The Jātaka, vol. I (Ekanipāta)

Next day the townsfolk came and asked for the girl ; but they of the country made this answer : — " Yon town-people lack common decency. You yourselves named the day and yet did not come to fetch the bride. As you stopped away, we married her to someone else." "But we asked our ascetic, and he told us the stars were unfavourable. That's why we did not come yesterday. Give us the girl." "You didn't come at the proper time, and now she's another's. How can we marry her twice over?" Whilst they wrangled thus with one another, a wise man from the town came into the country on business. Hearing the townsfolk explain that they had consulted their ascetic and that their absence was due to the unfavourable disposition of the stars, he exclaimed, " What, forsooth, do 126 The Jataka. Booh I. the stars matter'? Is not the lucky thing to get the girl?" And, so saying, he repeated this stanza : — The fool may watch for 'lucky days,' Yet luck shall always miss ; 'Tis luck itself is luck's own star. What can mere stars achieve ? As for the townsfolk, as they did not get the girl for all their wrangling, thev had to o;o oft" home asfain !

Said the Master, "This is not the first time, Brethren, that this Nakedascetic has thwarted that family's festivities ; he did just the same thing in bygone times also." His lesson ended, he shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, " This ascetic [259] was also the ascetic of those days, and the families too were the same ; I myself was the wise and good man who uttered the stan/a."

"J thousand evil-doers^ — This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about actions done for the world's good, as will be explained in the Twelfth Book in the Maha-Kanha-jatakai. Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benaies, the Bodhisatta was reborn in the womb of the Queen Consort. When he was born, he was named Prince Brahmadatta on his name-day. By sixteen years of age he had been well educated atTakkasila, had learned the Three Vedas by heart, and was versed in the Eighteen Branches of Knowledge. And his father made him a Viceroy. Now in those days the Benares folk w^ere much given to festivals to 'gods,' and used to shew honour to 'gods.' It was their wont to massacre numbers of sheep, goats, poultry, swine, and other living creatures, and perform their rites not merely with flowers and perfumes but with gory carcasses. Thought the destined Lord of Mercy to himself, " Led astray by superstition, men now wantonly sacrifice life ; the multitude are for the most part given up to irreligion : but when at my father's death I succeed to my inheritance, I will find means to end such destruction of life. " I will devise some clever stratagem whereby the evil shall be stopped without harming a single human being." In this mood the prince one day mounted his chariot and drove out of the city. On the way he saw a crowd gathered together at a holy banyan-tree, praying to the fairy who had been i-eborn in that tree, to grant them sons and daughters, honour and wealth, each according to his heart's desire. Alighting from his chariot the Bodhisatta drew near to the ti'ee and behaved as a worshipper so far as to make offerings of perfumes and flowers, sprinkling the tree with water, and pacing reverently round its trunk. Then mounting his chariot again, he went his way back into the city.

Thenceforth the ])rince made like journeys from time to time to the tree [260], and worshipped it like a true believer in 'gods.' In due course, when his father died, the Bodhisatta ruled in his stead. Shunning the four evil courses, and ])ractising the ten royal virtues, lie ruled his people in righteousness. And now that his desire had come to pass and he was king, tiie Bodhisatta set himself to fulfil his former resolve. So he called together his ministers, the brahmins, the gentry, and the other orders of the people, and asked the assembly whether they knew how he had made himself king. But no man could tell. " Have you ever seen me reverently worshipping a banyan-tree with perfumes and the like, and bowing down before it?" " Sire, we have," said they. " Well, I was making a vow ; and the vow was that, if ever I became king, I would offer a sacrifice to that tree. And now that by help of the god I have come to be king, I will offer my promised sacrifice. So prepare it with all speed." " But what are we to make it of 1 " " My vow," said the king, " was this : — All such as are addicted to the Five Sins, to wit the slaughter of living creatui-es and so forth, and all such as walk in the Ten Paths of Unrighteousness, them will I slay, and with their flesh and their blood, with their entrails and their vitals, I will make my offering.

So proclaim by beat of drum that our lord the king in the days of his viceroyalty vowed that if ever he became king he would slay, and offer up in a sacrifice, all such of his suVyects as break the Commandments. And now the king wills to slay one thousand of such as are addicted to the Five Sins or walk in the Ten Paths of Unrighteousness ; with the hearts and the flesh of the thousand shall a sacrifice be made in the god's honour. Proclaim this that all may know throughout the city. Of those that ti-ansgress after this date," added the king, " will

128 The Jdtaha. Book I. I slay a thousand, and offer them as a sacrifice to the god in discharge of my vow." And to make his meaning clear the king nttered this stanza : — A thousand evil-doers once I vowed In pious gratitude to kill; And evil-doers form so huge a crowd, That I will now my vow fulfil. [261] Obedient to the king's commands, the ministers had proclamation made by beat of drum accordingly throughout the length and breadth of Benares. Such was the effect of the proclamation on the townsfolk that not a soul persisted in the old wickedness. And throughout the Bodhisatta's reign not a man was convicted of transgressing. Thus, without harming a single one of his subjects, the Bodhisatta made them observe the Commandments. And at the close of a life of alms-giving and other good works he passed away witli his followers to throng the city of the devas. Said the Master, " This is not the first time, Brethren, that the Buddha has acted for the world's good ; he acted in like manner in bygone times as well." His lesson ended, he shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, "The Buddha's disciples Avere the ministers of those days, and I myself was the King of Benares."

M AH ASl L A V A -J ATAK A. " Toil on, my brother.'' — This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about a Brother who had given up all earnest eftbrt. Being asked by the Master whether the report was true that he was a backslider, the Brother [262] said it was true. "How can you, Brother," said the Master, "grow cold in so saving a faith? Even when the wise and good of bygone days had lost their kingdom, yet so undaunted was their resolution that in the end they won back their .sovereignty." And so saying, he told this story of the past. Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life again as the child of the queen ; and on his nameday they gave him the name of Prince Goodness. At the age of sixteen his education was complete ; and later he came at his father's death to be king, and ruled his ])eople righteously under the title of the great King Goodness. At each of the four city-gates he built an almonry, another in the heart of the city, and yet another at his own palace-gates, — six in all ; and at each he distributed alms to poor travellers and the needy. He kept the Commandments and observed the fast-days ; he abounded in patience, loving-kindnesf?, and mercy ; and in righteousness he ruled the land, cherishing all creatures alike with the fond love of a father for his baby boy.

Now one of the king's ministers had dealt treacherously in the king's harem, and this became matter of common talk. The ministers reported it to the king. Examining into the matter himself, the king found the minister's guilt to be clear. So he sent for the culprit, and said, "O blinded by folly ! you have sinned, and are not worthy to dwell in my kingdom ; take your substance and your wife and family, and go hence." Driven thus from the realm, that minister left the Kasi country, and, entering the service of the king of Kosala, gradually rose to be that monarch's confidential adviser. One day he said to the king of Kosala, " Sire, the kingdom of Benares is like a goodly honeycomb untainted by flies ; its king is feebleness itself ; and a trifling force would sufiice to conquer the whole country." Hereon, the king of Kosala reflected that the kingdom of Benares was large, and, considering this in connexion with the advice that a trifling force could conquer it, he grew suspicious that his adviser was a hireling suborned to lead him into a trap. " Traitor," he cried, " you are paid to say this ! "

"Indeed I am not," answered the other; "I do but speak the truth. If you doubt me, send men to massacre a village over his border, and see whether, when they are caught and brought before him, the king does not let them oS" scot-free and even load them with gifts." " He shows a very bold front in making his assertion," thought the king ; " I will test his counsel [26-3] without delay." And accordingly he sent some of his creatures to harry a village across the Benares border. The rufiians were captured and brought before the king of Benares, who asked them, saying, "My children, why have you killed my villagers?" " Because we could not make a living," said they. "Then why did you not come to meV said the king. "See that you do not do the like again." And he gave them presents and sent them away. Back they went and told this to the king of Kosala. But this evidence was not enough to nerve him to the expedition ; and a second band was sent to massacre another village, this time in the heart of the kingdom. These too were likewise sent away with presents by the king of Benares. But even this evidence was not deemed strong enotigh ; and a third party was sent to plunder the very streets of Benares ! And these, like their forerunners,

130 TJie Jdtaka. Book I. were sent away with presents ! Satisfied at last that the king of Benares was an entirely good king, tlie king of Kosala resolved to seize on his kingdom, and set out against him with troops and elephants. Now in these days the king of Benares had a thousand gallant warriors, who would face the charge even of a rut elephant, — whom the launched thunderbolt of Indra could not terrify, — a matchless band of invincible heroes ready at the king's command to reduce all India to his sway ! These, hearing the king of Kosala was coming to take Benares, came to their sovereign with the news, and prayed that they might be despatched against the invader. " We will defeat and capture him, sire," said they, "before he can set foot over the border." "Not so, my children," said the king. "None shall sufter because of me. Let those who covet kingdoms seize mine, if they will." And he refused to allow them to march against the invader. Then the king of Kosala crossed the border and came to the middlecountry ; and again the ministers went to the king with renewed entreaty. But still the king refused. And no^ the king of Kosala appeared outside the city, and sent a message to the king bidding him either yield up the kingdom or give battle. "I fight not," was the message of the king of Benax'es in reply ; " let him seize my kingdom."

Yet a third time the king's ministers came to him and besought him not to allow the king of Kosala to enter, but to permit them to overthrow and capture him before the city. Still refusing, the king bade the citygates be opened, [264] and seated himself in state aloft upon his royal throne with his thousand ministei's round him. Entering the city and finding none to bar his way, the king of Kosala jiassed with his army to the royal palace. The doors stood open wide ; and there on his gorgeous throne with his thousand ministers around him sate the great King Goodness in state. "Seize them all," cried the king of Kosala; "tie their hands tightly behind their backs, and away with them to the cemetery ! There dig holes and bury them alive up to the neck, so that they cannot move hand or foot. The jackals will come at night and give them sepulchre ! " At the bidding of the rufiianly king, his followers bound the king of Benares and his ministers, and hauled them off". But even in this hour not so much as an angry thought did the great King Goodness harbour against the ruffians ; and not a man among his ministers, even when they were being marched off in bonds, could disobey the king,— so perfect is said to have been the discipline among his followers.

So King Goodness and his ministers were led ofi" and buried up to the neck in pits in the cemetery,— the king in the middle and the others on either side of him. The ground was trampled in upon them, and there they were left. Still meek and free from anger against his oppressor, King Goodness exhorted liis companions, saying, " Let your hearts be filled with naught but love and charity, my children." Now at midnight the jackals came trooj^ing to the banquet of human flesh ; and at sight of the beasts the king and his companions raised a mighty shout all together, frightening the jackals away. Halting, the pack looked back, and, seeing no one pursuing, again came forward. A second shovit drove them away again, but only to return as before. But the third time, seeing that not a man amongst them all pursued, the jackals thought to themselves, "These must be men who are doomed to death." They came on boldly ; even when the shout was again being raised, they did not turn tail. On they came, each singling out his prey, — the chief jackal making for the king, and the other jackals for his companions [265]. Fertile in resoui-ce, the king marked the beast's approach, and, raising his throat as if to receive the bite, fastened his teeth in the jackal's throat with a grip like a vice ! Unable to free its throat from the mighty grip of the king's jaws, and fearing death, the jackal raised a great howl. At his cry of distress the pack conceived that their leader must have been caught by a man. With no heart left to approach their own destined prey, away they all scampered for their lives.

