{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/j4/j4070.htm","path":"bud/j4/j4070.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/j4/j4070.htm","text":"The Jataka, Vol. IV, tr. by W.H.D. Rouse, [1901]\n\"Who is it like,\" etc.\u2014This story the Master told while dwelling in Jetavana, about the fast-day vows. The Master said, \"It is well done, lay Brethren, that ye have taken upon you the fast-day vows. Wise men of old likewise even renounced the glory of being a Serpent King, and lived under these vows.\" Then at their request he told a story of the past.\nOnce upon a time, when A\u1e45ga was king in the kingdom of A\u1e45ga, and Magadha king in Magadha, betwixt the realms of A\u1e45ga and Magadha was a river Camp\u0101, where was a place where serpents dwelt, and here a serpent king Campeyya held sway.\nSometimes King Magadha took the A\u1e45ga country, sometimes King A\u1e45ga took Magadha. One day King Magadha, having fought a battle with A\u1e45ga and got the worse, mounted his charger and took to flight, pursued by A\u1e45ga's warriors. When he came to the Camp\u0101 river, it was in flood. But he said, \"Better death drowned in this river than death at the hands of my enemies!\" Then man and horse plunged in the stream.\nNow the serpent king Campeyya had built him under the water a jewelled pavilion; and there at this moment in the midst of his court he was carousing deep. But the king and his horse plunged into the river just in front of the Serpent King. The serpent, beholding this magnificent monarch, conceived a liking for him. Rising from his seat, he made the king sit down upon his own throne, bidding him fear nought, and asked why he came plunging into the water. The king told him all as it was. Then said the serpent, \"Fear nothing, O great king! I will make you master of both kingdoms.\" Thus he consoled him, and for seven days he showed him high honour. On the seventh day he with King Magadha left the serpent palace. Then by the Serpent King's power, King Magadha got possession of King A\u1e45ga, and slew him, and ruled over the two realms together. From that time there was firm affiance between him and the Serpent King. [455] Year by year he caused a jewelled pavilion to be built on the bank of the river Camp\u0101, and offered tribute to the Serpent King at great cost: the Serpent King would come forth with a large retinue from his palace to receive the tribute, and all the people beheld the glory of the Serpent King.\nAt that time the Bodhisatta was one of a poor family, and he used to go down with the king's people to the riverside. There seeing the Serpent King's glory, he became covetous of it; and in this desire 1 he died, and seven days after the death of the serpent king Campeyya, the Bodhisatta, having given alms and lived a virtuous life, came into being in his palace on his royal couch: his body was like a great festoon of jessamine. When he saw it, he was filled with remorse. \"As a consequence of my good deeds,\" quoth he, \"I have power laid up in the six chief worlds of sense 2, as corn is laid up in a granary. But see, here am I born in this reptile shape; what care I for life!\" And so he had thoughts of putting an end to himself. But a young female serpent, named Suman\u0101, seeing him, gave the lead to the rest, \"This must be Sakka, mighty in power, born here to us!\" Then they all came and made offering to him, with all manner of musical instruments in their hands. That serpent's palace of his became as it were the palace of Sakka, the thought of death left him: he put off his serpent shape, and sat on the couch in magnificence of dress and adornment. From that time great was his glory, and he ruled over the serpents. Another time again he repented, thinking, \"What care I for this reptile shape? I will live under the fasting vows, and from this place I will shake myself free, amongst men I will go, and learn the Truths, and I will make an end of pain.\" But afterwards he still remained in that same palace, fulfilling the fasting vows, and when the young female serpents came about him all gaily adorned, he generally violated his rule of virtue. After that he went forth from the palace into the park, but they followed him thither, and his vow was broken as before. Then he thought: \"I must leave this palace, and go into the world of men, and there must I live under the fasting vows.