Khuddaka Nikaya - Jataka - Dukanipata - Makkata Jataka

Jataka Vol. II: Book II. Dukanipāta: No. 173. Makkaṭa-Jātaka



p. 47
No. 173.
MAKKAṬA-JĀTAKA.
[68] "Father, see! a poor old fellow," etc.--This story the Master told whilst
staying in Jetavana, about a rogue.--The circumstances will be explained in the
Uddāla Birth 1, Book xiv. Here too the Master said, "Brethren, not this once
only has the fellow turned out a rogue; in days of yore, when he was a monkey,
he played tricks for the sake of a fire." And he told a tale of days long gone
by.
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Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was
born in a brahmin family in a village of Kāsi.. When he came of years, he
received his education at Takkasilā, and settled down in life.
His lady in time bore him a son; and when the child could just run to and fro,
she died. The husband performed her obsequies, and then, said he, "What is home
to me now? I and my son will live the life of hermits." Leaving his friends and
kindred in tears, he took the lad to the Himalaya, became a religious anchorite,
and lived on the fruits and roots which the forest yielded.
On a day during the rainy season, when there had been a downpour, he kindled
some sticks, and lay down on a pallet, warming himself at the fire. And his son
sat beside him chafing his feet.
Now a wild Monkey, miserable with cold, spied the fire in the leaf-hut of our
hermit. "Now," thought he, "suppose I go in: they'll cry out Monkey! Monkey! and
beat me back: I shan't get a chance of warming myself.--I have it!" he cried.
"I'll get an ascetic's dress, and get inside by a trick!" So he put on the bark
dress of a dead ascetic, lifted his basket and crooked stick, and took his stand
by the hut door, where he crouched down beside a palm tree. The lad saw him, and
cried to his father (not knowing he was a monkey) "Here's an old hermit, sure
enough, miserably cold, come to warm himself at the fire." [69] Then he
addressed his father in the words of the first stanza, begging him to let the
poor fellow in to warm himself:
"Father, see! a poor old fellow huddled by a palmtree there!
Here we have a hut to live in; let us give the man a share."
p. 48
When the Bodhisatta heard this, up he got and went to the door But when he saw
the creature was only a monkey, he said, "My son, men have no such face as that;
’tis a monkey, and he must not be asked in here." Then he repeated the second
stanza:
"He would but defile our dwelling if he came inside the door;
Such a face--’tis easy telling--no good brahmin ever bore."
The Bodhisatta seized a brand, crying--"What do you want there?"--threw it at
him, and drove him away. Mr Monkey dropt his bark garments, sprang up a tree,
and buried himself in the forest.
Then the Bodhisatta cultivated the Four Excellences until he came unto Brahma's
heaven.
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When the Master had ended this discourse, he identified the Birth: "This tricky
Brother was the Monkey of those days; Rāhula 1 was the hermit's son, and I
myself was the hermit." '



Footnotes
47:1 No. 487.



Next: No. 174. Dūbhiya-Makkaṭa-Jātaka