Jataka 188
Sīhakoṭṭhuka Jātaka
The Lion and the Jackal
as told by Eric Van Horn
originally translated by William Henry Denham Rouse, Cambridge University
originally edited by Professor Edward Byles Cowell, Cambridge University
So many of these ancient stories from many cultures are metaphors. This story has the same theme as the last one. It is about someone who wants to be something that he isn’t. A somewhat more subtle way to put it is that he wants the status of a position without doing the work required to earn that status.
“Lion’s claws and lion’s paws.” The Master told this is a story while he was at Jetavana. It is about a man named “Kokālika.” They say that one day Kokālika heard a number of wise monastics teaching the Dharma. He wanted to be a teacher himself. All the rest is just as told in the previous tale. Once again when the Master heard about this he said, “This is not the only time that Kokālika has shown what he was worth by means of his own voice. The very same thing happened before.” And he told this story of the past.
Once on a time, when Brahmadatta was the King of Benares, the Bodhisatta was a lion in the Himalaya Mountains. He had a cub by a she jackal who mated with him. The cub was just like his father in toes, claws, mane, color, and figure. But his voice was like that of his mother.
One day, after a shower of rain, all the lions were frolicking together and roaring. The cub thought that he would like to roar too, but he just yelped like a jackal. On hearing him all the lions fell silent at once! Another cub of the same father, own brother of this one, heard the sound, and said, “Father, that lion is like us in color and everything except for his voice. Who is he?” In asking the question he repeated the first stanza:
“Lion’s claws and lion’s paws,
Lion’s feet to stand upon,
But the bellow of this fellow
Sounds not like a lion’s son!”
In response the Bodhisatta said, “It’s your brother, the jackal’s cub. He is like me in form, but in voice he is like his mother.” Then he gave a word of advice to the other cub, “My dear son, as long as you live here keep a quiet tongue in your head. If you give voice again, they’ll all know that you are a jackal.” To drive the point home he repeated the second stanza:
“All will see what kind you be
If you yelp as once before.
So don’t try it, but keep quiet,
Yours is not a lion’s roar.”
And after this advice the creature never again tried to roar.
Figure: The Lion’s… Woof?
When the Master had finished this discourse, he identified the birth: “In those days Kokālika was the jackal, Rahula was the brother cub, and I was the king of beasts.”
