeds areevil, and heaven is become empty. From henceforth I will know how to deal with the wicked, but do you be vigilant." Then having in four stanzas well worth remembering declared the Law, and established the people in the virtues of liberality, he strengthened the waning power of religion so that it lasted for yet another thousand years, and then with Matali returned to his own place. When the Master had ended this discourse, he added " Thus, Brethren, in : ; former times as now I have lived for the good of the world " and then he identified the Birth " : At that time Ananda was Matali, and I was Sakka."

The Kosiya Birth will be given under the Sudhabhojana Birth 1 .

The Problem of Mendaka will be given under the Ummagga Birth No. 535, vol. v, p. 382 (Pali). 2 No. 546, vol. vi, p. 329 (Pali). 116 The Jataka. Book XII

MAHA-PADUM A- JATAK. A \ [187] "No king should," etc. This story the Master told while dwelling in Jetavana, about CiScamanavika, 2 . When the Dasabala first attained supreme wisdom, after disciples had multiplied, and innumerable gods and men had been born into heavenly states, and the seeds of goodness had been cast abroad, great honour was shown him, and great gifts given. The heretics were like fireflies after sunrise ; no honours and no gifts had they; in the street they stood, and cried out to the people, "What, is the ascetic Gotama the Buddha? We are Buddhas also Does that gift only bring great fruit, which is given to him ? That which ! is given to us also has great fruit for you Give to us also, work for us !" But ! cry as they would, no honour nor gifts they got. Then they came together in secret, and consulted " How can we cast a stain upon Gotama the ascetic in the : face of men, and put an end to his honour and his gifts 1" Now there was at that time in Savatthi a certain Sister, named CiScamanavika passing fair she was, full of all grace, a very sylph ; rays of brilliancy shone forth from her body. Some one uttered a counsel of cruelty thus " By the help : of CiScamanavika we will east a stain upon the ascetic Gotama, and put an end to his honour and the gifts he receives." " Yes," they all agreed, " that is the way to do it." She came to the monastery of the heretics, and greeted them, and stood still. The heretics said nothing to her. She said, "What blemish is there in me 1 Three times I have greeted you " She said again, " Sirs, what ! blemish is in me ? why do you not speak to me 1" They replied, " Know you not, Sister, that Gotama the ascetic is going about and doing us harm, cutting off all the honour and liberality that was shown us 1 — " I did not know it, Sirs ; but what can I do ? " " If you wish us well, Sister, by your own doing bring a stain upon the ascetic Gotama, and put an end to his honour and the gifts he receives." She replied, " Very good, Sirs, leave that to me do not ; trouble about it." With these words she departed. After that, she used all a woman's skill in deceit. When the people of Savatthi had heard the Law, and were coming away from Jetavana, she used to go towards Jetavana, clad in a robe dyed with cochineal, and with fragrant garlands in her hands. [188] When any one asked her, "Whither away at this hour 1 " she would reply " What have you to do with my goings and comings ? She spent the night in the heretics' monastery, which was close by Jetavana : and when early in the morning, the lay associates of the order came forth from the city to pay their morning salutation, she would meet them as though she had spent the night in Jetavana, going towards the city. If any one asked where she had stayed, she would answer, " What are my stayings and lodgings to you V But after some six weeks, she replied, " I spent the night in Jetavana, with Gotama the ascetic, in one fragrant cell." Then the unconverted began to wonder, could this be true, or not. After three or four months, she bound bandages about her belly, and made it appear as though she were with child, and wrapt a red robe around her. Then she declared that she was with child by the ascetic Gotama, and made blind fools believe. After eight or nine months, she fastened about her pieces of wood in a bundle, and over all her The introductory story, with a brief abstract of the other, is given in Dhammapada, p. 238 ff. a Who falsely accused the Buddha of incontinence : Hardy, Manual, p. 275. No. 472. 117 red robe ; hands, feet, and back she caused to be beaten with the jawbone of an ox, so as to produce swellings ; and made as though all her senses were wearied. One evening, when the Tathagata was sitting on the splendid seat of preaching, and was preaching the Law, she went among the congregation, and standing in front of the Tathagata, said — " great ascetic ! You preach indeed to great multitudes sweet is your voice, and soft is the lip that covers your teeth ; ; but you have got me with child, and my time is near yet you assign me ; no chamber for the childbirth, you give me no ghee nor oil what you will not do ; yourself, you do not ask another of the lay associates to do, the king of Kosala, or Anathapindika, or Visakha the great lay Sister. Why do you not tell one of them to do what is to be done for me ? You know how to take your pleasure, but you do not know how to care for that which shall be born " So she reviled ! the Tathagata in the midst of the congregation, as one might try to besmirch the moon's face with a handful of filth. The Tathagata stopt his discourse, and crying like a lion in clarion tones, he said, " Sister, whether that which you have said be true or false, you know and I know only." "Yes, truly," said she, " this happened through something that you and I only know of." Just at that moment, Sakka's throne became hot. Reflecting, he perceived the reason " Cincamanavika is accusing the Tathagata of what is not true." : Determined to clear up this matter, he came thither with four gods in his company. The gods took on them the shape of mice, [189] and all at once gnawed through the cords that bound the bundle of wood a wind-puff blew up : the robe she wore, and the bundle of wood was disclosed and fell at her feet the toes of both her feet were cut off 1 . The people cried out "A witch is accusing the Supreme Buddha " They spat on her head, and drove her forth ! from Jetavana with staves and clods in their hands. And as she passed beyond the range of the Tathagata's vision, the great earth yawned and showed a huge cleft, flames came up from the lowest hell, and she, enveloped in it as it were with a garment 2 which her friends should wrap about her, fell to the lowest hell and there was born again. The honour and receipts of the other heretics ceased, those of the Dasabala grew more abundantly. Next day they were conversing in the Hall of Truth " Brother, Cincamana- : vika falsely accused the Supreme Buddha, great in virtue, worthy of all gifts ! and she came to dire destruction." The Master entered, and asked what they talked of, sitting there together. They told him. Said he, " Not now only, Brethren, has this woman falsely accused me, and come to dire destruction, but it was the same before." So saying, he told a story of the past. Once upon a time 3 when Brahmadatta was king , of Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as the son of his chief queen ; and for that his all-blessed countenance was like to a lotus full-blown, Paduma-Kumara they named him, which is to say, the Lotus Prince. "When he grew 1 That this is the meaning is clear from the passive in the Dhammapada version, chijjirhsu, p. 340. s The meaning of this phrase is doubtful: in vol. ii. pp. 28 and 120, it is rendered 'royal woollen garment': it may mean 'wedding-garment' given to the bride by the bridegroom's friends (Grierson's Bihar Peasant Life, § 1322). 