Jataka 210
Kandagalaka Jātaka
The Story of Kandagalaka
as told by Eric Van Horn
originally translated by William Henry Denham Rouse, Cambridge University
originally edited by Professor Edward Byles Cowell, Cambridge University
This story has the same theme as Jātaka 204 in which Devadatta tries to imitate the Buddha. At the time of the Buddha Devadatta tried to claim that he was on the same spiritual level as the Buddha. Devadatta even tried to embarrass the Buddha in front of the Saṇgha and the local community, and he conspired with the King – Ajātasattu – to take over leadership of the Saṇgha. An interesting personal note is that he was actually related to the Buddha. He was the Buddha’s cousin and his brother-in-law. In this story they are friends, and according to the Buddhist tradition, for a time that was true during the Buddha’s life as well.
“Oh friend.” The Master told this story during a stay in Veḷuvana (the Bamboo Forest Monastery in Rajagraha). It is about Devadatta’s attempts to imitate him. When he heard of these attempts to imitate him, the Master said, “This is not the first time Devadatta has destroyed himself by imitating me. The same thing happened before.” Then he told this story of the past.
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was King of Benares, the Bodhisatta was reborn as a woodpecker. He lived in a forest of acacia trees. His name was “Khadiravaniya, the Bird of the Acacia forest.” He had a comrade named “Kandagalaka” or “Eatbulb,” who got his food in a forest full of good fruit.
One day the friend went to visit Khadiravaniya. “My friend has come!” Khadiravaniya thought. He led him into the acacia forest where he pecked at the tree trunks until the insects came out, which he then gave to his friend. As each was given to him, the friend pecked it up and ate it as if it were a honey cake. As he ate, pride arose in his heart. “This bird is a woodpecker,” he thought, “and so am I. Why do I need to be fed by him? I will get my own food in this acacia forest!” So he said to Khadiravaniya, “Friend, don’t trouble yourself. I will get my own food in the acacia forest.”
Then Khadiravaniya said, “You belong to a tribe of birds which finds its food in a forest of weak silk-cotton trees and trees that bear abundant fruit. But the acacia is strong and hard. Please do not do this!”
“What!” said Kandagalaka, “am I not a woodpecker?” He would not listen, and he pecked at an acacia trunk. In a moment his beak snapped off, his eyes fell out of his head, and his head split open. So not being able to hold on to the tree he fell to the ground repeating the first verse:
“Oh friend, what is this thorny, cool-leaved tree
Which at one blow has broke my beak for me?”
![“[This tree] broke my beak for me!”](./Images/Jataka210.jpg)
Figure: “[This tree] broke my beak for me!”
Having heard this, Khadiravaniya recited the second stanza:
“This bird was good for rotten wood
And soft, but once he tried,
By some ill hap, hard trees to tap,
And broke his skull, and died.”
So said Khadiravaniya, and then he added, “Oh Kandagalaka, the tree where you broke your head is hard and strong!” But Khadiravaniya perished then and there.
When the Master had ended this discourse, he identified the birth: “Devadatta was Kandagalaka, and I was Khadiravaniya.”
