Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Religion
Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Jataka stories, English
This will be explained in the Kuṇāla Jātaka. At that time, namely, the
Master admonishing his relations, said, “My lords! for relatives to
quarrel one against another is verily most unbecoming! Even animals
once, who had conquered their enemies so long as they agreed, came to
great destruction when they fell out with one another.” And at the
request of his relatives he told the tale.
* * * * *
Long ago, when Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares, the Bodisat came
to life as a quail; and lived in a forest at the head of a flock many
thousands in number.
At that time there was a quail-catcher who used to go to the place
where they dwelt, and imitate the cry of a quail; and when he saw that
they had assembled together, he would throw his net over them, get them
all into a heap by crushing them together in the sides of the net, and
stuff them into his basket; and then going home, he used to sell them,
and make a living out of the proceeds.
Now one day the Bodisat said to the quails, “This fowler is bringing
our kith and kin to destruction! Now I know a stratagem to prevent his
catching us. In future, as soon as he has thrown the net over you, let
each one put his head through a mesh of the net, then _all_ lift it up
_together_, so as to carry it off to any place we like, and then let it
down on to a thorn bush. When that is done, we shall each be able to
escape from his place under the net!”
To this they all agreed; and the next day, as soon as the net was
thrown, they lifted it up just in the way the Bodisat had told them,
threw it on a thorn bush, and got away themselves from underneath. And
whilst the fowler was disentangling his net from the bush, darkness had
come on. And he had to go empty-handed away.
From the next day the quails always acted in the same manner: and he
used to be disentangling his net till sundown, catching nothing, and
going home empty-handed.
At last his wife said to him in a rage, “Day after day you come here
empty-handed! I suppose you’ve got another establishment to keep up
somewhere else!”
“My dear!” said the fowler, “I have no other establishment to keep
up. But I’ll tell you what it is. Those quails are living in harmony
together; and as soon as I cast my net, they carry it away, and throw
it on a thorn bush. But they can’t be of one mind for ever! Don’t you
be troubled about it. As soon as they fall out, I’ll come back with
every single one of them, and that’ll bring a smile into your face!”
And so saying, he uttered this stanza to his wife:
“So long as the birds but agree,
They can get away with the net;
But when once they begin to dispute,
Then into my clutches they fall!”
And when only a few days had gone by, one of the quails, in alighting
on the ground where they fed, trod unawares on another one’s head.
“Who trod on _my_ head?” asked the other in a passion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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