The Jatakas

by Sarah Shaw

  8. Do you not see, Goddess, the visible fruit of deeds?

  for others have sunk; I am crossing and I can see you near me.

  9. So I will struggle according to my ability and strength

  and go towards the shore of the ocean;

  I will do what is to be done by men.’

  [37] The goddess heard his brave speech and spoke a verse extolling him:

  10.‘You who go on in this measureless sea,

  endowed with strength and rightness, and are not worn down by the task:

  go to the place where your heart takes delight.’

  When she had said this, she asked, ‘Wise man, who has made such a great effort: where can I take you?’ He replied, ‘To the city of Mithila’. So she picked him up like a bundle of garlands and, taking him in both arms, got him to lie at her breast and sprang up into the air, carrying him as if he were her dear child. His body inflamed with salt spray, the Bodhisatta slept soundly for seven days, touched by the divine contact. Then she brought him to Mithila and laid him down on his right side on an auspicious stone 22 in a mango grove. There she left him under the protection of the goddesses of the garden and went back to her own home.

  Now Polajanaka had not had a son, but he did have just one daughter, a wise and accomplished girl called Princess Sivali. And they had asked him as he lay on his deathbed: ‘Great king, when you have gone to the state of being a god, to whom shall we give the throne?’ He replied, ‘Give it to one who is able to please my daughter, princess Sivali, or who can tell which is the head of the square bed, or who can string the bow that takes the strength of a thousand men or who can bring out the sixteen great treasures.’

  They said, ‘King: tell us a verse about the treasure.’ The king said:

  11. ‘At the rising of the sun there is treasure and at its setting too.

  Inside there is treasure and outside there is treasure;

  but there is also a treasure that is neither inside nor

  outside.

  12. [38] Climbing up there is a great treasure

  and there is also a treasure in coming down.

  At the four sal trees all around for a yojana there is treasure.

  13. At the tips of the teeth there is a great treasure, at the tips of the tail, and in the ‘kebuka’.

  There is a great treasure at the tips of the trees: sixteen are the great treasures.

  There is [that which takes] the strength of a thousand men 23 and a bed for the winning of Sivali.’

  He gave an utterance about other treasures as well as these. After the king’s death the ministers performed the funeral rites and on the seventh day they met for discussion. ‘The king has said that his kingdom should be given to the man able to please his daughter. Now who will be able to please her?’ They agreed to summon his favourite, the general of the army. He assented, and in order to gain the kingdom, came to the door of the palace and had his presence announced to the king’s daughter. She knew why he had come and thought to herself, ‘I wonder if he has the firmness of character to bear the royal parasol?’ So in order to test him she had him asked in. He heard her instruction and, anxious to please her, went with great haste up from the foot of the stairs and stood in her presence. In order to test him she said, ‘Race quickly up on the flat roof of the palace!’ Thinking that he would please the princess, he sprang forward. Then she said ‘Come here!’ and he immediately did so. Recognizing his absence of strength she said: ‘Massage my feet!’ He, in order to please her, sat down and massaged her feet. At this she struck him on the chest with her foot and made him fall over so that he was lying prone on his back. She then gave a sign to her maids, ‘Beat this blind and stupid fellow, who is devoid of strength: then grab him by the throat and throw him out.’ They then did this. He was asked by the ministers, ‘How did it go, general?’ He said, ‘Just don’t talk about it. That woman is not human.’

  Then the keeper of the stores came, and she shamed him in the same way. Then too the treasurer, the guardian of the royal parasol and the swordsman: she shamed them all as well. Then the people at large discussed it, ‘No one can please the king’s daughter; give her to someone who can prepare the bow that needs the strength of a thousand.’ But there was no one who could do this. So then they said, ‘Give her to the one who knows the head of the square bed’. But no one could determine it. So then they said, ‘Give her to the one able to find the sixteen treasures.’ But no one could find them. [39] Then they deliberated, ‘A kingdom is not protected without a king: what is to be done?’