\" [456] So then on the fast-days he went forth from the palace, and lay on the top of an antheap by the high road, not far from a frontier village. Said he, \"Those who desire my skin or any part of me, let them take it; or if any would have me a dancing snake, let them make me so.\" Thus did he yield his body as a gift, and contracting his hood he lay there observing the fast-day vows.\nThose who went to and fro on the highway espying him, did him worship with scents and perfumes. And the dwellers in that frontier village, holding him to be a serpent king of great power, set up a pavilion over him, spread sand before it, did worship with perfumes and scented things. Now people began to crave sons by his aid, having faith in the Great Being and doing him worship. The Great Being kept there the fasting vows on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the half-moon, lying upon the antheap; and on the first day of the lunar half he would return to his palace; and as he thus fulfilled his vows, time went by.\nOne day his consort Suman\u0101 spoke to him thus: \"My lord, you are wont to go among men to keep your fast-vows. The world of men is dangerous, full of fear. Suppose some danger should come upon you, tell me now by what sign I shall learn of it.\" Then the Great Being led her to the side of a lucky pond, and said, \"If any one strike me or do me hurt, the water in this pond will become turbid. If a roc bird carry me off, the water will disappear. If a snake-charmer seize me, the water will turn to the colour of blood.\" These three signs explained to her, he went forth from his palace to keep the fast of the fourteenth day, went and lay down on the antheap, illuminating the antheap with the sheen of his body. White was his body as a coil of pure silver, like a ball of red wool was his head: now in this Birth the Bodhisatta's body was thick as a plough-head, in the Bh\u016bridatta Birth 1 thick as a thigh, in the Sa\u1e45khap\u0101la Birth 2 as big round as a trough-canoe with an outrigger.\nIn those days there was a young brahmin of Benares come to Takkasil\u0101 to study at the feet of a world-renowned teacher, from whom [457] he had learned the charm which commands all things of sense. Going home along that road, what should he see but the Great Being.\"This snake I will catch,\" thinks he, \"and I will travel through town and village and royal city, making him dance and amassing great profits.\" Then he procured magical herbs, and repeating the magic charm he approached the snake. No sooner he heard the sound of this charm, than the Great Being felt his ears as it were pierced by burning splinters, his head was as though broken by the blow of a sword. \"What have we here!\" thought he; putting forth his head from the hood, he beheld the snake-charmer. Then he thought, \"My poison is powerful, and if I am angry and send forth the breath of my nostrils 3 his body will be shattered and scattered like a fist-full of chaff; then my virtue will be broken. I will not look upon him. \"Closing his eyes he drew his head within the hood. The brahmin snake-charmer ate a herb, repeated his charm, spat upon him: by virtue of herb and charm, wherever the spittle touched him, blains arose. Then the man seized him by the tail, dragged him, laid him out at full length: with a goat's-foot staff he squeezed him till he was weak, then catching tight hold on his head, crushed him hard. The Great Being opened his mouth wide; the man dropt spittle in it, and by the herb and charm broke his teeth; the mouth was full of blood. But the Great Being so feared lest he break his virtue, that he bore all this torment and never so much as opened an eye to glance at him. Then the man said, \"I'll weaken this royal snake!\" From tail to head he squeezed the snake's body as though he would crush his very bones to powder. Then he wrapt him in\nwhat they call the cloth-wrap, gave him what they call the rope-rubbing, caught him by the tail and gave him the cotton blow, as they call it 1. The Great Being's body was all smeared with blood, and he was in great pain. Seeing that the serpent was now weak, [458] the man made an osier basket in which he laid the snake. Then he carried him to the village, and made him perform to the crowd. Black or blue or what not, round figure and square figure, little or large\u2014whatever the brahmin desires, that the Great Being will do, dancing, spreading his hood as if by hundreds or by thousands 2. The people were so pleased that they gave much money: in one day he would take a thousand rupees, and things worth another thousand. At the first the man had intended to let him go free when he should gain a thousand pieces of money; but when he got it, he thought, \"In a small frontier village I have gained all this: from kings and courtiers how much wealth may I look to win!