The Jātaka, vol. IV (nos. 439-510)

Once upon a time, there reigned in Benares a king named Bahuputtaka, or the Father of Many Sons, and his Queen Consort was Khema. At that time the Great Being dwelt on Mount Cittakita, and he was the chief of ninety thousand wild geese, having come to life as a golden goose, [424] And at that time, as already recounted, the queen saw a dream, and told the king she had conceived a woman’s craving to hear a Golden Goose discourse of the Law. When the king enquired, were there any such creatures as golden geese, he was told yes, there were on Mount Cittakita. Then he had made a lake which he called Khema, and caused to be planted all manner of food-corn, and daily in the four quarters made proclamation of immunity to be cried, and sent forth a hunter to catch geese. How this man was sent forth, and his watching of the birds, and how news was told the king when the golden geese came, and in what manner the snare was set and the Great Being was caught in the snare, how Sumukha chief captain of the geese saw him not in the three divisions of the geese, and returned, all this will be set forth in the Mahahazhsa Birth’. Now as then the Great Being was caught in the noose and stick ; and even as he hung in the noose at the end of the stick, he stretched forth his neck looking along the way that the geese had gone, and espying Sumukha as he came, thought, ‘When he comes I will put him to the test.” So when he came, the Great Being repeated three stanzas :

“There go the birds, the ruddy geese, all overcome with fear: O golden-yellow Sumukha, depart! what want you here? “My kith and kin deserted me, away they all have flown, Without a thought they fly away: why are you left alone? “Fly, noble bird! with prisoners no fellowship can be: Sumukha, fly! nor lose the chance while you may yet be free.” ' No. 534, where the king of the geese is named Dhatarattha. [425] To which Sumukha replied, sitting on the mud— “No, Tl not leave you, Royal Goose, when trouble draweth nigh: But stay I will, and by your side will either live or die.” Thus Sumukha, with a lion’s note; and Dhatarattha answered with this stanza : “A noble heart, brave words are these, Sumukha, which you say: Twas but to put you to the test I bade you fly away.” As they were thus conversing together, up comes the huntsman, staff in hand, at the top of his speed. Sumukha encouraged Dhatarattha, and flew to meet the man, respectfully declaring the virtues of the royal bird. Immediately the hunter’s heart was softened ; which Sumukha perceiving, went back, and stood encouraging the king of the geese. And the hunter approaching the king of the geese, recited the sixth stanza:

“They foot it by unfooted ways, birds flying in the sky: And did you not, O noble Goose, afar the snare espy?” The Great Being said : “When life is coming to an end, and death’s hour draws anigh, Though you may close upon it come nor trap nor snare you spy.” [426] The hunter, pleased with the bird’s remark, then addressed three stanzas to Sumukha. “There go the birds, the ruddy geese, all overcome with fear: And you, O golden-yellow fowl, are still left waiting here. “They ate and drank, the ruddy geese: uncaring, they are flown; Away they scurry through the air, and you are left alone. “What is this fowl, that when the rest deserting him have flown, Though free, you join the prisoner—why are you left alone?” “He is my comrade, friend, and king, dear as my life is he: Forsake him—no, I never will, until death calls for me.” On hearing this the hunter was much pleased, and thought within him —*“Tf I should harm virtuous creatures like these, the earth would gape open and swallow me up. What care I for the king’s reward? I will set them free.” And he repeated a stanza :

“Now seeing that for friendship’s sake you are prepared to die, I set your king and comrade free, to follow where you fly.” This said, he drew down Dhatarattha from the stick, and loosed the noose, and took him to the bank, and pitifully washed the blood from him, [427] and set the dislocated muscles and tendons. And by reason of his 1 This couplet occurs in ii. 52 (p. 35 of translation), and iii. 331 (p. 204, ‘‘ When TUL...) 266 The Jataka. Book XV. kindness of heart, and by the might of the Great Being’s Perfections’, on the instant his foot became whole again, and not a mark showed where he had been caught. Sumukha beheld the Great Being with joy, and gave thanks in these words: “With all your kindred and your friends, O hunter, happy be’, As I am happy to behold the King of birds set free.” When the hunter heard this, he said, ‘‘ Now you may depart, friend.” Then the Great Being said to him, “ Did you capture me for your own purposes, my good sir, or at the bidding of another?” He told him the facts. The other wondered whether it were better to return to Cittakita, or go to the town. “If I go to the town,” he thought, “the hunter will be rewarded, the queen’s craving will be appeased, Sumukha’s friendship will be made known, then also by virtue of my wisdom I shall receive the lake Khema, as a free gift. It is better therefore to go to the city.” This determined, he said, “ Huntsman, take us on your carryingpole to the king, and he shall set me free if he will.”—“ My lord, kings are hard; go your ways.”—‘“ What! I have softened a hunter like thee, and shall I not find favour with a king? Leave that to me; your part, friend, is to convey us to him.” The man did so.

When the king set eyes on the geese, he was delighted. He placed both the geese on a golden perch, gave them honey and fried grain to eat and sweetened water to drink, and holding his hands out in supplication prayed them to speak of the Law. The king of the geese seeing how eager he was to hear first addressed him in pleasant words. These are the stanzas expressing the converse of king and goose one with another. : “Now has his honour health and wealth, and is the kingdom full Of welfare and prosperity, and does he justly rule?” [428]‘‘O here is health and wealth, O Goose, and here’s a kingdom full Of welfare and prosperity, with just and righteous rule.” “Is there no blemish seen amid your court, and are your foes Far off, and like the shadow on the south, which never grows? ?” “There is no blemish seen amid my courtiers, and my foes ‘ Far off are like the shadow on the south, which never grows.” “And is your queen of equal birth, obedient, sweet of speech, Fruitful, fair, famous, waiting on your wishes, doing each ?” “O yes, my queen’s of equal birth, obedient, sweet of speech, Fruitful, fair, famous, waiting on my wishes, doing each.”

“O fostering ruler! have you sons a many, nobly bred, Quickwitted, easy men to please whatever thing be sped ?” The Ten Perfections of the Bodhisatta are given in Childers’ Dictionary, p. 3354, This line occurs in iii. 331 (p. 204 of translation, ‘‘O hunter...”). The last three words come from the scholiast’s note. “O Dhatarattha! sons I have of fame, five score and one: Tell them their duty: they'll not leave your good advice undone.” On hearing this, the Great Being gave them admonition in five stanzas : “He that puts off until too late the effort to do good, Though nobly bred, with virtue dowered, yet sinks beneath the flood. [429] ‘His knowledge fades, great loss is his; as one moonblind at night} Sees all things swollen twice their size with his imperfect sight. “Who sees the truth in falsity no wisdom gains at all, As on a rugged mountain-path the deer will often fall. “Tf any strong courageous man loves virtue, follows right, Though but a low-born churl, he burns like bonfires in the night. “By using this similitude all wisdom’s truths explain, Cherish your sons till wise they grow, like seedlings in the rain.” [430] Thus did the Great Being discourse to the king the livelong night. The queen’s craving was appeased. By sunrise he established him in the virtues of kings, and exhorted him to be vigilant, then with Sumukha flew out of the northern window and to Cittakiita away.

After this discourse, the Master said, “Thus, Brethren, this man offered his life for me before,” and then he identified the Birth: “At that time Channa was the huntsman, Sariputta the king, a sister was Queen Khema, the Sakiya tribe was the flock of geese, Ananda was Sumukha, and I was the Goose King myself.”

“ With a great host,” etc.—This story the Master told while sojourning in the deer-park Maddakucchi, about Devadatta. When Devadatta threw the stone’, and a fragment pierced the Blessed One’s foot, there was great pain in it. Numbers of the Brethren gathered to see the Tathagata. Now when the Blessed One saw the people gathered together, he said to them, “ Brethren, this place is crowded: there will be a great gathering. Come now, carry me in 1 Nyctalops. 2 Comp. no. 513 (Jayaddisa) in vol. v. 3 Hardy, Manual, p. 320. 268 The Jataka. Book XV. a litter to Maddakucchi.” So then the Brethren did. Jivaka made the Tathagata’s foot well. The Brethren sitting before the Master talked of it: “Sirs, a sinner is Devadatta and sinners are all his people; the sinner keeps company with the sinful.” The Master asked, “What do ye talk of, Brethren?” They told him. Said he, “It has been so before, and this is not the first time Devadatta the sinner has kept sinful company.” Then he told them a story of the past. Once upon a time, a king named Paficala reigned in the city of UttaraPaficala. The Great Being was born as the son of the king of the Parrots, in a grove of silk-cotton trees which grew on a high table-land in the heart of a forest: there were two brothers. Up wind from this hill was a robber village, where five hundred robbers dwelt: under its lee was a hermitage with five hundred sages.

About the time when the parrots were moulting came a whirlwind that carried off one of the parrots, [431] and he fell in the robber village among the robbers’ weapons: and because he fell there, they called him Sattigumba, or Bristling Spears. The other parrot fell in the hermitage, among the flowers which grew on a sandy spot, from which cause he was named Pupphaka, the Flower-bird. Sattigumba grew up amongst the robbers, Pupphaka with the sages. One day the king in brave array, at the head of a great company, drove out in his splendid chariot to hunt the deer. Not far from the city, he entered a grove beautiful with a rich crop of flowers and fruit. He said, “If any one lets a deer go by him, he shall answer it!” Then he descended from the chariot, and took cover, standing, bow in hand in the hut assigned him. The beaters beat the bushes to put up the game. An antelope rose and looked for a way; he saw a gap by the king, got through it, and away. Everyone asked who had let the deer go past. It was the king! Hearing this they went and made fun of him. The king in his self-conceit could not stomach the sport. ‘“ Now I'll catch that deer!” cried he; and up into his chariot. ‘Full speed!” he said to the charioteer, and away he went after the deer.

So quick went the king, that the others could not keep up with him: king and charioteer, these two alone, went on till midday, but saw no deer. The king then turned back; and seeing near the robber village a delightful glen, he alighted, bathed and drank, and came up from the water. Then the charioteer brought out a rug from the chariot, and spread it beneath the shade of a tree; the king lay on it, the charioteer sat at his feet chafing them; the king now dozed, now awoke. The people of the robber village, all the robbers even, had gone forth into the woods to attend the king: thus in the village no one was left but Sattigumba and the cook, a man named Patikolamba. At that moment Sattigumba coming out of

the village, and seeing the king, thought, “What if we kill yon fellow as he sleeps, and take his ornaments!” So he returned to Patikolamba, and told him all about it. [432] To explain this the Master recited five stanzas : “With a great host Paiicdla’s king went out to hunt the deer; Deep in the woods the monarch strayed, and not a soul was near. “Lo, he beholds within the wood a shelter thieves had made, Out came a Parrot and forthwith these cruel words he said :-— “<A young man riding in a car, with jewels many a one, , And on his brow a golden crown shines ruddy like the sun! “Both king and driver lie asleep there in the high midday: Come, let us spoil them of their wealth and take it quick away! “Tis quiet as the deep midnight: both king and driver sleep: Their wealth and jewels let us take and keep, Kill them, and pile boughs on them in a heap.’” Thus addressed, the man went out and looked, and seeing that it was a king, he was frightened, and recited this stanza : “Why, Sattigumba, art thou mad? what words are these I hear? Kings are like blazing bonfires, and most perilous to come near.” The bird answered in another stanza : “Fool’s talk, Patikolamba, this; and thou art mad, not I: My mother’s naked; why contemn the calling we live by!?”

