Jataka Vol. I: Book I.--Ekanipāta: No. 62. Aṇḍabhūta-Jātaka
p. 151
No. 62.
AṆḌABHŪTA-JĀTAKA.
"Blindfold, a-luting."--This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana,
about another passion-tost person.
Said the Master, "Is the report true that you are passion-tost, Brother?" "Quite
true," was the reply.
"Brother, women can not be warded; in days gone by the wise who kept watch over
a woman from the moment she was born, failed nevertheless to keep her safe." And
so saying, he told this story of the past.
Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta came to
life as the child of the Queen-consort. When he grew up, he mastered every
accomplishment; and when, at his father's death, he came to be king, he proved a
righteous king. Now he used to play at dice with his chaplain, and, as he flung
the golden dice upon the silver table, he would sing this catch for luck:--
’Tis nature's law that rivers wind;
Trees grow of wood by law of kind;
And, given opportunity,
All women work iniquity.
[paragraph continues] [290] As these lines always made the king win the game,
the chaplain was in a fair way to lose every penny he had in the world. And, in
order to save himself from utter ruin, he resolved to seek out a little maid
that had never seen another man, and then to keep her under lock and key in his
own house. "For," thought he, "I couldn't manage to look after a girl who has
seen another man. So I must take a new-born baby girl, and keep her under my
thumb as she grows up, with a close guard over her, so that none may come near
her and that she may be true to one man. Then I shall win of the king, and grow
rich." Now he was skilled in prognostication; and seeing a poor woman who was
about to become a mother, and knowing that her child would be a girl, he paid
the woman to come and be confined in his house, and sent her away after her
confinement with a present. The infant was brought up entirely by women, and no
men--other than himself--were ever allowed to set eyes on her. When the girl
grew up, she was subject to him and he was her master.
Now, while the girl was growing up, the chaplain forbore to play with the king;
but when she was grown up and under his own control,
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he challenged the king to a game. The king accepted, and play began. But, when
in throwing the dice the king sang his lucky catch, the chaplain added,--"always
excepting my girl." And then luck changed, and it was now the chaplain who won,
while the king lost.
Thinking the matter over, the Bodhisatta suspected the chaplain had a virtuous
girl shut up in his house; and enquiry proved his suspicions true. Then, in
order to work her fall, he sent for a clever scamp, and asked whether he thought
he could seduce the girl. "Certainly, sire," said the fellow. So the king gave
him money, and sent him away with orders to lose no time.
With the king's money the fellow bought perfumes and incense and aromatics of
all sorts, and opened a perfumery shop close to the chaplain's house. Now the
chaplain's house was seven stories high, and had seven gateways, at each of
which a guard was set,--a guard of women only,--and no man but the brahmin
himself was ever allowed to enter. The very baskets that contained the dust and
sweepings [291] were examined before they were passed in. Only the chaplain was
allowed to see the girl, and she had only a single waiting-woman. This woman had
money given her to buy flowers and perfumes for her mistress, and on her way she
used to pass near the shop which the scamp had opened. And he, knowing very well
that she was the girl's attendant, watched one day for her coming, and, rushing
out of his shop, fell at her feet, clasping her knees tightly with both hands
and blubbering out, "O my mother! where have you been all this long time?"
And his confederates, who stood by his side, cried, "What a likeness! Hand and
foot, face and figure, even in style of dress, they are identical!" As one and
all kept dwelling on the marvellous likeness, the poor woman lost her head.
Crying out that it must be her boy, she too burst into tears. And with weeping
and tears the two fell to embracing one another. Then said the man, "Where are
you living, mother?"
"Up at the chaplain's, my son. He has a young wife of peerless beauty, a very
goddess for grace; and I'm her waiting-woman." "And whither away now, mother?"
"To buy her perfumes and flowers." "Why go elsewhere for them? Come to me for
them in future," said the fellow. And he gave the woman betel, bdellium, and so
forth, and all kinds of flowers, refusing all payment. Struck with the quantity
of flowers and perfumes which the waiting-woman brought home, the girl asked why
the brahmin was so pleased with her that day. "Why do you say that, my dear?"
asked the old woman. "Because of the quantity of things you have brought home."
"No, it isn't that the brahmin was free with his money," said the old woman;
"for I got them at my son's." And from that day forth she kept the money the
brahmin gave her, and got her flowers and other things free of charge at the
man's shop.
p. 153
And he, a few days later, made out to be ill, and took to his bed. So when the
old woman came to the shop and asked for her son, she was told he had been taken
ill. Hastening to his side, she fondly stroked his shoulders, as she asked what
ailed him. But he made no reply. "Why don't you tell me, my son?" "Not even if I
were dying, could I tell you, mother." "But, if you don't tell me, [292] whom
are you to tell?" "Well then, mother, my malady lies solely in this that,
hearing the praises of your young mistress's beauty, I have fallen in love with
her. If I win her, I shall live; if not, this will be my death-bed." "Leave that
to me, my boy," said the old woman cheerily; "and don't worry yourself on this
account." Then--with a heavy load of perfumes and flowers to take with her--she
went home, and said to the brahmin's young wife, "Alas! here's my son in love
with you, merely because I told him how beautiful you are! What is to be done?"
"If you can smuggle him in here," replied the girl, "you have my leave."
