He has had his fair share of family problems too. Recall from a previous chapter the tale of how Magha became Sakka, and of Magha’s four wives. Three of them contributed to his building project (over his initial objection to the involvement of women) and were subsequently reborn as his attendants in Tāvatiṃsa. But the one he really loved, Sujā did nothing at all and took a lower rebirth as a crane:
After his other wives had been reborn in Tāvatiṃsa, and received wonderful dwellings as a result of their deeds, Sakka began to wonder why Sujā had not appeared. He investigated the matter and saw that she was now a crane living in the forest. Sakka took the bird to Tāvatiṃsa to let it see the pleasant state that was the result of merit. “Henceforth, keep the five precepts!” he admonished the crane and instructed it on what those entail.
A little later, to check up on the crane, Sakka assumed the form of a fish and lay without moving in the pond. The crane thought, “this one must be dead!” and took it up in its beak. When the fish began to wriggle its tail, she immediately let it go. “It is alive after all!” Sakka said, “Sadhu! it is good that you are protecting your precepts!” and returned to his abode.
Sujā was then born into a family of potters in Bārāṇasi. There too she kept the precepts. Sakka came to her district in the form of an old peddler with a hand-cart full of golden cucumbers. “Take my cucumbers! Take my cucumbers!” When the people offered to buy them, he said they were not for sale for any price, but free for one who keeps the precepts. “We don’t know anything about any precepts, who is this cucumber man anyway?” said the people as they left that place. Sujā heard tell of these strange cucumbers and thought, “I keep the precepts, these must be for me!” Sakka asked her, “Do you guard your precepts, my dear?” “Yes father, I do.” “Then these are yours,” and he pushed the cart to her door and left.
At the end of that life-time, Sujā was reborn as the daughter of Vepacitti, king of the asuras. Because of her previous virtue, she was endowed with a very beautiful form. When she came of age to marry, Vepacitti announced that his daughter would choose her husband according to her own wishes, and he ordered all the asuras to come to an assembly. Sakka appeared at the assembly in the guise of an old asura. Sujā was led out, beautifully adorned, and bidden to choose her husband by placing a garland around his neck. When her eyes lit on Sakka because of their past-life affection her heart was flooded with a great love for him, washing through her like a wave, and she declared “This one is my husband!”
The host of young, powerful asuras were abashed. “That one is old enough to be her grand-father!” Taking Sujā by the hand, Sakka revealed his deva form and roared aloud, “I am Sakka!” The asuras were enraged, “We have been deceived by old Sakka!” (jarasakka) They tried to seize him, but just at that moment, Mātali the charioteer arrived in Sakka’s great Chariot of Victory (vejayantaratha) pulled by one thousand Sindh horses and the happy couple made their escape, hotly pursued by the host of angry asuras.
As the chariot sped up the slopes of Mt Sineru towards the city of the devas, it entered the Sippalivana, a forest inhabited by many supaṇṇas. There was a great sound of heart-rending cries coming from below. “What is that sound, Mātali?” “My lord, it is the young of the supaṇṇas, many of them are being destroyed by the passage of our chariot.” Sakka was appalled, and ordered Mātali to stop the chariot at once. The asuras, coming up behind, saw that Sakka had stopped. They thought the reason must be that he was expecting reinforcements, and in fear of a great deva army they returned to the asura city and hung their heads in shame.
On their arrival in Tāvatiṃsa, Sakka installed Sujā as the chief of his twenty-five million598 accharas. She said to him, “Great king (mahārāja) here in the deva world, I have no mother or father, no brother or sister. I would ask of you a boon. Wherever you go, there I would go too.” Sakka made this promise, saying “Sadhu!” (Jāt 31, Dhp 2,7)
An archetypal story: the hero gets the girl and the cavalry rides in for a rescue in the nick of time! Not only did Sakka acquire Sujā as his chief wife, he also acquired a father-in-law in Vepacitti, and we will already had occasion to comment on the touchy relations between these two.599 It is a detail typical of Sakka’s “human” side that of all his women, the one he truly loves is the bad girl. It should also be stated that Sakka did not seem to keep his promise very well. We seldom hear of Sujā accompanying her husband in his various travels into the human realm. The royal couple went to earth once in the form of a pair of swans (Dhp-a 2.9) and on another occasion posed as poor weavers to give alms to Mahākassapa (Dhp-a 4: 10). One notable example, although hardly a romantic outing, is found in the Kharaputta Jātaka where the two of them take the form of goats and copulate in the street to attract the attention of King Senaka’s horses, allowing them to teach the king by way of a conversation between horse and goat, which Senaka was able to understand:
The king’s horse: “Indeed it must be true, as the paṇḍit says, that goats are foolish. This fool is not aware that what he openly does in the street should be done only in secret.”
The he-goat: “Son of a donkey, it is you who are the perfect fool. You should know this, you with a twisted cord through your mouth, and your head hanging down. You are such a surpassing great fool that when you are untied, you do not run away. But that Senaka you carry is an even greater fool than you.” (Jāt 386)
The back-story here is that the king had been given a magic spell by a nāga allowing him to understand the speech of animals, but the spell came with a warning that if he gave it away he would immediately die by fire. His wife had been nagging him for some time, wanting to learn the spell herself, and heedless of the consequences. King Senaka being “under the power of women” (mātugāmavasiko) was about to succumb when Sakka and Sujā came down to stop him.