[433] Now the king awoke, and hearing them talk together in the language of men, perceiving the danger, he recited the following stanza to arouse his charioteer : “Up with you quick, friend charioteer, and yoke the chariot : Seek we another shelter, since this parrot I like not.” He rose quickly, and put to the team, then recited a stanza: “The car is yoked, O mighty King, is yoked and ready there: Step in, O King! and let us go seek shelter otherwhere.” No sooner was he inside, than away flew the thoroughbreds swift as the wind. When Sattigumba saw the chariot departing, overwhelmed with excitement he repeated two stanzas: “Now where are all the fellows gone that used to haunt this spot? Away Pajicala flies, let go because they saw him not. “Shall he get clear away with life? Take javelin, spear, and bow: Away Paicala flies, behold! O do not let him go!” 1 «¢He means the robber chief’s wife, who went about clad in a garment of branches. ‘My mother is naked’: why do you despise the robber’s trade?”—Scholiast. The Juangs or Patuas in Orissa, or ‘leaf-wearers,’ wear only a bunch of leaves tied before 270 The Jataka. Book XV.

So he raved, fluttering to and fro: meanwhile in due course the king came to the hermitage of the sages. At that time the sages were all gone gathering fruits and roots, [434] and only the Parrot Puppha’ was left in the hermitage. When he saw the king, he went to meet him, and ad- Then the Master recited four stanzas to explain : The parrot with his ruddy beak right courteously did say, “Welcome, O King! a happy chance directed thee this way ! Mighty thou art and glorious: what errand brings thee, pray ? “The tindook and the piyal leaves, and kasumari sweet?, Though few and little, take the best we have, O King, and eat. “And this cool water, from a cave high hidden on a hill, O mighty monarch, take of it, drink if it be thy will. “All gleaning in the wood are they who here are wont to live: Arise, O King, thyself and take: I have no hands to give.” The king pleased at this courteous address, answered with a couple of “No better fowl was ever hatched ; a very righteous bird : But the other parrot over there said many a cruel word.

“(Q let him not go hence alive, O come and slay or bind!’ He cried: I sought this hermitage, and safety here I find.” Thus addressed by the king, Pupphaka uttered two stanzas : “Brothers we are, O mighty King, of one self mother bred, Reared both together in one tree, in different pastures fed. “For Sattigumba to the thieves, I to the sages came; Those bad, these good, and hence it comes our ways are not the same.” [435] He then explained the differences in detail, repeating a pair of stanzas : “There wounds and bonds and trickery, cheating and shabby turns, Raiding, and deeds of violence: such is the lore he learns. “Here self-control, sobriety, kindness, the right and true, Shelter and drink for strangers: these were round me as I grew.” Next he declared the Law to the king in the following stanzas : “To whomsoever, good or bad, a man shall honour pay, Vicious or virtuous, that man holds him beneath his sway. “Like as the comrade one admires, like as the chosen friend, Such will become the man who keeps beside him, in the end. “Friendship makes like, and touch by touch infects, you'll find it true: Poison the arrow, and ere long the quiver’s poisoned too.

? Ste. 2 Diospyros embryopteris and Buchanania latifolia are named. “The wise eschews bad company, for fear of staining touch: Wrap rotten fish in grass, you'll find the grass stinks just as much. And they who keep fool’s company themselves will soon be such. [436] “Sweet frankincense wrap in a leaf, the leaf will smell as sweet. So they themselves will soon grow wise, that sit at wise men’s feet. “By this similitude the wise should his own profit know, Let him eschew bad company and with the righteous go: Heaven waits the righteous, but the bad are doomed to hell below.” The king was pleased with this exposition. Then the sages returned also. The king greeted the sages, saying, “ Be gracious, sirs, come and take up your abode in my grounds,” and prevailed on them to accept the invitation. When he got home again, he proclaimed immunity for all parrots. The sages came thither too and visited him. And the king gave them his park to live in, and took care of them so long as he lived. - When he went to swell the hosts of heaven, his son had the royal umbrella raised over him, and he also took care of the sages, and so it went on from father to son through seven generations of kings all bounteous in alms, And the Great Being dwelt in the woods, until he passed away according to his deeds,

When this lesson was ended, the Master said, “Thus, Brethren, you see that Devadatta kept bad company before, as he now does.” Then he identified the Birth: “At that time, Devadatta was Sattigumba, [437] his followers were the robbers, Ananda was the king, the Buddha’s followers were the sages, and I myself was Parrot Pupphaka.”

“ Was a king Bhallatiya,” ete.—This story the Master told while dwelling at Jetavana about Mallika, the Jessamine Bride’. One day we are told there was a quarrel between her and the king about conjugal rights. The king was angry and would not look at her. ‘I suppose,” she thought, “the Tathagata does not know that the king is wroth with me.” When the Master learnt of it, next day, he sought alms in Benares, accompanied by the Brethren, and then repaired to the gate of the king’s palace. The king came to meet him, and relieved him of his bowl, took him up on the terrace, set the Brethren 1 The pretty story of King Pasenadi and this ‘beggar-maid’ is told in Hardy’s Manual, p. 285. For this introduction cf. no. 306 in vol. iii. 272 The Jataka. Book XV. down in due order, gave them the water of welcome, offered them excellent food; after the meal he sat down on one side. “Why,” asked the Master, “why does not Mallika appear?” He said, “’Tis her own foolish pride in her prosperity.” The Master said, “O great king! long, long ago when you were a fairy, you kept apart for one night from your mate, and then went mourning for seven hundred years.” Then at his request, he told a story of the past.

Once upon a time, a king named Bhallatiya reigned in Benares. Seized with a desire to eat venison broiled on charcoal, he gave the kingdom in charge to his courtiers, girt himself with the five weapons, and with a well-trained pack of clever pedigree hounds he issued forth from the city and went to Himalaya. He travelled along the Ganges until he could get no higher, then followed a-tributary stream for some distance, killing deer and pig, and eating the flesh broiled, until he had climbed to a great height. There when the pleasant stream ran full, the water was breasthigh, but at other times, it was no more than knee-deep. At that time there were fish and tortoises of all sorts gambolling, sand at the water’s edge like silver, trees on both banks bending beneath a load of flowers and fruit, many a bird and bee well drunken with the juice of fruit and honey of flowers flitted about in the shade, whither herds of all manner of deer did frequent. Now on the bank of this beautiful mountain stream [438] two fairies fondly embraced and kissed one another, then fell a weeping and wailing most pitifully. As the king climbed Mount Gandhamadana by way of this river bank, he espied these two fairies. “‘ What can they be weeping about in this manner?” thought he. ‘TI will question them.” <A glance to his hounds, a snap of the fingers, and at this sign the thoroughbred dogs, which knew their work well, crept into the underwood and crouched down on their bellies, As soon as he saw they were out of the way, he laid down his bow and quiver and other weapons by a tree that stood near, and without letting his footsteps be heard stole gently up to the fairies, and asked them, “Why do you weep?”

To explain this, the Master repeated three stanzas : “Was a king Bhallatiyo And out a-hunting he would go; Climbs the Fragrant Mount, and finds it Full of sprites and flowers that blow. “Straight he quiets every hound, Lays bow and quiver on the ground, Forward steps, to ask a question Where a pair of fays were found. “«Winter’s gone: then why return To talk and talk beside the burn ? O you human-seeming creatures, What men call you I would learn.’” To the king’s question, the male fairy said nothing; but his mate answered as follows: “Malla, Three-peak, Yellow Hill! We traverse, following each cool rill. [439] Human-like the wild things deem us: Huntsmen call us? goblins still.” Then the king recited three stanzas : “Though like lovers you caress You weep as full of deep distress. O you human-seeming creatures, Why this weeping? come, confess ! “Though like lovers you caress You weep as full of deep distress. O you human-seeming creatures, Why this sorrowing? come, confess ! “Though like lovers you caress You weep as full of deep distress. O you human-seeming creatures, Why this mourning? come, confess !” The stanzas which follow were said by each in course of address and answer:

“We apart one night had lain, Both loveless, full of bitter pain, Thinking each of each: but never Will that night come back again.” “Why then spend that night alone Which cost you many a sigh and groan, [440] O you human-seeing creatures-— Money lost? a father gone ?” “Shaded thick yon river flows Between the rocks: a storm arose: Then with anxious care to find me Right across my loved one goes. “All the while with busy feet I gathered thyme and meadowsweet? All to make my love a garland And myself, when we should meet. “Clustering harebell, violet blue, And white narcissus fresh with dew, All to make my love a garland And myself, when we should mect. 1 The names given are Mallaimgiri, Tikiita, Pandaraka. 2 Reading ti for va with one MS. 3 The flowers given in the translation are not the same as those named in the text, which proudly defy English verse. Amongst them are: Alangium Hexapetalum, Gaertnera Racemosa, Cassia Fistula, Bignonia Suaveolens, Vitex Nigundo, Shorea 274 The Jataka. Book XV. “Then I plucked a bunch of rose, That is the fairest flower that grows, All to make my love a garland And myself, when we should meet.

“Flowers next and leaves I‘ found, And strewed them thickly on the ground, Where the livelong night together We might slumber soft and sound. “Sandal and sweet woods anon I pounded small upon a stone, Perfume for my love’s limbs making, Sweetest perfume for my own. . “By the river flowing fast I gathered lilies! to the last : [441] Evening came—the river swelling Made it hopeless to get past. “There we stood on either shore, Each on other gazing o’er. How we laughed and cried together ! Ah! that night we suffered sore. “Morning came, the sun was high And soon we saw the river dry. Then we crossed, and close embracing Both at once we laugh and cry. “Seven hundred years but three Since we were parted, I and he. When two loving hearts are severed Seems a whole long life to be.” “What the limit of your years? If this by rumour old appears. Or the teaching of the elders, Tell it me, and have no fears.” “A thousand summers, strong and hale, Never deadly pains assail, Little sorrow, bliss abundant, To the end love’s joys prevail.” [442] The king thought as he listened, “These creatures, who are less than human, go weeping for seven hundred years for one night’s parting : and here am I, lord of a realm of three hundred leagues, leaving all my magnificence and wandering about the forest. It is a great mistake.” He returned immediately. Arrived at Benares, the courtiers asked him whether he had seen any marvellous thing in the Himalayas. [443] He told them the whole story, and thenceforward gave alms and enjoyed his wealth.

Explaining this matter, the Master repeated this stanza: “Thus instructed by the fays The King returned upon his ways, Ceased to hunt, and fed the needy, And enjoyed the fleeting days.” Two more stanzas he added : “Take a lesson from the fays: And quarrel not, but mend your ways. Lest you suffer, like the fairy, Your own error all your days. “Take a lesson from the fays: And bicker not, but mend your ways. Lest you suffer, like the fairy, Your own error all your days.” Now rose the Lady Mallika from her couch, when she heard the Tathagata’s admonition, and joining hands she made reverent obeisance, while she repeated the last stanza : “Holy man, with willing mind I hear thy words so good and kind. Blessings on thee! thou hast spoken, All my sorrow’s left behind.” [444] Ever afterwards the King of Kosala lived with her in harmony. This discourse ended, the Master identified the Birth: “At that time the King of Kosala was the fairy, Lady Mallika was his mate, and I myself was King Bhallatiya.”

