{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/j4/j4018.htm","path":"bud/j4/j4018.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/j4/j4018.htm","text":"The Jataka, Vol. IV, tr. by W.H.D. Rouse, [1901]\n\"Black Ka\u1e47ha, rise,\" etc. This story the Master told in Jetavana about a son's death. The circumstances are like those in the Ma\u1e6d\u1e6dha-Ku\u1e47\u1e0dali Birth 2. Here again the Master asked the lay brother, \"Are you in grief, layman?\" He replied, \"Yes, Sir.\" \"Layman,\" said the Master, \"long ago wise men listened to the bidding of the wise, and did not grieve for the death of a son.\" And at his request, he told a story of the past.\nOnce upon a time, a king named Mah\u0101ka\u1e43sa reigned in Uttar\u0101patha, in the Ka\u1e43sa district, in the city of Asita\u00f1jan\u0101. He had two sons, Ka\u1e43sa and Upaka\u1e43sa, and one daughter named Devagabbh\u0101. On her birthday the brahmins who foretold the future said of her: \"A son born of this girl will one day destroy the country and the lineage of Ka\u1e43sa.\" The king was too fond of the girl to put her to death; but leaving her brothers to settle it, lived his days out, and then died. When he died Ka\u1e43sa became king, and Upaka\u1e43sa was viceroy. They thought that there would be an outcry were they to put their sister to death, so resolved to give her in marriage to none, but to keep her husbandless, and watch; and they built a single round-tower, for her to live in.\nNow she had a serving-woman named Nandagop\u0101, and the woman's husband, Andhakave\u1e47hu, was the servant who watched her. At that time a king named Mah\u0101s\u0101gara reigned in Upper Madhur\u0101, and he had two sons, S\u0101gara and Upas\u0101gara. At their father's death, S\u0101gara became king, and Upas\u0101gara was viceroy. This lad was Upaka\u1e43sa's friend, brought up together with him and trained by the same teacher. But he intrigued in his brother's zenana, and being detected, ran away to Upaka\u1e43sa in the Ka\u1e43sa estate. Upaka\u1e43sa introduced him to king Ka\u1e43sa, [80] and the king had him in great honour.\nUpas\u0101gara while waiting upon the king observed the tower where dwelt Devagabbh\u0101; and on asking who lived there, heard the story, and fell in love with the girl. And Devagabbh\u0101 one day saw him as he went with Upaka\u1e43sa to wait upon the king. She asked who that was; and being told by Nandagop\u0101 that it was Upas\u0101gara, son of the great king S\u0101gara, she too fell in love with him. Upas\u0101gara gave a present to Nandagop\u0101, saying, \"Sister, you can arrange a meeting for me with Devagabbh\u0101.\" \"Easy enough,\" quoth Nandagop\u0101, and told the girl about it. She being\nalready in love with him, agreed at once. One night Nandagop\u0101 arranged a tryst, and brought Upas\u0101gara up into the tower; and there he stayed with Devagabbh\u0101. And by their constant intercourse, Devagabbh\u0101 conceived. By and bye it became known that she was with child, and the brothers questioned Nandagop\u0101. She made them promise her pardon, and then told the ins and outs of the matter. When they heard the story, they thought, \"We cannot put our sister to death. If she bears a daughter, we will spare the babe also; if a son, we will kill him.\" And they gave Devagabbh\u0101 to Upas\u0101gara to wife.\nWhen her full time came to be delivered, she brought forth a daughter. The brothers on hearing this were delighted, and gave her the name of the Lady A\u00f1jan\u0101. And they allotted to them a village for their estate, named Gova\u1e0d\u1e0dham\u0101na. Upas\u0101gara took Devagabbh\u0101 and lived with her at the village of Gova\u1e0d\u1e0dham\u0101na.\nDevagabbh\u0101 was again with child, and that very day Nandagop\u0101 conceived also. When their time was come, they brought forth on the same day, Devagabbh\u0101 a son and Nandagop\u0101 a daughter. But Devagabbh\u0101, in fear that her son might be put to death, sent him secretly to Nandagop\u0101, and received Nandagop\u0101's daughter in return. They told the brothers of the birth. \"Son or daughter?