Seeking to free itself fj-om the king's teeth, the trapped jackal plunged madly to and fro, and thereby loosened the earth above the king. Hereupon the latter, letting the jackal go, put forth his mighty strength, and by plunging from side to side got his hands free ! Then, clutching the brink of the pit, he drew himself wp, and came forth like a cloud scudding before the wind. Bidding his companions be of good cheer, he now set to work to loosen the earth round them and to get them out, till with all his ministers he stood free once more in the cemetery. Now it chanced that a corpse had been exposed in that part of the cemetery which lay between the respective domains of two ogres ; and the ogres were disputing over the division of the spoil. " We can't divide it ourselves," said they ; "but this King Goodness is i-ighteous; he will divide it for us. Let us go to him." So they dragged the corpse by the foot to the king, and said, "Sire, divide this man and give us each our shai-e." " Certainly I will, my friends," said the king. " But, as I am dirty, I must bathe first."

Straightway, by their magic power, the ogi-es brought to the king the scented water prepared for the usurper's bath. And when the king had bathed, they brought him the robes which had been laid out for the usurper to wear. When he had put these on, they brought his majesty a box containing the four kinds of scent. When he had perfumed himself, they brought flowers of divers kinds laid out upon jewelled fans, in a casket of gold. When he had decked himself with the flowers, the ogi-es asked whether they could be of any fui'ther service. And the king gave 132 The Jataha. Book I. them to iinderstand [266] that he was hungry. So away went the ogres, and returned with rice flavoured with all the choicest flavours, which had been prepared for the usurper's table. And the king, now bathed and scented, dressed and arrayed, ate of the dainty fare. Thereupon the ogres brought the usurper's perfumed water for him to drink, in the usui'per's own golden bowl, not forgetting to bring the golden cup too. When the king had drunk and had waslied his mouth and was washing his hands, they brought him fragrant betel to chew, and asked whether his majesty had any further commands. '' Fetch me," said he, " by your magic power the sword of state which lies by the usurper's pillow." And straightway the sword was brought to the king. Then the king took the corpse, and setting it upright, cut it in two down the chine, giving one-half to each ogre. This done, the king washed the blade, and girded it on his side.

Having eaten their fill, the ogres were glad of heart, and in their gratitude asked the king what more they could do for him. " Set me by your magic power," said he, " in the usurper s chamber, and set each of my ministers back in his own house." " Certainly, sire," said the ogres ; and forthwith it was done. Now in that hour the usurper was lying asleep on the royal bed in his chamber of state. And as he slept in all tranquillity, the good king struck him with the flat of the sword upon the belly. Waking up in a fright, the usurper saw by the lamp-light that it was tlie great King Goodness. Summoning up all his courage, he rose from his couch and said : — " Sire, it is night ; a guard is set ; the doors are barred ; and none may enter. How then came you to my bedside, sword in hand and clad in robes of splendour 1 " Then the king told him in detail all the story of his escape. Then the usurper's heart was moved within him, and he ciied, " O king, I, though blessed with human nature, knew not your goodness ; but knowledge thereof was given to the fierce and cruel ogres, whose food is flesh and blood. Henceforth, I, sire, [267] will not plot against such signal virtue as you possess." So saying, he swore an oath of friendship upon his sword and begged the king's forgiveness. And he made the king lie down upon the bed of state, while he stretched himself upon a little couch.

On the morrow at daybreak, when the sun had risen, his whole host of every rank and degree was mustered by beat of drum at the usurper's command ; in their presence he extolled King Goodness, as if raising the full-moon on high in the heavens ; and right before them all, he again asked the king's forgiveness and gave him back his kingdom, saying, " Henceforth, let it be my charge to deal with rebels ; rule thou thy kingdom, with me to keep watch and ward." And so saying, he passed sentence on the slanderous traitor, and with his troops and elephants went back to his own kingdom. Seated in majesty and splendour beneath a white canopy of sovereignty upou a throne of gold with legs as of a gazelle, the great King Goodness contemplated his own glory and thought thus within himself; — "Had I not persevered, I should not be in the enjoyment of this magnificence, nor would my thousand ministers be still numbered among the living. It was by perseverance that I recovered the royal state I had lost, and saved the lives of my thousand ministers. Verily, we should strive on unremittingly with dauntless hearts, seeing that the fruit of perseverance is so excellent." And therewithal the king broke into this heartfelt utterance : —

Toil on, my brother; still in hope stand fast; Nor let thy courage flag and tii'e. Myself I see, who, all my woes o'erpast, Am master of my heart's desire. Thus spoke the Bodhisatta in the fulness of his heart, declaring how sure it is that the earnest effort of the good will come to maturity. After a life spent in right-doing he passed away to fare thereafter according to his deserts. [268] His lesson ended, the Master preached the Four Truths, at the close whereof the backsliding lirother won Arahatship. The Master shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, " Devadatta was the traitorous minister of those days, the Buddha's disciples were the thousand ministers, and I myself the great King Goodness." [N'ote. Cf. the Volsung-Saga in Hagen's Helden Sagen, iii. 23, and Journ. of Fhilol. xii. 120.]

" Toil on, my hroUierP — This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about another backsliding Brother. All the incidents that are to be related here, will be given in the Maha-janaka-Jataka^ The king, seated beneath the white canopy of sovereignty, recited this stanza : — "Toil on, my brother; still in hope stand fast; Faint not, nor tire, though harassed sore. Myself I see, who, all my woes o'erpast. Have fought my stubborn way ashore. Here too the backsliding Brother won Arahatship. The All-wise Buddha was King Janaka. 1 One of the last Jatakas, not yet edited. 134 Tlie Jdtaka. Booh I.

" What? Leave ?«;tos;ec^."— This story was told by the ]\Iaster while at Jetavana, about some drugged liquor. Once on a time the tip[)lers of Savatthi met to take counsel, saying, "We've not got the price of a drink left ; how are we to get it?" "Cheer up!" said one rufiian; "I've a little plan." "What may that be?" cried the others. "It's Anatba-pindika's custom," said the fellow, "to wear his rings and richest attire, when going to wait upon the king. Let us doctor some liquor with a stupefying drug and fit up a drinking-booth, in which we will all be sitting when Anatha-i)indika passes by. 'Come and join us, Lord High Treasurer,' we'll cry, and ply him with our liquor till he loses his senses. Then let us relieve him of his rings and clothes, and get the price of a drink." His plan mightily pleased the other rogues, and was duly carried out. As Anatha-pindika was returning, they went out to meet him and invited him [269] to come along with them ; for they had got some rare liquor, and he must taste it before he went. "What?" thought he, "shall a believer, who has found Salvation, touch strong drink? Howbeit, though I have no craving for it, yet will I expose these rogues." So into their booth he went, where their pi'oceedings soon shewed him that their liquor was drugged ; and he resolved to make the luscals take to their heels.

So he roundly charged them with doctoring their liquor with a view to drugging strangers first and robbing them afterwards. "You sit in the booth you have opened, and you praise up the liquor," said he; "but as for drinking it, not one of you ventures on that. If it is really undrugged, di'ink away at it yourselves." This summary exposure made the gang take to their heels, and Anatha-pindika went ott' home. Thinking he might as well tell the incident to the Buddha, he went to Jetavana and related the story.

"This time, layman," said the Master, "it is you whom these rogues have tried to trick ; so too in the past they tried to trick the good and wise of those days." So saying, at his hearei*'s request, he told this story of the past. Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was Treasurer of that city. And then too did the same gang of tipplers, conspiring together in like manner, drug liquor, and go forth to meet him in just the same way, and made just the same overtures. The Treasurer did not want to drink at all, but nevertheless went with them, solely to expose them. Marking their proceedings and detecting their scheme, he was anxious to scare them away and so represented that it would be a gross thing for him to drink spirits just before going to the king's palace. "Sit you here," said he, "till I've seen the king and am on my way back ; then I'll think about it." On his return, the rascals called to him, but the Treasurer, fixing his eye on the drugged bowls, confounded them by saying, " I like not your ways. Hei-e stand the bowls as full now as when I left you; loudly as you vaunt the praises of the liquor, yet not a drop passes your own lips. Why, if it had been good liquor, you'd have taken your own share as well. This liquor is drugged ! " And he repeated this stanza : —

What? Leave untasted drink you vaunt so rare? Nay, this is proof no honest liquor's there. [270] After a life of good deeds, the Bodhisatta passed away to fare according to his deserts. His lesson ended, the Master identified the Birth by saying, "The rascals of to-day were also the rascals of those bygone days; and I myself was then Treasurer of Benares."

" When near a village." — This was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about a lay brother who was skilled in the knowledge of fruits. It appears that a certain squire of Savatthi had invited the Brotherhood with the Buddha at their head, and had seated them in his pleasaunce, where they were regaled with ricc-gruel and cakes. Afterwards he bade his gardener go round with the Brethren and give mangoes and other kinds of fruits to their Reverences. In obedience to orders, the man walked about the grounds with the Brethren, and could tell by a single glance up at the tree what fruit was green, what nearly ripe, and what quite ripe, and so on. And what he said was always found true. So the Brethren came to the Buddha and mentioned how expert the gardener was, and how, whilst himself standing on the ground, he could accurately tell the condition of the hanging fruit. "Brethren," said the Master, "this gardener is not the only one who has had knowledge of fruits. A like knowledge was shewn by the wise and good of former days also." And so saying, he told this story of the past.

Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born a merchant. When he grew up, and was trading with five hundred w^aggons, he came one day to where the road led through a great forest. [271] Halting at the outskirts, he mustered the caravan and addressed them thus : — " Poison-trees grow in this forest. Take heed that you taste no unfamiliar leaf, flower, or fruit without first consulting me." All promised to take every care; and the journey into 136 The Jataka. Book I. the forest began. Now just within the forest-border stands a village, and just outside that village grows a What-fruit tree. The What-fruit tree exactly resembles a mango alike in trunk, branch, leaf, flower, and fruit. And not only in outward semblance, but also in taste and smell, the fruit — ripe or unripe — mimics the mango. If eaten, it is a deadly poison, and causes instant death. Now some greedy fellows, who went on ahead of the caravan, came to this tree and, taking it to be a mango, ate of its fruit. But others said, "Let us ask our leader before we eat"; and they accordingly halted by the tree, fruit in hand, till he came ii[). Per-ceiving that it was no mango, he said : — " This * mango ' is a What-fruit tree ; don't touch its fruit."

Having stopped them from eating, the Bodhisatta turned his attention to those who had already eaten. First he dosed them with an emetic, and then he gave them the four sweet foods to eat ; so that in the end they recovered. Now on former occasions caravans had halted beneath this same tree, and had died from eating the poisonous fruit which they mistook for mangoes. On the morrow the villagers would come, and seeing them lying there dead, would fling tliem by the heels into a secret place, departing with all the belongiiigs of the caravan, waggons and all. And on the day too of our story these villagers failed not to hurry at daybreak to the tree for their expected spoils. " The oxen must be ours," said some. "And we'll have the waggons," said others; — whilst others again claimed the wares as their share. But when they came breathless to the tree, there was the whole caravan alive and well ! " How came you to know this was not a mango-tree 1 " demanded the disappointed villagers. " We didn't know," said they of the caravan; " it was our leader who knew." So the villagers came to the Bodhisatta and said, " Man of wisdom, what did you do to tind out this tree was not a mango 1 ' '

" Two things told me," replied the Bodhisatta, and he rej^eated this stanza :— [272] When near a village grows a tree Not hard to climb, 'tis plain to me, Nor need I further proof to know, — No wholesome fruit thereon can grow ! And having taught the Truth to the assembled multitude, he finished his journey in safety. " Thus, Brethren," said the Master, " in bygone days the wise and good were experts in fruit." His lesson ended, he shewed the connexion and identified the Bulh by saying, "The Buddha's followers were then the people of the caravan, and I myself was the caravan leader."

