by Sarah Shaw
8 See DP I 116, anudhammacakkham pavattako. Even as chief disciple Sariputta, according to this principle, would still defer to, for instance, Kondanna, the first monk to be ordained by the Buddha.
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The Vedabbha mantra story
Vedabbha Jataka (48)
Vol. I, 252–6
Skill in means (upaya) is the resourcefulness and good planning that enables the Bodhisatta to escape disaster where others, motivated by expediency or simply deficient in common sense, fail. In this story it is the teacher who lacks skill and his pupil, the Bodhisatta, who uses it. Skill in means, aided by the associated quality of wisdom, generates many of the more surprising and creative twists of plot involved in Jataka stories. It creates solutions for dangerous situations, as in Jatakas 20 and 128, avoids the obvious and apparently more attractive option, as in Jataka 1, and also helps in the unravelling of the mysteries which perplex others: the one with skill in means reads a situation in a way that others cannot. For the modern reader this means there is something oddly familiar about certain aspects of the tale here. A series of murders, the discovery of dead bodies by another party, deductive reasoning on the basis of external signs left at the scenes of the crimes and the presence of a clearheaded interpreter capable of reconstructing in his own mind the dependency of one crime upon another must make this one of the earliest counterparts to the detective story. The Bodhisatta’s use both of deductive reasoning and imaginative reconstruction as a means of teasing out a solution to a puzzle can be seen in ‘The story of the barleymeal sack’ (402), particularly associated with wisdom.
The story is of special literary interest for another reason. In May 1881, Rev. Dr Richard Morris, writing in The Contemporary Review, noted the striking resemblance between the manner of the thieves’ end and the events of Chaucer’s ‘Pardoner’s Tale’. 1 There are many parallels between the two stories, most notably the hiding of the treasure at the bottom of the tree, the apparent friendship and collusion that turns to murder, as one goes for food and the other (or, in Chaucer’s tale, the other two), guards the treasure. The final device of the mutual murder, one through poison administered earlier and the other by the sword, also features in both tales, though the ‘Pardoner’s Tale’, like other medieval versions of the story, involves three protagonists in centre stage. The most striking similarity is in the use of almost precisely the same aphorism, in both cases delivered by a hypocrite. The thief left to his own reflections as he guards the treasure in the Jataka pronounces, ‘Greed is the root of ruin’ (lobho ca nam’ esa vinasamulam eva) while the avaricious Pardoner twice makes the pious assertion ‘Radix malorum cupiditas est’. 2 The transportation of tales and motifs from one culture to another is an endlessly fascinating yet contested area of research. One can only speculate as to where Chaucer heard his version, perhaps amongst tales brought back by crusaders from the East. There is a counterpart in a story related in the one hundred and fifty-second night of The Thousand Nights and a Night. 3 ‘The Merchant and the Two Sharpers’ does feature three protagonists, as in Chaucer’s tale, but omits key elements found both in ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’ and the Jataka: it contains no tag about greed being the root of ruin or evil, nor does it feature the motif of the near simultaneous death of one faction by a sword and another by poison. In the fifteen hundred years between the composition of the two stories the story was perhaps popular in a number of places and there must somewhere have been a tale that did include these elements.
Story from the present
‘The one who desires profit by the wrong means’ 4
While residing at the Jetavana Grove the Teacher told this story concerning a monk who would not take advice. 5 The Teacher said to the monk, ‘This is not the first time, bhikkhu, that you were difficult to speak to. [253] Through just this cause 6 you did not act upon the advice of wise men. And so it came about that you were cut in two by a sharp sword and thrown into the road. And for this one reason a thousand men met the end of their lives.’ Saying this he narrated this story about long ago.
