Kaṇhadīpāyana-Jātaka

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Source: Adapted from Archaic Translation by W.H.D. Rouse
JATAKA No. 444

KANHADIPAYANA-JATAKA

"Seven days," etc.--This story the Master told in Jetavana monastery, about a certain backsliding brother(Monk). The occasion will be explained under the Kusa Birth (*1). When the Master had enquired whether this report was true, and the man answered that it was true, he said, "Brother(Monk), wise men in days long gone by, before the Buddha had arisen, even men who had entered upon an unorthodox religious(hermit) life, for more than fifty years, walking in holiness without caring for it, from the doubts of a sensitive nature never told any one that they had backslided; and why have you, who have embraced such a dhamma(rightous path) as ours, that leads to salvation (nirvana), and who stand in presence of a venerable Buddha such as I am, why have you stated your backsliding before the four kinds of disciples? Why do you not preserve your doubts?" Thus saying, he told an old-world tale. ________________________

Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Vamsa, reigned in Kosambi (*2) a king named Kosambika. At that time there were two brahmins in a certain town, each possessed of eighty crores(x10 million), and dear friends one of the other; who, having perceived the mischief which lies in lust, and distributed much goods in almsgiving, both gave up the world, and amid the weeping and wailing of many people, departed to Himalaya, and there built them an hermitage. There for fifty years they lived as ascetics, feeding upon the fruits and roots of the forests where they might chance to collect them; but unto ecstacy (trance) they were unable to attain.

After these fifty years had passed by, they went on pilgrimage through the country side to get salt and spices, and came to the kingdom of Kasi. In a certain town of this kingdom lived a householder named Mandavya, who had been a lay friend in householder days of the ascetic Dipayana. To this Mandavya came our two friends; who when he saw them, enraptured, built them a hut of leaves, and provided them both with the four necessaties of life. Three or four seasons they lived there, and then taking leave of him proceeded on pilgrimage to Benares, where they lived in a cemetery grown over with atimuttaka trees. When Dipayana had remained there as long as he wished, he returned to his old comrade again; Mandavya the other ascetic still lived in the same place. (*3)

Now it happened that one day a robber had committed robbery in the town, and was returning from the fact with a quantity of spoil. The owners of the house, and the watchmen, aroused, set up a cry of "Thief!" and the thief, pursued by these, escaped through the sewer, and as he ran swiftly by the cemetery dropped his bundle at the door of the ascetic's hut of leaves. When the owners saw this bundle, they cried, "Ah, you rascal! you are a robber by night, and in the daytime you go about in the disguise of an ascetic!" So, with abuses and blows, they carried him into the presence of the king.

The king made no enquiry, but only said, "Off with him, impale him upon a stake!" To the cemetery they took him, and lifted him up on a stake of acacia (Babool) wood; but the stake would not pierce the ascetic's body. Next they brought a Nimb(Neem wood's) stake, but this too would not pierce him: then an iron spike, and no more would that pierce his body. The ascetic wondered what past deed of his could have caused this, and surveyed the past; then there arose in him the knowledge of former existences, and by this as he surveyed the past he saw what he had done long ago; and this it was--the piercing of a fly upon a splinter of ebony.

It is said that in a former existence he had been the son of a carpenter. Once he went to the place where his father was accustomed to cut trees, and with an ebony splinter pierced a fly as if impaling it. And it was just this sin that found him out when he came to that supreme moment. He perceived that here then was no getting free from sin; so to the king's men he said, "If you wish to impale me, take a stake of ebony wood." This they did, and spitted him upon it, and leaving a guard to watch him they went away.