3 This theme, which resembles the story of Joseph and the wife of Potiphar, or Phaedra and Hippolytus, is common in various forms in India. One example is the Legend of Puran Mai (MS. written by Earn Gharib Sharma, Chaturvaidya, and collected by Mr W. Crooke). Another is the Legend of Hup and Basant, or Sit and Basant (MS.). In both of these the Queen falls in love with her step-son. up he was educated in all arts and accomplishments. Then his mother departed this life ; the king took another consort, and appointed his son viceroy. After this the king, being about to set forth to quell a rising on the frontier, said to his consort, " Do you, lady, stay here, while I go forth to quell the frontier insurrection." But she replied, " No, my lord, here I will not remain, but I will go with you." Then he showed her the danger which lay on the field of battle, adding to it this : " Stay then here without vexation until my return, and I will give charge to Prince Paduma, that he be careful in all that should be done for you, and then I will go." So thus he did, and departed. When he had scattered his enemies, and pacified the country, he returned, and pitched his camp without the city. The Bodhisatta learning of his father's return, [190] adorned the city, and setting a watch over the royal palace, went forth alone to meet his father. The Queen observing the beauty of his appearance, became enamoured of him. In taking leave of her, the Bodhisatta said, "Can I do anything for you, mother?" " Mother, do you call me 1 " quoth she. She rose up and seized his hands, saying, " Lie on my couch " " Why 1 " he asked. ! " Just until the king comes," she said, " let us both enjoy the bliss of love " ! " Mother, my mother you are, and you have a husband living. Such a thing was never before heard of, that a woman, a matron, should break the moral law in the way of fleshly lust. How can I do such a deed of pollution with you?" Twice and thrice she besought him, and when he would not, said she, "Then you refuse to do as I ask?" "Indeed I do — refuse." — Then I will speak to the king, and cause you to be beheaded." " " Do as you will," answered the Great Being ; and he left her ashamed. Then in great terror she thought: "If he tell the king first, there is no life for me ! I must get speech of him first myself." Accordingly leaving her food untouched she donned a soiled robe', and made nailscratches upon her body ; giving orders to her attendants, that what time the king should ask of the queen's whereabouts, he should be told she was ill, she lay down making a pretence of illness. Now the king made solemn procession about the city right-wise, and went up into his dwelling. When he saw her not, he asked, " Where is the queen?" "She is ill," they said. He entered the state chamber, and asked her, "What is amiss with you, lady?" She made as though she heard nothing. Twice and yet thrice he asked, and then she answered, " O great king, why do you ask ? Be silent women that have a husband : must be even as I am." " Who has annoyed you ? " said he. [191] "Tell me quickly, and I will have him beheaded." "Whom did you leave be- Beading, lamakavattham. No. 472. 119 hind you in this city, when you went away ? " " Prince Paduma." "And he," she went on, " came into my room, and I said, My son, do not so, I am your mother but say what I would, he cried, None is king here : but I, and I will take you to my dwelling, and enjoy your love then he ; seized me by the hair of my head, and plucked it out again and again, and as I would not yield to his will, he wounded and beat me, and departed." The king made no investigation, but furious as a serpent, commanded his men, "Go and bind Prince Paduma, and bring him to me!" They went to his house, swarming as it were through the city, and bound him and beat him, bound his hands fast behind his back, put about his neck the garland of red flowers making him a condemned criminal, , and led him thither, beating him the while. It was clear to him that this was the queen's doing, and as he went along he cried out, " Ho fellows, I am not one that has offended against the king ! I am innocent." All the city was a-bubble with the news : " They say the king is going to execute Prince Paduma at the bidding of a woman " They flocked ! together, they fell at the prince's feet, lamenting with a great noise, "You have not deserved this, my lord !" At last they brought him before the king. At sight of him, the king could not restrain what was in his heart, and cried out, "This fellow is no king, but he plays the king finely My son he is, yet he has ! insulted the queen. Away with him, down with him over the thieves' cliff, make. an end of him !" But the prince said to his father, "No such crime lies at my door, father. Do not kill me on a woman's word." The king would not listen to him. Then all those of the royal seraglio, in number sixteen thousand, raised a great lamentation, saying, "Dear Paduma, mighty Prince, this dealing you have never deserved!" [192] And all the warrior chiefs and great magnates of the land, and all the attendant courtiers cried, " My lord ! the prince is a man of goodness and virtuous observes the traditions of his race, heir to the kingdom life, Do ! not slay him at a woman's word, without a hearing king's duty A it is ! to act with all circumspection." So saying, they repeated seven stanzas "No king should punish an offence, and hear no pleas at all, 2. Not throughly sifting it himself in all points, great and small "The warrior chief who punishes a fault before he tries, Is like a man born blind, who eats his food all bones and flies. ""Who punishes the guiltless, and lets go the guilty, knows No- more than one who blind upon a rugged highway goes. 1 This was the vajjhamdla, put on the head or neck of a criminal condemned to death. In the Toy Cart, Act x, one being led forth to execution wears a wreath of Karavira flowers. The Pali has Kamavera, which is not known as a flower : this may be a corrupt form of the Sanskrit word. 2 These lines occur in Dhammapada, p. 311. : 120 The Jdtaka. Book XII "He who all this examines well, in things both great and small, And so administers, deserves to be the head of all. " He that would set himself on high must not all-gentle be Nor all-severe but both these things practise in company. : " Contempt the all-gentle wins, and he that's all-severe, has wrath : So of the pair be well aware, and keep a middle path. " Much can the angry man, Jang, and much the knave can say And therefore for a woman's sake thy son thou must not slay." [193] But for all they could say in many ways the courtiers could not win him to do their bidding. The Bodhisatta also, for all his beseeching, could not persuade him to listen nay, the king said, blind fool " Away : — ! down with him over the thieves' cliff " repeating the eighth stanza ! : " One side the whole world stands, my queen on the other all alone Yet her I cleave to cast him down the cliff, and get you gone !" : At these words, not one among the sixteen thousand women could remain unmoved, while all the populace stretched out their hands, and tore their hair, with lamentations. The king said, [194] "Let these but try to prevent the throwing of this fellow over the cliff! " and amidst his followers, though the crowd wailed around, he caused the prince to be seized,and cast down the precipice over heels