{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/j2/j2057.htm","path":"bud/j2/j2057.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/j2/j2057.htm","text":"The Jataka, Vol. II, tr. by W.H.D. Rouse, [1895]\n\"O have you seen,\" etc.--This story the Master told, while dwelling at Jetavana, about imitating the Buddha.\nWhen the Elders had gone with their followers to visit Devadatta 1, the Master asked S\u0101riputta what Devadatta had done when he saw them. The reply was that he had imitated the Buddha. The Master rejoined, \"Not now only has Devadatta imitated me and thereby come to ruin; he did just the same before.\" Then, at the Elder's request, he told an old-world tale.\n_____________________________\n[149] Once upon a time, while Brahmadatta reigned as king in Benares, the Bodhisatta became a marsh crow, and dwelt by a certain pool. His name was V\u012braka, the Strong.\nThere arose a famine in K\u0101si. Men could not spare food for the crows, nor make offering to goblins and snakes. One by one the crows left the famine-stricken land, and betook them to the woods.\nA certain crow named Savi\u1e6d\u1e6dhaka, who lived at Benares, took with him his lady crow and went to the place where V\u012braka lived, making his abode beside the same pool.\nOne day, this crow was seeking food about the pool. He saw how V\u012braka went down into it, and made a meal off some fish; and afterwards came up out of the water again, and stood drying his feathers. \"Under the wing of that crow,\" thought he, \"plenty of fish are to be got. I will become his servant.\" So he drew near.\n\"What is it, Sir?\" asked V\u012braka.\n\"I want to be your servant, my lord!\" was the reply.\nV\u012braka agreed, and from that time the other served him. And from that time, V\u012braka used to eat enough fish to keep him alive, and the rest he gave to Savi\u1e6d\u1e6dhaka as soon as he had caught them; and when Savi\u1e6d\u1e6dhaka had eaten enough to keep him alive, he gave what was over to his wife.\nAfter a while pride came into his heart. \"This crow,\" said he, \"is black, and so am I: in eyes and beak and feet, too, there is no difference between us. I don't want his fish; I will catch my own!\" So he told V\u012braka that for the future he intended to go down to the water and catch fish himself. Then V\u012braka said, \"Good friend, you do not belong to a\ntribe of such crows as are born to go into water and catch fish. Don't destroy yourself!\nBut in spite of this attempt to dissuade him, Savi\u1e6d\u1e6dhaka did not take the warning to heart. Down he went to the pool, down into the water; but he could not make his way through the weeds and come out again--there he was, entangled in the weeds, with only the tip of his beak appearing above the water. So not being able to breathe he perished there beneath the water.\n[150] His mate noticed that he did not return, and went to V\u012braka to ask news of him. \"My lord,\" she asked, \"Savi\u1e6d\u1e6dhaka is not to be seen: where is he?\" And as she asked him this, she repeated the first stanza:\nWhen V\u012braka heard it, he replied, \"Yes, I know where he is gone,\" and recited the second stanza:--\nWhen the Lady-crow heard it, weeping, she returned to Benares.\nAfter this discourse was ended, the Master identified the Birth: \"Devadatta was then incarnate as Savi\u1e6d\u1e6dhaka, and I myself was V\u012braka.\"\n103:1 S\u0101riputta and Moggall\u0101na visited the arch-heretic to try if they could win back his followers to the Master. The story of their visit, and how it succeeded, is told in the Vinaya, Cullavagga, vii. 4 foll. (translated in S. B. E., Vinaya Texts, iii. 256). See also vol. i. no. 11.","title":"The Jataka, Vol. II: Book II. Dukanip\u0101ta: No. 204. V\u012braka-J\u0101taka","type":"page"}