Khuddaka Nikaya - Jataka - Tika-Nipata - Kacchapa Jataka

Jataka Vol. II: Book III. Tika-Nipāta: No. 273. Kacchapa-Jātaka



No. 273.
KACCHAPA-JĀTAKA.
[359] "Quis pateram extendens," etc.--This story the Master told during a. stay
in Jetavana, how a quarrel was made up between two magnates of the king's court
in Kosala 1. The circumstances have been told in the Second Book.
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Brahmadatta quondam Benari regnante, Bodisatta sacerdotali genere regno Kasensi
natus, postquam ad puberem aetatem pervenit, in urbe Takkasila studiis se dedit,
et mox, cum lubidines tandem compressisset, solitarius homo in agro Himavanto
prope ripam Gangae frondibus ramisque arborum mapale contexit ubi habitaret,
Facultates Potentiasque magicas foveret, gaudium perpetuae cogitationis
perciperet. Tum quidem hoc modo nato ita mens erat placida placataque ut ad
summam patientiam unus pervenerit.
p. 247
Quem in limine casae sedentem visitabat Simius quidam impudentissimus
pessimusque, inque aurem eius semen emittere solebat, neque tamen eius commovere
poterat, sed sedebat porro summa animi tranquillitate Bodisatta. Accidit quondam
ut ex aqua Testudo egressa somnum ore aperto captaret, in sole apricans. Quam
cum vidisset Simius ille impudens, nec mora, pene in os inserto incepit futuere.
Continuo Testudo experrecta os velut cistellam conclusit dentibusque comprendit
id quod incertum erat. Simius cum nequiret nimium dolorem mulcere 'quo eam,'
inquit, 'cui persuadeam ut hoc dolore me liberet?' Fore ut liberaretur ratus si
ad Bodisattam pervenisset, Testudine ambabus manibus sublata ad Bodisattam
pergit: qui ludos fecit Simium versibus his: [360]
"quis pateram extendens 1 nostram mendicat ad aulam?
unde venis? precibus quae, precor, esca datast?"
Quibus auditis Simius respondit:
"quod tetigisse nefas, tetigi: sum simius amens:
eripe me! creptus mox nemora alta petam."
Continuo pergit Bodisatta, Simium allocutus:
"Cassapa testudo genus est: Condannus at ille:
Cassapa Condannum mitte fututa precor 2."
[361] His verbis valde delectata Testudo Simium omisit: qui Bodisattae dicta
salute, se in fugam dedit, neque umquam postea eum locum ne oculis quidem
usurpavit. Testudo quoque cum salutem dixisset abiit, at Bodisatta, defixo in
contemplatione perpetua animo, tandem in eum locum, cuius dominus Brahma deus,
pervenit.
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When this discourse was ended, the Master declared the Truths and identified the
Birth: "The two magnates were the Monkey and Tortoise, and I was the hermit."



Footnotes
246:1 Compare Nos. 154, 165.
247:1 The tortoise looked like a begging bowl.
247:2 A curious verse, as bearing on the laws of marriage. Kassapa means
'belonging to the Tortoise clan' (for which sec e.g. Muir, Sanskrit Texts, i.
438). The scholiast's note is: "The Tortoises are of the Kassapa clan, monkeys
of the Koṇḍañña" = Skr. Kauṇḍinya, "between which two clans there is
intermarriage (āvāhavivāhasambandho); now that it is consummated, let go."



Next: No. 274. Lola-Jātaka