head-first. Then the deity that dwelt in the hill, by power of his own kindliness, comforted the prince, saying, " Fear not, Paduma ! " and in both hands he caught him, pressed him to his heart, sent a divine thrill through him, set him in the abode of the serpents of the eight ranges within the hood , of the king of the serpents. The serpent king received the Bodhisatta into the abode of the serpents, and gave him the half of his own glory and state. There for one year he dwelt. Then he said, " I would go back to the ways of men." "Whither?" they asked. "To Himalaya, where I will live a religious life." The serpent king gave his consent; taking him, he conveyed him to the place where men go to and fro, and gave him the requisites of the religious, and went back to his own place. So he proceeded to Himalaya, and embraced the religious life, and cultivated the faculty of ecstatic bliss ; there he abode, feeding upon fruits and roots of the woodland. Now a certain wood-ranger, who dwelt in Benares, came to that place, and recognised the Great Being. "Are you not," he asked, "the great Prince Paduma, my lord?" "Yes, Sir," he replied. The other saluted him, and there for some days he remained. Then he returned to Benares, and said to the king ; " Your son, my lord, has embraced the religious life in the region of Himalaya, and lives in a hut of leaves. I have been staying with him, and thence I come.'' " Have you seen him with your See Wilson's Vishnu Purana, ii. p. 123. No. 472. 121 own eyes?" asked the king. "Yes, my lord." The king with a great host went thither, and on the outskirts of the forest he pitched his camp ; then with his courtiers around him, went to salute the Great Being, who sat at the door of his hut of leaves, in all the glory of his golden form, and sat on one side ; the courtiers also greeted him, and spoke pleasantly to him, and sat on one side. The Bodhisatta on his part invited the king to share his wild fruits, and talked pleasantly with him. Then said the king, "My son, [195] by me you were cast down. a deep precipice, and how is it you are yet alive ? " Asking which, he repeated the ninth stanza : "As into hell-mouth, you were cast over a beetling hill, No succour many palm-trees deep: how are you living still? These are the remaining *stanzas, and of the five, taken alternately, three were spoken by the Bodhisatta, and two by the king. "A Serpent mighty, full of force, born on that mountain land, Caught me within his coils; and so here safe from death I stand." " Lo !I will take you back, O prince, to my own home again : And there—what is the wood to you?—with blessing you shall reign." " As who a hook has swallowed, and draws it forth all blood, Drawn forth, is happy so I see in me this bliss and good." : " Why speak you thus about a hook, why speak you thus of gore, Why speak about the drawing out? come tell me, I implore." "Lust is the hook: fine elephants and horse by blood I show; These by renouncing I have drawn this, chieftain, you must know." ; [196] "Thus, O great king, to be king is nothing to me but do you ; see to it, that you break not the Ten Royal Virtues, but forsake evildoing, and rule in righteousness." In those words the Great Being admonished the king. He with weeping and wailing departed, and on the way to his city he asked his courtiers " On whose account was it : that I made a breach with a son so virtuous?" they replied, "The queen's." Her the king caused to be seized, and cast headlong over the thieves' cliff, and entering his city ruled in righteousness. When the Master had ended this discourse, he said, " Thus, Brethren, then this and woman maligned me in days of yore, and came to dire destruction ; identified the Birth by repeating the last stanza : "Lady Cinca was my mother, Devadatta was my father, I was then the Prince their son: Sariputta was the spirit, And the good snake, I declare it, Was Ananda. I have done."

M1TTAMITTA-JATAKA. "How should the wise," etc. This story the Master told while dwelling in Jetavana, about an upright courtier of the king of Kosala. This man, they say, was most useful to the king, and then the king bestowed on him great honour. The other courtiers being unable to stomach him, accused him to the king of having done things to the king's hurt. The king made enquiry about him, and finding in him no fault, thought, "I see no fault in the man how can I know whether he be my friend or foe ? " Then ; he thought, "No one, save the Tathagata, [197] will be able to decide this question ; I will go and ask him.' So after he had broken his fast he visited the Master, and said, " How can one tell, Sir, of any man, whether he be friend or foe 1" Then the Master replied, " Wise men of old, king, have pondered this problem, and have questioned the wise about it, and following their advice, have discovered the truth, and renouncing their enemies have paid attention to their friends." This said, at his request, he told a story of the past. Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta was a courtier who advised him on things spiritual and things temporal. At that time, the rest slandered a certain courtier who was upright.The king seeing no fault in him, asked the Great Being, "Now in what can one tell friend or foe t" repeating the first stanza : "How should the wise and prudent strive, how may discernment know, What deeds declare to eye or ear the man that is a foe?" Then the Great Being repeated these five stanzas to explain the marks of an enemy : "He smiles not when you see him, no welcome will he show, He will not turn his eyes that way, and answers you with No. 1 "Your enemies he honours, he cares not for your friends, Those who would praise your worth, he stays, your slanderers commends. " No secret tells he to you, your secret he betrays, Speaks never well of what you do, your wisdom will not praise. " He joys not at your welfare, but at your evil fame : Should he receive some dainty, he thinks not of your name, Nor pities you, nor cries aloud 0, had my friend the same ! "These are the sixteen tokens by which a foe you see These if a wise man sees or hears he knows his enemy 2 ." [198] "How should the wise and prudent strive, what will discernment lend, What deeds declare to eye and ear the man that is a friend 1 " Thia couplet has occurred already in vol. ii. p. 92, of the translation. This also occurs above, vol. ii. p. 92, of this translation (two words differ). No. 473. 123 The other, thus questioned in these lines, recited the remaining stanzas : " The absent he remembers returned, he will rejoice ; Then in the height of his delight he greets you with his voice. "Your foes he never honours, he loves to serve your friends, Those who would slander you, he stays who praise you, he commends. ; "He tells his secrets to you, your secret ne'er betrays, Speaks ever well of all you do, your wisdom loves to praise. " He joys to hear your welfare, not in your evil fame : Should he receive some dainty, he straight thinks on your name, And pities you, and cries aloud— had my friend the same "These are the sixteen tokens in friends established well, Which if a wise man sees or hears he can a true friend tell." [199] The king, delighted at the speech of the Great Being, gave him the highest honour. The Master, having ended this discourse, said, "Thus, great king, this question arose in days of yore, even as now, and wise men said then- say; by these two-and-thirty signs may friend_or foe be known." With those words, he identified the Birth " At that time, Ananda was the king, and I myself : was the wise courtier."