" When no Attachment.''^ — This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about a Brother who had given up all earnest eftbrt. Said the Master to him, "Is the report true, Brother, that you are a backslider?" "In bygone days, Brother," said the Master, "the wise and good won a throne by their dauntless perseverance in the hour of need." And so saying, he told this story of the past. Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, it was as his queen's child that the Bodhisatta came to life once more. On tlie day when he was to be named, the parents enquired as to their child's destiny from eight hundred brahmins, to whom they gave their hearts' desire in all pleasures of sense. Marking the promise which he shewed of a glorious destiny, these clever soothsaying brahmins foretold that, coming to the throne at the king's death, the child should be a mighty king endowed with every virtue ; famed and renowned for his exploits with five weapons, he should stand peerless in all Jambudlpa'. [273] And because of this prophecy of the brahmins, the parents named their son Prince Five- Weapons. Now, when the prince was come to years of discretion, and was sixteen years old, the king bade him go away and study.

"With w^hom, sire, am I to study"?" asked the prince. " With the world-famed teacher in the town of Takkasila in the Gandhara country. Here is his fee," said the king, handing his .son a thousand pieces. So the prince went to Takkasila and was taught there. When he was leaving, his master gave him a set of five weapons, armed with which, after bidding adieu to his old master, the prince set out from Takkasila for Benares. On his way he came to a forest haunted by an ogre named Hairy -grip ; and, at the entrance to the forest, men who met him tried to stop him, saying :—" Young brahmin, do not go through that forest; it is the haunt 1 This was one of the four islands, or dipfi, of which the earth was supposed to consist; it included India, and represented tlie inhabited woild to the Indian mind. 138 The Jataka. Book I. of the ogre Hairy-grip, and he kills every one he meets." But, bold as a lion, the self-reliant Bodhisatta pressed on, till in the heart of the forest he. came on the ogre. The monster made himself appear in stature as tall as a palm-tree, with a head as big as an arbour and huge eyes like bowls, with two tusks like turnips and the beak of a hawk ; his belly was blotched with purple ; and the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet were blue-black!

"Whither away?" cried the monster. "Halt! you are my prey." " Ogre," answered the Bodhisatta, " I knew what I was doing when entering this forest. You will be ill-advised to come near me. For with a [)oisoned arrow I will slay you where you stand." And with this defiance, he fitted to his bow an arrow dipped in deadliest poison and shot it at the ogre. But it only stuck on to the monster's shaggy coat. Then he shot another and another, till fifty were spent, all of which merely stuck on to the ogre's shaggy coat. Hereon the ogre, shaking the arrows ofi" so that they fell at his feet, came at the Bodhisatta ; and the latter, again shouting defiance, drew his sword and struck at the ogre. But, like the arrows, his sword, which was thirty-three inches long, merely stuck fast iu the shaggy hair. Next the Bodhisatta hurled his spear, and that stuck fast also. Seeing this, he smote the ogre with his club ; but, like bis other weapons, that too stuck fast. And thereupon the Bodhisatta shouted, " Ogre, you never heard yet of me, [274] Prince Five-Weajjons. When I ventured into this forest, I jnit my trust not in my bow and other weapons, but in myself! Now will 1 strike you a l)low which shall crush you into dust." So saying, the Bodhisatta smote the ogre with his right hand ; but the hand stuck fast upon the hair. Then, in turn, with his left hand and with his right and left feet, he struck at the monster, but hand and feet alike clave to the hide. Again shouting " I will crusli you into dust ! " he butted the ogre with his head, and that too stuck fast.

Yet even when thus caught and snared in fivefold wise, the Bodhisatta, as he hung upon the ogre, was still fearless, still undaunted. And the monster thought to himself, "This is a very lion among men, a hero without a peer, and no mere man. Though he is caught in the clutches of an ogre like me, yet not so much as a tremor will he exhibit. Never, since I first took to slaying travellers upon this I'oad, have I seen a man to equal him. How comes it that he is not frightened ? " Not daring to devour the Bodhisatta ofiliand, he said, " How is it, young brahmin, that you have no fear of death 1 " "Why should I?" answered the Bodhisatta. "Each life must surely have its destined death. Moreover, within my body is a sword of adamant, which you will never digest, if you eat me. It will chop your inwards into mincemeat, and my death will involve yours too. Therefoi'e it is that 1 have no foar." (By this, it is said, the Bodhisatta meant the Sword of Knowledge, which was within him.) Hereon, the ogre fell a-thinking. " This young brahmin is speaking the ti'uth and nothing but the truth," thought he. "Not a morsel so big as a pea could I digest of such a hero. I'll let him go." And so, in fear of his life, he let the Bodhisatta go free, saying, " Young brahmin, you are a lion among men ; I will not eat you. Go forth from my hand, even as the moon from the jaws of Rahu, and return to gladden the hearts of your kinsfolk, your friends, and your country."

" As for myself, ogre," answered the Bodhisatta, " I will go. As for you, it was your sins in bygone days that caused you to be reborn a ravening, murderous, flesh-eating ogre ; and, if [275] you continue in sin in this existence, you will go on from darkness to darkness. But, having seen me, you will be unable thenceforth to sin any more. Know that to destroy life is to ensure re-birth either in hell or as a brute or as a ghost or among the fallen spirits. Or, if the re-birth be into the world of men, then such sin cuts short the days of a man's life." In this and other ways the Bodhisatta shewed the evil consequences of the five bad courses, and the blessing that comes of the five good courses ; and so wrought in divers ways upon that ogre's fears that by his teaching he converted the monster, imbuing him with self-denial and establishing him in the Five Commandments. Then making the ogre the faiiy of that forest, with a right to levy dues', and charging him to remain stedfast, the Bodhisatta went his way, making known the change in the ogre's mood as he issued from the forest. And in the end he came, armed with the five weapons, to the city of Benares, and presented himself before his parents. In later days, when king, he was a righteous ruler; and after a life spent in charity and other good works he passed away to fare thereafter according to his deserts.

This lesson ended, the ]\Iaster, as Buddha, recited this stanza : — When no attachment hampers heart or mind. When righteousness is practised peace to win. He who so walks, shall gain the victory And all the Fetters utterly destroy'-^. When he had thus led his teaching up to Arahatship as its crowning point, the Master went on to preach the Four Truths, at the close whei-eof that Brother won Arahatship. Also, the Master shewed the connexion, and identified the Birth by saying, "Ahgulimala'^ was the ogre of those days, and I myself Prince Five-Weapons. ^ Or, perhaps, "to whom sacrifices should be offered." The translation in the text suggests a popular theory of the evolution of the tax-collector. See also No. 155. 2 See Nos. 56 and 156. 3 Aiigulunrda, a bandit who wore a necklace of his victims' fingers, was converted by the Buddha and became an Arahat. Cf. Majjhima Nlkdya No. 86. 140 Tlic Jataka. Book 1.

" Wlien gladness." — This story was told by the Master while at Savatthi, about a certain Brother. Tradition says that through hearing the JMaster preach a young gentleman of Savatthi gave his heart to the precious Faith' and became a Brother. His teachers and masters proceeded to instruct him in the whole of the Ten Prece]:)ts of Morality, one after the other, expounded to him the Short, the Medium, and the Long Moralities^, set forth the Morality which rests on self-restraint according to the Patimokkha^, the ]\Iorality which rests on selfrestraint as to the Senses, the Morality which rests on a blameless walk of life, the Morality which relates to the way a Brother may use the Requisites. Thought the young beginner, "There is a tremendous lot of this Morality ; and I shall undoubtedly foil to fulfil all I have vowed. Yet what is the good of being a brother at all, if one cannot keep the rules of Morality '\ My best course is to go back to the world, take a wife and rear children, living a life of almsgiving and other good works." So he told his superiors what he thought, saying that he proposed to return to the lower state of a layman, and wished to hand back his bowl and robes. "Well, if it be so with you," said they, " at least take leave of the Buddha before you go;" and they brought the young man before the Master in the Hall of Truth.

"Why, Brethren," said the Master, "are you bringing this Bi'other to me against his will?" "Sir, he said that Morality was more than he could observe, and wanted to give back his robes and bowl. So we took him and brought him to you." "But why, Brethren," asked the Master, "did you burthen him with so much? He can do what he can, but no more. Do not make this mistake again, and leave me to decide what should be done in the case." Then, turning to the young Brother, the blaster said, "Come, Brother ; what concern have you with Morality in the mass? Do you think you could obey just three moral rules?" "Well now, watch and guard the three avenues of the voice, the mind, and the body ; do no evil whether in word, or thought, or act. Cease not to be a Brother, but go hence and obey just these three rules." "Yes, indeed. Sir, I will keep them," here exclaimed the glad young man, and back he went with his teachers again. And as he was keeping his three rules, he thought within himself, "I had the whole of Morality told me by my instructors ; but because they were not the Buddha, they could not make me grasp even this much. Whereas [277] the All-Enlightened One, by reason of his Buddhahood, and of his being the Lord of Truth, has expressed so much Morality in only three rules concerning the Avenues, and has made me understand it clearly. Verily, a very present help has the Master been to me." And

1 Or perhaps ratanasdsanain means 'the creed connected with the (Three) Gems,' viz. the Buddha, the Doctrine, and the Order. - These are translated in llhys Davids' "Buddhist Suttas," pp. 189 — 200. 3 The Patimokkha is translated and discussed in Pt i. of the translation of the Vinaya by Khys Davids and Oldenberg (S. B. E. Vol. 13). he won Insight and in a few days attained Arahatship. When this came to the ears of the Brethren, they spoke of it when met together in the Hall of Truth, telling how the Brother, who was going back to the world because he could not hope to fulfil Morality, had been furnished by the Master with three I'ulus embodying the whole of Morality, and had been made to grasp those three rules, and so had been enabled by the Master to win Arahatship. How marvellous, they cried, was the Buddha. Entering the Hall at this point, and learning on enquiry the subject of their talk, the Master said, "Brethren, even a heavy burthen becomes light, if taken piecemeal ; and thus the wise and good of past times, on finding a huge mass of gold too heavy to lift, first broke it up and then were enabled to bear their treasure away piece by piece." So saying, he told this story of the past.

Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life as a farmer in a village, and was ploughing one day in a field where once stood a village. Now, in bygone days, a wealthy merchant had died leaving buried in this field a huge bar of gold, as thick round as a man's thigh, and four whole cubits in length. And full on this bar struck the Bodhisatta's plough, and there stuck fast. Taking it to be a spreading root of a tree, he dug it out ; but discovering its real nature, he set to work to clean the dirt off the gold. The day's work done, at sunset he laid aside his plough and gear, and es.sayed to shoulder his treasure-trove and walk off with it. But, as he could not so much as lift it, he sat down before it and fell a-thinking what uses he would put it to. "I'll have so much to live on, so much to bury as a treasure, so much to trade with, and so much for charity and good works," thought he to himself, and accordingly cut the gold into four. Divi.sion made his burthen easy to carry ; and he bore home the lumps of gold. After a life of charity and other good works, he jjassed away to fare thereafter accordinsf to his deserts.