Sakka has two sons and four daughters that we know of. All of them caused him some trouble. The two sons were named Suvira and Susīma and an identical story is told about both:600
It may happen that, from time to time, the asuras become powerful and break through all five lines of defence and threaten the city of the devas itself. On these occasions, the Four Great Kings inform Sakka and he mounts the Chariot of VIctory and takes the field himself, or it may be that he sends one of his sons.
On this occasion, he ordered Suvira to go into battle, but Suvira was negligent and of a lustful nature (pesetukāmo). Three times he was given the order, “Suvira my son, the asuras are attacking the devas. Go out and meet them in battle.” And three times he replied, “Yes, my lord,” but from negligence failed to do so. Instead, he wandered down the golden highway into Nandanavana and played at “Constellation” (nakkhatta) with his retinue of accharas. (SN-a 11:1)
Sakka’s subsequent conversation with his son is recorded in verse, and displays an exasperated parent’s sarcasm:
Suvīra: “That a lazy man who does not toil
Nor attend to his duties
Might still have all his desires fulfilled
Grant me that, Sakka, as a boon.”
Sakka: “Where a lazy man who does not toil
Might achieve unending bliss:
Go there, Suvira,
And take me along with you.”601
Sakka also had four daughters, named Āsā, Saddhā, Sirī and Hirī whose names may be rendered into English as Hope, Faith, Luck and Honour:602
The four devadhītas were fond of bathing and sporting in the waters of Lake Anotatta in the Himavā. There, one day, they encountered the brahmin sage Nārada. This brahmin had developed his powers to such a degree that he was able to travel to Tāvatiṃsa and back. He was in the habit of taking his day’s rest in Nandanavana or Cittalatāvana, before returning to his abode in the Himavā. When he appeared before the divine ladies, he was carrying a fresh blossom from the Pāricchattaka Tree, a lovely flower found only in Tāvatiṃsa.
The daughters of Sakka begged him for the blossom: “This pure, sweet-scented flower is honoured by the
devas, no human nor asura is worthy of it.” Nārada replied that he had no need of it, and would happily bestow it upon whichever among them was considered supreme (jeṭṭha). Thus the sage by his words stirred a quarrel among the divine sisters. They asked him to judge among them, but he said they should take their quarrel before “the Lord of Beings,” meaning their father, Sakka.
So, inflamed by the quarrel, intoxicated by the pride of their own beauty, the four went back to Tāvatiṃsa and begged Sakka to settle the dispute as to which was to be judged best. Sakka also refused to judge between them, knowing that if he picked one, the others would become angry. So he sent them with a cup of sudhābhojana, the food of the devas, back to earth to see another sage, Kosiya by name. He instructed them to give the heavenly food to Kosiya, explaining that this sage had made a vow never to eat without sharing. He would offer some of the ambrosial food to whichever of the four he judged the best. (Jāt 535)
There follows a long series of verses in which each daughter speaks in favour of her eponymous virtue, and the sage counters with criticism of how the qualities of Hope, Faith and Luck can also lead beings astray. Only Honour does he find without fault, so awards the title of the foremost among them to Hirī. Reading between the lines in the story, it seems that the original cause of the dispute, possession of the divine blossom, was forgotten in the daughter’s mutual jealousy and that it may have been a clever ploy of Nārada’s to get rid of them and keep it for himself! Sakka here appears in the role of the hapless parent caught between the squabbles of his children.
Before leaving the topic of Sakka’s familial relationships, mention must be made of an incident where Sakka bestowed the boon of sons on a queen by supernormal means:
At that time, in the Malla Kingdom there ruled a righteous king named Okkāka. All was well in his kingdom except that none of his 16,000 wives had produced an heir to the throne. The people grew upset about this and assembled in the royal courtyard. Addressing them from the balcony, the king asked what was wrong, and they told him that they were afraid for the future of the kingdom if he had no heir to follow him. “But what am I to do?” asked Okkāka.
They told him that he must perform the royal duty to seek a son. He should send forth into the street one hundred dancing girls of low rank to perform the sacred dance (dhammanāṭakaṃ katvā) and if within a week, one of them conceived, well and good. If not, them he must send forth one hundred ladies of middling rank, and if that too failed, the following week he should send forth one hundred of the highest rank.
This was done, the royal women were sent forth and indulged in pleasure (yathāsukhaṃ abhiramitvā) among the townsfolk. Yet none of them conceived. The people saying that it must be that all these women were of bad morals, with insufficient merit, demanded that the king send forth his chief queen, the virtuous Sīlavatī. The king assented, and it was announced that in one week the queen would be sent forth, and that all the men should assemble at the palace.
On the seventh day, Queen Sīlavatī, beautifully adorned descended from the palace fervently wishing for a son. By the power of her virtue, Sakka’s abode grew hot and investigating the cause, he decided to grant Sīlavatī the boon of sons. He commanded two devas to make ready for rebirth into the human realm. Thinking, ”I must not let the virtue of the queen be broken!” he descended to earth and approached the palace yard in the form of an aged brahmin.