[200] "Young student, when," etc. This story the Master told while dwelling in Jetavana, about Devadatta. Devadatta repudiated his teacher, saying, "I will be Buddha myself, and Gotama the ascetic is no teacher or monitor of mine!" So, aroused from his mystic meditation, he made a breach in the Order. Then step by step he proceeded to Savatthi, and outside Jetavana, the earth yawned, and he went down into the hell Avici. Then they were all talking of it in the Hall of Truth — " Brother, Devadatta : deserted his Teacher, and came to dire destruction, being born to another life in the deep hell Avici !" The Master, entering, asked what they spoke of, and they told him. Said he, "Not now only, but in former days, as now, Devadatta deserted his teacher, and came to dire destruction." So saying, he told a story of the past. Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was King of Benares, his chaplain's family was destroyed by malarial fever . One son only broke through the wall 2 and escaped. He came to Takkasila, and under a world-renowned teacher learnt all the arts and accomplishments. Then he bade his teacher farewell, and departed, with the intent to travel in different regions ; and on his travels he arrived at a frontier village. Near to this was a great village of low-caste Oandalas. Then the Bodhisatta abode in this village, a learned sage. A charm he knew which could make fruit to be gathered out of due season. Early of a morning he would take his carrying pole, forth from that village he would go, until he reached a mango tree which grew in the forest ; and standing seven foot off, he would recite that charm, [201] and throw a handful of water so as to strike on that tree. In a twinkling down fall the sere See No. 178, and note on p. 55 of vol. ii. of this translation. See I.e. note 2. No. 474. 125 leaves, sprout forth the new, flowers blow and flowers fall, the mango fruits swell out : but one moment —they are ripe, they are sweet and luscious, theygrow like fruit divine, they drop from the tree The ! Great Being chooses and eats such as he will, then fills the baskets hung from his pole, goes home and sells the fruit, and so finds a living for wife and child. Now the young brahmin saw the Great Being offer ripe mangoes for sale out of season. "Without doubt," thought he, "it must be by virtue of some charm that these are grown. This man can teach me a charm which has no price." He watched to see the manner in which the Great Being procured his fruit, and found it out exactly. Then he went to the Great Being's house at the time when he was not yet returned from the forest, and making as though he knew nothing, asked the wise man's wife, "Where is the Teacher?" Quoth she, "Gone to the woods." He stood waiting until he saw him come, then went to him, and taking the pole and baskets from him, carried them into the house and there set them. The Great Being looked at him, and said to his wife, " Lady, this youth has come to get the charm but no charm will stay with him, ; for no good man is he." But the youth was thinking, " I will get the charm by being my teacher's servant ;" and so from that time he did all that was to be done in the house brought wood, pounded the rice, : did the cooking, brought all that was needed for washing the face, washed the feet. One day when the Great Being said to him, "My son, bring me a stool to support my feet," the youth, seeing no other way, kept the Great Teacher's feet on his own thigh all night. When at a later season the Great Being's wife brought forth a son, he did all the service that has to be done at a childbirth. The wife said one day to the Great Being : — "Husband, this lad, well-born though he is, for the charm's sake performs menial service for us. Let him have the charm, whether it stays with him or no." To this he agreed. [202] He taught him the charm, and spoke after this fashion : "My son, 'tis a priceless charm; and you will get great gain and honour thereby.- But when the king, or his great minister, shall ask you who was your teacher, do not conceal my name for if you are ashamed that a low-caste man taught you the charm, and say your teacher was a great magnate of the brahmins, you will have no fruit of the charm." "Why should I hide your name?" quoth the lad. "Whenever I am asked, I shall say it is you." Then he saluted departed, pondering on the his teacher, and from the low-caste village he charm, and in due time came to Benares. There he sold mangoes, and gained much wealth. Now on a day the keeper of the park presented to the king a mango which he had bought from him. The king, having eaten it, asked whence he procured so fine a fruit. "My lord," was the answer, "there is a young man who brings mangoes out of season, and sells them from : him I procured it." "Tell him," says the king, "from henceforth to bring the mangoes hither to me." This the man did; and from that time the young man took his mangoes to the king's household. The king, inviting him to enter his service, he became a servant of the king ; and gaining great wealth, by degrees he grew into the king's confidence. One day the king asked him, and said : — " Young man, where do you get these mangoes out of season, so sweet and fragrant and of fine colour 1 Does some serpent or garula give them to you, or a god, or is this the power of magic?" "No one gives them to me, mighty king!" replied the young man, "but I have a priceless charm, and this is the power of the charm." " Well, what do you say to showing me the power of the charm one of these days?" "By all means, my lord, and so I will," quoth he. Next day the king went with him into the park, and asked to be shown this charm. The young man was willing, and approaching a mango tree, stood at a distance of seven foot from it, and repeated the charm, throwing water against the tree. On the instant the mango tree had fruit in the manner above described [203] a shower of mangoes : fell, a very storm the company showed great delight, waving their ; kerchiefs; the king ate of the fruit, and gave him a great reward, and said, "Young man, who taught you this charm so marvellous?" Now thought the young man, If I say a low-caste candala taught me, I shall be put to shame, and they will flout at me I know the charm by ; heart, and now I can never lose it well, I will say it was a world- ; renowned teacher. So he lied, and said, " I learnt it at Takkasila, from a teacher renowned the wide world over." As he said the words, denying his teacher, that very instant the charm was gone. But the king, greatly pleased, returned with him into the city. On another day the king desired mangoes to eat and going into the ; park, and taking his seat upon a stone bench, which was used on state occasions, he bade the youth get him mangoes. The youth, willing enough, went up to a mango tree, and standing at a distance of seven foot from the tree, set about repeating the charm but the charm would ; not come. Then he knew that he had lost it, and stood there ashamed. But the king thought, " Formerly this fellow gave me mangoes even in the midst of a crowd, and like a heavy shower the fruit rained down. Now there he stands like a stock what can the reason be ? " Which he : enquired by repeating the first stanza : " Young student, when I asked it you of late, You brought me mango fruit both small and great: Now no fruit, brahmin, on the tree appears, Though the same charm you still reiterate!" No. 474. 