“ Who does thee harm, etc.”—This story the Master told while dwelling at Jetavana, how Devadatta went about to slay him. Then the Master said, “This is not the first time, Brethren, that Devadatta has sought to slay me, but he did the same thing before.” Then he told them a story of the past. Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Kuru and the city of Uttarapaficala, a king reigned whose name was Renu. At that time there was an ascetic Maharakkhita, who dwelt in Himalaya with a company of five hundred other ascetics. While visiting the country to get salt and 276 The Jataka. Book XV. seasoning, he came to Uttarapaficala, and then abode in the royal park. Seeking alms with his people, he came to the king’s door, and the king beholding the sages and being pleased with their manners, invited them to be seated upon a magnificent dais, and gave them good food to eat. He then asked them to remain in his park for the rain-season. He accompanied them into the park, and provided places to dwell in, gave them the things necessary for the religious life, and took leave of them. After that they all received their meals in the palace. Now the king was childless, and desired sons, but no sons were born to him.

When the season of rains was over, Maharakkhita said, ‘‘ Now the Himalaya region is pleasant; let us return thither.” Then he took leave of the king, who showed them all honour and bounty, and departed. On the journey at noontide he left the high road, and with his people sat down on the soft grass beneath a shady tree. The ascetics began to talk. “There is no son,” they said, “in the palace to keep up the royal line. It would be a blessing if the king could get a son, and continue the succession.” Maharakkhita hearing their talk, pondered : [445] “ Will the king have a son, or no?” He perceived that the king would have a son, and said, “Do not be anxious, sirs; this night at dawn a son of the gods will come down, and will be conceived by the queen consort.” A sham ascetic heard it, and thought—“ Now I will become a confidant of the royal house.” When the time came for the ascetics to leave, he lay down and made as though he were sick. ‘Come, let us go,” they said. ‘I cannot,” said he. Maharakkhita learnt why the man lay still. “Follow us when you can,” he said, and with the rest of the sages went on to Himalaya.

Now the cheat ran back as fast as he could, and standing at the palace door, sent in a message that one of Maharakkhita’s attendants was come. He was summoned at once by the king, and going up to the terrace, sat in a seat which they showed him. The king greeted him, and sitting on one side, asked after the health of the sages. ‘ You have come back very soon,” he said; “what is the cause of your so speedy return?” ‘O mighty king,” he replied, “as the sages were all sitting comfortably together, they began to say how great a blessing it would be if the king could have a son to keep up his line. When I heard it, I pondered whether the king should get a son or no; and by divine vision I beheld a mighty son of the gods, and saw that he was about to descend, that he might be conceived by your queen consort Sudhamma. Then I thought, If they know not, they may perchance destroy the life conceived, so I must tell them ; and to tell you the news, O king, I am come, Now I have told it, let me depart again.” “No, no, friend,” quoth the king, “that must not be”; and highly delighted he brought the cheat into his park, and assigned him a place to dwell in. Thenceforward he lived in the king’s household, and got his food there, and his name was Dibbacakkhuka, the man of Divine Vision.

Then the Bodhisatta came down from the heaven of the Thirty-three, and was conceived there ; and when he was born they gave him the name of Somanassa Kumara, Prince Delight, and he was reared after the manner of princes. Now the false ascetic in a corner of the park used to plant vegetables and pot-herbs and runners, and by selling these to the market gardeners he amassed much wealth. When the Bodhisatta was seven years old, [446] there was a rebellion on the frontier. The king went out to quell it, giving the ascetic Dibbacakkhuka into the prince’s charge, with orders not to neglect him. One day the prince went out to see the ascetic. He found him with both yellow robes, upper and under, knotted up, holding a water-jar in each hand, and watering his plants. ‘This false ascetic,” thought he, “instead of doing the ascetic’s duty, does the work of a gardener.” Then he asked—“ What are you doing, gardener, worldling?” So he put him to shame, and left him without salute. “Now I have made an enemy of this fellow,” thought the man. ‘Who knows what he will do? I must make an end of him at once.”

About the time when the king was to return, the man threw his stone bench on one side, broke his waterpot to bits, scattered grass about in his hut, smeared all his body with oil, went into the hut and lay down on his pallet, wrapped up head and all, making as though he were in much pain. The king returned, aud made a circuit about the city right-wise. But before he would enter his own house, he went to see his friend Dibbacakkhuka. Standing by the door of the hut, he saw all in disorder, and entered wondering what was the matter. There was the man lying down. The king chafed his feet, repeating the first stanza : “Who does thee harm or scorn ? Why dost thou sorrow sore ? Whose parents now must mourn ? Who lies here on the floor ?” At this the impostor rose up groaning, and said the second stanza : “Thee I rejoice to see O King, though absent long! [447] Your son, who came to me, Wrought unprovoked this wrong.” The connexion of the following verses is clear; they are arranged in “‘Executioners, what ho ! Servants, take your swords and go, Strike Prince Somanassa dead, Hither bring his noble head !’

“The royal messengers went forth, and to the prince they ery ‘His majesty has cast thee off, and thou O prince must die! 278 The Jataka. Book XV. “There the prince lamenting stands, Craving grace with folded hands: ‘Spare me yet awhile, and bring Me alive to see the King!’ “They heard his prayer, and to the King his son the servants led. He ‘saw his father from afar, and thus to him he said : “<TLet thy men take sword and slay, Only hear me first, I pray ! O great monarch! tell me this— What is it I’ve done amiss ?’” [448] The king answered, ‘‘High estate is fallen very low: your error is very great,” and explained it in this stanza: “Water morn and eve he draws, Tends the fire without a pause. Dare you call this holy man Worldling? answer if you can !” “My lord,” said the prince, “if I call a worldling a worldling, what harm is done!” and he repeated a stanza : ““He possesses trees and fruits, And, my lord, all kinds of roots, Tends them with incessant care: Then he’s worldly, I declare.” “ And that is the reason,” he went on, ‘‘why I called him a worldling. If you do not believe me, enquire of the market gardeners at the four gates.” The king made enquiry. [449] They said, ‘Yes, we buy from him vegetables and all sorts of fruit.’”’ When he found out this greengrocery business, he made it known. The prince’s people went into the man’s hut, and ferreted out a bundle of rupees and small coins, the price of the green food, which they showed to the king. Then the king knew the Great Being was guiltless, and said a stanza:

“True it was that trees and roots He possessed, with many fruits, * Tending with incessant care, Worldly, as thou didst declare.” Then the Great Being thought, ‘‘ While an ignorant fool like this is of the king’s household, the best thing to do is to go to Himalaya and embrace the religious life. First I will proclaim his sin before the company here assembled, and then this very day I will go and become a religious.” So with a bow to the company, he cried, “Hear ye people as I call, Country folk and townsmen all ; By this fool’s advice the King Guiltless men to death would bring.” This said, he asked leave to do it in the next stanza: “Thou a strong wide spreading tree, I an offshoot fixt in thee, Here beseech thee, bending low, Leave to quit the world and go!” [450] The following stanzas give the conversation of the king with his son. . “Prince, enjoy the wealth you own, ; And ascend the Kuru throne. Do not leave the world, to bring Sorrow on yourself—be King!” “What of joy can this world give? When in heaven I used to live There were sights and sounds and smell, Taste and touch!, the heart loves well !

“Joys of heaven, and nymphs divine, I renounced, that once were mine. With a King so weak as thou I will stay no longer now.” “Tf IT am foolish-weak, my son, This once forgive me what I’ve done. And if I do the same again, Do what thou wilt, Pll not complain.” The Great Being then repeated eight stanzas, admonishing the king. [451] “A thoughtless act, or done without premeditation had, Like the miscarriage of a drug, the issue must be bad. “A thoughtful act, wherein is careful policy pursued, Like a successful medicine, the issue must be good. “The idle sensual layman I detest, The false ascetic is a rogue confest ; A bad King will a case unheard decide ; Wrath in a sage can ne’er be justified?. “The warrior prince takes careful thought, and well-weighed judgement | gives’: When Kings their judgement ponder well, their fame for ever lives”. “Kings should give punishment with careful measure : Things done in haste they will repent at leisure. Are there good resolutions in the heart, No late repentance brings her bitter smart. “They who do deeds which no repentance bring, Carefully weighing every single thing, Gain what is good, and do what satisfies The holy, win the approval of the wise.

“(What ho, my executioners !’ you cried, | ‘Go seek my son, and where you find him, slay!’ Where I was sitting by my mother’s side They found me, dragged me cruelly away. 1 nassehi is probably for phassehi (objects of touch): rapa corresponds to the eye. 2 These stanzas occur in Vol. iii. pp. 105 and 154 (translation, pp. 70, 103). 280 The Jataka. Book XV. “A tender nursling, treated in this way, I felt their cruel handling very sore. Delivered from a cruel doom to-day T’ll leave the world, and live in it no more.” [452] When the Great Being had thus, discoursed, the king said to his queen, “So my young son, Sudhamma, says me nay, Prince Somanassa, delicate and kind. Now since I cannot gain my end to-day, Thyself must see if thou canst turn his mind.” But she urged him to renounce the world in this stanza : “O be the holy life thy pleasure, son ! Renounce the world, to righteousness stick fast: Who of all creatures cruel is to none, Blameless to Brahma’s world will come at last.” Then the king repeated a stanza : “This ig a marvel which I hear from thee, Sorrow to sorrow heaping up on me. [453] I asked thee to persuade our son to stay, Thou dost but urge him more to haste away.”

Again the queen repeated a stanza : “There are who live from sin and sorrow free, Blameless, and who Nirvana’s height attain: If of their noble path the prince would be A partner, to withhold him is in vain.” In reply the king recited the last stanza : “Surely ’tis good to venerate the wise, In whom deep wisdom and high thoughts arise! The queen has heard their words and learned their lore, She feels no pain and has no longing more.” The Great Being then saluted his parents, asking them to pardon him if he did amiss, and with a reverent obeisance to the company set his face towards Himalaya. When the people had returned, he, with the deities who had come thither in human shape, traversed the seven ranges of hills and arrived at Himalaya. In a leafhut made by the heavenly architect Vissakamma he entered upon the religious life, and there he was waited upon by deities in the shape of a princely retinue until his sixteenth year. But the deceitful ascetic was set upon by the crowd and beaten to death. The Great Being cultivated the Faculty of Ecstasy, and became destined to Brahma’s heaven, [454] This discourse ended, the Master said, “Thus Brethren, he went about to slay me in former days, as now,” and then he identified the Birth: “ At that time Devadatta was the impostor, Mahamaya was the mother, Sariputta was Rakkhita, and I myself was Prince Somanassa.”

' These two lines occur in iii. 306 (translation, p. 191).

“ Who is it like,” etc.—This story the Master told while dwelling in Jetavana, about the fast-day vows. The Master said, “It is well done, lay Brethren, that ye have taken upon you the fast-day vows. Wise men of old likewise even renounced the glory of being a Serpent King, and lived under these vows.” Then at their request he told a story of the past. Once upon a time, when Anga was king in the kingdom of Anga, and Magadha king in Magadha, betwixt the realms of Anga and Magadha was a river Campa, where was a place where serpents dwelt, and here a serpent king Campeyya held sway. Sometimes King Magadha took the Anga country, sometimes King Anga took Magadha. One day King Magadha, having fought a battle with Anga and got the worse, mounted his charger and took to flight, pursued by Anga’s warriors. When he came to the Campa river, it was in flood. But he said, ‘“‘ Better death drowned in this river than death at the hands of my enemies!” Then man and horse plunged in the stream. Now the serpent king Campeyya had built him under the water a jewelled pavilion ; and there at this moment in the midst of his court he was carousing deep. But the king and his horse plunged into the river just in front of the Serpent King. The serpent, beholding this magnificent monarch, conceived a liking for him.

