Jataka Vol. I: Book I.--Ekanipāta: No. 143. Virocana-Jātaka
No. 143.
VIROCANA-JĀTAKA.
"Your mangled corpse."--This story was told by the Master while at the
Bamboo-grove, about Devadatta's efforts to pose as a Buddha at Gayāsīsa 1. For
when his spiritual Insight left him and he lost the honour and profit which once
were his, he in his perplexity asked the Master to concede the Five Points. This
being refused, he made a schism in the Brotherhood and departed to Gayāsīsa with
five hundred young Brethren, pupils of the Buddha's two chief disciples, but as
yet unversed in the Law and the Rule. With this following he performed the acts
of a separate Brotherhood gathered together within the same precincts. Knowing
well the time when the knowledge of these young Brethren should ripen, the
Master sent the two Elders to them. Seeing these, [491] Devadatta joyfully set
to work expounding far into the night with (as he flattered himself) the
masterly power of a Buddha. Then posing as a Buddha he said, "The assembly,
reverend Sāriputta, is still alert and sleepless. Will you be so good as to
think of some religious discourse to address to the Brethren? My back is aching
with my labours, and I must rest it awhile." So saying he went away to lie down.
Then those two chief disciples taught the Brethren, enlightening them as to the
Fruitions and the Paths, till in the end they won them all over to go back to
the Bamboo-grove.
Finding the Monastery emptied of the Brethren, Kokālika went to Devadatta and
told him how the two disciples had broken up his following and left the
Monastery empty; "and yet here you still lie asleep," said he. So saying he
stripped off Devadatta's outer cloth and kicked him on the chest with as little
compunction as if he were knocking a roof-peg into a mud-wall. The blood gushed
out of Devadatta's mouth, and ever after he suffered from the effects of the
blow 2.
p. 306
Said the Master to Sāriputta, "What was Devadatta doing when you got there?" And
Sāriputta answered that, though posing as a Buddha, evil had befallen him. Said
the Master, "Even as now, Sāriputta, so in former times too has Devadatta
imitated me to his own hurt." Then, at the Elder's request, he told this story
of the past.
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Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was a
maned lion and dwelt at Gold Den in the Himalayas. Bounding forth one day from
his lair, he looked North and West, South and East, and roared aloud as he went
in quest of prey. Slaying a large buffalo, he devoured the prime of the carcass,
after which he went down to a pool, and having drunk his fill of crystal water
turned to go towards his den. Now a hungry jackal, suddenly meeting the lion,
and being unable to make his escape, threw himself at the lion's feet. Being
asked what he wanted, the jackal replied, "Lord, let me be thy servant." "Very
well," said the lion; "serve me and you shall feed on prime meat." So saying, he
went with the jackal following to Gold Den. Thenceforth the lion's leavings fell
to the jackal, and he grew fat.
Lying one day in his den, the lion told the jackal to scan the valleys from the
mountain top, to see whether there were any elephants or horses or buffalos
about, or any other animals [492] of which he, the jackal, was fond. If any such
were in sight, the jackal was to report and say with due obeisance, "Shine forth
in thy might, Lord." Then the lion promised to kill and eat, giving a part to
the jackal. So the jackal used to climb the heights, and whenever he espied
below beasts to his taste, he would report it to the lion, and falling at his
feet, say, "Shine forth in thy might, Lord." Hereon the lion would nimbly bound
forth and slay the beast, even if it were a rutting elephant, and share the
prime of the carcass with the jackal. Glutted with his meal, the jackal would
then retire to his den and sleep.
Now as time went on, the jackal grew bigger and bigger till be grew haughty.
"Have not I too four legs?" he asked himself. "Why am I a pensioner day by day
on others' bounty? Henceforth I will kill elephants and other beasts, for my own
eating. The lion, king of beasts, only kills them because of the formula, 'Shine
forth in thy might, Lord.' I'll make the lion call out to me, 'Shine forth in
thy might, jackal,' and then I'll kill an elephant for myself." Accordingly he
went to the lion, and pointing out that he had long lived on what the lion had
killed, told his desire to eat an elephant of his own killing, ending with a
request to the lion to let him, the jackal, couch in the lion's corner in Gold
Den whilst the lion was to climb the mountain to look out for an elephant. The
quarry found, he asked that the lion should come to him in the den and say,
'Shine forth in
p. 307
thy might, jackal.' He begged the lion not to grudge him this much. Said the
lion, "Jackal, only lions can kill elephants, nor has the world ever seen a
jackal able to cope with them. Give up this fancy, and continue to feed on what
I kill." But say what the lion could, the jackal would not give way, and still
pressed his request. So at last the lion gave way, and bidding the jackal couch
in the den, climbed the peak and thence espied an elephant in rut. Returning to
the mouth of the cave, he said, "Shine forth in thy might, jackal." Then from
Gold Den the jackal [493] nimbly bounded forth, looked around him on all four
sides, and, thrice raising its howl, sprang at the elephant, meaning to fasten
on its bead. But missing his aim, he alighted at the elephant's feet. The
infuriated brute raised its right foot and crushed the jackal's head, trampling
the bones into powder. Then pounding the carcass into a mass, and dunging upon
it, the elephant dashed trumpeting into the forest. Seeing all this, the
Bodhisatta observed, "Now shine forth in thy might, jackal," and uttered this
stanza:--
Your mangled corpse, your brains mashed into clay,
Prove how you've shone forth in your might to-day.
Thus spake the Bodhisatta, and living to a good old age he passed away in the
fulness of time to fare according to his deserts.
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His lesson ended, the Master identified the Birth by saying, "Devadatta was the
jackal of those days, and I the lion."
Footnotes
305:1 See pp. 34 and 35 supra.
305:2 The Vinaya account (Cullavagga vii. 4) omits the kicking, simply stating
that Kokālika "awoke" Devadatta, and that, at the news of the defection, "warm
blood gushed out of Devadatta's mouth." In other accounts (Spence Hardy and
Bigandet) it is stated that Devadatta died then and there.
Next: No. 144. Naṅguṭṭha-Jātaka
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