127 When he heard this, the young man thought to himself, if he should say this day no fruit was to be had, the king would be wroth ; wherefore he thought to deceive him with a lie, and repeated the second stanza " The hour and moment suit not so wait I : Fit junction of the planets in the sky. [204] The due conjunction and the moment come, Then will I bring you mangoes plenteously." "What is this !" the king wondered. "The fellow said nothing of planetary conjunctions before ! " To resolve which questions, he repeated two stanzas : " You said no word of times and seasons, nor Of planetary junctions heretofore: But mangoes, fragrant, delicate in taste, Of colour fine, you brought in plenteous store. "Aforetime, brahmin, you produced so well Fruit on the tree by muttering of your spell To-day you cannot, mutter as you may. What means this conduct, I would have you tell?" Hearing this, the youth thought, "There is no deceiving the king with lies. If, when the truth is told, he punishes me, let him punish me but : the truth I will tell." Then he recited two stanzas : "A low-caste man my teacher was, who taught Duly and well the charm, and how it wrought: Saying, If you are asked my name and birth, ' Hide nothing, or the charm will come to nought.' "Asked by the Lord of Men, though well I knew, Yet in deceit I said what was not true; 'A brahmin's spells,' I lying said; and now, Charm lost, my folly bitterly I rue." [205] This heard, the king thought within himself, " The sinful man to take no care of such a treasure ! When one has a treasure so priceless, what has birth to do with it 1 " And in anger he repeated the following stanzas "Nimb, castor oil, or plassey tree 1 whatever be the tree , Where he who seeks finds honeycombs, 'tis best of trees, thinks he. " Be it Khattiya, Brahmin, Vessa, he from whom a man learns right— Sudda, Candala, Pukkusa— seems chiefest in his sight ." 1 Butea Frondosa. As Plassey was named from this tree, it is perhaps admissible as a name of the tree. 2 These are the names of six castes : Kshatriya, Brahman, Vai<?ya, Qiidra, the four castes familiar in Sanskrit books, together with two Candala and Pukkaca, both mixed castes and much despised. More about these castes, and the Buddhist system as contrasted with the Brahminical, may be seen in B. Fick's Sociale Gliederung im N.-O. 128 The Jataha. Booh XIII. "Punish the worthless churl, or even slay, Hence hale him by the throat without delay, Who having gained a treasure with great toil, Throws it with overweening pride away !" The king's men so did, saying, " Go back to your teacher, and win his forgiveness ; then, if you can learn the charm once more, you may come hither again, but if not, never more may you set eyes on this country." Thus they banished him. The man was all forlorn. "There is no refuge for me," he thought, " except my teacher. To him I will go, and win his pardon, and learn the charm again." So lamenting he went on his way to that village. [206] The Great Being perceived him coming, and pointed him out to his wife, saying, " See, lady, there comes that scoundrel again, with his charm lost and gone " The man approached the Great Being, and greeted him, ! and sat on one side. "Why are you here?" asked the other. "O my teacher!" the man said, "I uttered a lie, and denied my teacher, and I am utterly ruined and undone!" Then he recited his transgression in a stanza, asking again for the charms : "Oft he who thinks the level ground is lying at his foot, Falls in a pool, pit, precipice, trips on a rotten root Another treads what seems a cord, a jet-black snake to find Another steps into the fire because his eyes are blind : So I have sinned, and lost my spell but you, teacher wise, ; Forgive and let me once again find favour in your eyes ! ! Then his teacher replied, " "What say you, my son 1 Give but a sign to the blind, he goes me clear of pools and what not but I told it to ; you once, and what do you want here now?" Then he repeated the following stanzas : "To you in right due manner I did tell, You in due manner rightly learnt the spell, Full willingly its nature I explained : Ne'er had it left you, had you acted well. [20V] " Who with much toil, O fool hath learnt a spell ! Full hard for those who now in this world dwell, Then, foolish one a living gained at last, ! Throws all away, because he lies will tell, "To such a fool, unwise, of lying fain, Ungrateful,who can not himself restrain, quotha mighty spells we give not him Spells, ! Go hence away, and ask me not again !" Indien zu Buddha's Zeit, Kiel, 1897. Fick denies that the Suddas were ever a real caste (p. 202). For Canddla, see p. 203; for Pukkusa, p. 206; both, in his opinion, non-Aryan subject races, serfs almost. The order of the list in our verse should be noticed. The Jataka gives the Khattiyas, or Warriors, precedence over the Brahmins. Thus dismissed by his teacher, the man thought, "What is life to me ?" and plunging into the woods, died forlorn. The Master having made an end of this discourse, said, "Not now only, Brother, has Devadatta denied his teacher, and come to dire destruction ;" and so saying, he identified the Birth " At that time Devadatta was the ungrateful : man, Ananda was the king, and I was the low caste man."

" — man, who stand," etc. This story the Master told on the bank of the river BohinI, about a family quarrel. The circumstances will be described at large under the Kunala 1 Birth. On this occasion the Master addressed himself to the kinsmen, king, and said : Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, there stood without the city a village of carpenters. In it was a brahmin carpenter, who gained his livelihood by bringing wood from the forest, and making carts. At that time there was a great plassey 2 tree in the region of Himalaya. [208] A black Lion used to go and lie at its root when a-hunting for food. One day a wind smote the tree, and a dry branch fell, and came down upon his shoulder. The blow gave him pain, and speedily in fear he uprose, and sprang away; then turning, he looked on the path he came by, and seeing nothing, thought, " There is no other lion or tiger, nor any in pursuit. Well, methinks, the deity of yon tree cannot away with my lying there. I will find out if so it be." So thinking, he grew angry out of season, and struck the tree, and cried —" Not a leaf on your tree I eat, not a branch I break you can put up with other creatures abiding ; here, and you cannot put up with me What is wrong with me ? Wait ! » No. 536. 2 The phandana (tJ4«^«n is a tree of the same kind as the palasa, ' butea frondosa.' J. iv. 9 130 The Jataka. .Book XIII. a few days, and I will tear you out root and branch, I will get you chopt up chi lineal !" Thus he upbraided the deity of the tree, and then away | he went in search of a man. At that time the brahmin carpenter aforesaid with two or three other men, had come in a waggon to that neighbourhood, to get wood for his trade of cartwright. He left his waggon in a certain spot, and then adze and hatchet in hand went searching for trees. He happened to come, near this plassey tree. The Lion seeing him went and stood under the tree, for, thought he, "to-day I must see the back of my enemy!" But the wright looking this way and that fled from the neighbourhood of the tree. " I will speak to him before he gets quite away," thought the Lion, and repeated the first stanza : "O man, who stand with axe in hand, within this woodland haunt, Come tell me true, I ask of you, what tree is it you want ?" " Lo, a miracle!" quoth the man, on hearing this address, "I swear, I never yet saw beast that could talk like a man. [209] Of course he will know what kinds of wood are good for the cartwright. I'll ask him." Thus thinking, he repeated the second stanza " Up hill, down dale, along the plain, a king you range the wood : Come tell me true, I ask of you what tree for wheels is good ?" The Lion listened, and said to himself, " Now I shall gain my heart's desire !" then he repeated the third stanza : "Not sal, acacia, not mare's-ear much less a shrub 2 is good; , There is a tree they call plassey, and there's your best wheel-wood." The man was pleased to hear this, and thought, "A happy day it was brought me into the woodlaud. Here's a creature in the shape of a beast to tell me what wood is good for the wheelwright! Hey, but that's fine!" So he questioned the Lion in the fourth stanza : "What is the fashion of the leaves, what sort the trunk to see, Come tell me true, I ask of you, that I may know that tree?" In reply the Lion repeated two stanzas : " This is the tree whose branch you see droop, bend, but never break This is the plassey, on whose roots my standing-place I take. "For spoke or felloe, pole of car, or wheel, or any part, This plassey tree will do for thee in making of a cart." After this declaration, the Lion moved aside, joy in his heart. The wright began to fell the tree. Then the tree-deity thought, "I never dropt anything on that beast ; he fell in a rage out of season, and now he Vatica Robusta : so called from the shape of its leaves. dhavo: Grislea Tomentosa. No. 475. 