\" they asked. [81] \"Daughter,\" was the reply. \"Then see that it is reared,\" said the brothers. In the same way Devagabbh\u0101 bore ten sons, and Nandagop\u0101 ten daughters. The sons lived with Nandagop\u0101 and the daughters with Devagabbh\u0101, and not a soul knew the secret.\nThe eldest son of Devagabbh\u0101 was named V\u0101su-deva, the second Baladeva, the third Canda-deva, the fourth Suriya-deva, the fifth Aggi-deva, the sixth Varu\u1e47a-deva, the seventh Ajjuna, the eighth Pajjuna, the ninth Ghata-pa\u1e47\u1e0dita, the tenth A\u1e41kura 1. They were well known as the sons of Andhakave\u1e47hu the servitor, the Ten Slave-Brethren.\nIn course of time they grew big, and being very strong, and withal fierce and ferocious, they went about plundering, they even went so far as to plunder a present being conveyed to the king. The people came crowding in the king's court yard, complaining, \"Andhakave\u1e47hu's sons, the Ten Brethren, are plundering the land!\" So the king summoned Andhakave\u1e47hu, and rebuked him for permitting his sons to plunder. In the same way complaint was made three or four times, and the king threatened him. He being in fear of his life craved the boon of safety from the king, and told the secret, that how these were no sons of his, but of\n[paragraph continues] Upas\u0101gara. The king was alarmed. \"How can we get hold of them?\" he asked his courtiers. They replied, \"Sire, they are wrestlers. Let us hold a wrestling match in the city, and when they enter the ring we will catch them and put them to death.\" So they sent for two wrestlers, C\u0101nura and Mu\u1e6d\u1e6dhika, and caused proclamation to be made throughout the city by beat of drum, \"that on the seventh day there would be a wrestling match.\"\nThe wrestling ring was prepared in front of the king's gate; there was an enclosure for the games, the ring was decked out gaily, the flags of victory were ready tied. The whole city was in a whirl; line over line rose the seats, tier above tier. C\u0101nura and Mu\u1e6d\u1e6dhika went down into the ring, and strutted about, jumping, shouting, clapping their hands. The Ten Brethren came too. On their way they plundered the washer men's street, and clad themselves in robes of bright colours, [82] and stealing perfume from the perfumers\u2019 shops, and wreaths of flowers from the florists, with their bodies all anointed, garlands upon their heads, earrings in their ears, they strutted into the ring, jumping, shouting, clapping their hands.\nAt the moment, C\u0101nura was walking about and clapping his hands. Baladeva, seeing him, thought, \"I won't touch yon fellow with my hand!\" so catching up a thick strap from the elephant stable, jumping and shouting he threw it round C\u0101nura's belly, and joining the two ends together, brought them tight, then lifting him up, swung him round over his head, and dashing him on the ground rolled him outside the arena. When C\u0101nura was dead, the king sent for Mu\u1e6d\u1e6dhika. Up got Mu\u1e6d\u1e6dhika, jumping, shouting, clapping his hands. Baladeva smote him, and crushed in his eyes; and as he cried out\u2014\"I'm no wrestler! I'm no wrestler!\" Baladeva tied his hands together, saying, \"Wrestler or no wrestler, it is all one to me,\" and dashing him down on the ground, killed him and threw him outside the arena.\nMu\u1e6d\u1e6dhika in his death-throes, uttered a prayer\u2014\"May I become a goblin, and devour him!\" And he became a goblin, in a forest called by the name of K\u0101\u1e37amattiya. The king said, \"Take away the Ten Slave-Brethren.\" At that moment, V\u0101sudeva threw a wheel 1, which lopped off the heads of the two brothers 2. The crowd, terrified, fell at his feet, and besought him to be their protector.\nThus the Ten Brethren, having slain their two uncles, assumed the sovereignty of the city of Asita\u00f1jan\u0101, and brought their parents thither.