Rising from his seat, he made the king sit down upon his own throne, bidding him fear nought, and asked why he came plunging into the water. The king told him all as it was. Then said the serpent, ‘‘ Fear nothing, O great king! I will make you master of both kingdoms.” Thus he consoled him, and for seven days he showed him high honour. On the seventh day he with King Magadha left the serpent palace. Then by the Serpent King’s power, King Magadha got possession of King Anga, and slew him, and ruled over the two realms together. From that time there was firm affiance between him and the Serpent King. [455] Year by year he caused a jewelled pavilion to be built on the bank of the river Campa, and offered tribute to the Serpent King at great cost: the Serpent King would come forth with a large retinue from his palace to receive the tribute, and all the people beheld

the glory of the Serpent King. 282 The Jataka. Book XV. At that time the Bodhisatta was one of a poor family, and he used to go down with the king’s people to the riverside. There seeing the Serpent King’s glory, he became covetous of it; and in this desire’ he died, and seven days after the death of tle serpent king Campeyya, the Bodhisatta, having given alms and lived a virtuous life, came into being in his palace on his royal couch: his body was like a great festoon of jessamine. When he saw it, he was filled with remorse. “As a consequence of my good deeds,” quoth he, ‘I have power laid up in the six chief worlds of sense’, as corn is laid up in a granary. But see, here am I born in this reptile shape; what care I for life!” And so he had thoughts of putting an end to himself. But a young female serpent, named Sumana, seeing him, gave the lead to the rest, “This must be Sakka, mighty in power, born here to us!” Then they all came and made offering to him, with all manner of musical instruments in their hands. That serpent’s palace of his became as it were the palace of Sakka, the thought of death left him : he put off his serpent shape, and sat on the couch in magnificence of dress and adornment. From that time great was his glory, and he ruled over the serpents.

Another time again he repented, thinking, ‘‘ What care I for this reptile shape? I will live under the fasting vows, and from this place I will shake myself free, amongst men I will go, and learn the Truths, and I will make an end of pain.” But afterwards he still remained in that same palace, fulfilling the fasting vows, and when the young female serpents came about him all gaily adorned, he generally violated his rule of virtue. After that he went forth from the palace into the park, but they followed him thither, and his vow was broken as before. Then he thought: “I must leave this palace, and go into the world of men, and there must I live under the fasting vows.” [456] So then on the fastdays he went forth from the palace, and lay on the top of an antheap by the high road, not far from a frontier village. Said he, ‘Those who desire my skin or any part of me, let them take it; or if any would have me a dancing snake, let them make me so.” Thus did he yield his body as a gift, and contracting his hood he lay there observing the fast-day vows.

Those who went to and fro on the highway espying him, did him worship with scents and perfumes. And the dwellers in that frontier village, holding him to be a serpent king of great power, set up a pavilion over him, spread sand before it, did worship with perfumes and scented things. Now people began to crave sons by his aid, having faith in the Great Being and doing him worship. The Great Being kept there the fasting vows on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the half-moon, lying upon the antheap ; and on the first day of the lunar half he would return to his palace ; and as he thus fulfilled his vows, time went by. 1 Reading with two MS., patthayamano. * The six devaloka. One day his consort Sumana spoke to him thus: “My lord, you are wont to go among men to keep your fast-vows. The world of men is dangerous, full of fear. Suppose some danger should come upon you, tell ‘me now by what sign I shall learn of it.” Then the Great Being led her to the side of a lucky pond, and said, “If any one strike me or do me hurt, the water in this pond will become turbid. If a roc bird carry me off, the water will disappear. If a snake-charmer seize me, the water will turn to the colour of blood.” These three signs explained to her, he went forth from his palace to keep the fast of the fourteenth day, went and lay down on the antheap, illuminating the antheap with the sheen of his body. White was his body as a coil of pure silver, like a ball of red wool was his head: now in this Birth the Bodhisatta’s body was thick as a plough-head, in the Bhiridatta Birth’ thick as a thigh, in the Sankhapala Birth’ as big round as a trough-canoe with an outrigger.

In those days there was a young brahmin of Benares come to Takkasila to study at the feet of a world-renowned teacher, from whom [457] he had learned the charm which commands all things of sense. Going home along that road, what should he see but the Great Being. ‘This snake I will catch,” thinks he, “and I will travel through town and village and royal city, making him dance and amassing great profits.” Then he procured magical herbs, and repeating the magic charm he approached the snake. No sooner he heard the sound of this charm, than the Great Being felt his ears as it were pierced by burning splinters, his head was as though broken by the blow of a sword. ‘What have we here!” thought he; putting forth his head from the hood, he beheld the snake-charmer. Then he thought, “My poison is powerful, and if I am angry and send forth the breath of my nostrils* his body will be shattered and scattered like a fistfull of chaff; then my virtue will be broken. I will not look upon him.” Closing his eyes he drew his head within the hood. The brahmin snakecharmer ate a herb, repeated his charm, spat upon him: by virtue of herb and charm, wherever the spittle touched him, blains arose. Then the man seized him by the tail, dragged him, laid him out at full length: with a goat’s-foot staff he squeezed him till he was weak, then catching tight hold on his head, crushed him hard.

The Great Being opened his mouth wide; the man dropt spittle in it, and by the herb and charm broke his teeth ; the mouth was full of blood. But the Great Being so feared lest he break his virtue, that he bore all this torment and never so much as opened an eye to glance at him. Then the man said, “I'll weaken this royal snake!” From tail to head he squeezed the snake’s body as though he would crush his very bones to powder. Then he wrapt him in

1 No. 543 (vi. 157 Pali). 2 No. 524 (v. 161 Pali). 3 Reputed to be poisonous. Compare ii. 55 and 206 of this translation. 284 The Jataka. Book XV. what they call the cloth-wrap, gave him what they call the rope-rubbing, caught him by the tai] and gave him the cotton blow, as they call it’, The Great Being’s body was all smeared with blood, and he was in great pain. Seeing that the serpent™was now weak, [458] the man made an osier basket in which he laid the snake. Then he carried him to the village, and made him perform to the crowd. Black or blue or what not, round figure and square figure, little or large—whatever the brahmin desires, that the Great Being will do, dancing, spreading his hood as if by hundreds or by thousands’. The people were so pleased that they gave much money: in one day he would take a thousand rupees, and things worth another thousand. At the first the man had intended to let him go free when he should gain a thousand pieces of money ; but when he got it, he thought, “In a small frontier village I have gained all this: from kings and courtiers how much wealth may I look to win!” So he bought a cart and a pleasure-car, and in the cart loaded his goods, while he sat in the carriage. Thus with an attendant throng he traversed town and village, making the Great Being perform, and went on with the intent to show him off before King Uggasena in Benares; and then he would let him go.

He used to kill frogs and give them to the royal snake. But the snake each time refused to eat, that none might be killed for his sake. Then the man gave him honey and fried corn. But the Great Being refused to eat these also; for he thought, “If I take food, I shall be in this basket till I die.” In a month’s time the brahmin was come to Benares. There he got much money by making the snake perform in the villages beyond the gates. The king also sent for him, and commanded a performance: the man promised this for the morrow, which was the last day of the halfmonth. Then the king sent a drum beating about the city, with proclamation, that on the morrow a royal snake would dance in the palace court ; let the people then gather to see it in their multitudes. Next day the courtyard of the palace was adorned, and the brahmin summoned. He brought in the Great Being in a jewelled basket on a gay rug, which he set down, and himself took a seat. The king came down from the upper storey, and sat on his royal seat in the midst of a great concourse of people. The brahmin took out the Great Being, and made him dance. The people could not keep still: thousands of kerchiefs waved in the air; a shower of jewels in all seven kinds fell about the Bodhisatta.

It was now the full month since the Serpent was caught; and for all that time he had taken no food. (459] Now Sumana began to think— 1 These appear to be technical terms. 2 That is, by his swift motion giving the appearance of thousands of hoods. “My dear husband tarries long. It is now a month since he has not returned: what can the matter be?” So she went and looked at the pond : lo, the water was red as blood! Then she knew that he must have been caught by a snake-charmer. Forth from the palace she came, and to the antheap; she saw the place where he had been caught, and the place where he had been tormented, and she wept. Then she went to the frontier village, and enquired; and learning all the fact, she went on to Benares, and in the midst of the people, above the palace court in the air she stood now lamenting. The Great Being as he danced looked up in the air, and saw her, and being ashamed crept into his basket, and there he lay. When he crept into the basket, the king cried out, ‘What is the matter now?” Looking this way and that way, he saw her poised in the air, and recited the first stanza :

“Who is it like the lightning shines, or like a blazing star ? Goddess or Titaness? methinks no human thing you are.” Their conversation is given in the stanzas following : “ “No Goddess I, nor Titaness, nor human, mighty king! A female of the serpent kind, come for a certain thing.” “Full of wrath and rage you show, From your eyes the teardrops flow : Say what wrong or what desire Brings you, lady? I would know.” “Crawling serpent, fierce as flame! So they called him: one there came, Seized him for his profit, sire: Freedom for my lord I claim!” “ How could such a starveling wight Catch a creature full of might ? Daughter of the serpents, say, How to discern the snake aright?” [460] “Such his might, that een this town He could burn to cinders down. But he loves the holy way, And seeks austerity’s renown.” Then the king asked how the man had caught him. She replied in the following stanza : “On holy days! the royal snake At the four-ways used to take Holy vows: a juggler caught him, Free my husband for my sake!” After these words she added yet these other two stanzas, begging his

“Lo sixteen thousand women gay with jewel and with ring, Beneath the waters counted him their refuge and their king. 1 Fourteenth and fifteenth are named. 286 The Jataka. Book XV. “Justly, gently set him free, Buy the Serpent liberty, ; With gold, a hundred kine, a village: That will merit win for thee.” [461] Then the king recited three stanzas : “Justly now and gently see I buy the Serpent liberty With gold, a hundred kine, a village, That will merit win for me.” “A jewelled earring give I thee, a hundred drachms of gold, A lovely throne like flower of flax with cushions laid fourfold !1 “A bull, a hundred kine, two wives of equal birth with thee: Release the holy Snake: the deed will meritorious be.” To this the hunter made reply : “T want no gifts, your majesty, But let the Serpent now go free. Thus I now release the Serpent: The deed will meritorious be.” After this speech he took the Great Being out of his basket. The Serpent King came forth and crept into a flower, where he put off his shape and reappeared in the form of a young man magnificently arrayed: there he stood, as though he had cleft the earth and come through. And down from the sky came Sumana, and stood beside him. The Serpent King stood reverently joining his hands in respect to the king.