  Then the king’s priest said, ‘Do not worry: we will send out the wonderful royal carriage. 24 A king that is picked up by the royal carriage is able to rule the whole of Jambudipa.’ They agreed and had the city decorated, yoked four horses the colour of white lotuses onto the auspicious carriage and spread a coverlet over them. They arranged there the five emblems of royalty 25 and surrounded the carriage with a fourfold army. 26 Now musical instruments are sounded in front of a chariot with a driver but behind for a chariot without one: so for this case the royal priest said, ‘Sound musical instruments behind!’ He sprinkled the strap of the chariot and the goad from a golden water jar and said, ‘Go where there is someone of sufficient merit to rule the kingdom.’

  The chariot encircled the royal palace and then went up the Kettledrum street. The general and all the others thought, ‘The wonderful chariot is coming up to my house!’ But it went past all their houses and encircled the city until it left by the eastern gate. It then went on towards the park. When they saw it proceeding so quickly they cried out, ‘Stop it!’ But the priest said, ‘Do not try and stop it; let it go a hundred yojanas if it wants.’ The chariot entered the park and circled around the auspicious stone and stopped as though ready for someone to get onto it. The priest saw the Great Being lying there and spoke to his ministers, ‘Sirs, someone can be seen lying down on the stone. We do not know if he has the strength of character suitable for the white parasol or not. If he is worthy he will not look at us; but if he is an unlucky person he will get up in fright and look at us, trembling. Quickly: sound all the musical instruments.’ So they immediately played all the kinds of musical instruments and the roar was like that of the sea. The Great Being woke up at the noise, uncovered his head and looked out at the mass of people and thought that it must be that they had come for him with the white parasol. So he covered his head again and turned over and lay on his left side. The priest uncovered his feet and inspected the marks that were there: 27‘Let it be him: this man could rule four continents, let alone one.’ So he ordered them to sound the musical instruments again.

  [40] The Bodhisatta uncovered his face and turned around so that he lay on his right side and looked at the mass of his people. The priest comforted the people and then made an anjali gesture of respect and, kneeling face down, said, ‘Rise, sire, the kingdom has come to you.’ ‘Where has the king gone?’ asked the Bodhisatta. ‘He is dead.’ ‘Is there any son or a brother?’ ‘There is not, sire.’ ‘Very well, I will take up the kingdom.’ Rising up from the stone he sat down cross-legged and was anointed there and then. He was named King Mahajanaka. He then mounted up into the chariot and, having entered the city in royal glory, went to the palace, arranged the general and the others in their positions and then went up to the roof of the palace.

  Now, the princess, wishing to test him on first impressions, gave some instructions to one of her attendants: ‘Go to the king, approach him and then say that Princess Sivali summons him, and that he should come as quickly as possible.’ The wise king appeared not to hear her words and commented on the appearance of the palace: ‘Ah! Very beautiful.’ So the attendant informed the princess that he had been unable to get the king to listen to him. ‘Lady, the king heard your message but just praised the palace and did not count your words even as straw.’ She thought to herself, ‘This must be someone of great character.’ 28 So she ordered him back a second and a third time. But the king just pleased him
self and went up to the palace at his normal pace, stretching like a lion.