The watchmen from a place of concealment observed all that came to look upon him. Now Dipayana, thinking "It is long since I saw my comrade the ascetic," came to find him; and having heard that he had been hanging a whole day impaled by the roadside, he went up to him, and standing on one side, asked what he had done. "Nothing," said he. "Can you guard against ill feeling, or not?" asked the other. "Good friend," said he, "neither against those who have seized me, nor against the king, either, is there any ill feeling in my mind."--"If that is so, the shadow of one so virtuous is delightful to me," and with these words down he sat by the side of the stake. Then upon his body from the body of Mandavya fell gouts of gore; and these as they fell upon the golden skin, and there dried, became black spots upon it; which gave him the name of Kanha or Black Dipayana from then on. And he sat there all the night.

Next day the watchmen went and told the matter to the king. "I have acted rashly," said the king; and with speed he moved fast to the spot, and asked Dipayana what made him sit by the stake. "Great king," answered he, "I sit here to guard him. But say, what has he done, or what left undone, that you treat him thus?" He explained that the matter had not been investigated. The other replied, "Great king, a king should act with carefulness; an idle layman who loves pleasure is not good, etc. ," and with other such admonitions he gave discourse to him.

When the king found that Mandavya was innocent, he ordered the stake to be drawn out. But try as they would, out it would not come. Said Mandavya, "Sire, I have received this serious disgrace for a fault done long ago, and it is impossible to pull the stake from my body. But if you wish to spare my life, bring a saw, and cut it off flush with the skin." So the king had this done; and the part of the stake within his body remained there. For on that previous occasion they say that he took a little piece of diamond, and pierced the fly's duct, so that it did not die then, nor until the proper end of its life; and therefore also the man did not die, they say.

The king saluted these ascetics, and craved pardon; and settling them both in his park, he looked after them there. And from that time Mandavya was called Mandavya with the Peg. And he lived in this place near the king; and Dipayana, after healing his friend's wound, went back to his friend Mandavya the householder. When they saw him enter the leaf-hut, they told it to his friend. When he heard it, he was delighted; and with wife and child, taking plenty of scents, garlands, oil, and sugar, and so on, he came to the leaf hut; greeting Dipayana, washing and anointing his feet, and giving him to drink, he sat listening to the tale of Mandavya of the Peg. Then his son, a young man named Yanna-datta, was playing with a ball at the end of the covered walk. There a snake lived in an ant-hill. The boy's ball, thrown upon the ground, ran into the hole of the ant-hill and fell upon the snake. Not knowing this, the boy put his hand into the hole. The snake enraged bit the boy's hand; down he fell in a faint because of the strength of the snake's poison. Upon that his parents, finding their son snake-bitten, lifted him up and took him to the ascetic; laying him at the ascetic's feet, they said, "Sir, religious people know medicinal herbs and charms; please cure our son."--"I know no medicinal herbs; I do not do the physician's trade."--"You are a man of religion(righteousness). Have pity then, Sir, upon this boy, and do the Act of Truth." "Good," said the ascetic, "an Act of Truth I will do."And laying hands upon the head of Yanna-datta, he recited the first stanza:-

"Seven days serene in heart    Pure I lived, desiring merit: Since then, for fifty years apart,     Self-absorbed, I do declare it, Here, unwillingly, I live: May this truth a blessing give:  Poison be removed, the boy revive!"

No sooner done this Act of Truth, out from the chest of Yanna-datta the poison came, and sank into the ground. The boy opened his eyes, and with a look at his parents, cried "Mother!" then turned over, and lay still. Then Black Dipayana said to the father, "See, I have used my power; now is the time to use yours." He answered, "So will I do an Act of Truth"; and laying a hand upon his son's breast, he repeated the second stanza:

"If for gifts I cared no jot,    All chance comers entertaining,  Yet still the good and wise knew not     I was my true self restraining; If unwillingly I give, May this truth a blessing give, Poison be removed, the boy revive!"

After the doing of this Act of Truth, out from his back came the poison, and sank into the ground. The boy sat up, but could not stand. Then the father said to the mother, "Lady, I have used my power; now it is yours by an Act of Truth to cause your son to arise and walk." Said she, "I too have a Truth to tell, but in your presence I cannot tell it." "Lady," said he, "by all and any means make my son whole." She answered, "Very well," and her Act of Truth is given in the third stanza:

"The serpent that bit you to-day    In the hole, my son, And thisyour father, are, I say,     In my indifference, one: May this Truth a blessing give: Poison be removed, the boy revive!"

