Monthly Archives: January 2014
80. The Bodhisatta – As Antelope
Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life as an antelope, and used to live on fruits in his haunts in the forest.
At one time he was subsisting on the fruit of a sepanni-tree. And there was a village hunter, whose method was to build a platform in trees at the foot of which he found the track of deer, and to watch aloft for their coming to eat the fruits of the trees. When the deer came, he brought them down with a Javelin, and sold the flesh for a living. This hunter one day marked the tracks of the Bodhisatta at the foot of the tree, and made himself a platform up in the tree branch.
79. The Bodhisatta – As An Iguana
Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born an iguana. When he grew up he lived in a big burrow in the river bank with a following of many hundreds of other iguanas. Now the Bodhisatta had a son, a young iguana, who was in friendship with a chameleon, whom he used to clip and embrace. This intimacy being reported to the iguana king.
78. The Bodhisatta – As An Elephant
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta came into this world as an Elephant in the Himalayas. He lived as the head of eighty thousand wild elephants in the forest.
A poor man who lived in Benares, seeing the workers of ivory in the ivory bazaar making bangles and all manner of ivory trinkets, asked them would they buy an elephant’s tusks, if he should get them. To which they answered, Yes.
77. The Bodhisatta – As An Antelope
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta became an Antelope, and lived within a forest, in a thicket near a lake. Not far from the same lake, sat a Woodpecker perched at the top of a tree; and in the lake dwelt a Tortoise. And the three became friends, and lived together in amity.