His lesson ended, the Master, as Buddha, recited this stanza : — [27ff\ When gladness fills the heart and fills the mind. When righteousness is practised Peace to win, He who so walks shall gain the victory And all the Fetters utterly destroy. And when the Master had thus led his teaching up to Arahatship as its crowning point, he shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, " In those days I myself was the man who got the nugget of gold." 142 The Jdtaha. Book I.

" Whoso, 0 mo7ihi/-Hn(/."— Thin story was told by the Master, while at the Bamboo-grove, about Devadatta's going about to kill him. Being informed of Devadatta's murderous intent, the Master said, "This is not the first time. Brethren, that Devadatta has gone about seeking to kill me; he did just the same in bygone days, but failed to work his wicked will." And so saying, he told this story of the past. Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life again as a monkey. When full-grown, he was as big as a niare's foal and enormously strong. He lived alone on the banks of a river, in the middle of which was an island whereon grew mangoes and bread-fruits, and other fruit-trees. And in mid-stream, halfway between the island and the river-bank, a solitary rock rose out of the water. Being as strong as an elephant, the Bodhisatta used to leap from the bank on to this rock and thence on to the island. Here he would eat his fill of the fruits that grew on the island, returning at evening hy the way he came. And such was his life from day to day.

Now there lived in those days in that river a crocodile and his mate ; and she, being with young, was led by the sight of the Bodhisatta journeying to and fro to conceive [279] a longing for the monkey's heart to eat. So she begged her lord to catch the monkey for her. Promising that she should have her fancy, the crocodile went off and took his stand on the rock, meaning to catch the monkey on his evening journey home. After ranging about the island all day, the Bodhisatta looked out at evening towards the rock and wondered why the rock stood so high out of the water. For the story goes that the Bodhisatta always marked the exact height of the water in the river, and of the rock in the water. So, when he saw that, though the water stood at the same level, the rock seemed to stand higher out of the water, he suspected that a crocodile might be lurking there to catch him. And, in order to find out the facts of the case, he shouted, as though addressing the rock, "Hi! rock!" And, as no reply came back, he shouted three times, "Hi! rock!" And

as the rock still kept silence, the monkey called out, "How comes it, friend rock, that you won't answer me to-day?" "Oh!" thought the crocodile; "so the rock's in the habit of answering the monkey. I must answer for the rock to-day." Accordingly, he shouted, "Yes, monkey; what is it?" "Who are you?" said the Bodhisatta. "I'm a crocodile." "What are you sitting on that rock for?" "To catch you and eat your heart." As there was no other way back, the only thing to be done was to outwit the crocodile. So the Bodhisatta cried out, "There's no help for it then but to give myself up to you. Open your mouth and catch me when I jump." Now you must know that when crocodiles open their mouths, their eyes shut'. So, when this crocodile unsuspiciously opened his mouth, his eyes shut. And there he waited with closed eyes and open jaws ! Seeing this, the wily monkey made a jump on to the crocodile's head, and thence, with a spring like lightning, gained the bank. When the cleverness of this feat dawned on the crocodile, he said, "Monkey, he that in this world [280] possesses the four virtues overcomes his foes. And you, methinks, possess all four." And, so saying, he repeated this stanza : — -

Whoso, 0 monkey-king, like you, combines Truth, foresight, fixed resolve, and fearlessness. Shall see his routed foemen turn and flee. And with this praise of the Bodhisatta, the crocodile betook himself to his own dwelling-place. Said the Master, " This is not the first time then, Brethren, that Devadatta has gone about seeking to kill me ; he did just the same in bygone days too." And, having ended his lesson, the Master sliewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, "Devadatta was the crocodile of those days, the brahmin-girl Ciiica^ was the crocodile's wife, and I myself the Monkey-King." [Note. Cf No. 224 {KurnhhUa-jutal-a). A Chinese version is given by Beal in the ' Romantic Legend ' p. 231, and a Japanese version in Griffin's 'Fairy Tales from Japan.'] 1 This assertion is not in accord with the facts of natural history. 2 Her identification here as the crocodile's wicked wife is due to the fact that Cinca, who was a "female ascetic of rare beauty," was suborned by Gotama's enemies to simulate pregnancy and charge him with the paternity. How the deceit was exposed, is told in Dhanunapada, pp. 338 — 340. X44 The Jdtaha. Booh I.

" 117(050, like you." — This story was told by the Master while at the Bamboogrove also upon the subject of going about to kill. Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, Devadatta came to life again as a monkey, and dwelt near the Himalayas as the lord of a tribe of monkeys all of his own begetting. Filled with forebodings that his male offspring might grow up to oust him from his lordship, he used to geld [281] them all with his teeth. Now the Bodhisatta had been begotten by this same monkey ; and his mother, in order to save her unborn progeny, stole away to a forest at the foot of the mountain, where in due season she gave birth to the Bodhisatta. And when he was full-grown and had come to years of understanding, he was gifted with marvellous strength. "Where is my father*?" said he one day to his mother. *'He dwells at the foot of a certain mountain, my sou," she replied ; " and is king of a tribe of monkeys." "Take me to see him, mother." "Not so, my son ; for your father is so afraid of being supplanted by his sons that he gelds them all with his teeth." "Never mind; take me there, mother," said the Bodhisatta; "I shall know what to do." So she took him with her to the old monkey. At sight of his son, the old monkey, feeling sure that the Bodhisatta would grow np to depose him, resolved by a feigned embrace to crush the life out of the Bodhisatta. "Ah! my boy!" he cried; "where have you been all this long timel" And, making a show of embracing the Bodhisatta, he hugged him like a vice. But the Bodhisatta, who was as strong as an elephant, returned the hug so mightily that his father's ribs were like to break.

Then thought the old monkey, " This son of mine, if he grows up, will certainly kill me," Casting about how to kill the Bodhisatta first, he bethought him of a certain lake hard Ijy, where an ogre lived who might eat him. So he said to the Bodhisatta, "I'm old now, my boy, and should like to hand over the tribe to you ; to-day you shall be made king. In a lake hard by grow two kinds of water-lily, three kinds of blue-lotus, and five kinds of white-lotus. Go and pick me some." "Yes, father," answered the Bodhisatta; aud oli" he started. Ap])voaching the lake with caution, he studied the footprints on its banks and marked how all of them led down, to the water, but none ever came Viack. Kealising that the lake was haunted by an ogre, he divined that his father, being unable himself to kill him, wished to get him killed [282] by the ogre. "But I'll get the lotuses," said he, "without going into the water at all." So he went to a dry spot, and taking a run leaped from the bank. In his jump, as he was clearing the water, he plucked two flowers which grew up above the surface of the water, and alighted with them on the opposite bank. On his way back, he plucked two more in like manner, as he jumped ; and so made a heap on both sides of the lake, — but always keeping out of the ogre's watery domain.

When he had picked as many as he thought he could carry across, and was gathering together those on one bank, the astonished ogre exclaimed, "I've lived a long time in this lake, but I never saw even a human being so wonderfully clever ! Here is this monkey who has picked all the flowers he wants, and yet has kept safely out of range of my power." And, parting the waters asunder, the ogre came up out of the lake to where the Bodhisatta stood, and addressed him thus, "O king of the monkeys, he that has three qualities shall have the mastery over his enemies ; and you, methinks, have all three." And, so saying, he repeated this stanza in the Bodhisatta's praise : —

Whoso, like you, 0 monkey-king, combines Dexterity and Valour and Resource, Shall see his routed foemen turn and flee. His praises ended, the ogre asked the Bodhisatta why he was gathering the flowers. "My father is minded to make me king of his tribe," said the Bodhisatta, "and that is why I am gathering them." "But one so peerless as you ought not to carry flowers," exclaimed the ogre; "I will carry them for you." And so saying, he picked up the flowers and followed with them in the rear of the Bodhisatta. Seeing this from afar, the Bodliisatta's father knew that his plot had failed. "I sent my son to fall a prey to the ogre, and here he is returning safe and sound, with the ogre humbly carr-ying his flowers for him ! I am undone!" cried the old monkey, and his heart burst asunder [283] into seven pieces, so that he died then and there. And all the other monkeys met together and chose the Bodhisatta to be their king. His lesson ended, the Master shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, " Devadatta was then the king of the monkeys, and I his son."

146 The Jataka. Booh I.

"&'o not /oo/ar."- -This story was told by the Master while at Jetavaua, about a certain self-willed Brother. Asked by the Master whether the report was true that he was self-willed, the Brother said it was true. " This is not the first time, Brother," said the Master, "that you have shewn yourself self-willed ; you were just the same in bygone times as well." And so saying, he told this story of the past. Once on a time when Brahmadatta was I'eigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life as a drummer, and dwelt in a village. Hearing that there was to be a festival at Benares, and hoping to make money by playing his drum to the crowds of holiday-makers, he made his way to the city, with his son. And there he played, and made a great deal of money. On his way home with his earnings he had to pass through a forest which was infested by robbers ; and as the boy kept beating away at the drum without ever stopping, the Bodhisatta tried to stop him by saying, "Don't behave like that, beat only now and again, — as if some great lord were passing by."

But in defiance of his father's bidding, the boy thought the best way to frighten the r-obbers away was to keep steadily on beating away at the drum. At the first notes of the drum, away scampered the robbers, thinking some great lord was passing by. But hearing the noise keep on, they saw their mistake and came back to find out who it really was. Finding only two persons, they beat and robbed them. "Alas!" cried the Bodhisatta, "by your ceaseless drumming you have lost all our hard-earned takings!" And, so saying, he repeated this stanza : — Go not too far, but learn excess to shun ; For over-drumming lost what drumming won. [284] His lesson ended, the Master shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saymg, " This self-willed Brother was the son of those days, and I myself the father." ^ ' ^

"Go not too far." — This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about another self-willed person. Once on a time when Bralimadatta was reigning iu Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life as a conch-blower, and went up to Benares with his father to a public festival. There he earned a great deal of money by his conch-blowing, and started for home again. On his way through a forest which was infested by robbers, he warned his father not to keep on blowing his conch ; but the old man thought he knew better how to keep the robbers off, and blew away hard without a moment's pause. Accordingly, just as in the pi-eceding story, the i-obbers returned and plundered the pair. And, as above, the Bodhisatta repeated this stanza : — Go not too far, bvit learn excess to shun; For over-blowing lost what blowing won. His lesson ended, the Master shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, " This self-willed Brother was the father of those days, and I myself his son."

[285] "/m hist unbridled."— This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about a passion-tost Brother. The Introductory Story will be related in the Ummadanti-jatakai. But to this Brother the Master said, " Women, Brother, are lustful, profligate, vile, and degraded. Why be passion-tost for a vile woman ? " And so saying, he told this story of the past. 148 The Jdtaha. Booh I. Once on a time wlieu Bralimadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life as a brahmin in the city of Takkasila in the Gandhara country; and by the time he had grown up, such was his proficiency in the Three Vedas and all accomplishments, that his fame as a teacher spread through all the world. In those days there was a brahmin family in Benares, unto whom a son was born; and on the day of his birth they took fire and kept it always burning, until the boy was sixteen. Then his parents told him how the fire, kindled on the day of his birth, had never been allowed to go out; and they bade their son make his choice. If his heart was set on winning entrance hereafter into the Realm of Brahma, then let him take the fire and retire with it to the forest, there to work out his desire by ceaseless worship of the Lord of Fire. But, if he preferred the joys of a home, they bade their son go to Takkasila and there study under the world-famed teacher with a view to settling down to manage the property. "I should surely fail in the worship of the Fire-God," said the young brahmin; "I'll be a squire." So he l:)ade farewell to his father and mother, and, with a thousand pieces of money for the teacher's fee, set out for Takkasila. There he studied till his education was complete, and then betook himself home again.

