Khuddaka Nikaya - Jataka - Dukanipata - Kandagalaka Jataka

Jataka Vol. II: Book II. Dukanipāta: No. 210. Kandagalaka-Jātaka



No. 210.
KANDAGALAKA-JĀTAKA.
"O friend," etc.--This was told by the Master, during a stay in Veḷuvana, about
Devadatta's attempts to imitate him 1. When he heard of these attempts to
imitate him, the Master said, "This is not the first time Devadatta has
destroyed himself by imitating me; the same thing happened before." Then he told
this story.
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p. 114
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta entered
into life as a Woodpecker. In a wood of acacia trees he lived, and his name was
Khadiravaniya, the Bird of the Acacia Wood. He had a comrade named Kandagalaka,
or Eatbulb, who got his food in a wood full of good fruit.
One day the friend went to visit Khadiravaniya. "My friend is come!" thought
Khadiravaniya; and he led him into the acacia wood, and pecked at the
tree-trunks until the insects came out, which he gave to his friend. As each was
given him, the friend pecked it up, and ate it, as if it were a honey cake. As
he ate, pride arose in his heart. [163] "This bird is a woodpecker," thought he,
"and so am I. What need for me to be fed by him? I will get nay own food in this
acacia wood!" So he said to Khadiravaniya,
"Friend, don't trouble yourself,--I will get my own food in the acacia wood."
Then said the other, "You belong to a tribe of birds which finds its food in a
forest of pithless silk-cotton trees, and trees that bear abundant fruit; but
the acacia is full of pith, and hard. Please do not do so!"
"What!" said Kandagalaka--"am I not a woodpecker?" And he would not listen, but
pecked at an acacia trunk. In a moment his beak snapped off, and his eyes bade
fair to fall out of his head, and his head split. So not being able to hold fast
to the tree, he fell to the ground, repeating the first verse:
"O friend, what is this thorny, cool-leaved tree
Which at one blow has broke my beak for me?"
Having heard this, Khadiravaniya recited the second stanza:
"This bird was good for rotten wood
And soft; but once he tried,
By some ill hap, hard trees to tap;
And broke his skull, and died."
[164] So said Khadiravaniya; and added, "O Kandagalaka, the tree where you broke
your head is hard and strong!" But the other perished then and there.
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When the Master had ended this discourse, he identified the Birth:--"Devadatta
was Kandagalaka, but Khadiravaniya was I myself."



Footnotes
113:1 See above, note to no. 208.



Next: No. 211. Somadatta-Jātaka