Story from the past
Once upon a time in Varanasi, during the reign of Brahmadatta, there was a certain brahmin in a village who knew a mantra called Vedabbha. 7This mantra, it was said, was costly beyond measure. If at a particular conjunction of the moon someone looked up at the sky, continuously reciting the mantra, the seven different kinds of jewels would rain down. 8Now, at that time the Bodhisatta took an apprenticeship with that brahmin. One day the brahmin left his own village on some business or other, taking the Bodhisatta with him, and went to the kingdom of Cetiya. In a certain forest situated on the way five hundred men known as ‘dispatchers’ 9practised highway robbery. They seized the Bodhisatta and the brahmin who had the spell. And why were they called the ‘dispatchers’? Well, it is said that for every two men they seized they would dispatch one to bring back the ransom. So they were called dispatchers. If they seized a father and son they would send the father saying, ‘You bring back the ransom and you can go away with your son.’ They also used the trick after seizing a mother and daughter, setting free the mother; if they caught two brothers they set free the elder and if they caught a teacher and his pupil, they released the pupil. This time they kept the Vedabbha brahmin and sent away the Bodhisatta. The Bodhisatta paid homage to his teacher, saying, ‘I’ll just be away for a day or two. Don’t be frightened, but just do exactly what I say. Today there will be the conjunction that brings down a shower of wealth. Whatever you do, do not—because you are unable to endure the bad situation—recite the mantra and bring down a shower of wealth. If you do, you will encounter disaster, and these five hundred thieves will too.’ So he took his leave from his teacher and went in search of a ransom.
But when sunset came the thieves bound the brahmin and laid him down. And just at that moment the full moon rose in the Eastern world system. 10The brahmin considered the position of the stars [254] and saw that the conjunction that brings down a shower of wealth had arrived. ‘Why should I put up with this suffering, when I could recite the mantra, bring down a shower of jewels, and pay the ransom to the thieves? I could go just as I please.’ After he had thought this he addressed the robbers, ‘My good men, thieves: what did you want to seize me for?’ ‘For the ransom, sir,’ they replied. ‘Well, if that is what you want, undo my bonds as quickly as possible. Have my head washed, have me dressed in new clothes, 11get me anointed with perfumes and adorned with flowers. Then leave me be.’ The thieves listened to him and did this. The brahmin discerned the conjunction and recited the mantra, looking up into the sky. And instantly the jewels fell from the sky. The thieves grabbed together the booty, made a bundle for it in their upper garments, and left. The brahmin followed behind. And then [a new set of] five hundred thieves seized the other thieves. ‘What are you kidnapping us for?’ they asked. ‘For riches,’ they replied. ‘Well, if it is for the sake of riches, just take hold of this brahmin. He, by looking at the sky, makes it rain wealth, and we were given this by him.’ So the thieves set free the thieves, seized the brahmin and said, ‘Give us riches’. The brahmin replied, ‘Well, I would give you, but unfortunately the conjunction whereby there can be a shower of riches will not occur for another year. If you would just wait until then, I’ll see that there rains another shower of wealth.’ The thieves were furious. ‘You stupid, evil-minded brahmin! You managed to get it to rain treasure for the others, but tell us to wait another year!’ They chopped the brahmin in two with a sharp sword, threw him on the road and then quickly followed the other thieves. They did battle with them, killing them all and taking the wealth. They then split into two factions and duly fought with each other, so that two hundred and fifty men were killed. They carried on killing each other, on the same principle, until only two men were left. And so in this way a thousand men came to ruin. The two men left by these means took the treasure and came in the vicinity of a certain town. They hid the treasure in a jungle lair: one sat holding a sword [255] and acted
as guard, the other went into the town with some rice in order to have it cooked. ‘Greed is the root of ruin!’ thought the one sitting by the booty. ‘When he comes back there will be two shares of the treasure. Why don’t I just kill him the moment he gets back?’ So he drew his sword and sat watching for the other dispatcher to return. Meanwhile, the other dispatcher thought, ‘There are going to be two shares of that wealth. Why don’t I place poison into the rice and get that fellow to eat it and bring him to an end? And then there will only be one person to take possession of the wealth.’ So when the rice was ready he ate his own portion, put poison in the rest, took it with him and went back to the jungle lair. But the moment he put the rice down the other cut him in two with his sword and hid him in a secret spot. Then the first dispatcher ate the rice and he too, in that spot, came to the end of his life. In this way, for the sake of the treasure, they all came to a bad end.
