Jataka 271
Vyaggha Jātaka
The Tiger Story
as told by Eric Van Horn
originally translated by William Henry Denham Rouse, Cambridge University
originally edited by Professor Edward Byles Cowell, Cambridge University
In this story the Bodhisatta admonishes an ill-behaved jackal. Even among animals there is admirable and less than admirable behavior.
“This well a forest recluse built.” The Master told this story while living at Isipatana (Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first discourse). It is about a jackal that fouled a well.
We learn that a jackal used to foul a well where the monks used to draw water. He would foul the well and then run off. One day the novices pelted him with clods of earth and made it uncomfortable for him. After that he never came to look at the place again.
The monks heard about this and began to discuss it in the Dharma Hall. “Friend, the jackal that used to foul our well has not come near it since the novices chased him away by pelting him with clods!” The Master came in and asked what they were discussing now as they sat together. They told him. Then he replied, “Monks, this is not the first time that this jackal fouled a well. He did the same before.” And then he told them this story from the past.
Once upon a time in the place near Benares called Isipatana was that very well. At that time the Bodhisatta was born into a good family. When he grew up he embraced the holy life, and he lived with a group of followers at Isipatana. A certain jackal fouled the well as has been described, and then he took to his heels. One day, the recluses surrounded him. They managed to catch him, and then they took him to the Bodhisatta. He addressed the jackal in the lines of the first stanza:
“This well a forest-monk has made
Who long has lived a recuse in the glade.
And after all his trouble and his toil
Why did you try, my friend, the well to spoil?”
On hearing this, the Jackal repeated the second stanza:
“This is the law of all the jackal race,
To foul when they have drunk in any place,
My sires and grandsires always did the same,
So there is no just reason for your blame.”
Then the Bodhisatta replied with the third stanza:
“If this is ‘law’ in jackal society
I wonder what their ‘lawlessness’ can be!
I hope that I have seen the last of you,
Your actions, lawful and unlawful too.”
Figure: Caught!
Thus the Great Being admonished him and said, “Do not go there ever again.” And from then on he did not even pause to look at it.
When the Master ended this discourse he taught the Four Noble Truths. And then identified the birth: “The jackal that fouled the well is the same in both cases, and I was the chief of the recluse band.”