\" So he bought a cart and a pleasure-car, and in the cart loaded his goods, while he sat in the carriage. Thus with an attendant throng he traversed town and village, making the Great Being perform, and went on with the intent to show him off before King Uggasena in Benares; and then he would let him go.\nHe used to kill frogs and give them to the royal snake. But the snake each time refused to eat, that none might be killed for his sake. Then the man gave him honey and fried corn. But the Great Being refused to eat these also; for he thought, \"If I take food, I shall be in this basket till I die.\"\nIn a month's time the brahmin was come to Benares. There he got much money by making the snake perform in the villages beyond the gates. The king also sent for him, and commanded a performance: the man promised this for the morrow, which was the last day of the half-month. Then the king sent a drum beating about the city, with proclamation, that on the morrow a royal snake would dance in the palace court; let the people then gather to see it in their multitudes. Next day the courtyard of the palace was adorned, and the brahmin summoned. He brought in the Great Being in a jewelled basket on a gay rug, which he set down, and himself took a seat. \"The king came down from the upper storey, and sat on his royal seat in the midst of a great concourse of people. The brahmin took out the Great Being, and made him dance. The people could not keep still: thousands of kerchiefs waved in the air; a shower of jewels in all seven kinds fell about the Bodhisatta.\nIt was now the full month since the Serpent was caught; and for all that time he had taken no food. [459] Now Suman\u0101 began to think\u2014\n[paragraph continues] \"My dear husband tarries long. It is now a month since he has not returned; what can the matter be?\" So she went and looked at the pond: lo, the water was red as blood! Then she knew that he must have been caught by a snake-charmer. Forth from the palace she came, and to the antheap; she saw the place where he had been caught, and the place where he had been tormented, and she wept. Then she went to the frontier village, and enquired; and learning all the fact, she went on to Benares, and in the midst of the people, above the palace court in the air she stood now lamenting. The Great Being as he danced looked up in the air, and saw. her, and being ashamed crept into his basket, and there he lay. When he crept into the basket, the king cried out, \"What is the matter now?\" Looking this way and that way, he saw her poised in the air, and recited the first stanza:\n Goddess or Titaness? methinks no human thing you are.\"\nTheir conversation is given in the stanzas following:\n\"Full of wrath and rage you show, \"Crawling serpent, fierce as flame! How could such a starveling wight [460] \"Such his might, that e\u2019en this town\n A female of the serpent kind, come for a certain thing.\" \n \n From your eyes the teardrops flow:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Say what wrong or what desire\n Brings you, lady? I would know.\"\n So they called him: one there came,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Seized him for his profit, sire:\n Freedom for my lord I claim!\"\n Catch a creature full of might?\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Daughter of the serpents, say,\n How to discern the snake aright?\"\n He could burn to cinders down.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But he loves the holy way,\n And seeks austerity's renown.\"\nThen the king asked how the man had caught him. She replied in the following stanza:\nAfter these words she added yet these other two stanzas, begging his release:\n Beneath the waters counted him their refuge and their king.\n Buy the Serpent liberty,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With gold, a hundred kine, a village:\n That will merit win for thee.\"\n[461] Then the king recited three stanzas:\n\"A jewelled earring give I thee, a hundred drachms of gold, \"A bull, a hundred kine, two wives of equal birth with thee:\n I buy the Serpent liberty\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With gold, a hundred kine, a village,\n That will merit win for me.