Jataka 229
Palāyi Jātaka
The Debater
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 is an odd story. In it a spiritual seeker who wants to debate the Buddha is scared away by the size of the gate to Jetavana Monastery. But you can visit Jetavana Monastery to this day. It is a humble place with a humble entrance, as one would expect. The size of the gateway may be exaggerated in a metaphorical way.
“Lo, my elephants.” The Master told this story while he was at Jetavana. It is about a spiritual seeker (samaṇa) with an exaggerated sense of his own importance.
He traveled the whole of India in order to champion his views, but he could not find anyone who was willing to debate with him. At last he arrived in Sāvatthi. He asked if there was anyone there who would debate with him. The people said, “There is One who could argue with a thousand such people. He is the all-wise, chief of men, the mighty Gotama, lord of the faith. He bears down all opposition. There is no adversary in all India who can dispute with Him. As the waves break on the shore, so all arguments break against his feet and are dashed to spray.”
This is how they described the qualities of the Buddha.
“Where is he now?” asked the seeker.
He was at Jetavana, they replied.
“Then I will go and do battle with him!” he replied.
So attended by a large crowd he made his way to Jetavana. On seeing the gate towers of Jetavana (as seen in the Bharhut Stupa), which Prince Jeta had built at a cost of ninety million gold coins, he asked whether that was the palace where the Priest Gotama lived. This was just the gateway, they said. “If this is the gateway, what will the dwelling be like!” he cried. “There’s no end to the perfumed chambers!” the people said. “Who could argue with such a spiritual seeker as this?” he asked, and he hurried off at once.
The crowd shouted for joy and thronged into the park. “What brings you here so early in the day?” the Master asked. They told him what had happened. He said, “This is not the first time, lay-people, that he hurried away at the mere sight of the gateway of my dwelling. He did the same before.” And at their request, he told this story from the past.
Once upon a time, the Bodhisatta reigned as the King of Takkasilā in the realm of Gandhāra. Likewise Brahmadatta ruled in Benares. Brahmadatta resolved to capture Takkasilā. He set forth with a great army and took up a position not far from the city. There he positioned his army. “Place the elephants here, the horses over there, the chariots here, and put the infantry here. When ready charge and shoot your weapons. As the clouds pour forth the rain, pour forth a rain of arrows!” And he uttered this pair of stanzas:
“Lo, my elephants and horses, like the storm-cloud in the sky!
Lo, my surging sea of chariots shooting arrow-spray on high!
Lo, my host of warriors, striking sword in hand, with blow and thrust,
Closing in upon the city, till their foes shall bite the dust!
“Rush against them. Fall upon them! Shout the war-cry, loudly sing!
While the elephants in concert raise a clamorous trumpeting!
As the thunder and the lightning flash and rumble in the sky,
So be now your voice uplifted in the loud long battle-cry!”
So cried the King. He had his army march. They went before the gate of the city. And when he saw the towers on the city gate, he asked whether was that the King’s dwelling. “That,” they said, “is the gate tower.”
“If this is just the gate tower, will the King’s palace be like?” he asked.
And they replied, “It is like Vejayanta, the palace of (the god of gods) Sakka!”
On hearing this the King said, “With a King as glorious as this we shall never be able to fight!”
And having seen no more than the tower at the city gate, he turned and ran away, going back to Benares.
Figure: “This is just the front door!”
This discourse ended, the Master identified the birth: “Our spiritual seeker was the King of Benares, and I was the King of Takkasilā.”
Figure: Jetavana Monastery Today