Now his parents grew to wish him to forsake the world and to worship the Fire-God in the forest. Accordingly his mother, in her desire to despatch him to the forest by bringing home to him the wickedness of women, was confident that his wise and learned teacher would be able to lay bare the wickedness of the sex to her son, and so she asked whether he had quite finished his education. "Oh yes," said the youth. [286] "Then of course you have not omitted the Dolour Texts?" "I have not learnt those, mother." "How then can you say your education is finished 1 Go back at once, my son, to your master, and return to lis when you have learnt them," said his mother. "Very good," said the youth, and off" he started for Takkasila once more. Now his master too had a mother, — an old woman of a hundred and twenty years of age, — whom with his own hands he used to bathe, feed and tend. And for so doing he was scorned by his neighbours, — so much so indeed that he resolved to depart to the forest and there dwell with his mother. Accordingly, in the solitude of a forest he had a hut built in a delightful spot, where water was plentiful, and after laying in a stock of ghee and rice and other provisions, he carried his mother to her new home, and there lived cherishincr her old ag-e.

Not finding his master at Takkasila, the young brahmin made enquiries, and finding out what had happened, set out for the forest, and presented himself respectfully before his master, "What brings you back so soon, my boy 'r' said the lattei-. "I do not think, sir, 1 learned the Dolour Texts when I was with you," said the youth, "But who told you that you had to learn the Dolour Texts ? " " My mother, master," was the reply. Hereon the Bodhisatta reflected that there were no such texts as those, and concluded that his pupil's mother must have wanted her son to learn how wicked women were. So he said to the youth that it was all right, and that he should in due course be taught the Texts in question. "From to-day," said he, "you shall take my place about my mother, and with your own hands wash, feed and look after her. As you rub her hands, feet, head and back, be careful to exclaim, 'Ah, Madam! if you are so lovely now you are so old, what must you not have been in the heyday of your youth ! ' And as you wash and perfume her hands and feet, burst into praise of their beauty. Further, tell me without shame or reserve every single word my mother says to you. Obey me in this, and you shall master the Dolour Texts ; disobey me, and you shall remain ignorant of them for ever."

Obedient to his master's commands, the youth did all he was bidden, and so persistently praised the old woman's beauty that she thought he had fallen in love with her; and, blind and decrepit though she was, passion was kindled within her [287]. So one day she broke in on his compliments by asking, "Is your desire towards me?" "It is indeed, madam," answered the youth; "but my master is so strict." "If you desire me," said she, "kill my son!" "But how shall I, that have learned so much from him,^ — how shall I for passion's sake kill my master?" "Well then, if you will be faithful to me, I will kill him myself." (So lustful, vile, and degraded are women that, giving the rein to lust, a hag like this, and old as she was, actually thirsted for the blood of so dutiful a son !) Now the young brahmin told all this to the Bodhisatta, who, commending him for reporting the matter, studied how much longer his mother was destined to live. Finding that her destiny was to die that very day, he said, " Come, young brahmin; I will put her to the test." So he cut down a fig-tree and hewed out of it a wooden figure about his own size, which he wrapped up, head and all, in a robe and laid upon his own bed, — with a string tied to it. "Now go with an axe to my mother," said he; "and give her this string as a clue to guide her steps."

So away went the youth to the old woman, and said, "Madam, the master is lying down indoors on his bed; I have tied this string as a clue to guide you; take this axe and kill him, if you can." "But you won't forsake me, will you?" .said she. "Why should I?" was his reply. So she took the axe, and, rising uj) with trembling limbs, groped her way along by the string, till she thought she felt her son. Then she bared the head of the figure, and — thinkinsc to kill her son at a single blow — 150 The Jataka. Book I. brought down the axe right on the figure's throat, — only to learn by the thud tliat it was wood! "What are you doing, mother?" said the Bodhisatta. With a shriek that she was betrayed, the old woman fell dead to the ground. For, says tradition, it was fated that she should die at that very moment and under her own roof. Seeing that she was dead, her son burnt her body, and, when the flames of the pile were quenched, graced her ashes with wild-flowei-s. Then with the young brahmin he sat at the door of the hut and said, "My son, there is no such separate passage as the 'Dolour Text.' [288] It is women who are depravity incarnate. And when your mother sent you back to me to learn the Dolour Texts, her object was that you should learn how wicked women are. You have now witnessed with your own eyes my mother's wickedness, and therefrom you will see how lustful and vile women are." And with this lesson, he bade the youth depart.

Bidding farewell to his master, the young brahmin went home to his parents. Said his mother to him, " Have you now learnt the Dolour Texts?" "And what," she asked, "is your final choice? will you leave the world to worship the Lord of Fire, or will you choose a family life?" "Nay," answered the young brahmin; "with my own eyes have I seen the wickedness of womankind ; I will have nothing to do with family life. I will renounce the woi'ld," And his convictions found vent in this stanza : — In lust unbridled, like devouring fire. Are women, — frantic in their rage. The sex renouncing, fain would I retire To find peace in a hermitage. [289] With this invective against womankind, the young brahmin took leave of his parents, and renounced the world for the hermit's life, — whei-ein winning the peace he desired, he assured himself of admittance after that life into the Realm of Brahma. " So you see. Brother," said the Master, " how lustful, vile, and woe-bringing are women." And after declaring the wickedness of women, he preached the Four Truths, at the close whereof that Brother won the Fruit of the First Path. Lastly, the Master shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, "Kapilaini was the mother of those days, Maha-Kassapa was the father, Ananda the pupil, and I myself the teacher."

1 Her history is given in J. K. A. S. 1893, page 786.

" Blindfold, a-luting." — This story was told by the Master while at Jetavaua, about another passion-tost person. Said the Master, "Is the report true that you are passion-tost, Brother?" " Quite true," was the reply. " Brother, women can not be warded ; in days gone by the wise who kept watch over a woman from the moment she was born, failed nevertheless to keep her safe." And so saying, he told this stoiy of the past. Once on. a time when Brahmadatta was reigning ia Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life as the child of the Queen-consort. When he grew up, he mastered eveiy accomplishment ; and when, at his father's death, he came to be king, he proved a righteous king. Now he used to play at dice with his chaplain, and, as he flung the golden dice upon the silver table, he would sing this catch for luck : — 'Tis nature's law that rivers wind ; Trees grow of wood by law of kind ; And, given opportunity. All women work iniquity. [290] As these lines always made the king win the game, the chaplain was in a fair way to lose every penny he had in the woi'ld. And, in order to save himself from utter ruin, he resolved to seek out a little maid that had never seen another man, and then to keep her under lock and key in his own house.

"For," thought he, "I couldn't manage to look after a girl who has seen another man. So I must take a new-born baby girl, and keep her under my thumb as she grows up, with a close guard over her, so that none may come near her and that she may be true to one man. Then I shall win of the king, and grow rich." Now he was skilled in prognostication ; and seeing a poor woman who was about to become a mother, and knowing that her child would be a girl, he paid the woman to come and be confined in his house, and sent her away after her confinement with a j)resent. The infant was brought up entirely by women, and no men — other than himself — were ever allowed to set eyes on her. When the girl grew up, she was subject to him and he was her master.

Now, while the gii'l was growing up, the chaplain forbore to play with the king; but when she was grown up and under his own control. X52 Th£, Jataha. Book I. he challenged the king to a game. The king accepted, and play began. But, when in throwing the dice the king sang his lucky catch, the chaplain added,— "always excepting my girl." And then luck changed, and it was now the chaplain who Avon, while the king lost. Thiiikin" the matter over, the Bodhisatta suspected the chaplain had a virtuous girl shut up in his house; and enquiry proved his suspicions true. Then, in order to work her fall, he sent for a clever scamp, and asked whether he thought he could seduce the girl. "Certainly, sire," said the fellow. So the king gave him money, and sent him away with orders to lose no time. With the king's money the fellow bought perfumes and incense and aromatics of all sorts, and opened a perfumery slioj) close to the chaplain's house. Now the chaplain's house was seven stories high, and had seven gateways, at each of which a guard was set, — a guard of women only, — and no man but the brahmin himself was ever allowed to enter. The very baskets that contained the dust and sweepings [291] were examined before they were passed in. Only the chaplain was allowed to see the girl, and she had only a single waiting- worn an. This woman had money given her to buy flowers and perfumes for her mistress, and on her way she used to pass near the shop which the scamp had opened. And he, knowing very well that she was the girl's attendant, watched one day for her coming, and, rushing out of his shop, fell at her feet, clasping her knees tightly with both hands and blubbering out, " 0 my mother ! where have you been all this long time?"

And his confederates, who stood by his side, cried, "What a likeness ! Hand and foot, face and figure, even in style of dress, they are identical !" As one and all kei)t dwelling on the marvellous likeness, the poor woman lost her head. Crying out that it must be her boy, she too burst into tears. And with weeping and tears the two fell to embracing one another. Then said the man, "Where are you living, mother?" "Up at the chaplain's, my son. He has a young wife of peerless beauty, a very goddess for grace; and I'm her waiting-woman." "And whither away now, mother?" "To buy her perfumes and flowers." "Why go elsewhere for them] Come to me for them in future," said the fellow. And he gave the woman betel, bdellium, and so forth, and all kinds of flowers, refusing all payment. Struck with the quantity of flowers and perfumes which the waiting-woman brought home, the girl asked why the brahmin was so pleased with her that day. "Why do you say that, my dear?" asked the old woman. "Because of the quantity of things you have brought home." "No, it isn't that the brahmin was free with his rnqney," said the old woman ; "for I got them at my son's." And from that day forth she kept the money the brahmin gave her, and got her flowers and other things free of charge at the man's shop.

And he, a few days later, made out to be ill, and took to his bed. So when the old woman came to the shop and asked for her son, she was told he had been taken ill. Hastening to his side, she fondly stroked his shoulders, as she asked what ailed him. But he made no reply. "Why don't you tell me, my son"?" "Not even if I were dying, could I tell you, mother." "But, if you don't tell me, [292] whom are you to tell?" "Well then, mother, my malady lies solely in this that, hearing the praises of your young mistress's beauty, I have fallen in love with her. If I win her, I shall live; if not, this will be my death-bed." "Leave that to me, my boy," said the old woman cheerily ; " and don't worry yourself on this account." Then — with a heavy load of perfumes and flowers to take with her — she went home, and said to the brahmin's young wife, "Alas! here's my son in love with you, merely because I told him how beautiful you are ! What is to be done 1 " "If you can smuggle him in here," replied the girl, "you have my leave."

Hereupon the old woman set to work sweeping together all the dust she could find in the house from top to bottom ; this dust she put into a huge flower-basket, and tried to pass out with it. When the usual search was made, she emptied dust over the woman on guard, who fled away under such ill-treatment. In like manner she dealt with all the other watchers, smothering in dust each one in turn that said anything to her. And so it came to pass from that time forward that, no matter what the old woman took in or out of the house, there was nobody bold enough to search her. Now was the time ! The old woman smuggled the scamj) into the house in a flower-basket, and brought him to her young mistress. He succeeded in wrecking the girl's virtue, and actually stayed a day or two in the upper rooms, — hiding when the chaplain was at home, and enjoying the society of his mistress when the chaplain was off" the premises. A day or two passed and the girl said to her lover, "Sweetheart, you must be going now." "Very well; only I must cuff" the brahmin first." "Certainly," said she, and hid the scamp. Then, when the brahmin came in again, she exclaimed, "Oh, my dear husband, I should so like to dance, if you would play the lute for me." "Dance away, my dear," said the chaplain, and struck up forthwiili.

