Jataka 273
Kacchapa Jātaka
The Turtle
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 references to other Jātakas, both of which are about members of the royal court who were always arguing. This is fundamentally a story about beings who are born and reborn, lifetime after lifetime, and even if they are different species, they continue the same behavior. They carry their grudge on unceasingly.
There is one quite curious note about the PTS rendition of this story, and that it is in Latin! As I have worked my way through the original translations, I have found many curious errors. Apparently the folks at Oxford and Cambridge were not the best proofreaders. How this story ever got published in Latin is anyone’s guess.
“Who stretches out the goblet.” The Master told this story during a stay in Jetavana. It is about how a quarrel was instigated between two magnates of the King’s court in Kosala. The circumstances have been told previously (Jātakas 154 and 165).
The Bodhisatta once took rebirth in the kingdom of Kasi in a Brahman family. There he governed Benares as King Brahmadatta. After he had come of age and received his education Takkasilā University, he gave up sensual pursuits and went forth as a recluse. He built a hermitage on the banks of the Ganges in the Himalaya Mountains. He developed the supernormal powers (1. Replicate and project bodily-images of oneself, 2. Make oneself invisible, 3. Pass through solid objects, 4. Sink into solid ground, 5. Walk on water, 6. Fly, 7. Touch the sun and moon with one's hand, 8. Ascend to the world of the god Brahmā in the highest heavens) and the attainments (jhānas) as he lived in the rapture of meditation.
In this Jātaka, however, the Bodhisatta was extremely indifferent and he lacked compassion. Once when he was sitting at the door of his hut, a smart-alecky, insolent monkey came and put his penis in his ear hole. The Bodhisatta did not stop him but remained quite indifferent.
One day a turtle came out of the water and lay down with his mouth open in the sun. When the greedy monkey saw her, he put his penis into her mouth. Then the turtle woke up and bit down hard. The monkey was in agony. He could not stand the pain. He thought, “Who could free me from this suffering? To whom can I go?” Then the following thought came to him: “No other man is able to free me from this pain except the recluse. I have to go to him.”
Figure: Yeooow!
He picked up the turtle with both hands and went to the Bodhisatta. The Bodhisatta made a joke with the naughty monkey and said the following first stanza:
“Who is it who brings food?
In full bowl, the Brahman?
Where did you seek alms,
To what piety did you come?”
When the cheeky monkey heard this, he said the second verse,
I am just a silly monkey,
I cannot be touched.
Free me and be blessed,
I will go on the mountain.”
Now the Bodhisatta talked with the turtle and said the following third stanza:
“The turtles are Kassapas,
The monkeys of Kondaññas.
Let go, Kassapa, the Kondañña,
You too have engaged in fornication.”
When the turtle heard the words of the Bodhisatta, she was satisfied with it and let go of the monkey’s limb. As soon as the monkey was free again, he showed his reverence to the Bodhisatta and then ran away. And in the future he did not even turn to the place to look. The turtle also paid homage to the Bodhisatta and went back to her place.
And the Bodhisatta, immersed in meditative ecstasy, was reborn in Brahma’s world.
When the Master had ended this discourse, he taught the Four Noble Truths and identified the birth: “The two magnates were the monkey and the tortoise, and I was the recluse.”