131 is my home, and I too shall be destroyed. [210] I must for destroying find some way of destroying his majesty." So assuming the shape of a woodman, he came up to the wright, and said to him, " Ho man a fine ! tree you have there what will you do with it when it is down?" "Make ! a cart wheel." — " What has any one told you that tree good a ! is for cart?" "Yes, a black Lion." — "Very good, well said black Lion. You can make a fine cart out of that tree, says he. But I tell you that if you flay off the skin from a black lion's neck, and put it around the outer edge of the wheel, like a sheath of iron, just a strip four fingers wide, the wheel will be very strong, and you will gain a great deal by it." — " But where can I get the skin of a black lion ? " — " How stupid you are ! The tree stands fast in the forest, and won't run away. You go and find the lion who told you about this tree, and ask him in what part of the tree you are to cut, and bring him here. Then while he suspects nothing, and points out this place or that, wait- till he sticks his jaw out, and smite him as he speaks with your sharpest axe, kill him, take the skin, eat the best of the flesh, and fell the tree at your leisure." Thus he indulged his wrath. To explain this matter, the Master repeated the following stanzas : " Thus did at once the plassey tree his will and wish make clear : 'I too a message have to tell O Bharadvaja, hear : " ' From shoulder of the king of beasts cut off four inches wide, And put it round the wheel, for so more strong it will abide.' "So in a trice the plassey tree, indulging in his ire, On lions born and those unborn brought down destruction dire." The cartwright hearing the tree-deity's directions, cried out, " Ah, this is a lucky day for me!" He killed the Lion, cut down the tree, and away he went. [211] The Master explained the matter by reciting : "Thus plassey tree contends with beast 1 and beast with tree contends, , So each with mutual dispute to death the other sends. "So among men, where'er a feud or quarrel doth arise, They, as the beast and tree did now, cut capers peacock- wise 2 . " This tell I you, that well is you what time ye are at one Be of one mind, and quarrel not, as beast and tree have done. The word is iso, 'lord,' i.e. lion, king of beasts. So above. 2 The scholiast explains that men expose themselves in a quarrel, as peacocks expose their privy parts. This is perhaps an allusion to No. 32. 132 The Jataka. Book XIII. " Learn peace with all men ; this the wise all praise ; and who is fain Of peace and righteousness, he sure will final peace attain." When they heard the discourse of the king, they were reconciled. The Master, having brought this discourse to an end, identified the Birth : "At that time, I was the deity who lived in that wood, and saw the whole business."

"Come, Goose," etc. —This story the Master told at Jetavana about the Dalhadhamma Suttanta or the Parable of the Strong Men. The Blessed One said " Suppose, Brethren, four archers to stand at the four points of the : compass, strong men, well trained and of great skill, perfect in archery ; and then let a man come and say, If these four archers, strong, well trained, and ' of great skill, perfect in archery [212] shoot forth arrows from four points, I will catch those arrows as they are shot, and before they touch the ground' would you not agree, sure enough, that he must be a very swift man and the perfection of swiftness? Well, Brethren, great as the swiftness of such a man might be, great as the swiftness of sun and moon, there is something swifter: great, I say, Brethren, as the swiftness of such a man might be, great as the swiftness of the sun and moon, and though the gods outfly sun or moon in swiftness, there is something swifter than the gods: great, Brethren, as the swiftness of that man (and so forth), yet more swiftly than the gods can go, the elements which make up life do decay. Therefore, Brethren, this ye must learn, to be careful; verily I say unto you, this ye must learn." Two days after this teaching, they were talking about it in the Hall of Truth: " Brethren, the Master in his own peculiar province as Buddha, illustrating the nature of what makes up life, showed it to be transient and weak, and smote with extreme terror Brethren and unconverted alike. Oh, the might of a Buddha!" The Master entering asked what they talked of. They told him; and he said, " It is no marvel, Brethren, if I in my omniscience alarm the Brethren by my teaching, and show how transient are life's elements. Even I, when without natural cause I was conceived by a Goose, showed forth the transient nature of the elements of life, and by my teaching alarmed the whole court of a king, together with the king of Benares himself." So saying, he told a story of the past. Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king in Benares, the Great Being was born as a swift Goose, which lived in Mount Cittakuta in a A mode of coming into existence all of a sudden, without the natural processes, flock of ninety thousand other such Geese. One day, having along with his flock eaten the wild rice that grew in a certain pool in the plains of India, he flew through the air (and it was as though a golden mat were spread from end to end of the city of Benares), and he flew slowly as in sport to Cittakuta. Now the king of Benares saw him ; and said to his courtiers, "Yon bird must be a king, as I am." He took a fancy to the bird, and taking with him garlands, perfumes and unguents, went looking for the Great Being; and with him he caused to go all manner of musick. When the Great Being saw him doing honour in this way, he asked the other Geese, [213] " When a king would do such honour to me, what does he want?" "He wants to make friends with you, my lord." "Well, let me be friends with the king," quoth he; and he made friends with the king, and then returned. One day after this, when the king was in his park, and went to Lake Anotatta, the bird flew to the king, having water on one wing and powder .of sandalwood on the other ; with the water he sprinkled the king, and cast the powder upon him, then while the company looked on, away he flew with his flock to Cittakuta. From that time the king used to long for the Great Being he;would linger, watching the way by which he came, and thinking — " To-day my comrade will come." Now the two youngest Geese belonging to the flock of the Great Being, made up their minds to fly a race with the sun ; so they asked leave of the Great Being, to try a race with the sun. " My lads," quoth he, " the sun's speed is swift, and you will never be able to race with him. You will perish in the course, so do not go." A second time they asked, and a third time; but the Bodhisatta withstood them up to the third time of asking. But they stood to it, not knowing their own strength, and were resolved without telling the king to fly with the sun. So before