"But I shall be too ashamed, if you're looking. Let me hide your handsome face first with a cloth; and then I will dance." "All right," said he; "if you're too modest to dance otherwise." So she took a thick cloth and tied it over the brahmin's face so as to blindfold him. And, blindfolded as he was, the brahmin began to play the lute. After dancing awhile, she cried, "My dear, I should so like to hit you once on the head." "Hit away," said the unsuspecting dotard. Then the girl made a sign to her paramour; and he softly stole up behind the l)rahmin [293] and smote him on the head.

154 The Jataka. Booh I. Such was tlie force of the blow, that the brahmin's eyes were like to start out of his head, and a bump rose up on the spot. Smarting with pain, he called to the girl to give him her hand; and she placed it in his. "Ah ! it's a soft hand," said he; "but it hits hard !" Now, as soon as the scamp had struck the brahmin, he hid ; and when he was hidden, the girl took the bandage off the chaplain's eyes and rubbed his bruised head with oil. The moment the brahmin went out, the scamp was stowed away in his basket again by the old woman, and so carried out of the house. Making his way at once to the king, he told him the whole adventure. Accordingly, when the brahmin was next in attendance, the king proposed a game with the dice ; the brahmin was willing ; and the dicingtable was brought out. As the king made his throw, he sang his old catch, and the brahmin— ignorant of the girl's naughtiness — added his "always excepting my girl," — and nevertheless lost ! Then the king, who did know what had passed, said to his chaplain, "Why except herl Her virtue has given way. Ah, you dreamed that by taking a girl in the hour of her birth and by placing a sevenfold guard round her, you could be certain of her.

Why, you couldn't be certain of a woman, even if you had her inside you and always walked about with her. No woman is ever faithful to one man alone. As for that girl of yours, she told you she should like to dance, and having first blindfolded you as you played the lute to her, she let her paramour strike you on the head, and then smuggled him out of the house. Where then is your exception?" And so saying, the king repeated this stanza : —

Blindfold, a-luting, by his wife beguiled, The brahmin sits, — who tried to rear A paragon of virtue undefiled I Learn hence to hold the sex in fear. [294] In such wise did the Bodhisatta expound the Truth to the brahmin. And the brahmin went home and taxed the girl with the wickedness of which she was accused. "My dear husband, who can have said such a thing about me?" said she. " Indeed I am innocent ; indeed it was my own hand, and nobody else's, that struck you ; and, if you do not believe me, I will brave the ordeal of fi^re to prove that no man's hand has touched me but yours; and so I will make you believe me." "So be it," said the brahmin. And he had a quantity of wood brought and set light to it. Then the girl was summoned. "Now," said he, "if you believe your own story, brave these flames !" Now before this the girl had instructed her attendant as follows : — "Tell your son, mother, to be there and to seize my hand just as I am about to go into the fire." And the old woman did as she was bidden ; and the fellow came and took his stand among the crowd. Then, to

delude the brahmin, the girl, standing there before all the people, exclaimed with fervour, "No man's hand but thine, brahmin, has ever touched me ; and, by the truth of my asseveration I call on this fire to harm me not." So saying, she advanced to the burning pile, — when up dashed her i)aramour, who seized her by the hand, crying shame on the brahmin who could force so fair a maid to enter the flames ! Shaking her hand free, the girl exclaimed to the brahmin that what she had assei'ted was now undone, and that she could not now brave the ordeal of fire. "Why not?" said the brahmin. "Because," she replied, "my asseveration was that no man's hand but thine had ever touched me ; [295] and now here is a man who has seized hold of my hand !" But the brahmin, knowing that he was tricked, drove her from him with blows. Such, we learn, is the wickedness of women. What crime will they not commit ; and then, to deceive their husbands, what oaths will they not take — aye, in the light of day — that they did it not ! So false-hearted are they ! Therefore has it been said : —

A sex composed of wickedness and guile, Unknowable, uncertain as the path Of fishes in the water, — womankind Hold truth for falsehood, falsehood for the truth ! As greedily as cows seek pastures new. Women, unsated, yearn for mate on mate. As sand unstable, cruel as the snake. Women know all things ; naught from them is hid ! "Even so impossible is it to ward women," said the Master. His lesson ended, he preached the Truths, at the close whereof the passion-tost Brother won the Fniit of the First Path. Also the Master shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying : — " In these days I was the King of Benares." \_Note. The cuffing of the brahmin is the subject of a Bharhut sculpture, Plate 26, 8. For a parallel to the trick by which the girl avoids the ordeal of fire, see Folklore 3. 291.]

" Wrathful are women." — This story was told l)y the Master while at Jetavana, about another passion-tost Brother. When on being questioned the Brother confessed that he was passion-tost, the Master said, " Women are ingrates and treacherous; why are you passion-tost because of them?" And he told this story of the past. 156 T]^^ Jataka. Book I. Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta, who had chosen an anchorite's life, built himself a hermitage by the banks of the Ganges, and there won the Attainments and the Higher Knowledges, and so dwelt in the bliss of Insight. In those days the Lord High Treasurer of Benares had a fierce and cruel daughter, known as Lady Wicked, who used to revile and beat her servants and slaves. And one day they took their young mistress [296] to disport herself in the Gauges ; and the girls were playing about in the water, when the sun set and a great storm burst upon them. Hereon folks scampered away, and the girl's attendants, exclaiming, "Now is the time to see the last of this creature 1 " threw her right into the river and hurried oft*. Down poured the rain in torrents, the sun set, and darkness came on. And when the attendants reached home without tlieir young mistress, and were asked where she was, they replied that she had got out of the Ganges but that they did not know where she had gone. Search was made by her family, but not a ti-ace of the missing girl could be found.

Meantime she, screaming loudly, was swept down by the swollen stream, and at midnight approached where the Bodhisatta dwelt in his hermitage. Hearing her cries, he thought to himself, ''That's a woman's voice. I must rescue her from the water." So he took a torch of grass and by its light descried her in the stream. " Don't be afraid ; don't be afraid ! " he shouted cheerily, and waded in, and, thanks to his vast strength, as of an elephant, brought her safe to land. Then he made a fire for her in his hermitage and set luscious fruits of divers kinds before her. Not till she had eaten did he ask, " Where is your home, and how came you to fall in the river 1 " And the girl told him all that had befallen her. "Dwell here for the present," said he, and installed her in his hermitage, whilst for the next two or three days he himself abode in the open air. At the end of that time he bade her depart, but she was set on waiting till she had made the ascetic fall in love with her ; and would not go. And as time went by, she so wrought on him by her womanly grace and wiles that he lost his Insight. With her he continued to dwell in the forest. But she did not like living in that solitude and wanted to be taken among people. So yielding to her importunities he took her away with him to a border village, where he supported her by selling dates, and so was called the Date-Sage', And the villagers paid

1 There is a play here upon the word takha, which caunot well be rendered iu English. The word takka-pamlito, which I have rendered 'Date Sage,' would^by itself— mean ^ Logic Sage,' whilst his living was got takkaih vikkinitvd 'by selling dates: There is the further difficulty that the latter phrase may equally well mean ' by selling buttermilk.' liini to teach them what weie lucky and unlucky seasons, and gave him a hut to live in at the entrance to their village. Now the border was harried by robbers from the mountains ; and they made a raid one day [297] on the village where the pair lived, and looted it. They made the poor villagers pack up their belongings, and off they went — with the Treasurer's daughter among the rest — to their own abodes. Arrived there, they let everybody else go free ; but the girl, because of her beauty, was taken to wife by the robber chieftain. And when the Bodhisatta leax'ned this, he thought to himself, " She will not endure to live away from me. She will escape and come back to me." And so he lived on, waiting for her to return. She meantime was very happy with the robbers, and only feared that the Date-sage would come to carry her away again. " I should feel more secure," thought she, "if he were dead. I must send a message to him feigning love and so entice him here to his death." So she sent a messenger to him with the message that she was unhappy, and that she wanted him to take her away.

And he, in his faith in her, set out forthwith, and came to the entrance of the robbers' village, whence he sent a message to her. "To fly now, my husband," said she, "would only be to fall into the robber chieftain's hands who would kill us both. Let us put off our flight till night." So she took him and hid him in a room ; and when the robber came home at night and was inflamed with strong drink, she said to him, " Tell me, love, what would you do if your rival were in your power ] " And he said he would do this and that to him. "Perhaps he is not so far away as you think," said she. "He is in the next room." Seizing a torch, the robber rushed in and seized the Bodhisatta and beat him about the head and body to his heart's content. Amid the blows the Bodhisatta made no cry, only murmuring, " Cruel ingrates ! slanderous traitors ! " And this was all he said. And when he had thus beaten, bound, and laid by the heels the Bodhisatta, the robber finished his supper, and lay down to sleep. In the morning, when he had slept off" his over-night's debavich, he fell anew to beating the Bodhisatta, who still made no cry but kept repeating the same four words. And the robber was struck with this and asked why, even when beaten, he kept saying that. [298]

"Listen," said the Date-Sage, "and you shall hear. Once I was a hermit dwelling in the solitude of the forest, and there I won Insight. And I rescued this woman from the Ganges and helped her in her need, and by her allurements fell from my high estate. Then I quitted the forest and supported her in a village, whence she was carried off by robbers, And she sent me a message that she was unhappy, entreating 158 The Jataka. Booh I. me to come and take her away. Now she has made me fall into your hands. That is why I thus exclaim." This set the robber a-thinking again, and he thought, " If she can feel so little for one who is so good and has done so much for her, what injury would she not do to me ? She must die." So having reassured the Bodhisatta and having awakened the woman, he set out sword in hand, pretending to her that he was about to kill him outside the village. Then bidding her hold the Date-Sage he drew his sword, and, making as though to kill the sage, clove the woman in twain. Then he bathed the DateSage from head to foot and for several days fed him with dainties to his heart's content.

" Where do you purpose to go now ? " said the robber at last. "The world," answered the sage, "has no pleasures for me. I will become a hermit once more and dwell in my former habitation in the forest." " And I too will become a hermit," exclaimed the robber. So both became hermits together, and dwelt in the hermitage in the foi-est, where they won the Higher Knowledges and the Attainments, and qualified themselves when life ended to enter the Realm of Brahma. After telling these two stories, the Master shewed the connexion, by reciting, as Buddha, this stanza : — Wrathful are women, slanderers, ingrates, The sowers of dissension and fell strife ! Then, Brother, tread the path of holiness, And Bliss therein thou shalt not fail to find. [299] His lesson ended, the Master preached the Truths, at the close whereof the passion-tost Brother won the Fruit of the First Path. Also, the Master identified the Birth by saying, "Ananda was the robber-chief of those days, and I myself the Date-Sage."

