Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Religion
Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Jataka stories, English
One of the analogous stories is where a falcon complains to a cock,
that, while he (the falcon) is so grateful to men for the little they
give him that he comes and hunts for them at their beck and call, the
cock, though fed up to his eyes, tries to escape when they catch him.
“Ah!” replies the cock, “I never yet saw a falcon brought to table, or
frying in a pan!” (Anvar i Suhaili, p. 144; Livre des Lumières, p. 112;
Cabinet des Fées, xvii. 277; Bidpai et Lokman, ii. 59; La Fontaine,
viii. 21). Among the so-called Æsop’s Fables is also one where a calf
laughs at a draught ox for bearing his drudgery so patiently. The ox
says nothing. Soon after there is a feast, and the ox gets a holiday,
while the calf is led off to the sacrifice (James’s Æsop, No. 150).
Jātaka No. 286 is the same story in almost the same words, save (1)
that the pig’s name is there _Sālūha_, which means the edible root of
the water-lily, and might be freely rendered ‘Turnips’; and (2) that
there are three verses instead of one. As special stress is there laid
on the fact that ‘Turnips’ was allowed to lie on the _heṭṭhā-mañca_,
which I have above translated ‘sty,’ it is possible that the word means
the platform or seat in front of the hut, and under the shade of the
overhanging eaves,--a favourite resort of the people of the house.
[318] The following tale is told, with some variations, in the course
of the commentary on verse 30 of the Dhammapada (pp. 186 and foll.);
but the Introductory Story is there different.
[319] The commentator on the “Scripture Verses” adds an interesting
point--that there was an inscription on the pinnacle, and that the
Bodisat put up a stone seat under a tree outside, that all who went
in might read the letters, and say, “This hall is called the Hall of
Piety.”
[320] The “Scripture Verses” commentator (p. 189) avoids the curious
abruptness of this rather unkind remark by adding that the reason for
this was that Well-born’s being the Bodisat’s niece and servant, she
thought she would share in the merit of _his_ part in the work.
[321] Vejayanta. Compare what is said above, p. 97, of Māra’s _vāhana_,
Giri-mekhala.
[322] That is, his own angels and those of the archangel Brahma.
[323] In this story we have a good example of the way in which the
current legends, when adopted by the Buddhists, were often so modified
as to teach lessons of an effect exactly contrary to those they had
taught before. It is with a touch of irony that Sakka is made to
conquer the Titans, not by might, but through his kindness to animals.
[324] See above, p. 178.
[325] How this was done, and the lasting feud which the election gave
rise to between the owl and the crow, is told at length in Jātaka No.
270. The main story in Book III. of the Pañca Tantra is founded on this
feud.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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