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J 412
{Sutta: J iii 399|J 412|J 412} {Vaṇṇanā: atta. J 412|atta. J 412}
412
Kotisimbali-Jataka (Koṭasimbalijātakaṃ)
translated form Pali into English by
H.T. Francis and R.A. Neil
edited by
E. B. Cowell
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Kotisimbali-Jataka.

412. KOṬISIMBALI-JĀTAKA. [148]

"I bore with me," etc.

The Master told this tale while dwelling in Jetavana, concerning rebuke of sin. The incident leading to the tale will appear in the Paññā [149] Birth. On this occasion the Master, perceiving that five hundred Brethren were overcome by thoughts of desire in the House of the Golden Pavement,

°° gathered the assembly and said, "Brethren, it is right to distrust where distrust is proper; sins surround a man as banyans and such plants grow up around a tree: in this way of old a spirit dwelling in the top of a cotton-tree saw a bird voiding the banyan seeds it had eaten among the branches of the cotton-tree, and became terrified lest her abode should thereby come to destruction:" and so he told a tale of old.

Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was a tree-spirit dwelling in the top of a cotton-tree. A king of the rocs assumed a shape a hundred and fifty leagues in extent, and dividing the water in the great ocean by the blast of his wings, he seized by the tail a king of snakes a thousand fathoms long, and making the snake disgorge what he had seized in his mouth, he flew along the tree tops towards the cotton-tree. The snake-king thought, "I will make him drop me and let me go," so he stuck his hood into a banyan-tree and wound himself round it firmly. Owing to the roe-king's strength and the great size of the snake-king the banyan was uprooted. But the snake-king would not let go the banyan. The roc-king took the snake-king, banyan-tree and all, to the cotton-tree, laid him on the trunk, opened his belly [398] and ate the fat. Then he threw the rest of the carcase into the sea. Now in that banyan there was a certain bird, who flew up when the banyan was thrown away, and perched in one of the boughs high on the cotton-tree. The tree-spirit seeing the bird shook and trembled with fear, thinking, "This bird will let its droppings fall on my trunk; a growth of banyan or of fig will arise and go spreading all over my tree: so my home will be destroyed." The tree shook to the roots with the trembling of the spirit. The roc-king perceived the trembling, and spoke two stanzas in enquiry as to the reason: —

[§_] I bore with me the thousand fathoms length of that king-snake: His size and my huge bulk you bore and yet you did not quake. [§_] But now this tiny bird you bear, so small compared to me: You shake with fear and tremble; but wherefore, cotton-tree?

Then the deity spoke four stanzas in explanation of the reason: —

[§_] Flesh is thy food, O king: the bird's is fruit: Seeds of the banyan and the fig he'll shoot And bo-tree too, and all my trunk pollute; [§_] They will grow trees in shelter of my stem, And I shall be no tree, thus hid by them.
[399]
[§_] Other trees, once strong of root and rich in branches, plainly show How the seeds that birds do carry in destruction lay them low. [§_] Parasitic growths will bury e’en the mighty forest tree: This is why, O king, I quiver when the fear to come I see.

°°

Hearing the tree-spirit's words, the roc-king spoke the final stanza: —

[§_] Fear is right if things are fearful: ’gainst the coming danger guard: Wise men look on both worlds calmly if they present fears discard.

So speaking, the roc-king by his power drove the bird away from that tree.

After the lesson, the Master declared the Truths, beginning with the words: "It is right to distrust where distrust is proper," and identified the Birth: —after the Truths [400] five hundred Brethren were established in Sainthood: —"At that time Sāriputta was the roc-king and I myself the tree-spirit."

Notes

148.
Compare No. 370, supra.
149.
Not known.
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