[462] 'To make all clear, the Master recited two stanzas : “The Serpent King Campeyyaka addressed the King, now free: ‘O King of Kasi, fostering lord, all honour now to thee! I do thee reverence, ere I go again my home to see’.” “<«Superhuman beings may Hardly win belief, they say. If you speak the truth, O Serpent, Where’s your palace? Show the way.’” But the Great Being, to make him believe, swore an oath as follows in these two stanzas : “Should the wind move mountains high, Moon and sun fall from the sky, Flow upstream the running rivers, I, O King! could never lie. “Split the sky, the sea run dry, Bounteous mother earth awry Crumpling? roll, uproot Mount Meru, Yet, O King, I could not lie!” 1 This couplet, and half the next, occur above, p. 422. * Reading samwvattaye, as Fausball suggests. But notwithstanding this assurance, he still disbelieved the Great Being, and said— “Superhuman beings may Hardly win belief, they say. [463] Tf you speak the truth, O Serpent! Where’s your palace? Show the way.” Again he repeated the same stanza, adding, ‘‘ You must be grateful for the good deeds wrought by me: whether I should believe you to be right or not, however, that is for me to decide.” This he made clear in the next stanza:

“Deadly envenomed, full of might, Quick in quarrel, shining bright, You are freed by me from prison : Then is gratitude my right.” The Great Being made oath thus to win his belief : “He that will no thanks return, Happiness should never learn : He should die in basket-prison, He in horrid hell should burn!” Now the king believed him, and thanked him thus: “As that vow of thine is true, Anger flee and hate eschew: As we flee the fire in summer, May the roc-birds flee from you!” The Great Being too on his part said another stanza meaning to thank the king : “As a mother would have done To an only well-loved son, You are kind to all the serpents : We will serve.you, every one.” 464] Now the king eager to visit the serpent’s world, gave command that his army should be made ready to go in the following stanza: “Yoke the royal cars, and stand Trained Cambodian mules at hand, Elephants in golden trappings : We will visit serpent-land!” The next is a stanza of the Perfect Wisdom : “Bounce the tabors, thump the drums, Conch and cymbal sounds and thrums, Glorious mid a host of women

See King Uggasena comes.” 1 « The serpent tribe’ is the literal translation. 288 The Jataka. Book XV. At the moment he left the city, the, Great Being by his power made visible in the serpent world an enclosing wall of seven precious things, and gate-towers, and all the road of approach to the abode of the serpents he made to be gloriously adorned. By, this road the king with his following entered the palace, and saw a delightful spot with mansions Explaining this, the Master said : “The lord of Kasi saw the ground sprinkled with golden sand, Fair flowers of coral! strewn around, gold towers on every hand. “So then the King did enter in Campeyya’s halls divine, | Which like the brazen thunderbolt? or ruddy sun did shine. “Into Campeyya's halls divine the King his entrance made: A thousand perfumes scent the air, a thousand trees give shade. “Within Campeyya’s palace once the King his step advanced, Celestial harps made melody, fair serpent-maidens danced.” [465] “He is shown a golden seat Cushioned and with sandal sweet, Where the bevy of fair maidens Tread the halls with thronging feet.” No sooner was he there seated, than they set before him food divine of choice flavour, and they gave it also to the sixteen thousand women and to the rest of the company. For seven days he with his retinue partook of the divine food and drink, and enjoyed all manner of pleasure. Sitting in his fair seat he praised the glory of the Great Being. ‘“O King of the serpents,” ant-heap, in the world of men, and to keep the fast-day vows?” The other told him. :

said he, ‘‘ why did you leave all this magnificence, to lie on an To explain this, the Master said : “There the King in pleasure stayed. To Campeyya then he said : ‘Glorious mansions these of thine! Ruddy like the sun they shine. Such on earth are none to see: Why wouldst thou a hermit be? “Fair and fine these damsels stand, Who with taper-fingers hold Drink in either red-stained hand, Breast and body girt with gold. Such on earth are none to see: Why wouldst thou a hermit be? 1 See Schol. p. 142, * Bronze thunderbolts, shaped somewhat like those which Zeus grasps in Greek vase paintings, are still used in North India as charms. [466] ‘“‘River, fishpond, glassy-fair, Each with well-built landing-stair, Such on earth are none to see: Why wouldst thou a hermit be? “¢ Heron, peacock, heavenly geese, Charms of cuckoo like to these, Such on earth are none to see: Why wouldst thou a hermit be? “*Mango, sal, and tilak grown, Cassia1, trumpet-flower? full-blown, Such on earth are none to see: Why wouldst thou a hermit be? “See the lakes! and wafted o’er Scents divine on every shore: Such on earth are none to see: Why wouldst thou a hermit be?’

“¢*Not for life or sons or pelf Do I wrestle with myself; Tis my craving, if I can, To be born again as Man.’” To this answer the king replied : “Bravely drest, eyes red and bleared, Broad-shouldered, shaven head, and beard, Like an angel-King addressing All the world, with sandal smeared. “Great in might, in power divine, Lord of all desires, incline, Serpent-King, to rede my question— How our world surpasses thine ?” [467] This was answered by the Serpent-King as follows : “Comes control and cleansing when One is in the world of men, Only there: once man, [ll never See nor birth nor death again.” The king listened, and thus replied : “Surely tis good to venerate the wise In whom deep wisdom and high thoughts arise ®. When thee and all these maids I behold, I will do virtuous actions manifold.” To him the Serpent-King said : “Surely tis good to venerate the wise In whom deep wisdom and high thoughts arise. When me and all these maids thou dost behold, Then do thou virtuous actions manifold.” 1 Cassia Fistula. 2 Bignonia Suaveolens. 3 See above, p. 280; and iii. 306 (translation, p. 190). 290 The Jataka. Book XV.

After this speech, Uggasena wished to go, and he took leave, saying, “Serpent King, I have stayed long here, and I must go.” The Great Being pointed to his treasure, and offered him whatever he wished to take, saying this, ‘ , , “T renounce it, gold untold, Tree-high silver-heaps, behold! Take and make you walls of silver, Take and houses make of gold. [468] “Pearls, five thousand loads, I ween, Coral blushing in- between, Take and spread them in thy palace Till nor earth nor dirt be seen. “Such a mansion as I tell Build, and there, O monarch! dwell: Rich will be Benares city : Rule it wisely, rule it well.” The king agreed to this suggestion. Then the Great Being sent proclamation about the city by beat of drum: “ Let all the attendants of the king take what they will of my wealth, gold and fine gold!” And he sent the treasure to the king loaded in several hundred carts. After this the king left the serpent world with great pomp, and returned to Benares. From that time, they say, the ground was all golden throughout India. This discourse ended, the Master said, “Thus wise men of old left the glories of the serpent world, to keep the fast-day vows.” Then he identified the Birth: “ At that time, Devadatta was the snake-charmer, Rahula’s mother was Sumana, Sariputta was Uggasena, and I was myself Campezya King of the Snakes.”

“From Brahma’s heaven,” ete.—This story the Master told while dwelling in Jetavana, about the defilement of the sanctified. The circumstances have already been given. Here again said the Master, “Women cause defilement even in sanctified souls,” and then told this story of the past. [469] Once upon a time in Benares—here the story of the past is to be expanded as in the Culla-palobhana Birth’. Now once again the Great Being came down from Brahma’s world as the King of Kasi’s son, and his name was Prince Anitthi-gandha, the Woman-hater. In the hands of a woman he would not be; they must needs dress as men to give him the breast ; he dwelt in a closet of meditation, and never a woman he saw. To explain this, the Master repeated four stanzas. “From Brahma’s heaven a god came down, and here upon this earth As a King’s son whose every wish was law, he had his birth. “To Brahma’s heaven no deed of lust, no mention, ever came : So born into this world, the prince now loathed its very name. “Within the palace he had made a closet all his own, Where deep in meditation plunged he passed his days alone.

“The King, grown anxious for his son, laments to know him there: ‘One only son I have, and he for pleasures will not care.’” The fifth stanza describes the king’s lamentation : “© who can tell me what to do! O is there no device? Who'll teach him joys of love to crave, and who can him entice?” The next stanza and half a stanza, are those of perfect wisdom : “A girl there was, of graceful shape, of fair and lovely skin: She knew a world of pretty songs, and well could dance and spin. This maiden sought his majesty, and thus she did begin.” [470] The other line is spoken by the young girl: “¢J will entice him, if thou wilt in marriage grant him me, The king made answer to the maid, and thus and thus said he: ‘Do but succeed in tempting him, thy husband he shall be.’” The king now gave orders that all opportunity should be afforded her, and sent her to attend upon the prince. In the morning, taking her lute she went and stood just without the prince’s sleeping chamber, and touching the lute with her finger-tips tried to tempt him by singing

in a sweet voice. 1 No. 263, vol. ii. p. 227 of this translation. 2 Reading, as Fausball suggests, agacchat’ orena. 292 The Jataka. Book XV. To explain this, the Master said : “The maiden went within the house, and where she stood apart, Sang ditties sweet and languishing, to pierce a lover's heart. “There as the maiden stood and sang, the prince, who heard the sound, Straight fell in fancy, and he asked the servants waiting round— “What is that sound of melody that comes to me so clear, Piercing the heart with thoughts of love, delightful to my ear?’ “¢A maid, your highness, fair to see, of dalliance infinite : F Wouldst thou enjoy the sweets of love, yield, yield to this delight.’ ““¢Ho, hither, nearer let her come, and let her sing yet more, Here let her sing before my face within my closet door !’ “She who had sung without the wall stood in the chamber there: She caught him, as an elephant is caught in woodland snare. “He felt the joy of love, and lo! see jealousy full-grown : ‘No other man shall love!’ cries he, ‘but I will love alone!’ “No other man, but I alone!’ he cries; and then away— Seizes a sword, and runs amuck all other men to slay!

[471] The people shouting in alarm all to the palace fly : ‘Thy son is slaying every one all unprovoked!’ they cry. “Him did the warrior King arrest, and banish from his face : ‘Within the boundaries of my realm thou shalt not find a place.’ “He took his wife and travelled on till by the sea he stood ; There built a hut of leaves, and lived on gleanings from the wood. “A holy hermit flying came over the ocean high, Entered the hut what time the meal was standing ready by. “The woman tempted him :—now see how vile a thing was done! He fell from chastity, and all his magic power was gone! “The evening came; the prince returns, and from his gleaning brings Hung to his pole a plenteous store of roots and wild-wood things. “The hermit sees the prince approach: down to the shore goes he, Thinking to travel through the air, but sinks into the sea! ‘“‘But when the prince beheld the sage down-sinking in the sea, Pity sprang up within him, and these verses then said he :— “*Hither not sailing on the sea, by magic power you came, But now you sink; an evil wife has brought you to this shame}.

“ “Seducing traitresses, they tempt the holiest to his fall: Down—down they sink: who women know should flee afar from all?. “«“Soft-speaking, hard to satisfy, as rivers hard to fill ; Down—down they sink: who women know should flee far from them still2. “¢And whomsoever they may serve for gold or for desire, They burn him up, as fuel burns cast in a blazing fire.’? “The hermit heard the prince’s word ; he loathed the world so vain: Turned to his former Path’, and rose up in the air again. 1 These are the same as the first two stanza, ii. 228 (translation). * These are the same as the first six lines, ii. 226 (translation). 3 That is, he returned to the Path of holiness. “No sooner had the prince beheld how in the air he rose, He grieved and with a purpose firm the holy life he chose ; “Then, turned religious, wholly quelled his lust and hot desire ; And passion quelled, to Brahma’s world henceforth he did aspire.” [473] This discourse ended, the Master said, “Thus, Brethren, for woman’s sake even sanctified souls do sin;” then he declared the Truths: (now at the conclusion of the Truths, the backsliding Brother achieved sainthood:) after which he identified the Birth, saying, “At that time I myself was Prince Anitthigandha.”

The Birth of the Five Wise Men will be given in the Maha-ummaggal.