"Thinh'st ^/io?«."— This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about a lay-brother. Tradition says that there dwelt at Savatthi a lay-brother, who was stablished in the Three Gems and the Five Commandments, a devout lover of the Buddha, the Doctrine and the Brotherhood. But his wife was a sinful and wicked woman. On days when she did wrong, she was as meek as a slave-girl bought for a hundred pieces ; whilst on days when she did not do wrong, she played my lady, passionate and tyrannical. The husband could not make her out. She worried him so much that he did not go to wait on the Buddha. One day he went with perfumes and flowers, and had taken his seat after due salutation, when the Master said to him :— " Pray how comes it, lay-brother, that seven or eight days have gone by without your coming to wait upon the Buddha?" "My wife, sir, is one day like a slave-girl bought for a hundred pieces, while another day finds her like a passionate and tyrannical mistress. I cannot make her out ; and it is because she has worried me so that I have not been to wait upon the Buddha."

Now, when he heard these words, the Master said, " Why, lay-brother, you have already been told by the wise and good of bygone days that it is hard to understand the nature of women." And he went on to add "but his previous existences have come to be confused in his mind, so that he cannot remember." And so saying, he told this story of the past. Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to be a teacher of world-wide fame, with five liundred young brahmins studying under him. [300] One of these pupils was a young brahmin from a foreign land, w^ho fell in love with a woman and made her his wife. Though he continued to live on in Benares, he failed two or three times in his attendance on the master. For, you should know, his wife was a sinful and wicked woman, who was as meek as a slave on days when she had done wrong, but on days when she had not done wrong, played my lady, passionate and tyrannical. Her husband could not make her out at all ; and so worried and harassed by her was he that he absented himself from waiting on the Master. Now, some seven or eight days later he renewed his attendances, and was asked by the Bodhisatta why he had not been seen of late.

" Master, my wife is the cause," said he. And he told the Bodhisatta how she was meek one day like a slave-girl, and tyrannical the next ; how he could not make her out at all, and how he had been so worried and harassed by her shifting moods that he had stayed away. " Precisely so, young brahmin," said the Bodhisatta ; " on days when they have done wrong, women humble themselves before their husbands and become as meek and submissive as a slave-girl ; but on days when they have not done wrong, then they become stiff-necked and insubordinate to their lords. After this manner are women sinful and wicked ; and their nature is hard to know. No heed should be paid either to their likes or to their dislikes." And so saying, the Bodhisatta repeated for the edification of his pupil this Stanza : — Think'st thou a woman loves thee ? — be not glad. Think'st thou she loves thee not 1 — forbear to grieve. Unknowable, uncertain as the path Of fishes in the water, women prove. 160 The Jdtaka. Book I. [301] Such was the Bodhisatta's instruction to his pupil, who thenceforward paid no heed to his wife's caprices. A.nd she, hearing that her misconduct had come to the ears of the Bodhisatta, ceased from that time forward from her naughtiness.

So too this lay-brother's wife said to herself, " The Perfect Buddha himself knows, they tell me, of my misconduct," and thenceforth she sinned no more. His lesson ended, the Master ijreached the Truths, at the close whereof the lay-brother won the Fruit of the First Path. Then the Master shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying — "This husband and wife were also the husband and wife of those days, and I myself the teacher."

'■^ Like highways^ — This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about just such another lay-brother as the last. This man, when on enquiry he assured himself of his wife's misconduct, came to words with her, with the result that he was so upset that for seven or eight days he failed in his attendance. One day he came to the monastery, made his bow to the Blessed One and took his seat. Being asked why he had been absent for seven or eight days, he replied, " Sir, my wife has misconducted herself, and I have been so upset about her that I did not come." " Lay-brother," said the Master, " long ago the wise and good told you not to be angered at the naughtiness found in women, but to preserve your equanimity ; this, however, you have forgotten, because re-birth has hidden it from you." And so saying, he told— at that lay-brothei-'s request — this story of the past. Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was a teacher of world-wide reputation, as in the foregoing story. And a pupil of his, finding his wife unfaithful, was so affected by the discovery that he stayed away for some days, but being asked one day by his teacher what was the reason of his absence, he made a clean breast of it. Then said his teacher, " My son, there is no private property in women : they are common to all. [302] And therefore wise men knowing

their frailty, ai'e not excited to anger against them." And so saying, he repeated this stanza for his pupil's edification : — Like highways, rivers, courtyards, hostelries, Or taverns, which to all alike extend One universal hospitality, — Is womankind ; and wise men never stoop To wrath at frailty in a sex so frail. Such was the instruction which the Bodhisatta imparted to his pupil, who thenceforward grew indifferent to what women did. And as for his wife, she was so changed by hearing that the teacher knew what she was, that she gave up her naughtiness thenceforth. So too that lay-brother's wife, when she heard that the Master knew what she was, gave up her naughtiness theuceforth. His lesson ended, the Master preached the Truths, at the close whereof the lay-brother won the Fruit of the First Path. Also the Master shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, " This husband and wife were also the husband and wife of those days, and I myself the brahmin teacher."

" Till Oentle-heart was 7ni7ie." — This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about concupiscence. Tradition says that a young gentleman of Savatthi, [303] on hearing the Truth preached by the Master, gave his heart to the Doctrine of the Three Gems. Renouncing the world for the Brother's life, he rose to walk in the Paths, to practise meditation, and never to slacken in his pondering over the theme he had chosen for thought. One day, whilst he was on his round for alms through Savatthi, he espied a woman in brave attire, and, for pleasure's sake, liroke through the higher morality and gazed upon her! Passion was stirred within him, he became even as a fig-tree felled by the axe. From that day forth, imder the sway of passion, the palate of his mind, as of his body, lost all its gust; like a brute beast, he took no joy in the Doctrine, and suffered his nails and hair to grow long and his' robes to grow foul. When his friends among the Brethren became aware of his troubled state of mind, they said, " Why, sir, is your moral state otherwise than it was ? " " My joy has gone," said he. Then they took him to the Master, who asked them why they had brought that Brother there against his will. " Because, sir, his joy is gone." "Is that true, Brother]" "It is. Blessed One." "Who has troubled you?" "Sir, I was on my round for alms when, violating the higher morality, I gazed on a woman ; and passion was stirred within me. Therefore am I

162 The Jdtaka. Book I. troubled." Then said the Master, "It is little marvel, Brother, that when, violating morality, you were gazing for pleasure's sake on an exceptional object, you were stirred by passion. Why, in bygone times, even those who had won the five Higher Knowledges and the eight Attainments, tho.se who by the might of Insight had quelled their passions, whose hearts were purified and whose feet could walk the .skies, yea even Bodhisattas, through gazing in violation of morality on an exceptional object, lost their insight, were stirred by passion, and came to great sorrow. Little recks the wind which could overturn Mount Sineru, of a bare hillock no bigger than an elephant ; little recks a wind which could uproot a mighty Jambu-tree, of a bush on the face of a clifi"; and little recks a wind which could dry up a vast ocean, of a tiny pond. If passion could breed folly in the supremely-enlightened and pure-minded Bodhisattas, shall passion be abashed before you ? Why, even purified beings are led a.stray by passion, and those advanced to the highest honour, come to shame." And so saying, he told this story of the past. Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born into a rich brahmin family in the Kasi country. When he was grown up and had finished his education, he renounced all Lusts, and, forsaking the world for the hermit's life, went to live in the solitudes of the Himalayas, There by due fulfilment of all preparatory forms of meditation, he won by abstract thought the Higher Knowledges and the ecstatic Attainments ; and so lived his life in the bliss of mystic Insight.

[304] Lack of salt and vinegar brought him one day to Benares, where he took up his quarters in the king's pleasaunce. Next day, after seeing to his bodily needs, he folded up the red suit of bark which he commonly wore, threw over one shoulder a black antelope's skin, knotted his tangled locks in a coil on the top of his head, and with a yoke on his back from which hung two baskets, set out on his round in quest of alms. Coming to the palace-gates on his way, his demeanour so commended him to the king that his majesty had him brought in So the ascetic was seated on a couch of great splendour and fed with abundance of the daintiest food. And when he thanked tlie king, he was invited to take up his dwelling in the pleasaunce. The ascetic accepted the offer, and for sixteen years abode in the pleasaunce, exhorting the king's household and eating of the king's meat. Now there came a day when the king must go to the borders to put down a rising. But, before he started, he charged his queen, who.se name was Gentle-heart, to minister to the wants of the holy man. So, after the king's departure, the Bodhisatta continued to go when he pleased to the palace.

One day Queen Gentle-heart got ready a meal for the Bodhisatta; but as he was late in coming, she betook herself to her own toilette. After bathing in pei-fumed water, she dressed herself in all her splendour, and lay clown, awaiting his coming, on a little couch in the spacious chamber. Waking from rapture of Insight, and seeing how late it was, the Bodhisatta transported himself through the air to the palace. Hearing the rustling of his bark-robe, the queen started up hurriedly to receive him. In her hurry to rise, her tunic slipped down, so that her beauty was revealed to the ascetic as he entered the window ; and at the sight, in violation of Morality he gazed for pleasure's sake on the marvellous beauty of the queen. Lust was kindled within him ; he was as a tree felled by the axe. At once all Insight deserted him, and he became as a crow with its wings clipped. Clutching his food, still standing, he ate not, but took his way, all a-tremble with desire, from the palace to his hut in the pleasaunce, set it down beneath his wooden couch and thereon lay for seven whole days a prey to hunger and thirst, enslaved by the queen's loveliness, his heart aflame with lust.

On the seventh day, the king came back from pacifying the border. After passing in solemn procession round the city, he entered his palace. [305] Then, wishing to see the ascetic, he took his way to the pleasaunce, and there in the cell found the Bodhisatta lying on his couch. Thinking the holy man had been taken ill, the king, after first having the cell cleaned out, asked, as he stroked the sufferer's feet, what ailed him. "Sire, my heart is fettered by lust; that is my sole ailment." "Lust for whom 1 " " For Gentle-heart, sire." " Then she is yours ; I give her to you," said the king. Then he passed with the ascetic to the palace, and bidding the queen array herself in all her splendour, gave her to the Bodhisatta. But, as he was giving her away, the king privily charged the queen to put forth her utmost endeavour to save the holy man. " Fear not, sire," said the queen ; " I will save him." So with the queen the ascetic went out from the palace. But when he had passed through the great gate, the queen cried out that they must have a house to live in ; and back he must go to the king to ask for one. So back he went to ask the king for a house to live in, and the king gave them a tumble-down dwelling which passers-by used as a jakes. To this dwelling the ascetic took the queen ; but she flatly refused to enter it, because of its filthy state.

" What am I to do 1 " he cried. " Why, clean it out," she said. And she sent him to the king for a spade and a basket, and made him remove all the filth and dirt, and plaster the walls with cowdung, which he had to fetch. This done, she made him get a bed, and a stool, and a rug, and a water-pot, and a cup, sending him for only one thing at a time. Next, she sent him packing to fetch water and a thousand other things. So off he started for the water, and filled up the water-pot, and set out the water for the bath, and made the bed. And, as he sat with her upon the 164 Tlie Jdtaka. Booh I. bed she took him by tlie whiskers and drew him towards her till they were face to face, saying, " Hast thou forgotten that thou art a holy man and a brahmin ? " Hereon he came to himself after his interval of witless folly. (And here should be repeated the text beginning, " Thus the hindrances of Lust and Longing are called Evils because they spring from Ignorance, Brethren ; [306] that which springs from Ignorance creates Darkness.")