sunrise they had taken their places on the peak of the Mount Yugandhara The Great Being missed them, and asked whither they had gone. When he heard what had happened, he thought, "They will never be able to fly with the sun, but will perish in the course. I will save their lives." So he too went to the peak of Yugandhara, and sat beside them. When the sun's round showed over the horizon, the young Geese rose, and darted forward along with the sun; the Great Being flew forward with them. The youngest flew on into the forenoon, then grew faint in the joints of ; his wings he felt as if a fire had been kindled. Then he made a signal to the Great Being " Brother, I can't do it " " Fear not," said the Great ! : Being, " I will save you ; " and taking him on his outspread wings, he soothed him, and conveyed him to Mount Cittakuta, and placed him in the midst of the Geese. Then he flew off, and catching up the sun, went One of the seven great ranges that surround Mount Meru. 134 The Jdtaka. Book XIII. on side by side with the other. Until near midday [214] the other flew with the sun, and then he grew faint and felt as though a fire had been kindled in the joints of his wings. Making a sign to the Great Being, he cried, "Brother, I cannot do it !" Him too the Great Being comforted in the same way, and taking him on his outspread wings, bore him to Cittakuta. At that moment the sun was plumb overhead. The Great Being thought, "To-day I will test the sun's strength;" and darting back with one swoop, he perched on Yugandhara. Then rising with one swoop he overtook the sun, and flying now in front, now behind, thought to himself, " Forme to fly with the sun is profitless, born of mere folly : what is he to me Away I will to Benares, and there tell my comrade t the king a message of righteousness and truth." Then, turning, ere yet the sun had moved from the middle of the sky, he traversed the whole world from end to end ; then slackening speed, traversed from end to end the whole of India, and came at last to Benares. The whole city, twelve leagues in compass, was as it were under the bird's shadow ', there, was not a crack or crevice ; then as by degrees the speed slackened, holes and crevices appeared in the sky. The Great Being went slower, and came down from the air, and alighted in front of a window. "My comrade is come " cried the king in great joy ; and getting a golden ! seat for the bird to perch on, said, " Come in, friend, and sit here," and recited the first stanza : " Come, noble Goose, come sit you here ; dear is your sight to me Now you are master of the place; choose anything you see." The Great Being perched on the golden seat. The king anointed him under the wings with unguents a hundred times refined, nay, a thousand times, gave him sweet rice and sugared water in a golden dish, and talked with him in a voice of honey — [215] " Good friend, you have come alone ; whence come you now " The bird told him the whole matter at large. Then the king said to him " Friend, : show me too your swiftness against the sun." " O mighty king, that swiftness cannot be shown." — "Then show me something like it." — " Very good, O king, I will show you something like it. Summon your archers who can shoot swift as lightning." The king sent for them. The Great Being chose four of these, and with them went down from the palace into the courtyard. There he caused to be set up in the ground a stone column, and about his own neck a bell to be bound. He then perched on the top of the stone pillar, and placing the four archers looking away from the pillar towards the four points, said, " king, let these four men shoot four arrows at the same moment in four The meaning is, the bird circled so fast over it as to give the appearance of a canopy. So on p. 133 of the golden mat.' ' No. 476. 135 different directions, and I will catch these arrows before they touch the ground, and lay them at the men's feet. You will know when I am gone for the arrows by the tinkling of this bell, but I shall not be seen." Then all at one moment the men shot the four arrows he caught them ; and laid them at the men's feet, and was seen to be sitting upon the pillar. "Did you see my speed, king?" he asked; then went on "that speed, O great king, is not my swiftest nor my middle speed, 'tis my slowest of the slow and this will show you how swift I am." Then the : king asked him, " Well, friend, is there any speed swifter than yours 1 "There is, my friend. Swifter than my swiftest a hundredfold, a thousandfold, nay a hundred thousandfold, is the decay of the elements of so they crumble away, so they are destroyed." Thus life in living beings : he made clear, how the world of form crumbles away, being destroyed moment by moment. The king hearing this was in fear of death, could not keep his senses, but fell in a faint. The multitude were in despair, they sprinkled the king's face with water, and brought him round. Then the Great Being said to him, " O great king, fear not [216] but remember ; death. Walk in give alms and do good, be careful." righteousness, Then the king auswered and said, " My lord, without a wise teacher like you I cannot live, do not return 1 to mount Cittakuta, but stay here, instruct me, be my teacher to teach me ! " and he put this request in two stanzas : " By hearing of the loved one love is fed, By sight the craving for the lost falls dead Since sight and hearing makes men lief and dear, With sight of you let me be favoured. " Dear is your voice, and dearer far your presence when I see Then since I love the sight of you, O Goose, come dwell with me!" The Bodhisatta said : " Ever would I dwell with thee, in the honour thus conferred ; But thou mightst say in wine oue day— 'Broil me that royal Bird!'" "No," said the king, "then I will never touch wine or strong [217] drink,'' and he made this promise in the following stanza " Accursed be both food and drink I should love more than thee !" And I will taste no drop nor sup while thou shalt stay with me After this the Bodhisatta recited six stanzas " The cry of jackals or of birds is understood with ease Yea, but the word of men, O king, is darker far than these " A man may think, ' this is my friend, my comrade, of my kin,' But friendship goes, and often hate and enmity begin 2 . Beading agantva in line 4. These two couplets occur again in No. 478 (p. 141). 136 The Jdtaha. Book XIII. " Who has your heart, is near to you, with you, where'er he be But who dwells with you, and your heart estranged, afar is he. " Who in your house of kindly heart shall be Is kindly still though far across the sea Who in your house shall hostile be of heart, Hostile he is though ocean-wide apart. " Thy foes, lord of chariots though near thee, are afar ! But, fosterer of thy realm the good in heart close linked are. ! " Who stay too long, find oftentimes that friend is changed to foe Then ere I lose your friendship, I will take my leave, and go." [218] Then the king said to hiin " Though I with folded hands beseech, you will not give me ear ; You spare no word for us, to whom your service would be dear I crave one favour come again and pay a visit here." : Then the Bodhisatta said : " If nothing comes to snap our life, O king if you and I ! Still live, fosterer of thy folk perhaps I'll hither fly, ! And we may see each other yet, as days and nights go by." With this address to the king, the Great Being departed to Cittakuta. When the Master had ended this discourse, he said " Thus, Brethren, long : ago, even when I was born as one of the animals, I showed the frailty of all life's elements, and declared the Truth." So saying, he identified the Birth : " At that time Ananda was the king, Moggallana was the youngest bird, Sariputta was the second, the Buddha's followers were all Geese of the flock, and I myself was the swift Goose."