A great crowd of men were assembled there, each one bathed and adorned and all saying “I shall get the queen! I shall get the queen!” When they saw Sakka in the form of an aged brahmin they laughed at him, “What are you doing here?” He replied, “You can’t blame me. Even if my body is aged, my passion has not diminished, and I will take Sīlavatī away with me if I can get her.” Then, Sakka by his supernormal power went to the front of the crowd, and none were able to stop him. When the queen descended, beautifully arrayed in all her glory, Sakka took her by the hand and led her away. The men muttered to each other, “Do you see, friend? The old brahmin has taken away the queen, the most beautiful one. He does not know his place!” The queen thought, “An old brahmin is taking me,” but she felt neither irritated nor ashamed. The king, however, looking out the window, was very displeased.
Sakka led her out of the town gate. Just outside the city walls, he created a house in which a straw bed could be seen through the open door. “Is this where you live?” she asked. “Yes. Up until now, I was alone. Now there are two of us. You go inside and lie down on the bed while I go and beg for alms, so we can have some rice to eat.” Saying this, he gently caressed her with his hand. The divine touch (dibbasamphassa) suffused her being and robbed her of her senses, making her fall asleep.
By his power, Sakka transported her to Tāvatiṃsa where she lay upon a gorgeously decorated divine couch. After seven days, she awoke to splendour, and she knew this was no human brahmin, but Sakka. There she saw Sakka sitting under the Pāricchattaka Tree, surrounded by a host of heavenly dancers. She rose from her bed and paid her respects to the king of the devas. He said, “I would give you a boon, queen. What would you have?” “Please, deva, I would have a son.” “Never mind one son, I shall give you two. One shall be wise but not handsome, the other shall be handsome but not wise, which would you have first?” “The wise one, deva.” “Very good.” Sakka then gave her five gifts: a piece of kusa grass, a piece of heavenly cloth, a stick of heavenly sandal-wood, a flower from the Pāricchattaka Tree and the kokananda vīṇā.
Then Sakka transported her back to the royal palace and laid her down beside the sleeping king. He then touched her navel with his thumb, and in that instant she conceived the first of her sons. In the morning, the king was suspicious about her story. “I saw you going off with that old brahmin. Are you trying to deceive me?” She showed him the kusa grass, but he was not impressed. “Kusa grass can be found anyplace.” But when she showed him the heavenly cloth, he believed her. (Jāt 531)
This curious story may contain some old pre-Buddhist elements. The sending of the royal women out into the streets is reminiscent of the sacred prostitution practiced in Mesopotamia, and the idea that a child conceived during orgiastic rites is the child of a god has echoes in pre-Christian Europe. Certainly, the idea that an heir to the king could be produced in such a manner involves magical rather than logical thinking. In the continuation of the story, the boy born to Sīlavatī after her adventure was named Kusa after the grass. He was the Bodhisatta. He grew up to be a mischievous and misshapen dwarf who after many rather comical adventures wins the heart of a lovely princess. The vīṇā plays a minor role in this courtship, but of the rest of Sakka’s gifts, there is no other mention. The incident of Kusa’s conception by the touching of Sakka’s thumb to the queen’s navel is similar to an incident in Jātaka 497 where a very powerful ascetic with Brahma-like powers fathers a son in the same way.
For all of Sakka’s majesty and power, he could sometimes display surprising humility. On one occasion, he appears on earth in the guise of an old weaver to give alms to Mahākassapa, one of the Buddha’s arahant disciples. Mahākassapa, easily recognizing the king of the devas, admonished him, asking why Sakka was trying to deprive some poor person of the opportunity of making merit. Sakka replies that he himself is poor:
“What? You have power and sovereignty over the devas, how can you be poor?”
“Bhante, it is like this. The time I came into being was not a Buddha-period. I had no opportunity in my past to make merit by giving to a Buddha or to the arahants. There have arisen in my neighbourhood three devas, Cūḷarathadevaputto Mahārathadevaputto and Anekavaṇṇadevaputto (“little chariot deva-son, great chariot deva-son and deva-son of many colours.”) These three had the opportunity to give to the Buddha and his arahants. They are more splendid and glorious than me. When they come down the street, playing at “Constellation” with their attendants, I have to flee and escape into my house.” (Dhp-a 4: 10)
It seems that even the king of the devas finds it ha
rd to keep up with the Joneses! Another story in which Sakka displays humility is also one where the tables are turned for once, and the tester becomes the tested:
At one time a certain brahmā603 decided to test Sakka’s power of patience. He manifested as an ugly hunch-backed yakkha and sat on Sakka’s throne. The devas of Tāvatiṃsa grumbled, grew angry and complained. “It is amazing, this ugly hunch-backed yakkha is sitting on Sakka’s throne!” But the more the devas complained and found fault, the more the yakkha grew handsome and pleasing in appearance. They told this to Sakka, and he said, “This must be an anger-eating yakkha.”
The Buddhist Cosmos Page 46