Jataka Vol. I: Book I.--Ekanipāta: No. 141. Godha-Jātaka
No. 141.
GODHA-JĀTAKA.
[487] "Bad company."--This story was told by the Master while at the
Bamboo-grove, about a traitorous Brother. The introductory incident is the same
as that told in the Mahilā-mukha jātaka 1.
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Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born
an iguana. When he grew up he dwelt 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 great friends with a chameleon, whom he used to clip and
embrace. This intimacy being reported to the iguana king, he sent for his young
son and said that such friendship was misplaced, for chameleons were low
creatures, and that if the intimacy was persisted in, calamity would befall the
whole of the tribe of iguanas. And he enjoined his son to haw no more to do with
the chameleon. But the son continued in his intimacy. Again and again did the
Bodhisatta speak with his son, but finding his words of no avail, and foreseeing
danger to the iguanas from the chameleon, he had an outlet cut on one side of
their burrow, so that there might be a means of escape in time of need.
Now as time went on, the young iguana grew to a great size, whilst the chameleon
never grew any bigger. And as these mountainous embraces of the young giant grew
painful indeed, the chameleon foresaw
p. 303
that they would be the death of him if they went on a few days longer, and he
resolved to combine with a hunter to destroy the whole tribe of iguanas.
One day in the summer the ants came out after a thunder-storm 1, and [488] the
iguanas darted hither and thither catching them and eating them. Now there came
into the forest an iguana trapper with spade and dogs to dig out iguanas; and
the chameleon thought what a haul he would put in the trapper's way. So he went
up to the man, and, lying down before him, asked why he was about in the forest.
"To catch iguanas," was the reply. "Well, I know where there's a burrow of
hundreds of them," said the chameleon; "bring fire and brushwood and follow me."
And he brought the trapper to where the iguanas dwelt. "Now," said the
chameleon, "put your fuel in there and smoke the iguanas out. Meantime let your
dogs be all round and take a big stick in your hand. Then as the iguanas dash
out, strike them down and make a pile of the slain." So saying, the treacherous
chameleon withdrew to a spot hard by, where he lay down, with his head up,
saying to himself,--"This day I shall see the rout of my enemy."
The trapper set to work to smoke the iguanas out; and fear for their lives drove
them helter-skelter from their burrow. As they came out, the trapper knocked
them on the head, and if he missed them, they fell a prey to his dogs. And so
there was great slaughter among the iguanas. Realising that this was the
chameleon's doing, the Bodhisatta cried, "One should never make friends of the
wicked, for such bring sorrow in their train. A single wicked chameleon has
proved the bane of all these iguanas." So saying, he escaped by the outlet he
had provided, uttering this stanza:--
Bad company can never end in good.
Through friendship with one sole chameleon
The tribe of iguanas met their end.
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[489] His lesson ended, the Master identified the Birth by saying, "Devadatta
was the chameleon of those days; this traitorous Brother was the disobedient
young iguana, the son of the Bodhisatta; and I myself the king of the iguanas."
Footnotes
302:1 No. 26.
303:1 Makkhikā may refer to the wings which the ants get in India at the
beginning of the rainy season; cf. p. 297.
Next: No. 142. Sigāla-Jātaka
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