\nThey now set out, intending to conquer all India. In a while they arrived at the city of Ayojjh\u0101, the seat of king K\u0101\u1e37asena. This they encompassed about, and destroyed the jungle around it, breached the\nwall and took the king prisoner, and took the sovereignty of the place into their hands. Thence they proceeded to Dv\u0101ravat\u012b. Now this city had on one side the sea and on one the mountains. They say that the place was goblin-haunted. A goblin would be stationed on the watch, who seeing his enemies, in the shape of an ass would bray as the ass brays. [83] At once, by goblin magic the whole city used to rise in the air, and deposit itself on an island in the midst of the sea; when the foe was gone, it would come back and settle in its own place again. This time, as usual, no sooner the ass saw those Ten Brethren coming, than he brayed with the bray of an ass. Up rose the city in the air, and settled upon the island. No city could they see, and turned back; then back came the city to its own place again. They returned\u2014again the ass did as before. The sovereignty of the city of Dv\u0101ravat\u012b they could not take.\nSo they visited Ka\u1e47ha-d\u012bp\u0101yana 1, and said: \"Sir, we have failed to capture the kingdom of Dv\u0101ravat\u012b; tell us how to do it.\" He said: \"In a ditch, in such a place, is an ass walking about. He brays when he sees an enemy, and immediately the city rises in the air. You must clasp hold of his feet 2, and that is the way to accomplish your end.\" Then they took leave of the ascetic; and went all ten of then to the ass, and falling at his feet, said, \"Sir, we have no help but thee! When we come to take the city, do not bray!\" The ass replied, \"I cannot help braying. But if you come first, and four of you bring great iron ploughs, and at the four gates of the city dig great iron posts into the ground, and when the city begins to rise, if you will fix on the post a chain of iron fastened to the plough, the city will not be able to rise.\" They thanked him; and he did not utter a sound while they got ploughs, and fixed the posts in the ground at the four gates of the city, and stood waiting. Then the ass brayed, the city began to rise, but those who stood at the four gates with the four ploughs, having fixed to the posts iron chains which were fastened to the ploughs, the city could not rise. Thereupon the Ten Brethren entered the city, killed the king, and took his kingdom.\nThus they conquered all India, [84] and in three and sixty thousand cities they slew by the wheel all the kings of them, and lived at Dv\u0101ravat\u012b, dividing the kingdom into ten shares. But they had forgotten their sister, the Lady A\u00f1jan\u0101. So \"Let us make eleven shares of it,\" said they. But A\u1e41kura answered, \"Give her my share, and I will take to some business for a living; only you must remit my taxes each in your own country.\" They consented, and gave his share to his sister;\nand with her they dwelt in Dv\u0101ravat\u012b, nine kings, while A\u1e41kura embarked in trade.\nIn course of time, they were all increased with sons and with daughters; and after a long time had gone by, their parents died. At that period, they say that a man's life was twenty thousand years.\nThen died one clearly beloved son of the great King V\u0101sudeva. The king, half dead with grief, neglected everything, and lay lamenting, and clutching the frame of his bed. Then Ghatapa\u1e47\u1e0dita thought to himself, \"Except me, no one else is able to soothe my brother's grief; I will find some means of soothing his grief for him.\" So assuming the appearance of madness, he paced through the whole city, gazing up at the sky, and crying out, \"Give me a hare! Give me a hare!\" All the city was excited: \"Ghatapa\u1e47\u1e0dita has gone mad!\" they said. Just then a courtier named Rohi\u1e47eyya, went into the presence of King V\u0101sudeva, and opened a conversation with him by reciting the first stanza:\n[85] When the courtier had thus spoken, the Master perceiving that he had risen, in his Perfect Wisdom uttered the second stanza:\n He rose all anxious and distrest for Ghata's misery.