[219] "No wood is chopt," etc. — This story the Master told, while dwelling at Jetavana, about the allurements of a coarse girl. There was then, we learn, a girl of about sixteen, daughter of a citizen of Savatthi, such as might bring good luck to a man, yet no man chose her. So her mother thought to herself " This my daughter is of full age, yet no one chooses : her. I will use her as a bait for a fish, and make one of those Sakiya ascetics come back to the world, and live upon him." At the time there was a young man of good birth living in Savatthi, who had given his heart to religion and joined the Brotherhood. But from the time when he had received full Orders he had lost all desire for learning, and lived devoted to the adornment of his person. The lay Sister used to prepare in her house rice gruel, and other food hard or soft, and standing at the door, as the Brethren walked along the streets, looked out for some one who could be tempted by the craving for delicacies. Streaming by went a crowd of men who kept the Tepitaka, Abhidhamma, and Vinaya ; but among them she saw none ready to rise to her bait. Among the figures with bowl and robe, preachers of the Truth with honey-sweet voice, moving like fleecy scud before the wind, she saw not one. But at last she perceived a man approaching, the outer corners of his eyes anointed, hair hanging down, wearing an under-robe of fine cloth, and an outer robe shaken and cleansed, bearing a bowl coloured like some precious gem, and a sunshade after his own heart, a man who let his senses have their own way, his body much bronzed. "Here is a man I can catch!" thought she; and greeting him, she took his bowl, and invited him into the house. She found him a seat, and provided rice gruel and all the rest ; then after the meal, begged him to make that house his resort in future. So he used to visit the house after that, and in course of time became intimate. One day, the lay Sister said in his hearing, " In this household we are happy enough, only I have no son or son-in-law capable of keeping it up." The man heard it, and wondering what reason she could have for so saying, in a little while was as it were pierced to the heart. She said to her daughter, " Tempt this man, and get him into your power." So the girl after that time decked herself and adorned herself, and tempted him with all women's tricks and wiles. [220] (You must understand that a coarse girl does not mean one whose body ' ' is fat, but be she fat or be she thin, by power of the five sensual passions she is called 'coarse.') Then the man, being young and under the power of passion, thought in his heart, " I cannot now hold to the Buddha's religion " and he ; went to the monastery, and laying down bowl and robe, said to his spiritual teachers, " I am discontented." Then they conducted him to the Master, and said, " Sir, this Brother is discontented." " Is this true which they say," asked he, "that you are discontented, Brother V " Yes, Sir, true it is." " Then what made you so?" "A coarse girl, Sir." "Brother," said he, "long, long ago, when you were living in the forest, this same girl was a hindrance to your holiness, and did you great harm ; then why are you again discontented on her account ?" Then at the request of the Brethren he told a story of the past. Once upon a time, when Hrahmadatta was king in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born into a Brahmin family of great wealth, and after his education was finished managed the estate. Then his wife brought forth a son, and died. He thought, " As in my beloved wife, so in me death shall not be ashamed ; what is a home to me? I will become an ascetic." So forsaking his lusts, he went with his son to Himalaya ; and there with him entered upon the ascetic life, developed the mystic Trance and transcendent Knowledge, and dwelt in the woods, supporting life on fruits and roots. At that time the borderers raided the countryside ; and having assailed a town, and taken prisoners, laden with spoil they returned to the border. Amongst them was a maiden, beautiful, but endowed with all a hypocrite's cunning. This girl thought to herself, " These men, when they have carried us off home, will use us as slaves; I must find some I.e. it shall master me too one day. 138 The Jataka. Book XIII. way to escape." So she said, " My lord, I wish to retire ; let me go and stay away for a moment." Thus she deceived the robbers, and fled. Now the Bodhisatta had gone out to fetch fruits and the like 1 , leaving his son in the hut. While he was away, this girl, as she wandered about in the forest, came to the hut, in the morning; [221] and tempting the son of the ascetic with desire of love, destroyed his virtue, and got him under her power. She said to him, "Why dwell here in the forest? Come, and make a home for ourselves. There it is easy to let us go to a village enjoy all the pleasures and passions of sense." He consented, and said, "My father is now out in the woods looking for wild fruits. When we have seen him, we will both go away together." Then the girl thought, " This young innocent knows nothing; but his father must have become an ascetic in his old age. When he comes in, he will want to know what I do here, and beat me, and drag me out by the feet, and throw me into the forest. I will get clear away before he comes." So she said to the lad, " I will go and you may follow"; then pointing out the landmarks, she first, departed. After she had gone, the lad became sorrowful, and did none of his duties as he was used but wrapt himself up head and all, and lay ; down within the hut, fretting. When the Great Being came in with his wild fruits, he observed the girl's footmark. "That is a woman's footprint," thought he; "my son's virtue must have been lost.'' Then he entered the hut, and laid down the wild fruit, and put the question to his son by repeating the first stanza "No wood is chopt, and you have brought no water from the pool, No fire is kindled why do you lie mooning like a fool?" : Hearing his father's voice, the lad rose, and greeted him ; and with all respect made known that he could not endure a forest life, repeating a couple of stanzas : " I cannot live in forests : this, Kassapa, I swear Hard is the woodland life, and back to men 2 I would repair. " Teach me, brahmin, when I leave, that wheresoe'er I go, The customs of the countryside I may most fully know." [222] "Very good, my son," said the Great Being, " I will tell you the customs of the country." And he repeated this couple of stanzas : "If 'tis your mind to leave behind the woodland fruits and roots And dwell in cities, hear me teach the way which that life suits : ' Keep clear of every precipice, from poison keep afar, Sit never in the mud, and walk with care where serpents are.'" 1 Cf. No. 435, Vol. iii. 2 Literally ' the Kingdom.' No. 477. 139 The ascetic's son, not understanding this pithy counsel, asked : "What has your precipice to do with the religious way, Your mud, your poison, and your snake? Come tell me this, I pray." The other explained " There is a liquor in the world, my son, that men call wine, Fragrant, delicious, honey-sweet, and cheap, of flavour fine : This, Narada, for holy men is poison, say the wise. "And women in the world can set fools' wits a whirling round, They catch young hearts, as hurricanes catch cotton from the ground : The precipice I mean is this before the good man lies. " High honours shown by other men, respect and fame and gain, This is the mud, Narada, which holy men may stain. "Great monarchs with their retinue have in that world dwelling, And they are great, Narada, and each a mighty king : [223] "Before the feet of sovereign lords and monarchs walk not thou, For, Narada, these are the snakes of whom I spake just now. "The house thou comest to for food, when men sit down to meat, If thou see good within that house, there take thy fill, and eat. " When by another entertained with food or drink, this do : Eat not too much, nor drink too much, and fleshly lusts eschew. "From gossip, drink, lewd company, and shops of goldsmith's ware, Keep thou afar as those who by the uneven pathway fare." As his father went on talking and talking, the lad came to his senses, and said, " Enough of the world for me, dear father ! " [224] Then his father instructed him how to develop kindliness and other good feelings. The son followed his father's instruction, and ere long caused the ecstasy of mystic meditation to spring up within him. And both of them, father and son, without a break in the trance, were born again in the world of Brahma. When the Master had ended this discourse, he identified the Birth '• At : that time this coarse girl was the young woman, the discontented Brother was the ascetic's son, and I was the father."