Dadhi-vāhana Jātaka

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, four brahmin brothers who were from the land of Kāsi left the world and became recluses. They built four huts - all in a row - in the highlands of the Himalaya, and there they lived.

The eldest brother died and was reborn as Sakka (lord of the devas and ruler of the Tāvatiṃsa heaven). Remembering who he had been in his previous life, he used to visit his brothers every seven or eight days to lend them a helping hand.

One day, he visited the eldest of the recluses, and after the usual greeting he took his seat to one side. “Well, sir, how can I serve you?” he asked. The recluse, who was suffering from jaundice, replied, “I would like to make a fire.”

Sakka gave him a razor-axe. (A razor-axe is so called because it serves as razor or as an axe depending on how you fit it into the handle.) “Why,” the recluse said, “who is there to get firewood for me?”

“If you want a fire, sir,” Sakka replied, “all you have to do is to hit the axe with your hand and say, ‘Fetch wood and make a fire!’ The axe will fetch the wood and make you the fire.”

After giving him this razor-axe he visited the second brother and asked him the same question, “How can I serve you, sir?” Now there was an elephant track by his hut, and the creatures annoyed him. So he told Sakka that he was annoyed by elephants and wanted them to be driven away. Sakka gave him a drum. “If you beat on this side, sir,” he explained, “your enemies will run away. But if you strike the other side, they will become your firm friends and will surround you with a fourfold army.” (elephants, cavalry, chariots, and infantry) Then he handed him the drum.

Finally he made a visit to the youngest brother, and he asked - as before - how he could serve him. He too had jaundice and what he said was, “Please give me some milk curds.” Sakka gave him a milk bowl with these words, “Turn this over if you want anything, and a great river will pour out of it and will cause a flood. It will even be able to win a kingdom for you.” With these words he departed.

After this the first brother used the axe to make a fire. The second brother beat on one side of his drum to drive the elephants away. And the youngest brother had his curds to eat.

About this time a wild boar that lived in an abandoned village discovered a gem that had magic power. Picking up the gem in his mouth, he rose into the air by its magic. From afar he could see an island in the middle of the ocean, and he decided to live there. He flew there and descended onto a pleasant spot beneath a mango tree. There he made his home. One day he fell asleep under the tree. The jewel was lying just in front of him.

Now a certain man from the Kāsi country, who had been thrown out of his house by his parents as an idle and worthless person, had made his way to a seaport. There he signed onto a ship as a common sailor. In the middle of the sea the ship wrecked. He floated on a plank to this island. As he wandered in search of fruit, he saw our boar fast asleep. Quietly he crept up, seized the gem, and found himself magically rising through the air! He landed on the mango tree and thought, “The magic of this gem has taught the boar to be a sky-walker. I suppose that is how he got here. Well! I will kill him and make a meal of him first. Then I’ll be off.”

So he snapped off a twig and dropped it on the boar’s head. The boar woke up, and seeing no gem, ran around frantically. The man up in the tree laughed. The boar looked up, and seeing the man banged his head against the tree and killed himself.

The man came down, lit a fire, cooked the boar and ate his meal. Then he rose up into the sky and set out on his journey.

As he passed over the Himalaya, he saw the recluses’ settlement. So he descended and spent several days in the eldest brother’s hut. There he was entertaining and entertained, and he found out about the magic of the axe. He made up his mind to get it for himself. So he showed our recluse the magic of his gem and offered to exchange it for the axe. The recluse yearned to be able to fly through the air and struck the bargain.

The man took the axe and started to leave. But before he had gone very far, he struck it and said, “Axe! Smash that recluse’s skull and bring the gem back to me!” Off flew the axe, splitting open the recluse’s skull. Then it brought the gem back.

Then the man hid the axe and paid a visit to the second brother. He stayed with him for a few days and soon discovered the power of his drum. Then he exchanged his gem for the drum, as before, and as before made the axe cleave the second brother’s skull. Then he went to the youngest of the three recluses where he found out about the power of the milk-bowl. He gave his jewel in exchange for it, and as before sent his axe to split the man’s skull. Thus he was now the owner of the jewel, the axe, the drum, and the milk-bowl.

