Vaṇṇāroha-Jātaka

Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Jataka >>Vaṇṇāroha-Jātaka

Source: Adapted from Archaic Translation by H.T. Francis and R.A. Neil
JATAKA No. 361

VANNAROHA-JATAKA(*1) "Is it thus, Sudatha," etc.--This story the Master, while living at Jetavana monastery, told concerning the two chief disciples. On a certain occasion the two chief elders resolved during the rainy season to devote themselves to solitude. So they said the Master farewell and leaving the company of the Brethren(Monks) they went on from Jetavana monastery, carrying their bowl and robes with their own hands, and lived in a forest near a border village. And a certain man, who waited on the elders and lived upon their broken food, lived apart in the same place. On seeing how happily these elders lived together, he thought: "I wonder if it is possible to set them at variance." So he came near to Sariputra and said, "Can it be, Reverend Sir, that there is some quarrel between you and the venerable chief Elder Monk Moggallyana?" "Why so, Sir?" he asked. "He ever, Holy Sir, speaks in your criticism and says, "When I am gone, what is Sariputra worth compared with me in caste, lineage, family and country, or in the power of attainments in the sacred volumes?" The Elder Monk smiled and said, "Be off, sirrah!" Another day he came near to the chief Elder Monk Moggallyana, and said the same thing. He too smiled and said, "Be off, sirrah!" Moggallyana went to Sariputra and asked, "Has this fellow, who lives on our leftovers, said anything to you?" "Yes, friend, he has." "And he said exactly the same thing to me. We must drive him away." "Very well, friend, drive him away." The Elder Monk said, "You are not to come here," and snapping his fingers at him, he drove him away. The two elders lived happily together, and returning to the Master, made acts of homages to him and sat down. The Master spoke kindly to them and asked if they had kept their Retreat pleasantly. They said, "A certain beggar wished to set us at variance, but failing in the attempt he ran away." The Master said, "Truly, Sariputra, not now only, but formerly also, he thought to set you at variance, but failing in the attempt he ran away." And on this at his request he told a story of past days.

Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisattva was a tree-god(angel) in a forest. At that time a lion and a tiger lived in a mountain-cave in that forest. A jackal was in attendance on them, and living on their broken meats began to grow bigger of body. And one day he was struck with the thought, "I have never yet eaten the flesh of a lion or a tiger. I must set these two animals quarrel with each other, and when in consequence of their quarrel they have come by their death, I will eat their flesh." So he came near to the lion and said, "Is there any quarrel, Sir, between you and the tiger?" "Why so, Sir?" "Your Reverence," he said, "he ever speaks in your criticism and says, "When I am gone, this lion will never attain to the sixteenth part of my personal beauty, nor of my stature and size, nor of my natural strength and power." Then the lion said to him, "Off with you. He will never speak thus of me." Then the jackal came near to the tiger also, and spoke after the same manner. On hearing him, the tiger moved fast to the lion, and asked, "Friend, is it true, that you said so and so of me?" And he spoke the first stanza:-

"Is it thus (*2)Sudatha speaks of me?  In grace of form and ancestry, In might and skill in the field,  (*2)Subahu still to me must yield."

On hearing this Sudatha repeated the four remaining stanzas:-

Is it thus Subahu speaks of me? "In grace of form and ancestry, In might and skill in the field, Sudatha still to me must yield." If such injurious words are yours, No more shall you be friend of mine. The man that lends a ready ear To any gossip he may hear, Soon picks a quarrel with a friend, And love in bitter hate will end. No friend suspects without a cause, Or carefully looks out for flaws; But on his friend in trust will rest As child upon its mother's breast, And never will by a stranger's word Be parted from his bosom's lord.

When the qualities of a friend had been thus set on in these four stanzas, the tiger said, "The fault is mine," and begged pardon of the lion. And they continued to live happily together in the same place. But the jackal departed and fled elsewhere.

The Master, having brought his lesson to an end, identified the Birth:"At that time the jackal was the beggar who lived on broken meats, the lion was Sariputra, the tiger Moggallyana, and the deity that lived in that forest and saw the whole thing with his own eyes was I myself."

Footnotes:

(1)Compare no. 349

(2)Sudatha (strong-tooth) is the lion, Subahu (strong-arm) the tiger.