“ At last we see,” etc.—This story the Master told, while dwelling at Jetavana, about the Renunciation. Then with these words,—“ It is not the first time, Brethren, that the Tathagata made the Renunciation, but it was so before,”— the Master told them a story of the past. Once upon a time there reigned in Benares a king named Esukari. His chaplain had been from the days of his youth his favourite companion. They were both childless. As the two were sitting together one day in a friendly manner, they thought, “‘We have great glory, but never a 1 Vol. vi. p. 339 (Pali). 294 The Jataka. Book XV. son or a daughter: now what is to be done?” Then the king said to the chaplain, ‘Friend, if a son is born in your house, he shall be lord of my kingdom ; but if I have a son, he shall be master of your wealth.” The two made a bargain of it on these terms. One day, as the chaplain approached his revenue-village, and entered by the southern gate, outside the gate he saw a wretched woman who had many sons: [474] seven sons she had, all hale and hearty; one held pot and plate for cooking, one mat and bedding, one went on before and one followed behind, one held a finger of her, one sat on her hip and one on her shoulder. ‘‘ Where,” asked the chaplain, “is the father of these lads?” ‘‘Sir,” she replied, “the lads have no father at all for certain.” ‘ Why then,” said he, ‘how did you get seven fine sons like that?” Disregarding the rest of the jungle, she points out a banyan tree that stood by the city gate, and quoth she, “I offered prayer, Sir, to the deity which inhabits this tree, and he answered me by giving these lads.” ‘You may go, then,” said the chaplain ;

and descending from his chariot, he went up to the tree and taking hold of a branch shook it, saying, “O divinity, what has the king failed to give thee? Year by year he offers thee tribute of a thousand pieces of money, and thou givest him no son. What has this beggar wife done for thee, that thou givest her seven? Thou shalt grant the king a son within seven days, or I will have thee cut down by the roots and chopt up piecemeal.” Thus upbraiding the deity of the banyan tree, he went away. Day after day for six days he did the same, and on the sixth, grasping the branch he said—‘“ Only one night is left, tree-god ; if you do not grant a son to my king, down you come!”

The deity of the tree reflected, till she knew exactly what was the matter. ‘Yon brahmin,” thought she, ‘‘ will destroy my home if he gets no son: well, by what means can I get him a son?” Then she went before the four great kings’, and told them. “Well,” said they, ‘we cannot give the man,a son.” To the eight-and-twenty war-lords of the Goblins she went next, and all they said was the same. To Sakka king of the gods she came, and told him. He pondered within himself: ‘‘Shall the king get sons worthy of him, or no?” [475] Then he looked about and saw four meritorious sons of the gods. These, it is said, had been in a former existence weavers of Benares; and all their winnings by that trade they would divide into five heaps; of these four were their own shares, but the fifth they gave away in common. When born anew from that place they came to the Heaven of the Thirty-three, thence 1 Or (taking the reading in the text), ‘not seeing any other way out of it.’ Courtesans in India were said to be married to certain trees: perhaps this woman belongs to that class.

2 Four Lords of the Earth, North, South, East, and West. again they were born into the Yama world’, thence in due succession they past up and down through the six celestial worlds and enjoyed much glory. Just then the time was when they were due to go from the Heaven of the Thirty-three to the Yama Heaven. Sakka went to seek them, and summoned them, and said, ‘‘ Holy sirs, you must go to the world of men, to be conceived in the womb of King Esukari’s chief consort.’”’ ‘Good, my lord,” said they to these words, ‘‘we will go. But we do not want _ anything to do with a royal house: we will be born in the chaplain’s family, and while yet young we will renounce the world.” Then Sakka approved them for their promise, and returned, and told all to the deity that lived in the tree. Much pleased, the tree-god took leave of Sakka, and went to her dwelling place. But next day up came the chaplain, and with him strong men whom he had gathered, having each a razor-adze or the like. The chaplain approached the tree, and seizing a branch, cried out—‘‘What ho, god of the tree! This is now the seventh day since I begged a favour of you: the time of thy destruction is come!” The tree-deity by her great power cleft the tree-trunk and came forth, and in a sweet voice

addressed him thus: ‘‘ One son, brahmin? pooh! I will give you four.” Said he, ‘I want no sons; give one to my king.” “No,” she said, “TJ will give only to you.” ‘Then give two to the king and two to me.” *“No, the king shall have none, you shall have all four; but they shall be only given to you, for they will not live in a worldly household: in the days of their youth they will renounce the world.” “Just give me the sons, and I will see to it they do not renounce the world,” said he. Thus the deity granted his prayer for children, and returned to her dwelling place. Ever afterwards that deity was held in high honour. Now the eldest god came down, [476] and was conceived by the brahmin’s wife. On his name day they called him Hatthipala, the Elephant Driver; and to hinder him from renouncing the world, they entrusted him to the care of some keepers of elephants, amongst whom he grew up. When he was old enough to walk on his feet, the second was born of the same woman. At his birth they named him Assapala, or Groom, and he grew up amongst those who kept horses. The third at his birth was called Gopala, the Cowherd, and he grew up amongst the cattle-breeders. Ajapala, or Goatherd, was the name given to the fourth, when he also was born; and he grew up among the goat-herds. When they grew older they were lads of auspicious omen.

Now for fear of their renouncing the world, all the ascetics who had so done were banished from the kingdom: in the whole realm of Ka4si not one was left. The lads were rough: in what way soever they 1 Third of the Heavens of Sense, Hardy: Manual, p. 25. 296 The Jataka. Book XV. went, they plundered those gifts of ceremony which were sent here or there. When Hatthipaila was sixteen years old, the king and the chaplain seeing his bodily perfection, thought thus within them. “The lads are grown big. When the umbrella of royalty is uplifted, what shall be done with them ?—<As soon as the ceremony of sprinkling is done upon them, they will grow very masterful: ascetics will come, they will see them and will become ascetics also; once they have done this, the whole country will be in confusion.. First let us test them, and afterwards have the ceremonial sprinkling.” So they both dressed themselves up like ascetics, and went about seeking alms until they came to the door of the house where Hatthipala lived. The lad was pleased and delighted to see them ; approaching, he greeted them with respect, and recited three stanzas :

“At last we see a brahmin like a god, with top-knot great, With teeth uncleansed, and foul with dust, and burdened with a weight}. “ At last we see a sage, who takes delight in righteousness, With robes of bark to cover him, and with the yellow dress. “Accept a seat, and for your feet fresh water; it is right To offer gifts of food to guests—accept, as we invite.” [477] Thus he addressed them one after the other. Then the chaplain said to him: “ Hatthipala my son, you say this because you do not know us. You think we are sages from the Himalayas, but such we are not, my son. This is King Esukari, and I am your father the chaplain.” ‘ Then,” said the lad, “why are you dressed like sages?” “To try you,” said he. “Why try me?” he asked. ‘Because, if you see us without renouncing the world, we are ready to perform the ceremony of sprinkling, and make you king.” ‘Oh, my father,’ quoth he, “I want no royalty; I will renounce the world.” Then his father replied, ‘“‘Son Hatthipala, this is not a time for renouncing the world; ” and he explained his intent in the fourth stanza :

“First learn the Vedas, get you wealth and wife And sons, enjoy the pleasant things of life, Smell, taste, and every sense: sweet is the wood To live in then, and then the sage is good.” Hatthipala replied with a stanza: “Truth comes not by the Vedas nor by gold ; Nor getting sons will keep from getting old; [478] From sense there is release, as wise men know ; In the next birth we reap as now we sow.” ' See Sirnyutta Nikdaya, p. 1. In answer to the young man, the king now recited a stanza: “Most true the words that from thy lips do go: In the next birth we reap as now we sow, Thy parents now are old: but may they see A hundred years of health in store for thee.” ° “What do you mean, my lord?” asked the prince, and repeated two stanzas : “He who in death, O King, a friend can find, And with old age a covenant hath signed ; For him that will not die be this thy prayer, A hundred years of life to be his share. “As one who on a river ferries o’er A boat, and journeys to the other shore, So mortals do inevitably tend To sickness and old age, and death’s the end.”

[479] In this manner he showed these persons how transient are the conditions of mortal life, adding this advice: ‘As you stand there, O great king, and as I speak with you, even now sickness, old age, and death are drawing nearer to me. Then be vigilant!” So saluting the king and his father, he took with him his own attendants, and forsook the kingdom of Benares, and departed with the intent to embrace the religious life. And a great company of people went with the young man Hatthipala ; “for,” said they, ‘“ this religious life must be a noble thing.’ The company extended a league long. He with this company proceeded until he came to the Ganges bank. There he induced the mystic trance by gazing at the water of the Ganges. ‘There will be a great concourse here,” thought he. ‘‘ My three younger brothers will come, my parents, king, queen, and all, they with their attendants will embrace the religious life. Benares will be empty. Until they come I will remain here.’’ So he sat there, exhorting the crowd assembled. Next day the king and his chaplain thought, “ And so Prince Hatthipala has really renounced his claim on the kingdom, and is sitting on the Ganges bank, whither he went to follow the religious life, and took a great multitude with him. But let us try Assapala, and sprinkle him to be king.” So as before in the dress of ascetics they went to his door.

Pleased he was when he saw them, and went up to them, and repeating the lines ‘“‘ At last,” and so forth, he did as the other had done. The others did as before, and told him the cause of their coming. He said, “ Why is the White Umbrella offered first to me, seeing I have a brother Prince Hatthipala?” They answered, “ Your brother has gone away, my son, to embrace the religious life; he would have nothing to do with royalty.” ‘‘Where is he now?” [480] asked the lad. “Sitting on the bank of the Ganges.” ‘Dear ones,” he said, “I care not for that which my brother has spewed out of his mouth. Fools and they who are 298 The Jataka. Book XV. scant of wisdom cannot renounce this sin, but I will renounce it.” Then he declared the Law to father and king in two stanzas which he recited : “Pleasures of sense are but morass and mire! ; The heart’s delight brings death, and troubles sore. Who sink in these morasses come no nigher In witless madness to the further shore? “Here’s one who once inflicted grief and pain : Now he is caught, and no release is found. That he may never "do such things again Tl build impenetrable walls around.”

“There you stand, and even as I speak with you, sickness, old age, and death are approaching nearer.” With this admonition, [481] and followed by a company of people a league long, he went to his brother Prince Hatthipala. Who declared the Law to him, being poised in the air, and said, ‘“‘ Brother, there will be a great concourse to this place; let us both stay here together.” The other agreed to stay there. Next day king and chaplain went in the same manner to the house of Prince Gopala: and by him being greeted with the same gladness, they explained the cause of their coming. He like Assapala refused their offer. “For a long time,” said he, “I have desired to embrace the religious life ; like a cow gone astray in the forest, I have been wandering about in search of this life. I have seen the path by which my brothers have gone, like the track of a lost cow; and by that same path I will go.” Then he repeated a stanza: “Like one who seeks a cow has lost her way, Who all perplext about the wood doth stray. So is my welfare lost; then why hang back, King Esukari, to pursue the track?”