The Bodhisatta, however, after a day or two, came back with the ransom. Not seeing his teacher at the spot where he had been, but observing his treasure scattered around, he realized: ‘My teacher did not do what I said. There will have been a shower of treasure; this will have brought ruin to them all.’ So he set out on the main road. On his way he saw his teacher chopped in half on the road and said to himself, ‘Oh no! he did not follow my advice and is dead.’ He collected some sticks, made a funeral pyre and burnt the body, making offerings of forest flowers. Then he went on some more and he found the first five hundred dead. Then he went on farther and found two hundred and fifty dead. Going on, in gradually decreasing number, he finally found just two men who had died. ‘So a thousand men less two have met their end. It must also be the case for the other two. They will not have been able to restrain themselves either. I’ll go and see where they’ve gone.’ So he went on and then saw the path that led to the jungle lair where they had taken the treasure. He saw the heap of bundles of booty and one man dead after having overturned a bowl of rice. He then surmised everything and what these men must have done. Upon investigation he saw the other man thrown down in the hidden place. ‘My teacher did not pay attention to what I said and, through being himself unable to take advice, brought disaster not just to himself but to another thousand men. Indeed those who wish for their own profit by the wrong means and without good reason, like my teacher, come to grief.’ Thinking this he pronounced this verse:
1. ‘The one who desires profit by the wrong means comes to harm. The thieves killed the Vedabbhan, and everyone came to a disastrous end.’
The Bodhisatta continued in this way: ‘My teacher put effort into causing treasure to rain down, by the wrong means and at the wrong time, and so brought about disaster to himself as well as being the cause of the destruction of others. Just like him, the one who makes an effort by the wrong means, wanting gain for himself, will not only destroy himself completely, but be the cause of others’ downfall too.’ When he had given the teaching in this stanza, the forest resounded with the approval of the shining gods, saying ‘sadhu’, ‘very good’. Because of his skill in means he carried the treasure off to his own home and stayed there, for the rest of his life being generous and doing auspicious things. When he came to the end of his lifespan he went to the heaven he had fulfilled for himself.
The Teacher said, ‘It is not just now that you are unable to take advice, but in the past you were too. And because of this you came to a bad end.’ And he gave this teaching and gave the association with the birth: ‘At that time the monk who was difficult to speak to was the Vedabbha brahmin and I was his disciple.’
Notes
1 The Contemporary Review, XXXIX (May 1881), p. 730. See also W.A. Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, their Migrations and Transformations, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1887), II, pp. 379–407. The tale is listed by S. Thompson under ‘The treasure finders who murder each other’, Motif Index of Folk Literature: a classification of narrative elements in folk tales, ballads, myths, fables, mediaeval romances, exempla, fabliaux, jest-books and local legends, 6 vols (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1957), IV, K, 1685.
2 ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’, N. Coghill trans., G. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1951, reprint, 2001), p. 241. See also Timothy, 6, 10: ‘Greed is the root of [all] evils.’
3 R.F. Burton, The Thousand Nights and a Night (London: Burton, 1885), III, 158. I am grateful to Professor Grevel Lindop for finding this.
4 Wrong means (anupaya) is contrasted with skill in means.
5 The word dubbaca literally means ‘difficult to speak to’ and describes someone who does not take advice. Not listening to the advice of others is an offence in the monks’ rules (rule 12: dubbacasikkhapadam, W. Pruitt, ed., K.R. Norman trans., The Patimokkha, 2001, Oxford, 19–21).
6 I have followed one of the Burmese manuscripts (Be), which gives ten’ eva ca karanena, as ‘va’ seems to have been mistakenly duplicated in the PTS version.
7 A place, literally, ‘devoid of darbha grass’. This is the name of the village where, presumably, the mantra originated.
8 The nikkhattayoga, translated here as conjunction of the moon, refers to the passage of the moon through any one of the so-called lunar mansions. During a yearly cycle the moon passes through different asterisms of the sky in the same way as the sun passes through the twelve astrological signs. There were initially twenty-seven of these, later changed to twenty-eight. They are still used by Indian astrologers, who usually construct charts on a lunar rather than solar basis. The jewels described are gold, silver, beryl, crystal, ruby, sapphire or emerald and lastly, all kinds of gems (D II 171). It is all intended to be rather vague and mysterious.
9 I have followed the clever pun in the PTS translation for pesanakacora, which seems to combine a number of meanings well. The word means literally ‘messenger thief’.
