Jataka Vol. I: Book I.--Ekanipāta: No. 9. Makhādeva-Jātaka
No. 9.
MAKHĀDEVA-JĀTAKA.
"Lo! these grey hairs."--This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana
about the Great Renunciation, which has already been related in the Nidāna-Kathā
2.
On this occasion the Brethren sat praising the Renunciation of the Lord of
Wisdom. Entering the Hall of Truth and seating himself on the Buddha-seat, the
Master thus addressed the Brethren:--"What is your theme, Brethren, as you sit
here in conclave?"
"It is naught else, sir, than the praise of your own Renunciation." "Brethren,"
rejoined the Master, "not only in these latter days has the Tathāgata 3 made a
Renunciation; in bygone days too he similarly renounced the world."
The Brethren asked the Blessed One for an explanation of this. The Blessed One
made clear what had been concealed from them by re-birth.
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p. 31
Once on a time in Mithilā in the realm of Videha there was a king named
Makhādeva, who was righteous and ruled righteously. For successive periods of
eighty-four thousand years he had respectively amused himself as prince, ruled
as viceroy, and reigned as king. All these long years had he lived, when one day
he said to his barber,--"Tell me, friend barber, when you see any grey hairs in
my head." So one day, years and years after, [138] the barber did find among the
raven locks of the king a single grey hair, and he told the king so. "Pull it
out, my friend," said the king; "and lay it in my palm." The barber accordingly
plucked the hair out with his golden tongs, and laid it in the king's hand. The
king had at that time still eighty-four thousand years more to live; but
nevertheless at the sight of that one grey hair he was filled with deep emotion.
He seemed to see the King of Death standing over him, or to be cooped within a
blazing but of leaves. "Foolish Makhādeva!" he cried; "grey hairs have come upon
you before you have been able to rid yourself of depravities." And as he thought
and thought about the appearance of his grey hair, he grew aflame within; the
sweat rolled down from his body; whilst his raiment oppressed him and seemed
intolerable. "This very day," thought he, "will I renounce the world for the
Brother's life."
To his barber he gave the grant of a village, which yielded a hundred thousand
pieces of money. He sent for his eldest son and said to him, "My son, grey hairs
are come upon me, and I am become old. I have had my fill of human joys, and
fain would taste the joys divine; the time for my renunciation has come. Take
the sovereignty upon yourself; as for me, I will take up my abode in the
pleasaunce called Makhādeva's Mango-grove, and there tread the ascetic's path."
As he was thus bent on leading the Brother's life, his ministers drew near and
said, "What is the reason, sire, why you adopt the Brother's life?"
Taking the grey hair in his hand, the king repeated this stanza to his
ministers:--
Lo, these grey hairs that on my head appear
Are Death's own messengers that come to rob
My life. ’Tis time I turned from worldly things,
And in the hermit's path sought saving peace.
[paragraph continues] [139] And after these words, he renounced his sovereignty
that self-same day and became a recluse. Dwelling in that very Mango-grove of
Makhādeva, he there during eighty-four thousand years fostered the Four Perfect
States within himself, and, dying with insight full and unbroken, was reborn in
the Realm of Brahma. Passing thence, he became a king again in Mithilā, under
the name of Nimi, and after uniting his scattered family, once more became a
hermit in that same
p. 32
[paragraph continues] Mango-grove, winning the Four Perfect States and passing
thence once more to the Realm of Brahma.
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After repeating his statement that he had similarly renounced the world in
bygone days, the Master at the end of his lesson preached the Four Truths. Some
entered the First Path, some the Second, and some the Third. Having told the two
stories, the Master shewed the connexion between them and identified the Birth,
by saying:--"In those days Ānanda was the barber, Rāhula the son, and I myself
King Makhādeva."
[Note. See Majjhima-Nikāya, Sutta No. 83 of which is entitled the Makhādeva
Sutta. According to Léon Feer (J. As. 1876, p. 516) the Bigandet MS. calls this
the Devadūta-jātaka. Bigandet in his Life or Legend of Gaudama (p. 408) gives a
version of this Jātaka, in which the king is named Minggadewa, and in which the
doings of King Nemi (= Nimi above) are given in great detail. See Upham's
Mahāvansi, vol. i. p. 14, and the 'Nemy' Jātaka referred to by him as the 544th
Jātaka. See also Cariyū-Piṭaka, p. 76, and Plate XLVIII. (2) of the Stūpa of
Bharhut, where the name is carved Magha-deva, a spelling which is retained in
modern Burmese manuscripts of the Majjhima Sutta from which this Jātaka was
manifestly compiled.]
Footnotes
30:2 See p. 61 et seqq. of Vol. i. of Fausböll's text for this account of how
Prince Siddhattha, the future Buddha, renounced the world for the Truth.
30:3 The meaning of this frequently recurring title of the Buddha is far from
clear, and the obscurity is deepened by the elaborate gloss of Buddhaghosa at
pp. 59-68 of the Sumaṅgala-vilāsinī, where eight different interpretations are
given. Perhaps the word may mean 'He who has trod the path which the earlier
Buddhas trod'; but there is much to be said for the view put forward on p. 82 of
Vol. XIII. of the Sacred Books of the East, that the meaning is 'He who has
arrived there,' i.e. at emancipation.
Next: No. 10. Sukhavihāri-Jātaka
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