\"\nUp rose the king, and quickly came down from his chamber; and proceeding to Ghatapa\u1e47\u1e0dita, he got fast hold of him with both hands; and speaking to him, uttered the third stanza:\n And cry, \"Hare, hare!\" Say, who is there has taken a hare from you?\"\nTo these words of the king, he only answered by repeating the same cry over and over again. But the king recited two more stanzas:\n They shall be brought, I'll have them caught; say, which do you decide?\"\nOn hearing the king's words, the wise man replied by repeating the sixth stanza:\n\"Undoubtedly my brother has gone mad,\" thought the king, when he heard this. In great grief, he repeated the seventh stanza:\n[86]\n And ask for what no man may pray, the moon's celestial hare.\"\nGhatapa\u1e47\u1e0dita, on hearing the king's answer, stood stock still, and said: \"My brother, you know that if a man prays for the hare in the moon, and cannot get it, he will die; then why do you mourn for your dead son?\"\n Why are you mourning still the son who died so long ago?\"\nThen he went on, standing there in the street\u2014\"And I, brother, pray only for what exists, but you are mourning for what does not exist.\" Then he instructed him by repeating two more stanzas:\n\"Nor mystic charm, nor magic roots, nor herbs, nor money spent,\n Can have that boon; then wherefore pray for what can never be? \n \n Can bring to life again that ghost whom, Kanha, you lament.\"\nThe King, on hearing this, answered, \"Your intent was good, dear one. You did it to take away my trouble.\" Then in praise of Ghatapa\u1e47\u1e0dita he repeated four stanzas:\n[87] \"Blazing was I, as when a man pours oil upon a fire\u00a02; \"Grief for my son, a cruel shaft was lodged within my heart; \"That dart extracted, free from pain, tranquil, and calm I keep;\n But how hath Ghatapa\u1e47\u1e0dita opened this day mine eyes! \n \n Thou didst bring water, and didst quench the pain of my desire.\n Thou hast consoled me for my grief, and taken out the dart.\n Hearing, O youth, thy words of truth, no more I grieve nor weep.\"\nAnd lastly:\n They free from pain, as Ghata here his eldest brother freed.\"\nThis is the stanza of Perfect Wisdom.\nIn this manner was V\u0101sudeva consoled by Prince Ghata.\nAfter the lapse of a long time, during which he ruled his kingdom, the sons of the ten brethren thought: \"They say that Ka\u1e47had\u012bp\u0101yana is\npossest of divine insight. Let us put him to the test.\" So they procured a young lad, and drest him up, and by binding a pillow about his belly, made it appear as though he were with child. Then they brought him into his presence, and asked him, \"When, Sir, will this woman be delivered?\" The ascetic perceived 1 that the time was come for the destruction of the ten royal brothers; then, looking 1 to see what the term of his own life should be, he perceived that he must die that very day. Then he said, \"Young sirs, what is this man to you?\" \"Answer us,\" they replied persistently. He answered, \"This man on the seventh day from now will bring forth a knot of acacia wood. With that he will destroy the line of V\u0101sudeva, even though ye should take the piece of wood and burn it, and cast the ashes into the river.\" \"Ah, false ascetic!\" said they, \"a man can never bring forth a child!\" and they did the rope and string business, and killed him at once. The kings sent for the young men, and asked them why they had killed the ascetic. [88] When they heard all, they were frightened. They set a guard upon the man; and when on the seventh day he voided from his belly a knot of acacia wood, they burnt it, and cast the ashes into the river. The ashes floated down the river, and stuck on one side by a postern gate; from thence sprung an eraka plant.