10 The pacinalokadhatuto: ‘the world system facing the rising sun’. This could be a reference to the idea that there were ten world systems, one in each direction. The sun and the moon were supposed to hide behind Mount Meru when not visible.
11 Literally ‘unbeaten’ and so never washed.
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The story of five weapons
Pancavudha Jataka (55)
Vol. 1, 272–5
Martial imagery is sometimes used as the means of expressing qualities needed for a Buddhist monk and practitioner. In one sutta, during discussion with a king, the Buddha says that just as a king needs good warriors to fight on his behalf, so the Buddha needs good monks to support his order. 1 In another, the mind of the disciple is compared to a well-fortified citadel, with his knowledge of texts being his armoury of spears and swords and his energy or strength like a force of troops. 2 On the night of the enlightenment the Buddha-to-be describes the perfections themselves as his shield and his weapons. 3 In this story the vocabulary of warfare is also given a spiritual and moral application, though with a humorous twist: it shows that the Bodhisatta path needs a bravado that is much more than military or bodily prowess.
The heroic prince of the title is called Five Weapons and is given five weapons by his teacher in Taxila. The idea of weapons as a representation of wealth or power, particularly for a deity, was well known in ancient India and the sense of ‘attribute’ or ‘emblem’ accompanies the word avudha, employed in the tale. 4 Features such as the discus, the sword and the conch are part of the iconography of Visnu, for instance, and represent various aspects of his nature and abilities. There are commonly five of these, though the composition varies. For the hero in this story the physical attributes are bow and arrow, the sword, the bill-hook and the battle hammer. The fifth, though, is a little mysterious. It could be the boy’s five limbs, trained in martial arts. 5The boy himself claims he derives his strength from wisdom, like a diamond. There are five faculties said to be developed through meditation—faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom. The same faculties are also called powers in the list of the thirty-seven factors of awakening that lead to enlightenment. Apart
from effort, mentioned in the story from the present, no other mention is made of the faculties or powers. But the reference to the last in both lists, wisdom, is perhaps intended as an encouragement to bring them to mind in some way.
Whatever the nature of the fifth weapon, or indeed all five, clearly the number five is considered important in itself. Number symbolism is an under-researched area of Buddhist thought. The number five is often associated with life in the sense sphere and the conditions that govern it. It suggests the human body, in the five limbs, the five ‘heaps’ (khandhas) that make up any bodily form and the five senses. It features in a number of meditative lists, such as the faculties, the powers and the jhana factors. Annemarie Shimmel has noted the importance of the number five in many cultures of the world as suggesting protection, often with four outer elements linked by one underlying or hidden quality or strength. 6 If the diamond wisdom were the fifth weapon that would be the case here, with the fifth element being literally ‘inside’ the body and the other four outside it. Another interpretation of the five weapons is that they lie in keeping the five precepts, the undertakings not to kill, to steal, to indulge in sexual misconduct, to lie or to become intoxicated. When one considers what actually happens in the story it seems more likely that these, rather than wisdom, give the Bodhisatta the strength of heart to enter the forest and confront the yakkha.
The yakkha, who lives in a world governed by different kinds of ‘fives’, seems a monstrous personification of the ‘wrong’ way to live. He practises five wrong kinds of behaviour, which could be those described in another context as poverty through laziness, an evil reputation, shyness in company, anxiety at death and rebirth in an unhappy state. 7 It could simply mean here transgressions of each one of the five precepts. Certainly he is told that breaking the first of these five precepts, the undertaking not to kill other living beings, will ensure his continued existence in lower realms. Exhibiting great precision in the use of abhidhamma, the Bodhisatta outlines the dangers of a wrong way of life. In Buddhist cosmology these are the four bad destinies, or unfortunate rebirths, below the human realm, from which it is very difficult, though not impossible, to gain a better birth in a later life. There is also the addition of the most unhappy classes of humans, perhaps added to make another set of five for the yakkha to consider. Unskilful action (akusala kamma), that is accompanied by greed, hatred or delusion, is discussed in a highly technical way in the story here as the cause of rebirth in the descents. It is typical of the Jataka world view that, unlike the monster in many ancient stories, the yakkha is not just an obstacle to be overpowered but is treated by the Bodhisatta as another being, capable of listening to argument and finding enlightenment for himself.