Jataka 338
Thusa Jātaka
The Husks
as told by Eric Van Horn
originally translated by H.T. Francis and R.A. Neil, Cambridge University
originally edited by Professor Edward Byles Cowell, Cambridge University
The historical context of the story is this. King Bimbisara was one of the Buddha’s earliest followers and benefactors. He was a good man and a contemporary of the Buddha’s. His son Prince Ajātasattu eventually conspired with Devadata. The conspiracy involved Ajātasattu killing his father and taking over the kingdom, and Devadatta killing the Buddha and taking over the Saṇgha. Devadatta failed, but Ajātasattu succeeded in killing his father by imprisoning him and starving him to death. The next six generations of kings in Magada all died by patricide.
“With sense so nice.” The Master told this story while he was living in the Bamboo Grove (Veluvana). It is about Prince Ajātasattu. At the time of his conception, there arose in his mother—the daughter of the King of Kosala—a chronic longing to drink blood from the right knee of her husband, King Bimbisāra. When questioned by her attendant ladies, she told them how it was with her.
The King heard about all of this. He called his astrologers and said, “The Queen is possessed by this longing. What will come of it?” The astrologers said, “The child conceived in the womb of the Queen will kill you and seize your kingdom.”
“If my son,” said the King, “should kill me and seize my kingdom, so be it.”
He had his right knee cut open with a sword and let the blood drip into a golden dish. Then he gave it to the Queen to drink. She thought, “If the son that is born of me kills his father, why should I care I him?” And so, she tried to bring about a miscarriage. The King heard about this, and he called her to him and said, “My dear, it is said that my son will kill me and seize my kingdom. But I am not exempt from old age and death. Do not keep me from seeing the face of my child. Please do not act in this way.”
But she still went to the garden and acted as before. When he heard of this, the King forbade her visits to the garden. And finally, when she had gone her full term, she gave birth to a son.
On his naming day, because he was his father’s enemy, they called him “Prince Ajātasattu.” As he grew up in his princely surroundings, one day the Master—accompanied by 500 monks—went to the King’s palace and sat down. The assembly of the Saṇgha—with the Buddha at its head—was entertained by the King with choice food, both hard and soft. And after saluting the Master the King sat down to listen to the Dharma.
At this moment they dressed up the young prince and brought him to the King. The King welcomed the child with a strong show of affection and placed him on his lap. He fondled the boy with the natural love of a father for his child, and because of that, he did not listen to the Dharma. The Master—observing his inattention—said, “Great King, formerly kings who were suspicious of their sons had them kept in a secret place. They gave orders that at their death they were to be brought forth and set upon the throne.” And at the request of the King he told him this story from the past.
Once upon a time when Brahmadatta reigned in Benares, the Bodhisatta was a famous teacher at Takkasilā University. He trained many young princes and sons of brahmins in the arts. Now the son of the King of Benares, when he was 16 years old, came to him, and after he had learned the three Vedas and all the liberal arts and was perfect in them, he prepared to take leave of his master. Now, the teacher had the gift of prognostication. He thought, “There is danger coming to this man through his son. By my magic power I will deliver him from it.” And composing four stanzas, he gave them to the young prince and spoke as follows: “My son, after you are seated on the throne, when your son is 16 years old, utter the first stanza while eating your rice. Repeat the second stanza at the time of the great assembly. Speak the third as you are ascending to the palace roof standing at the head of the stairs, and the fourth when entering the royal chamber, as you stand on the threshold.”
The Prince readily agreed to this. And saluting his teacher, he went away. And after acting as viceroy, on his father’s death, he ascended to the throne.
When his son was 16 years of age, he saw the King go out to enjoy his pleasure garden. He saw his father’s majesty and power, and he was overcome with a desire to kill him and seize his kingdom. He talked to his attendants about it. They said, “True, sir, what is the good of obtaining power when you are old? You must kill the King and take his kingdom for yourself.”
The Prince said, “I will kill him by putting poison in his food.” So he took some poison and sat down to eat his evening meal with his father. The King, when the rice was served in the bowl, spoke the first stanza:
With sense so nice, the husks from rice
Rats keen are to discriminate,
They cared not much the husks to touch,
But grain by grain the rice they ate.
“I have been discovered,” thought the Prince, and not daring to administer the poison in the bowl of rice, he rose up, bowed to the King, and went away.
He told the story to his attendants and said, “Today I was found out. So now how shall I kill him?”
One day they lay concealed in the garden, and consulting together in whispers, they said, “There is still one way. When it is time to attend the great assembly, prepare your sword, and taking your stand among the councilors, when you see the King off his guard, you must strike him with your sword and kill him.”
The Prince readily agreed, and at the time of the great assembly, he prepared his sword. And moving about from place to place, he looked for an opportunity to strike the King. At this moment the King uttered the second stanza:
The secret counsel taken in the wood
By me is understood,
The village plot soft whispered in the ear
That, too, I hear.
The Prince thought, “My father knows that I am his enemy,” and he ran away and told his attendants.
After the lapse of seven or eight days they said, “Prince, your father is ignorant of your feeling towards him. You only keep this in your own mind. Put him to death.”
So one day he took his sword and stood at the top of the stairs in the royal closet. The King—standing at the head of the staircase—spoke the third stanza:
A monkey once did cruel measures take
His tender offspring impotent to make.
The Prince thought, “My father wants to seize me,” and in his terror he fled away and told his attendants he had been threatened by his father.
After the lapse of two more weeks they said, “Prince, if the King knew what you intend to do, he would not have put up with it for such a long time. This is just in your imagination. Put him to death.”
So one day he took his sword, and entering the royal chamber on the upper floor of the palace, he lay down beneath the couch, He planned to kill the King as soon as he arrived. At the close of the evening meal, the King sent his retinue away. Wishing to lie down, he went to the royal chamber. And as he stood on the threshold, he uttered the fourth stanza:
Your cautious creeping ways
Like one-eyed goat in mustard field that strays,
And who are you that hides right here below,
This, too, I know.
The Prince thought, “My father has found me out. Now he will put me to death.” And seized with fear. he came out from beneath the couch. He threw his sword down at the King’s feet and said, “Pardon me, my lord.” He groveled before him.
Figure: “You thought no one knows…”
The King said, “You thought no one knows what you are about.” And after rebuking him, he ordered him to be bound in chains and put into the prison house, and he set a guard over him. Then the King meditated on the virtues of the Bodhisatta. And by and bye the King died. When they had celebrated his funeral rites, they took the young Prince out of prison and put him on the throne.
The Master here ended his lesson and said, “So, sire, kings of old suspected in cases in which suspicion was justified.” But the King did not heed his words. The Master then identified the birth: “At that time I was the famous teacher at Takkasilā University.”