\" \n \n A lovely throne like flower of flax with cushions laid fourfold!\u00a01\n Release the holy Snake: the deed will meritorious be.\"\nTo this the hunter made reply:\n But let the Serpent now go free.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Thus I now release the Serpent:\n The deed will meritorious be.\"\nAfter this speech he took the Great Being out of his basket. The Serpent King came forth and crept into a flower, where he put off his shape and reappeared in the form of a young man magnificently arrayed: there he stood, as though he had cleft the earth and come through. And down from the sky came Suman\u0101, and stood beside him. The Serpent King stood reverently joining his hands in respect to the king.\n[462] To make all clear, the Master recited two stanzas:\n\"Superhuman beings may\n \"O King of K\u0101si, fostering lord, all honour now to thee!\n I do thee reverence, ere I go again my home to see.\" \n \n Hardly win belief, they say.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If you speak the truth, O Serpent,\n Where's your palace? Show the way.\"\nBut the Great Being, to make him believe, swore an oath as follows in these two stanzas:\n\"Split the sky, the sea run dry,\n Moon and sun fall from the sky,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Flow upstream the running rivers,\n I, O King! could never lie. \n \n Bounteous mother earth awry\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Crumpling\u00a02 roll, uproot Mount Meru,\n Yet, O King, I could not lie!\"\nBut notwithstanding this assurance, he still disbelieved the Great Being, and said\u2014\n Hardly win belief, they say.\n [463]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If you speak the truth, O Serpent!\n Where's your palace? Show the way.\"\nAgain he repeated the same stanza, adding, \"You must be grateful for the good deeds wrought by me: whether I should believe you to be right or not, however, that is for me to decide.\" This he made clear in the next stanza:\n Quick in quarrel, shining bright,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You are freed by me from prison:\n Then is gratitude my right.\"\nThe Great Being made oath thus to win his belief:\n Happiness should never learn:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He should die in basket-prison,\n He in horrid hell should burn!\"\nNow the king believed him, and thanked him thus:\nThe Great Being too on his part said another stanza meaning to thank the king:\n To an only well-loved son,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You are kind to all the serpents:\n We will serve you, every one.\"\n[464] Now the king eager to visit the serpent's world, gave command that his army should be made ready to go in the following stanza:\n Trained Cambodian mules at hand,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Elephants in golden trappings:\n We will visit serpent-land!\"\nThe next is a stanza of the Perfect Wisdom:\n Conch and cymbal sounds and thrums,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Glorious mid a host of women\n See King Uggasena comes.\"\nAt the moment he left the city, the Great Being by his power made visible in the serpent world an enclosing wall of seven precious things, and gate-towers, and all the road of approach to the abode of the serpents he made to be gloriously adorned. By this road the king with his following entered the palace, and saw a delightful spot with mansions in it.\nExplaining this, the Master said:\n\"So then the King did enter in Campeyya's halls divine, \"Into Campeyya's halls divine the King his entrance made: \"Within Campeyya's palace once the King his step advanced, [465] \"He is shown a golden seat\n Fair flowers of coral\u00a01 strewn around, gold towers on every hand. \n \n Which like the brazen thunderbolt\u00a02 or ruddy sun did shine.\n A thousand perfumes scent the air, a thousand trees give shade.\n Celestial harps made melody, fair serpent-maidens danced.\"\n Cushioned and with sandal sweet,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Where the bevy of fair maidens\n Tread the halls with thronging feet.\"\nNo sooner was he there seated, than they set before him food divine of choice flavour, and they gave it also to the sixteen thousand women and to the rest of the company. For seven days he with his retinue partook of the divine food and drink, and enjoyed all manner of pleasure. Sitting in his fair seat he praised the glory of the Great Being. \"O King of the serpents,\" said he, \"why did you leave all this magnificence, to lie on an ant-heap, in the world of men, and to keep the fast-day vows?