Jataka Vol. I: Book I.--Ekanipāta: No. 115. Anusāsika-Jātaka
No. 115.
ANUSĀSIKA-JĀTAKA.
"The greed-denouncing bird."--This story was told by the Master while at
Jetavana, about a Sister who gave a warning to others. For we are told that she
came of a good Sāvatthi family, but that from the day of her entrance into the
Order she failed of her duty and was filled with a gluttonous spirit; she used
to seek alms in quarters of the city unvisited by other Sisters. And dainty food
was given her there. Now her gluttony made her afraid that other Sisters might
go there too and take away from her part of the food. Casting about for a device
to stop them from going and to keep everything to herself, she warned
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the other Sisters that it was a dangerous quarter, troubled by a fierce
elephant, a fierce horse, and a fierce dog. And she besought them not to go
there for alms. Accordingly not a single Sister gave so much as a look in that
direction.
Now one day on her way through this district for alms, as she was hurrying into
a house there, a fierce ram butted her with such violence as to break her leg.
Up ran the people and set her leg and brought her on a litter to the convent of
the Sisterhood. And all the Sisters tauntingly said her broken leg came of her
going where she had warned them not to go.
Not long after the Brotherhood came to hear of this; and one day in the Hall of
Truth [429] the Brethren spoke of how this sister had got her leg broken by a
fierce ram in a quarter of the city against which she had warned the other
Sisters; and they condemned her conduct. Entering the Hall at this moment, the
Master asked, and was told, what they were discussing. "As now, Brethren," said
he, "so too in a past time she gave warnings which she did not follow herself;
and then as now she came to harm." So saying, he told this story of the past.
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Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born
a bird, and growing up became king of the birds and came to the Himalayas with
thousands of birds in his train. During their stay in that place, a certain
fierce bird used to go in quest of food along a highway where she found rice,
beans, and other grain dropped by passing waggons. Casting about how best-to
keep the others from coming there too, she addressed them as follows:--"The
highway is full of peril. Along it go elephants and horses, waggons drawn by
fierce oxen, and such like dangerous things. And as it is impossible to take
wing on the instant, don't go there at all." And because of her warning, the
other birds dubbed her 'Warner'.
Now one day when she was feeding along the highway she heard the sound of a
carriage coming swiftly along the road, and turned her head to look at it. "Oh
it's quite a long way off," thought she and went on as before. Up swift as the
wind came the carriage, and before she could rise, the wheel had crushed her and
whirled on its way. At the muster, the King marked her absence and ordered
search to be made for her. And at last she was found cut in two on the highway
and the news was brought to the king. "Through not following her own caution to
the other birds she has been cut in two," said he, and uttered this stanza:--
The greed-denouncing bird, to greed a prey,
The chariot wheels leave mangled on the way.
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[430] His lesson ended, the Master identified the Birth by saying, "The warning
sister was the bird 'Warner' of those times, and I the King of the birds."
Next: No. 116. Dubbaca-Jātaka
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