  Because of the power of his self-confidence the princess could not keep steady as he approached and she gave him her hand to lean on. He took her by the hand and sat down on the royal couch under the raised white parasol. He asked his ministers, ‘Sirs, did the king leave any instructions to you when he died?’ ‘Yes sire,’ they said. ‘So tell me,’ he said. ‘He declared that Princess Sivali should be given to the person who could please her.’ ‘Princess Sivali gave me her hand to lean on when I came near; that means that I please her. Tell me another of the instructions.’ ‘Sire, the instructions was to give the kingdom to the one who can determine the head of the square bed.’ The king thought to himself, ‘This is difficult to work out. But by a trick it should be possible.’ So he took a golden hairpin from his head and put it into the princess’s hand, saying to her, ‘Put this where it belongs.’ [41] She took it and placed it at the head of the bed—and just as the proverb says, she gave him the sword. 29For then, through this sign, he knew which was the head. As if he had not heard their discussion about this, he asked what people were saying, and when he had heard, he assured them that it was not wonderful, ‘For this is the head of the bed.’ He then asked for another instruction. ‘The king ordered that the kingdom should be given to the one who can string a bow needing the strength of a thousand men.’ ‘Bring it here,’ he said. He ordered them to bring the bow and strung it while sitting on the couch, as if it were a woman’s bow for carding cotton. ‘Tell me another instruction,’ he said. ‘Sire, the king said the kingdom should be given to the one who can find the sixteen treasures.’ ‘And what utterances were given about them?’ 30he asked. They repeated the verses that have been given earlier, that start with the rising of the sun. When they told him the meaning was as clear as the moon on the surface of the sky. And then he said, ‘There is certainly not time today: we’ll get the treasure tomorrow.’

  The next day he called together the ministers and asked them. ‘Did your king feed paccekabuddhas?’ 31 They said that he did. He thought to himself, ‘The sun that was spoken of is not this sun; paccekabuddhas are called rising suns because they are like them. The treasures must be at the place where he met them.’ Then the king said, ‘When the paccekabuddhas came, where did he go to meet them?’ They told him that it was at a particular place. So he ordered them to dig at the spot where they ate and bring out the treasure: this they did. He then asked, ‘When he followed them and it was time to go where did he stand before he left?’ They specified a spot and again he ordered them to dig there and they found some treasure. All the people there sent out a thousand shouts, for at the instruction about the sunrise they had been wandering around digging where the sunrise was; at sunset they had been wandering around where the sun went down. ‘But this is the wealth and the wonderful thing is right here.’ They gave vent to their joy and happiness. For the ‘treasure within’ he got them to look at the threshold stone within the main gate of the palace. For the ‘treasure outside’ he got them to look at the threshold stone outside. And for the treasure ‘neither inside nor outside’ he got them to look underneath the threshold. [42] For the ‘alighting’ he got them to look at the place where they positioned the golden ladder at the time for mounting the state elephant. For ‘the dismounting’ he had them look at the spot where they dismounted from the elephant’s shoulders: ‘the four great sals’ were the four great feet, made of sal wood, at the foot of the platform where they paid homage. He got them to dig treasure pots ‘all around for a yojana’: now a yojana is the length of a chariot, 32 so he had them bring out treasure pots from around the area where they paid respects. ‘A great treasure at the tips of the teeth’: at the place where the state elephant stood he had them bring out two treasures from the place which faced his two tusks. ‘At the ends of the tail’: for this he got them to dig up at the place where a state horse stood, at the place facing his tail. ‘In the kebuka’: this is a name for water, so he had the water of the royal lake drained where a treasure was revealed. For ‘the great treasure at the end of the trees’ he got them to find treasure pots in the park at the circle where the great sal tree left a shadow at midday. When he had got them to find sixteen treasures, he asked if there were any other instructions—and they said there were not. The general populace were delighted and the king announced, ‘I will throw this wealth into the mouth of generosity!’ So in the middle of the city and at the four gates he had five halls for giving built and arranged a great act of giving. And then he called for his mother and the brahmin from the city of Campa and accorded the highest honour to them.

  In the youthful days of his reign the son of King Aritthajanaka, King Mahajanaka, ruled over the entire kingdom of Videha. The whole city was agog to have a look at him and said, ‘The king is said to be wise: let’s go and see him.’ They came from here and there with many presents and arranged a big festival in the city. They covered the palace with elephant rugs and suchlike, 33 arranged perfumes, wreaths and garlands, and soon made a dark cloud of cooked grain, flowers, perfumes and incense. They prepared all kinds of food and drink. Then, in order to make offerings to the king, they brought [43] different varieties of foods such as soft and hard foods and drinks and fruits in bowls of silver and gold and stood surrounding him on all sides. The circle of king’s ministers sat on one side, the group of brahmins on another, on another such people as wealthy merchants, and on another the most beautiful of the dancing girls. Brahmin chanters of blessings, who sang auspiciously and were skilled in songs for festivals, sang beautiful songs and suchlike and played all kinds of instruments. The king’s palace resounded with one roar, like the depths of the Yugandhara ocean, and everywhere one looked the palace trembled. The Great Being sat on the royal throne beneath the white parasol and, regarding the great splendour like the glory of Sakka, remembered his own great struggle in the ocean, and thought, ‘Effort is the most suitable thing to be cultivated. If I had not shown such effort in the ocean I would not have acquired this glory.’ And joy rose up in him at the recollection of that effort, and with a surge of joy he made this inspired utterance:

  14. ‘The wise man should take hope and should not become discouraged.

  I look at myself; for what I wished for has come to be.

  15. The wise man should take hope and should not become discouraged.

  I see my own self, who was brought out of the water to dry land.

  16. A wise man should work on and not become discouraged.

  I look at myself; for what I wished for has come to be.

  17. A wise man should work on and not become discouraged.

  I look at myself, who was brought out of the water to dry land.

  18. The man who possesses wisdom, even though overcome with suffering, should not destroy hope on his way to happiness.

  There are many kinds of contacts, both beneficial and harmful: those which are not reflected upon lead towards death. 34

  19. That which was not even thought of has come into being; that which has been thought of will be destroyed.

  There is no possession consisting of pure thought, for man or woman.’

  [44] After that he ruled the kingdom and was unswerving in the ten royal qualities, 35 and attended upon the paccekabuddhas. After some time Queen Sivali gave birth to a son endowed with fortunate and auspicious marks, and they gave him the name Prince Dighavu, or Longlife. When he came of age the king gave him the viceroyalty. Now, one day the gardener brought the king various kinds of fruits and flowers. When he saw them he was delighted, paid the gardener the greatest respects and told him to have the garden decorated and that he would come and see it. The gardener agreed, did as he was asked and had the king notified. The king arrived at the gate of the garden, seated on the shoulders of a fine elephant and surrounded by a large retinue. Now there were two mango trees there, of a lustrous dark colour. One of these did not have any fruit and the other had fruit that was extremely sweet. Becau
se the king had not tasted the mango fruit no one had ventured to pick them. The king, riding by on his fine elephant, picked one fruit from it and ate it, and at the moment it touched the tip of his tongue a taste that seemed divine arose. He thought to himself, ‘I’ll eat a good amount when I come back.’ But when the people realized that the king had eaten the first fruit, from the viceroy right down to the mahouts they picked and ate the fruit, and those who did not get fruit broke the branches with sticks and left the tree plucked bare. So the tree stood, broken and split up, while the other remained with its existing beauty, like a mountain of jewels.

  When the king left the garden he saw it and asked his ministers what had happened. ‘When everyone saw that the king had eaten the first fruit they plundered it, sire,’ came the reply. ‘But the other has lost no leaf or colour at all,’ he said. ‘It did not lose anything because it did not have any fruit,’ they replied. At this the king received a sense of urgency. ‘This tree stands [45] with its dark lustre because it has no fruit; the other is broken and split because it had fruit. The kingdom is just like a fruitful tree; the life of an ascetic is just like the tree with no fruit. It is the one who has property who has fear, not the one without. I will become like the tree without fruit, not like a fruitful one: so I shall renounce and abandon my worldly success and become a recluse.’ 36 Making his mind firm he made a resolve and entered the city, stood at the gate of the palace and called for the general of the army. ‘Great general, from this day onwards do not let anyone see me except for the servant who brings food and fetches water for my mouth and a toothbrush. Gather my oldest and most eminent ministers and take charge of the kingdom. From now on I am going to live the life of an ascetic on the roof of the palace.’ After giving these instructions he duly went up to the roof of the palace and lived an ascetic life alone. As time went by the people met together in the palace courtyard but did not catch sight of the Great Being. ‘This is not like our king of old,’ they said, and uttered these two verses: