Category Archives: JATAKA TALES
160. The Bodhisatta And The Dew
Once upon a time a king named Sabbadatta reigned in the city of Ramma. The king Sabbadatta had a thousand sons; and to his eldest son Yuvanjana he gave the viceroyalty.
One day early in the morning he mounted his splendid chariot went to disport him in the park. On the tree-tops, on the grass-tips, at the ends of the branches, on all the spiders’ webs and threads, on the points of the rushes, he saw the dew-drops hanging like so many strings of pearls. He asked, “Friend charioteer! what is this?” He replied, “This is what falls in the cold weather, and they call it dew.” The prince took his pleasure in the park for a portion of the day. In the evening, as he was returning home, he could see none of it. He asked, “Friend charioteer!where are the dew-drops? I do not see them now.” The charioteer replied, “My lord! As the sun rises higher, they all melt and sink into the ground.” On hearing this, the prince was distressed, and said, “The life of human beings is like dew-drops on the grass. I must be rid of the oppression of disease, old age, and death; I must take leave of my parents, and renounce the word.” So because of the dew-drops, he perceived the Three modes of Existence as it were in a blazing fire. When he came home, he went to the Hall of Judgement, and asked the king’s permission to leave and to renounce the world.
159. The Bodhisatta And The Deer Hunter
Once upon a time when Brahmadatta reigned in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as the son of a wealthy merchant.
One day, a hunter killed a deer and filled his cart with the meat, returned to the city with the intention of selling it. At this time four sons of rich merchants who were living in Benares came out of the city, and meting at a cross road they sat down and conversed with one another about whatever they had seen or heard. One of these youths on seeing the cart full of meat proposed to go and get a piece of venison from the hunter. The others asked him to go and try. So he went up to the hunter, and said, “Hi, Sirrah! give me a piece of meat.”
158. The Bodhisatta And The Crow
Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was king in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as a bird: when he grew up he lived amidst a retinue of birds on an island in the middle of the sea. Some merchants of Kasi started on a voyage by sea. In the midst of the sea the ship was wrecked. The crow reached that island and thought, “Here is a great flock of birds, it is good that I use deceit on them and eat their eggs and young”; so he descended in their midst and opening his mouth stood with one foot on the ground. “Who are you, master?” they asked. “I am a holy person.” “Why do you stand on one foot?” “If I put down the other one, the earth could not bear me.”
157. The Bodhisatta And The Crocodile
Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life again as a monkey. He was full-grown and enormously strong. He lived alone on the banks of a river. In the middle of the river was an island where all fruit-trees like mangoe and bread-fruit grew. And in mid-stream, half way between the island and the river bank, a solitary rock rose out of the water. The Bodhisatta used to leap from the bank on to this rock and then on to the island. He would eat the fruits that grew on the island, and return at evening by the way he came. And such was his life from day to day.