“‘ But,” they replied, ‘come with us for a day, son Gopalaka, for two or three days come with us; make us happy and then you shall renounce the world.” He said, “O great king! never put off till the morrow what ought to be done to-day; if you want luck, take to-day by the forelock.” Then he recited another stanza: “To-morrow! cries the fool; next day! he cries. No freehold in the future! says the wise; The good within his reach he’ll ne’er despise.” [482] Thus spake Gopala, declaring the Law in the two stanzas ; and added, “There you stand, and even as I talk with you, are approaching disease, old age, and death.” Then followed by a company of people a league in length, he made his way to his two brothers. And Hatthipala poised in the air declared the Law to him also. ' This line occurs in iii. 241 (iii. 158 of the translation), 2 Nirvana. Next day in the same manner king and chaplain repaired to the house of Prince Ajapala, who greeted them with joy as the others had done. They told the cause of their coming, and proposed to upraise the umbrella of royalty. The prince said: “Where are my brothers?” They answered, ‘‘ Your brothers will have nothing to do with the kingdom ; they have renounced the White Umbrella, and with a company that covers three leagues they are sitting upon the Ganges bank.” “T will not put upon my head that which my brothers have spewed out of their mouths, and so live;

but I too will undertake the religious life.” They said, ‘‘ My son, you are very young; your welfare is our care; grow older, and you shall embrace the religious life.” But the lad said, ‘“What is this you say? Surely death comes in youth as in age! No one has a mark in hand or foot to show whether he will die young or die old. I know not the time of my death, and therefore I will now renounce the world altogether.” He then recited two stanzas :

“Oft have I seen a maiden young and fair, Bright-eyed1, intoxicate with life, her share Of joy untasted yet, in youth’s first spring: Death came and varried off the tender thing. “So noble, handsome lads, well-made and young, Round whose dark chins the beard? in clusters clung— I leave the world and all its lusts, to be A hermit: go thou home, and pardon me.” [483] Then he went on, ‘There you stand, and even as I talk with you disease, old age, and death are approaching me.” He saluted them both, and at the head of a league-long company he repaired to the Ganges bank. Hatthipala poised in the air declared the Law to him also, and sat down to wait for the great gathering which he expected. Next day the chaplain began to meditate as he sat upon his couch. ““My sons,” thought he, “‘have embraced the religious life; and now I am alone the withered stump of a man. I will follow the religious life also.” Then he addressed this stanza to his wife: “That which has branching boughs a tree they call: Disbranched, it is a trunk, no tree at all. So is a sonless man, my high-born wife : ’Tis time for me to embrace the holy life.”

This said, he summoned the brahmins before him: sixty thousand of them came. Then he asked them what they meant to do. [484] ‘You are our teacher,” they said. ‘ Well,” quoth he, “I shall seek out my son and embrace the religious life.” They answered, “ Hell is not hot for you alone; we will do likewise.” He handed over his treasure, eighty crores, 1 ‘With eyes like the flower of Pandanus Odoratissimus.” 2 «Beard as it were covered with Carthamus Tinctorius.”’ 300 The Jataka. Book XV. to his wife, and at the head of a league-long train of brahmins departed to the place where his sons were. And unto this company as before Hatthipala declared the Law, poised on high in the air. Next day thought the wife to herself, “My four sons have refused the White Umbrella to follow the life of the religious; my husband has left his fortune of eighty thousand, and his position of royal chaplain to boot, and gone to join his sons:—what am I to do all by myself? By the way my son has gone I will go also.” And quoting an ancient saw she recited this stanza of aspiration :

“The rain-months past, the geese break net and snare, With a free flight like herons through the air ;! So by the path of husband and of son [ll seek for knowledge as they two have done.” “ Since this I know,” she said to herself, ‘‘why should I not renounce the world?” With this purpose she summoned the brahmin women, and said to them: [485] ‘“‘What do you mean to do with yourselves?” They asked, “What do you?”—‘As for me, I shall renounce the world.”—“Then we will do the same.’’ So leaving all her splendour, she went after her sons, taking with her a league-long company of women. To this company also Hatthipala declared the Law, sitting poised in the air. Next day the king asked, “Where is my chaplain?” ‘My lord,” they replied, ‘‘the chaplain and his wife have left all their wealth behind, and have gone after their sons with a company that covers two or three leagues.” Said the king, “ Masterless money comes to me,” and sent to fetch it from the chaplain’s house. The chief queen now wanted to know what the king was doing. “He is fetching the treasure,” she was told, “from the chaplain’s house.” ‘And where is the chaplain?” she asked. “Gone to be a religious, wife and all.” ‘“ Why,” thought she, “here

is the king fetching into his own house the dung and the spittle dropt by this brahmin and his wife and his four sons! Infatuate fool! I will teach him by a parable.” She got some dog’s-flesh, and made a heap of it in the palace courtyard, Then she set a snare round it, leaving the way open straight upwards. The vultures seeing it from afar swooped down. But the wise among them noticed that a snare had been set around it; and feeling they were too heavy to rise up straight, they disgorged what they had eaten, and without being caught in the snare rose up and flew away. Others blind with folly devoured the vomit of the first, and being heavy could not get clear away but were caught in the snare. They brought 1 The scholiast refers to a story describing how a spider in the rains wove a net that enclosed a flock of golden geese, how two of the younger birds at the end of the rains broke through by main force, and how the rest followed by the same gap and flew away. one of the vultures to the queen, and she carried it to the king, “See, O king!” said she, “there is a sight for us in the courtyard.” Then opening a window, “ Look at those vultures, your majesty!” Then she

repeated two stanzas : “The birds that ate and vomited in the air are flying free: But those which ate and kept it down are captured now by me. [486]“A brahmin vomits out his lusts, and wilt thou eat the same? A man who eats a vomit, sire, deserves the deepest blame.” At these words the king repented; the three states of existence! seemed as blazing fires; and he said, “This very day I must leave my kingdom and embrace the religious life.” Full of grief, he lauded his queen in a stanza: “Tike as a strong man lends a helping hand To weaker, sunk in mire or in quicksand : So, Queen Paficati, thou hast saved me here, With verses sung so sweetly in mine ear.” No sooner had he thus said, than on the instant he sent for his courtiers, eager to undertake the religious life, and said to them, ‘“ And what will you do?” They answered, ‘“ What will you?” He said, “I will seek Hatthipala and become a religious.” “Then,” said they, “we, my lord, will do the same.” The king left his sovranty over Benares, that great city, twelve leagues in extent, and said, ‘‘ Let who will upraise the White Umbrella.” Then surrounded by his courtiers, at the head of a column three leagues in length, he went to the presence of the young man. To this body also Hatthipala declared the Law, sitting high in the air.

The Master repeated a stanza which told how the king renounced this world. “Thus Esukari, mighty king, the lord of many lands, From King turned hermit, like an elephant that bursts his bands.” [487] Next day the people who were left in the city gathered before the palace door, and sent in word to the queen. They entered, and saluting the queen, stood on one side, repeating a stanza: “Tt is the pleasure of our noble king To be a hermit, leaving everything. So in the king’s place now we pray thee stand; Cherish the realm, protected by our hand.” 1 Sensual, Bodily, and Formless, referring to the three correspondent worlds. 302 The Jataka. Book XV. She listened to what the crowd said, and then repeated the remaining stanzas ; “Tt is the pleasure of the noble king To be a hermit, leaving everything. Now know that I will walk the world alone, Renouncing lusts and pleasures every one, “Tt is the pleasure of the noble king To be a hermit, leaving everything. Now know that I will walk the world alone, Where’er they be, renouncing lusts each one. “Time passes on, night after night goes by}, Youth’s beauties one by one must fade and die: Now know that I will walk the world alone, Renouncing lusts .and pleasures every one.

“Time passes on, night after night goes by, Youth’s beauties one by one must fade and die: Now know that I will walk the world alone, Where’er they be, renouncing lusts each one. “Time passes on, night after night goes by, Youth’s beauties one by one must fade and die: Now know that I will walk the world alone, Each bond thrown off, nor passion’s power I own.” [488] In these stanzas she declared the Law to the great crowd ; then summoning the courtier’s wives said to them, ‘‘And what will you do?” “Madam,” say they, ‘what will you?”—“T will embrace the religious life.” —‘‘ Then so will we do.” So the queen set open the doors of all the storehouses of gold in the palace, and she caused to be engraved on a golden plate, ‘‘In such a place is a great treasure hidden”; any one who chose might have it. This gold plate she fastened to a pillar upon the great dais, and sent the drum beating the proclamation about the city. Then leaving all her magnificence she departed from the city. Then was the whole city in a garboil: the cry was, “Our king and queen have left the city to join the religious; what are we to do now?” Thereupon the people all left their houses, and all that was in them, and went out, taking their sons by the hand; all the shops stood open, but no one so much as turned to look at them: the whole city was empty.

And the queen with an attendant train of three leagues in length went to the same place as the others. To this company also Hatthipala declared the Law, poised in the air above them ; and then with the whole train a dozen leagues long he set out for Himalaya. All Kasi was in an uproar, crying how young Hatthipala had emptied the city of Benares, twelve leagues in extent, and how with a huge company he is off to Himalaya to embrace the religious life; ‘surely then,” said they, “much more should we do it!” In the end this company grew so that it covered thirty leagues; [489] and he with this great company went to Himalaya. 1 See Sarnyutta Nikaya, 1. p. 3. Sakka in his meditation perceived what was afoot. “Prince Hatthipala,” he thought, “has made the Renunciation; there will be a great gathering of people, and they must have a place to live in.” He gave orders to Vissakamma: “Go, make a hermitage six and thirty leagues long and fifteen broad, and gather in it all that is necessary for the religious.” He obeyed ; and made on the Ganges bank in a pleasant spot a hermitage of the required size, prepared in the leaf-huts pallets strewn with twigs or strewn with leaves, made ready all things necessary for the religious. Each hut had its doors, each its promenade; there were separate places for night and day living;

all was neatly worked over with whitewash ; there were benches for rest. Here and there were floweringtrees all laden with fragrant blooms of many colours; at the end of each promenade was a well for drawing water, and beside it a fruit-tree, and each tree bore all manner of fruits. This was all done by divine power. When Vissakamma had finished the hermitage, and provided the leaf huts with all things needful, he inscribed in letters of vermilion upon a wall— ““Whoso will embrace the religious life is welcome to these necessary things.” Then by his supernatural power he banished from that place all hideous sounds, all hateful beasts and birds, all unhuman beings, and went back to his own place.

Hatthipala came upon this hermitage, Sakka’s gift, by a footpath, and saw the writing. Then he thought, “Sakka must have perceived that I have made the Great Renunciation.” He opened a door, and entered a hut, and taking those things which mark the ascetic he went out again, and along the promenade, walking up and down a few times. Then he admitted the rest of the company to the religious life, and went to inspect the hermitage. He set apart in the midst a habitation for women with young boys, one next it for the old women, the next for childless women ; the other huts all round he allotted to men. [490] Then a certain king, hearing that there was no king in Benares, went to see, and found the city adorned and decorated. Entering the royal palace, he saw the treasure lying in a heap. ‘ What!” said he, ‘‘to renounce a city like this, and to become a religious so soon as the chance came, this is truly a noble thing!” Asking the way of some drunken fellow he went to find Hatthipala. When Hatthipala perceived he was come to the skirt of the forest, he went out to meet him, and poised in the air declared the Law to his company. Then he led them to the hermitage, and received the whole band into the Brotherhood. In the same manner six other kings joined them. These seven kings renounced their wealth. The hermitage, six and thirty leagues in extent, was filling continually. When some great man had thoughts of lust or any such thing, he would declare the Law to him, and teach them the thought of the Perfections and the Ecstasy; these then generally developed

304 The Jataka. Book XV. the mystic trance ; and two-thirds of them were born again in Brahma’s world, while the third being divided into three parts, one part was born in Brahma’s world, one in the six heavens of sense, one having performed a seer’s mission was born in the world of men. Thus they enjoyed each of the three their own merit’. Thus Hatthipala’s teaching saved all from hell, from animal birth, from the world of ghosts, and from being embodied as a Titan. In this island of Ceylon, those who made the Renunciation were: Elder Dhammagutta, who made the earth to quake; Elder Phussadeva, a citizen of Katakandhakara; Elder Mahasathgharakkhita, from Uparimandalakamalaya ; Elder Malimahadeva; Elder Mahadeva, from Bhaggiri ; Elder Mahasiva, from Vamantapabbhara; Elder Mahanaga, from Kalavallimandapa; those in the company of Kuddala, of Magapakkha, of Cilasutasoma, of Ayoghara the Wise, and last of all Hatthipala. Therefore said the Blessed One, “ Make haste, ye happy !” etc.’, that is, happiness will come only if they use all speed. [491] When he had ended this discourse, the Master said, “Thus, Brethren, the Tathagata made the Great Renunciation long ago, as now” ; which said he identified the Birth: “At that time, King Suddhodana was King Esukari, Mahamaya his queen, Kassapa the chaplain, Bhaddakapilani his wife, Anuruddha was Ajapala, Moggallana was Gopala, Sariputta was Hatthipala, the Buddha’s followers were the rest, and I myself was Hatthipala.”

