The grateful elephant : $b And other stories translated from the Pāli — John Shaqi
The grateful elephant : $b And other stories translated from the PāliBurlingame, Eugene Watson
Religion
The grateful elephant : $b And other stories translated from the Pāli
Burlingame, Eugene Watson
Buddhist legends
The elephant-trainers reported that incident to the king, remarking:
“That noble elephant should be sought out and brought to you, your
majesty.” The king made haste up the river with boats and rafts; with
rafts bound up-stream he reached the place of abode of the carpenters.
The young elephant, playing in the river, on hearing the sound of the
drum, went and stood by the carpenters. The carpenters went forth to
meet the king, and said: “Your majesty, if you have need of timber, why
did you yourself come? why shouldn’t you have sent men to get it?” “I
didn’t come for timber, I assure you, but I came for this elephant.”
“Take him and go, your majesty.”
The young elephant would not go. “What, pray, will you have done,
elephant?” “Have the carpenters paid for my keeping, your majesty.”
“Very well, I will,” said the king. He had a hundred thousand pieces
of money laid near each of the elephant’s four feet, near his trunk,
and near his tail. But for all that the elephant would not go. When,
however, pairs of cloths had been given to all of the carpenters, when
under-garments had been given to the carpenters’ wives, and when the
proper attentions had been paid to the children he had played with,
then the elephant turned around, and eyeing the carpenters and their
wives and their children as he went, accompanied the king.
The king took the elephant, went to the city, and caused both city
and elephant-stable to be adorned. He caused the elephant to make
rightwise circuit of the city and to be taken into the elephant-stable.
He adorned the elephant with all the adornments, sprinkled him, made
him his riding-animal, elevated him to the dignity of a friend, gave
him half his kingdom, and had him treated as himself. From the day when
the elephant arrived, the king obtained complete mastery over all the
Land of the Rose-apple.
As time thus went on, the Future Buddha received a new existence as the
child of the chief consort of that king. But before the child was born,
the king died. Now if the elephant had known that the king was dead,
it would have broken his heart then and there. So they said not a word
to the elephant about the king’s death, but waited on him just as if
nothing had happened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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