\nOne day, the kings proposed that they should go and disport themselves in the water. So to this postern gate they came; and they caused a great pavilion to be made, and in that gorgeous pavilion they ate and drank. Then in sport they began to catch hold of hand and foot, and dividing into two parts, they became very quarrelsome. At last one of them, finding nothing better for a club, picked a leaf from the eraka plant, which even as he plucked it became a club of acacia wood in his hand. With this he beat many people. Then the others plucked also, and the things as they took them became clubs, and with them they cudgelled one another until they were killed. As these were destroying each other, four only\u2014V\u0101sudeva, Baladeva, the lady A\u00f1jan\u0101 their sister, and the chaplain\u2014mounted a chariot and fled away; the rest perished, every one.\nNow these four, fleeing away in the chariot, came to the forest of K\u0101\u1e37amattik\u0101. There Mu\u1e6d\u1e6dhika the Wrestler had been born, having become according to his prayer a goblin. When he perceived the coming of Baladeva, he created a village in that spot; and taking the semblance of a wrestler, he went jumping about, and shouting, \"Who's for a fight?\" snapping his fingers the while. Baladeva, as soon as he saw him, said, \"Brother, I'll try a fall with this fellow.\" V\u0101sudeva tried and tried his best to prevent him; but down he got from the chariot, and went up to him, snapping his fingers. The other just seized him in the\nhollow of his hand, and gobbled him up like a radish-bulb. V\u0101sudeva, perceiving that he was dead, went on all night long with his sister and the chaplain, and at sunrise arrived at a frontier village. He lay down in the shelter of a bush, and sent his sister and the chaplain into the village, with orders to cook some food and bring it to him. A huntsman (his name was Jar\u0101, or Old Age) noticed the bush shaking. \"A pig, sure enough,\" thought he; he threw a spear, and pierced his feet. \"Who has wounded me?\" cried out V\u0101sudeva. The huntsman, finding that he had wounded a man, set off running in terror. [89] The king, recovering his wits, got up, and called the huntsman\u2014\"Uncle, come here, don't be afraid!\" When he came\u2014\"Who are you?\" asked V\u0101sudeva. \"My name is Jar\u0101, my lord.\" \"Ah,\" thought the king, \"whom Old Age wounds will die, so the ancients used to say. Without doubt I must die to-day.\" Then he said, Fear not, Uncle; come, bind up my wound.\" The mouth of the wound bound up, the king let him go. Great pains came upon him; he could not eat the food that the others brought. Then addressing himself to the others, V\u0101sudeva said: \"This day I am to die. You are delicate creatures, and will never be able to learn anything else for a living; so learn this science from me.\" So saying, he taught them a science, and let them go; and then died immediately.\nThus excepting the lady A\u00f1jan\u0101, they perished every one, it is said.\nWhen the Master had ended this discourse, he said, \"Lay Brother, thus people have got free from grief for a son by attending to the words of wise men of old; do not you think about it.\" Then he declared the Truths (at the conclusion of the Truths the Lay Brother was established in the fruit of the First Path), and identified the Birth: \"At that time, \u0100nanda was Rohi\u1e47eyya, S\u0101riputta was V\u0101sudeva, the followers of the Buddha were the other persons, and I myself was Ghatapa\u1e47\u1e0dita.\"\n50:1 The prophecy, and the tower, and the result, will remind the reader of Danae.\n50:2 No. 449, above.\n51:1 Krishna, Bala-r\u0101ma (Krishna's brother), Moon, Sun, Fire, Varu\u1e47a the heaven-god, the tree Terminalia Arjuna, the Rain-cloud (? pajjunno, Skr. , while is a name of K\u0101ma), Ghee-sage (? or gha\u1e6da-p., an ascetic), Sprout. The story seems to contain a kernel of nature-myth.\n52:1 A kind of weapon.\n52:2 i.e. the king and his brother.\n53:1 The Sage already mentioned in No. 444 (see p. 18, above).\n53:2 i.e. beseech him.\n54:1 Lit. \"his heart and his right eye\" (Sch.): Cf. Sanskr. v\u0101yu-grasta \"mad.\"\n54:2 These lines have occurred already in No. 449.\n55:1 What we call the Man in the Moon is in India called the Hare in the Moon, cf. J\u0101taka, No. 316.\n55:2 These lines occur above, p. 39.\n56:1 i.e. by his miraculous vision.","title":"The Jataka, Vol. IV: No. 454.: Ghata-J\u0101taka.","type":"page"}