Now he rose up and passed through the air. Stopping near Benares, he wrote a letter that he sent by messenger that the King must either fight him or surrender. When he received this message the King sent out his troops to “seize the scoundrel.” But he beat on one side of his drum and was promptly surrounded by a fourfold army. When he saw that the King had deployed his forces, he then overturned the milk-bowl and a great river poured forth. A huge number of men were drowned in the river of curds. Next he struck his axe. “Fetch me the King’s head!” he cried. Away went the axe, and it came back and dropped the head at his feet. No one could raise a hand against him.

Surrounded by his mighty army, he entered the city. He anointed himself as King under the title “King Dadhi-vāhana,” or “Carried-on-the-Curds,” and he ruled righteously.

One day, as the King was amusing himself by casting a net into the river, he caught a mango fruit. It had floated down from Lake Kaṇṇamuṇḍa and was fit for the gods. It was a huge fruit, as big as a basin. It was round and golden in color. The King asked what the fruit was. The foresters told him that it was a mango. He ate it and had the stone planted in his park where it was watered with milk-water.

The tree sprouted up, and in three years it bore fruit. The tree was treated like a royal treasure. Milk-water was poured all around it. It was sprayed with five different types of perfume. It was decorated with colorful wreaths of flowers. A lamp was kept burning. It was fueled with scented oil. And all round the tree was a screen of the finest cloth. The fruit was sweet and had the color of fine gold.

King Dadhi-vāhana would send presents of these mangoes to other kings. However, he would prick the mango stones with a thorn so that they could not sprout. The kings always planted the stones, but they could never get them to take root. They wondered why this was and eventually discovered what the reason was.

One of those kings asked his gardener whether he knew how to ruin the flavor of the fruit and turn it bitter. Yes, the man said he could. So his king gave him 1,000 gold coins and sent him to Benares do this deed.

As soon as he arrived in Benares, the man sent a message to the King that a gardener had come. The King admitted him to his presence. After the man saluted him, the King asked, “You are a gardener?” “Yes, Sire,” the man said, and he began to sing his own praises. “Very well,” the King said, “you may go and assist my park keeper.” So after that the two of them tended the royal grounds.

The newcomer managed to make the park look more beautiful by forcing flowers and fruit out of their season. This pleased the King so much that he dismissed the former park keeper and put the gardener in sole charge of the park. No sooner had this man gotten control of the park then he planted nimb trees and creepers around the mango tree. In time the nimb trees sprouted up. Above and below, root with root and branch with branch, the nimb trees became entangled with the mango tree. Thus this tree, with its sweet fruit, grew as noxious and sour as the leaves of the nimb tree. As soon as the gardener knew that the fruit had gone bitter, he took to his heels and ran away.

One day King Dadhi-vāhana went for a walk in his pleasure garden. He picked one of the mangoes and took a bite from it. The juice in his mouth tasted like a nasty nimb leaf! He coughed and spat it out.

Now at that time the Bodhisatta was his worldly and spiritual advisor. The King turned to him and said, “Wise sir, this tree is as carefully cared for as ever, and yet its fruit has gone bitter. What’s the meaning of this?” And he repeated the first stanza:

“Sweet was once the mango’s taste, sweet its scent, its color gold.

What has caused this bitter flavor? For we want it as of old.”

The Bodhisatta explained the reason in the second stanza:

“Round about the trunk entwining, branch with branch, and root with root,

See the bitter creeper climbing? That is what has spoiled your fruit.

And so you see bad company will make the better follow suit.”

On hearing this the Bodhisatta ordered that all the nimb trees and creepers be removed, their roots pulled up, and the noxious soil taken away. Sweet earth was put in its place. The tree was carefully fed with sweet water, milk-water, and scented water. Then by absorbing all this sweetness its fruit grew sweet again. The King put his former park keeper back in charge, and after his life was over he passed away to fare according to his karma.