\" The other told him.\nTo explain this, the Master said:\n\"Fair and fine these damsels stand,\n To Campeyya then he said:\n \"Glorious mansions these of thine!\n Ruddy like the sun they shine.\n Such on earth are none to see:\n Why wouldst thou a hermit be? \n \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Who with taper-fingers hold\n Drink in either red-stained hand,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Breast and body girt with gold.\n Such on earth are none to see:\n Why wouldst thou a hermit be?\n[466] \"Heron, peacock, heavenly geese, \"'Mango, sal, and tilak grown, \"See the lakes! and wafted o\u2019er \"'Not for life or sons or pelf\n Each with well-built landing-stair,\n Such on earth are none to see:\n Why wouldst thou a hermit be? \n \n Charms of cuckoo like to these,\n Such on earth are none to see:\n Why wouldst thou a hermit be?\n Cassia\u00a01, trumpet-flower\u00a02 full-blown,\n Such on earth are none to see:\n Why wouldst thou a hermit be?\n Scents divine on every shore:\n Such on earth are none to see:\n Why wouldst thou a hermit be?\"\n Do I wrestle with myself;\n \u2019Tis my craving, if I can,\n To be born again as Man.\"\nTo this answer the king replied:\n\"Great in might, in power divine,\n Broad-shouldered, shaven head, and beard,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Like an angel-King addressing\n All the world, with sandal smeared. \n \n Lord of all desires, incline,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Serpent-King, to rede my question\u2014\n How our world surpasses thine?\"\n[467] This was answered by the Serpent-King as follows:\n One is in the world of men,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Only there: once man, I'll never\n See nor birth nor death again.\"\nThe, king listened, and thus replied:\nTo him the Serpent-King said:\n In whom deep wisdom and high thoughts arise.\n When me and all these maids thou dost behold,\n Then do thou virtuous actions manifold.\"\nAfter this speech, Uggasena wished to go, and he took leave, saying, \"Serpent King, I have stayed long here, and I must go.\" The Great Being pointed to his treasure, and offered him whatever he wished to take, saying this,\n[468] \"Pearls, five thousand loads, I ween, \"Such a mansion as I tell\n Tree-high silver-heaps, behold!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Take and make you walls of silver,\n Take and houses make of gold. \n \n Coral blushing in between,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Take and spread them in thy palace\n Till nor earth nor dirt be seen.\n Build, and there, O monarch! dwell:\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rich will be Benares city:\n Rule it wisely, rule it well.\"\nThe king agreed to this suggestion. Then the Great Being sent proclamation about the city by beat of drum: \"Let all the attendants of the king take what they will of my wealth, gold and fine gold!\" And he sent the treasure to the king loaded in several hundred carts. After this the king left the serpent world with great pomp, and returned to Benares. From that time, they say, the ground was all golden throughout India.\nThis discourse ended, the Master said, \"Thus wise men of old left the glories of the serpent world, to keep the fast-day vows.\" Then he identified the Birth: \"At that time, Devadatta was the snake-charmer, R\u0101hula's mother was Suman\u0101, Sariputta was Uggasena, and I was myself Campezya King of the Snakes.\"\n282:1 Reading with two MS., patthayam\u0101no.\n282:2 The six devalok\u0101.\n283:1 No. 543 (vi. 157 Pali).\n283:2 No. 524 (v. 161 Pali).\n283:3 Reputed to be poisonous. Compare ii. 55 and 206 of this translation.\n284:1 These appear to be technical terms.\n284:2 That is, by his swift motion giving the appearance of thousands of hoods.\n285:1 Fourteenth and fifteenth are named.\n286:1 This couplet, and half the next, occur above, p. 422.\n286:2 Reading sa\u1e41va\u1e6d\u1e6daye, as Fausball suggests.\n287:1 \"The serpent tribe\" is the literal translation.\n288:1 See Schol. p. 142.\n288:2 Bronze thunderbolts, shaped somewhat like those which Zeus grasps in Greek vase paintings, are still used in North India as charms.\n289:1 Cassia Fistula.\n289:2 Bignonia Suaveolens.\n289:3 See above, p. 280; and iii. 306 (translation, p. 190).","title":"The Jataka, Vol. IV: No. 506.: Campeyya-J\u0101taka.","type":"page"}