Hereupon the old woman set to work sweeping together all the dust she could find
in the house from top to bottom; this dust she put into a huge flower-basket,
and tried to pass out with it. When the usual search was made, she emptied dust
over the woman on guard, who fled away under such ill-treatment. In like manner
she dealt with all the other watchers, smothering in dust each one in turn that
said anything to her. And so it came to pass from that time forward that, no
matter what the old woman took in or out of the house, there was nobody bold
enough to search her. Now was the time! The old woman smuggled the scamp into
the house in a flower-basket, and brought him to her young mistress. He
succeeded in wrecking the girl's virtue, and actually stayed a day or two in the
upper rooms,--hiding when the chaplain was at home, and enjoying the society of
his mistress when the chaplain was off the premises. A day or two passed and the
girl said to her lover, "Sweet-heart, you must be going now." "Very well; only I
must cuff the brahmin first." "Certainly," said she, and hid the scamp. Then,
when the brahmin came in again, she exclaimed, "Oh, my dear husband, I should so
like to dance, if you would play the lute for me." "Dance away, my dear," said
the chaplain, and struck up forthwith. "But I shall be too ashamed, if you're
looking. Let me hide your handsome face first with a cloth; and then I will
dance." "All right," said he; "if you're too modest to dance otherwise." So she
took a thick cloth and tied it over the brahmin's face so as to blindfold him.
And, blindfolded as he was, the brahmin began to play the lute. After dancing
awhile, she cried, "My clear, I should so like to hit you once on the head."
"Hit away," said the unsuspecting dotard. Then the girl made a sign to her
paramour; and he softly stole up behind the brahmin [293] and smote him on the
head.
p. 154
[paragraph continues] Such was the force of the blow, that the brahmin's eyes
were like to start out of his head, and a bump rose up on the spot. Smarting
with pain, he called to the girl to give him her hand; and she placed it in his.
"Ah! it's a soft hand," said he; "but it hits hard!"
Now, as soon as the scamp had struck the brahmin, he hid; and when he was
hidden, the girl took the bandage off the chaplain's eyes and rubbed his bruised
head with oil. The moment the brahmin went out, the scamp was stowed away in his
basket again by the old woman, and so carried out of the house. Making his way
at once to the king, he told him the whole adventure.
Accordingly, when the brahmin was next in attendance, the king proposed a game
with the dice; the brahmin was willing; and the dicing-table was brought out. As
the king made his throw, he sang his old catch, and the brahmin--ignorant of the
girl's naughtiness--added his "always excepting my girl,"--and nevertheless
lost!
Then the king, who did know what had passed, said to his chaplain, "Why except
her? Her virtue has given way. Ah, you dreamed that by taking a girl in the hour
of her birth and by placing a sevenfold guard round her, you could be certain of
her. Why, you couldn't be certain of a woman, even if you had her inside you and
always walked about with her. No woman is ever faithful to one man alone. As for
that girl of yours, she told you she should like to dance, and having first
blindfolded you as you played the lute to her, she let her paramour strike you
on the head, and then smuggled him out of the house. Where then is your
exception?" And so saying, the king repeated this stanza:--
Blindfold, a-luting, by his wife beguiled,
The brahmin sits,--who tried to rear
A paragon of virtue undefiled!
Learn hence to hold the sex in fear.
[294] In such wise did the Bodhisatta expound the Truth to the brahmin. And the
brahmin went home and taxed the girl with the wickedness of which she was
accused. "My dear husband, who can have said such a thing about me?" said she.
"Indeed I am innocent; indeed it was my own hand, and nobody else's, that struck
you; and, if you do not believe me, I will brave the ordeal of fire to prove
that no man's hand has touched me but yours; and so I will make you believe me."
"So be it," said the brahmin. And he had a quantity of wood brought and set
light to it. Then the girl was summoned. "Now," said he, "if you believe your
own story, brave these flames!"
Now before this the girl had instructed her attendant as follows:--"Tell your
son, mother, to be there and to seize my hand just as I am about to go into the
fire." And the old woman did as she was bidden; and the fellow came and took his
stand among the crowd. Then, to
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delude the brahmin, the girl, standing there before all the people, exclaimed
with fervour, "No man's hand but thine, brahmin, has ever touched me; and, by
the truth of my asseveration I call on this fire to harm me not." So saying, she
advanced to the burning pile,--when up dashed her paramour, who seized her by
the hand, crying shame on the brahmin who could force so fair a maid to enter
the flames! Shaking her hand free, the girl exclaimed to the brahmin that what
she had asserted was now undone, and that she could not now brave the ordeal of
fire. "Why not?" said the brahmin. "Because," she replied, "my asseveration was
that no man's hand but thine had ever touched me; [295] and now here is a man
who has seized hold of my hand!" But the brahmin, knowing that he was tricked,
drove her from him with blows.
Such, we learn, is the wickedness of women. What crime will they not commit; and
then, to deceive their husbands, what oaths will they not take--aye, in the
light of day--that they did it not! So false-hearted are they! Therefore has it
been said:--
A sex composed of wickedness and guile,
Unknowable; uncertain as the path
Of fishes in the water,--womankind
Hold truth for falsehood, falsehood for the truth!
As greedily as cows seek pastures new,
Women, unsated, yearn for mate on mate.
As sand unstable, cruel as the snake,
Women know all things; naught from them is hid!
_____________________________
"Even so impossible is it to ward women," said the Master. His lesson ended, he
preached the Truths, at the close whereof the passion-test Brother won the Fruit
of the First Path. Also the Master showed the connexion and identified the Birth
by saying:--"In these days I was the king of Benares."
[Note. The cuffing of the brahmin is the subject of a Bharhut sculpture, Plate
26, 8. For a parallel to the trick by which the girl avoids the ordeal of fire,
see Folklore 3. 291.]
Next: No. 63. Takka-Jātaka
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