“Tafe once conceived, etc.” This story the Master told about the Great Renunciation. Here again he said, “This is not the first time, Brethren, that the Tathagata has made the Great Renunciation, for he did the same before.” And he told them a story of the past. Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta reigned in Benares, the queen consort conceived, and when her full time was come she brought forth a son just after dawn of day. Now in a former existence, another wife of the same husband had prayed that she might be able to devour the child of this woman; she, it is said, was barren, and being angry with mother and son uttered this prayer, for which cause she came into being as 1 For the three Kusalasampattayo see Childers, p. 439. 2 Dhammapada, 116. a goblin. The other became the king’s consort, and brought forth this son. Well, the she-goblin found her chance, and putting on a horrific shape caught up the child from under the mother’s eyes and made off. The queen screamed with a loud voice—“ A goblin is carrying off my son!” The other champed and mumbled him like an onion, and swallowed him down; then after various transformations of her limbs, which annoyed and frightened the queen, departed. When the king heard, he was dumb: what could be done, thought he, against a goblin?

Next time the queen was in childbed, he set a strong guard about her. She bore another son; the goblin again came, and devoured him too, and departed. The third time it was the Great Being conceived in her womb. The king gathered a number of people together, and said: “Each son my queen has brought forth, a she-goblin comes and devours him. [492] What is to be done?” Then some one said, ‘Goblins are afraid of a palm-leaf ; you should bind one such leaf on each of her hands and feet.” Another said, ‘‘It is an iron house they fear; one should be made.” The king was willing. He summoned all the smiths in his realm and bade them build him an iron house, and set overseers over them. Right in the town in a pleasant place they builded a house; pillars it had, and all the parts of a house, all made of nothing but iron: in nine months there it stood finished, a great hall foursquare: it shone, lighted continually with lamps. When the king knew that she drew near her time, he had the iron house fitted up, and took her into it. She brought forth a son with the marks of goodness and luck upon him, and they gave him the name of Ayoghara-Kumara, the Prince of the Iron House. The king gave him in charge to nurses, and placed a great guard about the place, while he with his queen made the circuit of the whole city rightwise, and then went up to his magnificent terrace. Meanwhile the she-goblin wanting water to drink had been destroyed in trying to fetch some of the water of Vessavana.

In the iron house the Great Being grew up, and increased in wisdom, and there also he was educated in all the sciences. The king asked his courtiers, “ What is my son’s age?”’ They replied, “He is sixteen years old, my lord: a hero, mighty and strong, fit to master a thousand goblins!” The king determined to place the kingdom in his son’s hands. He had the city decorated, and gave order that the lad be brought to him out of the iron house. The courtiers obeyed : all Benares was decorated, that great city of twelve leagues in extent ; they decked out the state elephant in magnificent caparison, and drest the boy in his best, and placed him upon the elephant’s back, saying, “ My lord, make a circuit rightwise about the rejoicing city, your inheritance, and salute your father the King of Kasi; for this day you shall receive the 306 The Jataka. Book XV. White Umbrella.” The Great Being made his ceremonial circuit rightwise, and seeing the beautiful parks, the ‘beautiful colours, lakes, plots of ground, all the beautiful houses and so forth, [493] thought thus within himself: “ All this while my father has kept me close in prison, never let me see this city so richly adorned. What fault can there be in me?” He put this question to the courtiers. “My lord,” they said, “there is no fault in you; but a she-goblin devoured your two brothers, therefore your father made you live in an iron house, and the iron house has saved your life.” These words made him think again, ‘“ For ten months I was in my mother’s womb, as it might have been the Hell of the Iron Caldron or the Hell of Dung!;

and when I came forth from the womb, for sixteen years I dwelt in this prison, never a chance of looking outside. Though I have escaped the hands of the goblin I am neither free from old age nor death. What care I for royalty? Once established in the royal place it is hard for one to get away. This very day will I ask my father’s leave to embrace the religious life, and I will go to Himalaya and do so.”

Accordingly after his procession about the city was over, he went to the king’s palace, and saluted the king, and stood waiting. The king seeing his bodily beauty, looked at his courtiers with strong love in his eyes. ‘“ What do you wish us to do, Sire?” they asked. “Take my son and put him on a pile of jewels, sprinkle him from the three conchs, uplift the White Umbrella with its festoons of gold.” But the Great Being saluted his: father, and said, ‘“‘ Father, I want nothing to do with royalty. I wish to embrace the religious life, and I crave your leave to do so.” “ Why would you leave your royalty, my son, and embrace the religious life?”—‘‘ My lord, for ten months I was in my mother’s womb, as it were the Hell of Dung; once born, for fear of a goblin I dwelt sixteen years in a prison, with never a chance even of looking outside,—I seemed as it were cast into the Ussada hell. Now safe from the goblin I am neither safe from old age nor death, for death no man can conquer. I am weary of existence. Until disease, old age, death comes upon me I will follow the life of the religious, walking in righteousness. No kingdom for me! My lord, grant your permission!” Then he declared the Law to his father thus:

[494] “Life once conceived within the womb, no sooner has begun, Than on it goes continually, its course is never done”. 1 Githanirayo. 2 The scholiast explaining this quotes the following lines: ‘‘ First seed, then embryo, then shapeless flesh, Then something solid, out of which soon grow Thighs, hair on head and body, with the nails: Whatever food or drink the mother takes, The baby lives on, in his mother’s womb.” “No warlike prowess nor no mighty strength Can keep men from old age and death at length; All being plagued with birth and age I see: So I’m resolved—a holy life for me. “Great kings by force and violence subdue Hosts of four arms!, terrific to the view ; Over death’s host they win no victory : So I’m resolved—a holy life for me. “Though horses, elephants, and cars, and men Surround them, some have yet got free again ; But from the hands of death no man gets free: So I’m resolved—-a holy life for me. “With horses, elephants, and cars, and men, Heroes destroy and crush and crush again ; But to crush death no man so strong I see: So I’m resolved—a holy life for me.

“Mad elephants in rut with oozing skin Trample whole towns and slay the men within, To trample death no one so strong I see: So I’m resolved—a holy life for me. “Archers who most strong-armed and skilful are, Wound like a flash of lightning from afar, But to wound death no man so strong I see: So I’m resolved—a holy life for me. “Great lakes, their woods and rocks, to ruin fall, After a while ruin shall come to all, In time all brought to nothing they shall be So I’m resolyed—a holy life for me. “Tike as a tree upon a river brink, Or as a drunkard sells his coat for drink?, Such is the life of those who mortals be: So I’m resolved—a holy life for me.” [495] “The body’s elements dissolve—they fall Young, old, the middle-aged, men, women—all, Fall as the fruit falls from a shaken tree: So I’m resolyed—a holy life for me. “Man’s prime is all unlike the queen whose reign Rules o’er the stars’: it ne’er will come again. For worn-out eld what joy or love can be? So I’m resolved—a holy life for me. “While ghost and sprite and horrid goblin can When angry breathe their poison-breath on man, Gainst death their poison-breath no help can be: So I’m resolved—a holy life for me.

‘While ghost and sprite and horrid goblin can When angry, be appeased by deed of man, Work it with death, no softening knows he: So I’m resolved—a holy life for me. 1 Horse, Foot, Chariots, Elephants. 2 The text is: “like a drunkard’s cloth,” but this cryptic utterance is thus explained by the scholiast. °® The Moon. 20—2 The Jataka. Book XV. want none of it. 1 This stanza is given in the Introduction to the Jataka book, no. 224 (not in our translation); see Rhys Davids, Buddhist Birth Stories, p. 34. Also in Dhammapada, “Those who do crime, and wrong, and hurtful things, When known, are punished by the act of kings, But against death no punishment can be: So I’m resolved—a holy life for me. “Those who do crime, and wrong, and hurtful things Can find a way to stay the hand of kings, But how to stay death’s hand no way can be: So I’m resolved—a holy life for me. “ Warriors or brahmins, men of high estate, Men of much wealth, the mighty and the great,— King Death no pity has, no ruth has he: So I’m resolved—a holy life for me. ‘Lions and tigers, panthers, seize their prey, And all devour it, struggle as it may; From fear of their devouring death is free: So I’m resolved—-a holy life for me.

“Upon the stage a juggler with his sleight Performing can deceive the people’s sight, To cozen death, no trick so quick can be: So I’m resolved-—a holy life for me. “Serpents enraged will with envenomed bite Attack at once and kill a man outright; For death no fear of poison-bite can be: So I’m resolved—a holy life for me. “Serpents enraged with venomed fangs may bite, The skilful leach can stay the poison’s might; To cure death’s bite no man so strong can be: So I’m resolved—a holy life for me. “ Physicians’ skill could cure the serpent’s bite; Now they are dead themselves and out of sight, Bhoga, Vetarani, Dhammantari: So Pm resolved—a holy life for me. “Some who in spells and magic lore are wise Can walk invisible to other eyes, Yet not so invisible but death can see: So [’m resolved—a holy life for me. “Safe is the man who walks in righteousness; Religion well observed has power to bless; Happy the righteous man and never he While he is righteous falls in misery! “Ts it not true, his proper fruit from right or wrong shall spring? Right leads to heaven, unrighteousness a man to hell must bring®.” When the Great Being had thus declared the Law in twentyfour stanzas, he said, “O great king! keep your kingdom to yourself ; I Even as I am talking with you, disease, old age, and death draw nearer to me, Stay where you are.” Then, as a mad

p. 126, Theragatha 35. + See Dhammapada, p. 90 in Fausboll’s Commentary, 1. 3. elephant might burst his steel chains, as a young lion might break out of a golden cage, he burst his carnal desires; and saluting his parents, he departed. Then his father said, ‘I want not the Kingdom !” and leaving it went with him. When he was gone, the queen and courtiers, brahmins, householders, and everyone else who dwelt in the city, left their houses and went away. There was a great concourse ; the crowd covered twelve leagues. With this crowd he set out for Himalaya. When Sakka perceived that he had departed, he sent Vissakamma to make a hermitage twelve leagues long and seven wide, and bade him put within it all things requisite for the ascetic life. How the Great Being proceeded to admit these into the Brotherhood, and admonished them, and how they became destined for Brahma’s world, or entered upon the Third Path, ail must be repeated again as before. This discourse ended, the Master said: “Thus, Brethren, the Tathagata has made the Great Renunciation before” ; after which he identified the Birth :— “At that time the king’s parents were the mother and father, the Buddha’s followers were their followers, and I was myself the Wise Ayoghara.”