Jataka Vol. I: Book I.--Ekanipāta: No. 11. Lakkhaṇa-Jātaka
No. 11.
LAKKHAṆA-JĀTAKA.
"The upright man."--This story was told by the Master in the Bamboo-grove near
Rājagaha about Devadatta. The story of Devadatta 1 will be related, up to the
date of the Abhimāra-employment, in the Khaṇḍahāla-jātaka 2; up to the date of
his dismissal from the office of Treasurer, in the Cullahaṃsa-jātaka 3; and, up
to the date of his being swallowed up by the earth, in the Sixteenth Book in the
Samudda-vāṇija-jātaka 4.
For, on the occasion now in question, Devadatta, through failing to carry the
Five Points which he had pressed for, had made a schism in the Brotherhood and
had gone off with five hundred Brethren to dwell at Gayā-sīsa. Now, these
Brethren came to a riper knowledge; and the Master, knowing this, called the
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two chief disciples 1 and said, "Sāriputta, your five hundred pupils who were
perverted by Devadatta's teaching and went off with him, have now come to a
riper knowledge. Go thither with a number of the Brethren, preach the Truth to
them, enlighten these wanderers respecting the Paths and the Fruits, and bring
them back with you."
They went thither, preached the Truth, enlightened them respecting the Paths and
the Fruits, and next day [143] at dawn came back again with those Brethren to
the Bamboo-grove. And whilst Sāriputta was standing there after saluting the
Blessed One on his return, the Brethren spoke thus to him in praise of the Elder
Sāriputta, "Sir, very bright was the glory of our elder brother, the Captain of
the Truth, as he returned with a following of five hundred Brethren; whereas
Devadatta has lost all his following."
"This is not the only time, Brethren, when glory has been Sāriputta's on his
return with a following of his kinsfolk; like glory was his too in bygone days.
So too this is not the only time when Devadatta has lost his following; he lost
it also in bygone days."
The Brethren asked the Blessed One to explain this to them. The Blessed One made
clear what had been concealed by re-birth.
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Once on a time in the city of Rājagaha in the kingdom of Magadha there ruled a
certain king of Magadha, in whose days the Bodhisatta came to life as a stag.
Growing up, he dwelt in the forest as the leader of a herd of a thousand deer.
He had two young ones named Luckie and Blackie. When he grew old, he handed his
charge over to his two sons, placing five hundred deer under the care of each of
them. And so now these two young stags were in charge of the herd.
Towards harvest-time in Magadha, when the crops stand thick in the fields, it is
dangerous for the deer in the forests round. Anxious to kill the creatures that
devour their crops, the peasants dig pitfalls, fix stakes, set stone-traps, and
plant snares and other gins; so that many deer are slain.
Accordingly, when the Bodhisatta marked that it was crop-time, he sent for his
two sons and said to them, "My children, it is now the time when crops stand
thick in the fields, and many deer meet their death at this season. We who are
old will make shift to stay in one spot; but you will retire each with your herd
to the mountainous tracts in the forest and come back when the crops have been
carried." "Very good," said his two sons, and departed with their herds, as
their father bade.
Now the men who live along the route, know quite well the times at which deer
take to the hills and return thence. And [144] lying in wait in hiding-places
here and there along the route, they shoot and kill numbers of them. The dullard
Blackie, ignorant of the times to travel and the
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times to halt, kept his deer on the march early and late, both at dawn and in
the gloaming, approaching the very confines of the villages. And the peasants,
in ambush or in the open, destroyed numbers of his herd. Having thus by his
crass folly worked the destruction of all these, it was with a very few
survivors that he reached the forest.
Luckie on the other hand, being wise and astute and full of resource, never so
much as approached the confines of a village. He did not travel by day, or even
in the dawn or gloaming. Only in the dead of night did he move; and the result
was that he reached the forest without losing a single head of his deer.
Four months they stayed in the forest, not leaving the hills till the crops were
carried. On the homeward way Blackie by repeating his former folly lost the rest
of his herd and returned solitary and alone; whereas Luckie had not lost one of
his herd, but had brought back the whole five hundred deer, when he appeared
before his parents. As he saw his two sons returning, the Bodhisatta framed this
stanza in concert with the herd of deer:--
The upright kindly man bath his reward.
Mark Luckie leading back his troop of kin,
While here comes Blackie shorn of all his herd.
[145] Such was the Bodhisatta's welcome to his son; and after living to a good
old age, he passed away to fare according to his deserts.
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At the close of his lesson, when the Master had repeated that Sāriputta's glory
and Devadatta's loss had both had a parallel in bygone days, he shewed the
connexion linking the two stories together and identified the Birth, by saying,
"Devadatta was the Blackie of those days; his followers were Blackie's
following; Sāriputta was the Luckie of those days, and his following the
Buddha's followers; Rāhula's mother was the mother of those days; and I myself
was the father."
[Note. See Dhammapada, p. 146, for the above verse and for a parallel to the
Introductory Story of this Jātaka.]
Footnotes
34:1 See Cullavagga, VII. 1--et seqq. The "Five Points" of Devadatta are there
given (VII. 3. 14) as follows:--"The Brethren shall live all their life long in
the forest, subsist solely on doles collected out of doors, dress solely in rags
picked out of dust-heaps, dwell under trees and never under a roof, never eat
fish or flesh." These five points were all more rigid in their asceticism than
the Buddha's rule, and were formulated by Devadatta in order to outbid his
cousin and master.
34:2 Cf. p. 32, note 2.
34:3 No. 533.
34:4 No. 466.
35:1 The two chief disciples, of whom only one is named in the text, were
Sāriputta (surnamed 'the Captain of the Faith') and Moggallāna, two Brahmin
friends, originally followers of a wandering ascetic, whose conversion to
Buddhism is related in the Mahāvagga, I. 23--. Unlike this Jātaka, the Vinaya
account (Cullavagga, VII. 4) of the re-conversion of the backsliders gives a
share of the credit to Moggallāna.
Next: No. 12. Nigrodhamiga-Jātaka
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