No sooner done was this Act of Truth, than all the poison fell and sank into the ground; and Yanna-datta, rising with all his body purged of the poison, began to play. When the son had in this way risen up, Mandavya asked what was in Dipayana's mind by the fourth stanza:

"They leave the world who are serene, subdued, Except Kanha, all in no unwilling mood; What makes you withdraw, Dipayana, and why Unwilling walk the path of sanctity?"

To answer this, the other repeated the fifth stanza:

"He leaves the world, and then again turns back;    "An idiot, a fool!" so might one think:-       It is this that makes me withdraw, Thus walk I holy, though the wish I lack,     The cause why I do well, is this--  (*4)Praised of the wise the good man's living is."

Thus having explained his own thought, he asked Mandavya yet again in the sixth stanza:

"This your house was like a mere (*5),    Food and drink in store supplying: Sages, pilgrims, brahmins here     Thirst and hunger satisfying. did you fear some scandal, still Giving, yet againstyour will?"

Then Mandavya explained his thoughts by the seventh stanza:

"Sire and grandfather holy were,    Lords of gifts most free in giving; And I followed with all care     Our ancestral way of living; otherwise degenerate I should be I gave gifts unwillingly."

After saying this, Mandavya asked his wife a question in the words of the eighth stanza:

"When, a young girl, with undeveloped sense,    I brought you fromyour home to be my wife, You did not tell meyour indifference,     How without love you livedst allyour life. Then why, O fair-limbed lady, did you stay And live with me in this unloving way?"

And she replied to him by repeating the ninth. stanza:

"It is not the custom in this family    For wedded wife to take a newer mate, Nor ever has been; and this custom I     Would keep, otherwise I be called degenerate.  It was fear of such report that asked me to stay And live with you in this unloving way."

But when this was said, a thought passed through her mind "My secret is told to my husband, the secret never told before! He will be angry with me; I will crave pardon in the presence of this ascetic, our confidant." And to this end she repeated the tenth stanza:

"Now I have spoken what should be unsaid: For our son's sake may it be pardoned.    Stronger than parents' love is nothing here; Our Yanna-datta lives, who was but dead!"

"Arise, lady," said Mandavya, "I forgive you. From now on do not be hard to me; I will never grieve you." And the Bodhisattva said, addressing Mandavya, "In gathering ill-gotten gains, and in disbelieving that when you give liberally, the deed is a seed that brings fruit, in this you have done wrong. For the future believe in the merit of gifts, and give them. "This the other promised, and in his turn said to the Bodhisattva, "Sir, you have yourself done wrong in accepting our gifts when walking the path of holiness against your will. Now in order that your deeds may bear abundant fruit, do you for the future walk in holiness with a tranquil heart and pure, full of ecstatic joy." Then they took leave of the Great Being and departed.

From that time forward the wife loved her husband; Mandavya with tranquil heart gave gifts with faith; the Bodhisattva, dispelling his unwillingness, cultivated the ecstatic Faculty, and became destined for Brahma's heaven(of ArchAngels).

This discourse ended, the Master explained the truths: (now at the conclusion of the Truths the backslider was established in the fruit of the First Path(Trance):) and identified the Birth:-"At that time Ananda was Mandavya, Visakha the wife, Rahul the son, Sariputra was Mandavya of the Peg, and I was myself Black Dipayana."

Footnotes:

(1)No. 531.

(2)On the Ganges.

(3)In this confusing tale, Mandavya is the name of one of the ascetics and also of the householder, Dipayana is the name of the other ascetic.

(4)Or, Praised of the wise and good religion is.

(5)The word may possibly mean public-house: either is a "drinking place" (avapana).