Tag Archives: The Bodhisatta And The Hunter

183. The Bodhisatta And The Hunter

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta became a Monkey named Nandiya, or Jolly; and lived in the Himalayas; and his youngest brother bore the name of Jollikin. They two headed a band of eighty thousand monkeys, and they had a blind mother in their home to care for.

They left their mother in her lair in the bushes, and went amongst the trees to find sweet wild fruit, which they sent back home to her. The messengers did not deliver it; and, tormented with hunger, she became nothing but skin and bone. The Bodhisatta said to her, “Mother, we send you plenty of sweet fruits; then what makes you so thin?”