So when he had come to himself, he bethought him how, waxing stronger and stronger, this fatal craving would condemn him hereafter to the Four States of Punishment'. "This self-same day," he cried, "will I restore this woman to the king and fly to the mountains ! " So he stood with the queen before the king and said, "Sire, I want your queen no longer; and it was only for her that cravings were awakened within me." And so saying, he repeated this Stanza : — Till Gentle-heart was mine, one sole desire I had, — to win her. When her beauty owned Me lord, desire came crowding on desire. Forthwith his lost power of Insight came back to him. Rising from the earth and seating himself in the air, he preached the Truth to the king ; and without touching earth he passed through the air to the Himalayas. He never came back to the paths of men ; but grew in love and charity till, with Insight unbroken, he passed to a new birth in the Realm of Brahma. His lesson ended, the Master preached the Truths, at the close whereof that Brother won Arahatship itself. Also the Master shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, " Ananda was the King of those days, Uppalavanna was Gentle-heart, and I the hermit."

"^ son 's mi eas9/ Jind."— Thin story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about a certain country-woman. For it fell out once in Kosala that three men were ploughing on the outskirts of a certain forest, and that robbers plundered folk in that forest and made their escape. [307] The victims came, in the course of a fruitless search for the rascals, to where the three men were ploughing. " Here are the forest robbers, ^ Hell, the brute-creation, ghostdoin, devildom. disguised as husbandmen," they cried, and hauled the trio off as prisoners to the King of Kosala. Now time after time there came to the king's palace a woman who with loud lamentations begged for " wherewitli to be covered." Hearing lier cry, the king ordered a shift to be given her ; but she refused it, saying tliis was not what she meant. 80 the king's servants came back to his majesty and said that what the woman wanted was not clothes but a husband'. Then the king had the woman brought into his presence and asked her whether she really did mean a husband. " Yes, sire," she answered ; " for a husband is a woman's real covering, and she that lacks a husband— even though she be clad in garments costing a thousand pieces — goes bare and naked indeed."

(And to enforce this truth, the following 8utta should be recited here : — Like kingless kingdoms, like a stream run dry, So bare and naked is a woman seen, Who, having brothers ten, yet lacks a mate.) Pleased with the woman's answer, the king asked what relation the three prisoners were to her. And she said that one was her husband, one her l)rothcr, and one her son. " Well, to mark my favour," said the king, " I give you one of the three. Which will you take ? " " Sire," was her answer, " if 1 live, I can get another husband and another son ; but as my parents are dead, I can never get another brother. So give me my brother. Sire." Pleased with the woman, the king set all three men at liberty ; and thus this one woman was the means of saving three persons from peril. When the matter came to the knowledge of the Brotherhood, they were lauding the woman in the Hall of Truth, when the Master entered. Learning on enquiry what was the subject of their talk, he said, "This is not the first time. Brethren, that this woman has saved those three from peril ; she did the same in days gone by." And, so saying, he told this story of the past.

Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, three men were ploughing on the outskirts of a forest, and everything came to pass as above. Being asked by the king which of the three she would take, the woman said, '' Cannot your majesty give me all three 1 " '' No," said the king, *' I cannot." [308] " Well, if I cannot have all three, give me my brother." " Take your husband or your son," said the king. " What matters a brother?" " Tlie two former I can readily replace," answered the woman, " but a brother never I" And so saying, she repeated this stanza : — A son 's an easy find ; of husbands too An ample choice throngs public ways. But where Will all my pains another brother find I "She is quite right," said the king, well-pleased. And he bade all three men be fetched from the prison and given over to the woman. She took them all three and went her way. 1 Cf . ' femme couverte. ' 166 The Jataka. Book I. " So yoii see, Brethren," said tlie Master, '• that this same woman once before saved these same three men from peril." His lesson ended, he made the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, " The woman and the three men of to-day wore also the woman and men of those bygone days ; and I was then the king."

[NQfg — Qf foj. the idea of the verse Herodotus iii. 118 — 120, Sophocles Antigone 909 — 912 ; and see this passage discussed in the Indian Antiquary for December, 1881.]

" The man thy mind rests on." — This story was told by the Master, while at Aiijanavana, about a certain brahmin. Tradition says that when the Blessed One with his disciples was entering the city of Saketa, an old brahmin of that place, who was going out, met him in the gateway. Falling at the Buddha's feet, and clasping him by the ankles, the old man cried, " Son, is it not the duty of children to cherish the old age of their parents ? [309] Why have you not let us see you all this long time '? At last I have seen you ; come, let your mother see you too." So saying, he took the Master with him to his house ; and there the Master sat upon the seat j)repared for him, with his disciples around him. Then came the brahmin's wife, and she too fell at the feet of the Blessed One, crying, " My son, where have you been all this time l Is it not the duty of children to comfort their parents in their old age 'I " Hereon, she called to her sons and daughters that their brother was come, and made them salute the Buddha. And in their joy the aged pair shewed great hospitality to their guests. After his meal, the Master recited to the old people the Sutta concerning old-age 1 ; and, when he had ended, both husband and wife won fruition of the Second Path. • Then rising up from his seat, the Master went back to Afijanavana.

Meeting together in the Hall of Truth, the Brethren fell to talking about this thing. It was urged that the brahmin must have been well aware that Suddhodana was the father, and Mahamaya the mother, of the Buddha ; yet none the less, he and his wife had claimed the Buddha as their own son,— and that with the Master's assent. What could it all mean '? Hearing their talk, the Master said, " Brethren, the aged pair were right in claiming me as their son." And so saying, he told this story of the past. Brethren, in ages past this brahmin was my father in 500 successive births, my uncle in a like number, and in 500 more my grandfather. And 1 The Jara-sutta of the Sutta-nipata, page 152 of Fausboll's edition for the Piili Text Society. in 1500 successive births his wife was respectively my mother, my aunt, and my grandmother. So I was brought up in 1500 births by this brahmin, and in 1500 by his wife. And therewithal, having told of these 3000 birtlis, tlie Master, as Buddha, recited this Stanza: — The man thy mind rests on, with whom thy heart Is pleased at first sight, —place thy trust in him.

[310] His lesson euded, the Master shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, " This brahmin and his wife were the husband and wife in all those existences, and 1 the child." [iVote. See also No. 237.]

'■'•May shavier — This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana about Sariputta, the Captain of the Faith. Tradition says that in the days when the Elder used to eat meal-cakes, folks came to the monastery with a quantity of such cakes for the Brotherhood. After the Brethren had all eaten their fill, much remained over ; and the givers said, " Sirs, take some for those too who are away in the village." Just then a youth who was the Elder's co-resident, was away in the village. For him a portion was taken ; but, as he did not return, and it was felt that it was getting very late^, this portion was given to the Elder. When this portion had been eaten by the Elder, the youth came in. Accordingly, the Elder explained the case to him, saying, " Sir, I have eaten the cakes set apart for you." "Ah !" was the rejoinder, "we have all of us got a sweet tooth." The Great Elder was much troubled. " From this day forward," he exclaimed, " I vow never to eat meal-cakes again." And fi'om that day forward, so tradition says, the Elder Sariputta never touched meal-cakes again ! This abstention became matter of common knowledge in the Brotherhood, and the Brethren sat talking of it in the Hall of Truth. Said the Master, "What are you talking of. Brethren, as you sit here V When they had told him, he said, " Brethren, when Sariputta has once given anything up, he never goes back to it again, even though his life be at stake." And so saying, he told this story of the past.

1 i.e. close on to mid-day, after which the food could not properly be eaten. See note, page 107. 168 The Jdtaka. Booh I. Once on a time, wlieu iJialiinadatta was I'eigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born into a family of doctors skilled in the cure of snakel>ites, and when he grew up, he practised for a livelihood. Now it fell out that a countryman was bitten by a snake ; and without delay his relatives quickly fetched the doctor. Said the Bodhisatta, " Shall I extract the venom with the usual antidotes, or have the snake caught and make it suck its own poison out of the wound ] " " Have the snake caught and make it suck the poison out." So he had the snake caught, and asked the creature, saying " Did you bite this man?" " Yes, I did," was the answer. [311] "Well then, suck your own poison out of the wound again." " What 1 Take back the poison I have once shed ! " cried the snake ; " I never did, and I never will." Then the doctor made a tire with wood, and said to the snake, " Either you suck the poison out, or into the fire you go."

" Even though the flames be my doom, I will not take back the poison I have once shed," said the snake, and repeated the following stanza : — May shame be on the poison which, once shed. To save my life, I swallow down again ! More welcome death than life by weakness bought ! With these words, the snake moved towards the fire ! But the doctor barred its way, and drew out the poison with simples and charms, so that the man was whole again. Then he unfolded the Commandments to the snake, and set it free, saying, " Henceforth do harm to none." And the Master went on to say, — " Brethren, when Sariputta has once parted with anything, he never takes it back again, even though his life be at stake." His lesson ended, he shewed the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, " Sariputta was the snake of those days, and I the doctor."

" The co?ij?<es^"— This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about the Elder named Cittahattha-Sariputta. He is said to have been a youth of a good family in Savatthi ; and one day, on his way home from ploughing, he turned in to the monastery. Here he received from the bowl of a certain Elder sonie damty fare, rich and sweet, which made him think to himself,— "Day and night I am toiling away with my hands at divers tasks, yet never do I taste food so sweet. I must turn Bn)tlier myself!" vSo he joined the Brotherhood, but after six weeks' zealous application to high thinking, fell under the dominion of Lusts and off he went. His belly again proving too much for him, [312] l)ack he came to join the Brotherhood once more, and studied the Abhidhamma^. In this way, six times he left and came back again ; but when for the seventh time he became a Brother, he mastered the whole seven books of the Abhidhamma, and by much chanting of the Doctrine of the Brothers won Discernment and attained to Arahatship. Now his friends among the Brethren scott'ed at him, saying — "Can it be, sir, that Lusts have ceased to spring up within your heart?"

" Sirs," was the reply, " I have now got beyond mundane life henceforth." He having thus won Arahatship, talk thereof arose in the Hall t)f Truth, as follows : — " Sirs, though all the while he was destined to all the glories of Arahatship, 3'et six times did Cittaliattha-Sariputta renounce the Brotherhood ; truly, very wrong is the unconverted state." Returning to the Hall, the JMaster asked what they were talking about. Being told, he said, " Brethren, the worldling's heart is light and hard to curb ; material things attract and hold it fast ; when once it is so held fast, it cannot be released in a trice. Excellent is the mastery of such a heart ; once mastered, it brings joy and happiness : — 'Tis good to tame a headstrong heart and frail, By passion swayed. Once tamed, the heart brings bliss. It was by reason of this headstrong quality of the heart, however, that, for the sake of a pretty spade which they could not bring themselves to throw away, the wise and good of bygone days six times reverted to the world out of sheer cupidity ; but on the seventh occasion they won Insight and subdued their cupidity." And so saying, he told this story of the past.

Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life again as a gardener, and grew up. ' Spade Sage ' was his name. With his spade he cleared a patch of ground, and grew pot-herbs, pumpkins, gourds, cucumbers, and other vegetables, by the sale of which he made a sorry living. For, save only that one spade, he had nothing in the world ! Resolving one day to forsake the world for the religious life, he hid his spade away, and became a recluse. But thoughts of that spade rose in his heart and the passion of greed overcame him, so that for the sake of his blunt spade he reverted to the world. [313] Again and again this happened ; six times did he hide the spade and become a recluse, — only to renounce his vows again. But the seventh time he bethought him how that blunt spade had caused him again and again to backslide ; and he made up his mind to throw it into a great river before he became a rechise again. So he carried the spade to the i*iver-side, and, fearing lest if he saw where it fell, he should come back and fish it out again, he whirled the spade thrice round his head by the handle and flung