Jataka 360
Sussondi Jātaka
The Story of Sussondi
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
This is a sordid tale in which a Garuḍa king kidnaps a beautiful queen, and then bemoans the fact that she is not faithful to him. Go figure.
It is a rather interesting touch that the Buddha identifies himself as the Garuḍa king. It isn’t the most flattering character, but then again, the Jātaka stories never try to show that the Bodhisatta was always the most admirable character.
“I smell the fragrance.” The Master told this story while he was living at Jetavana. It is about a backsliding monk. The Master asked if it were true that he longed for the world, and what had he seen to make him regret having ordained. The monk answered, “It was because of the charms of a woman.” The Master said, “Truly, brother, one must truly be on guard to protect against the attractions of sensual desire. Sages of old, even though they tried to protect themselves by living in the realm of the Garuḍas, failed to be on their guard against them.” (Garuḍas are bird deities. See Jātaka 327.) And being urged by him, the Master told this story from the past.
Once upon a time King Tamba reigned in Benares. His Queen consort Sussondī was a woman of unsurpassed beauty. At that time the Bodhisatta was reborn as a young Garuḍa. Now the Nāga (Nāgas are also deities that sometimes take the form of being half human and half snake or dragon.) island was then known as Seruma island, and the Bodhisatta lived on this island in the land of the Garuḍas. He went to Benares disguised as a youth, and he played dice with King Tamba. Remarking on his beauty they said to Sussondī, “This youth plays dice with our King.” She longed to see him.
One day she adorned herself and went to the dice chamber. She stood there among the attendants and fixed her gaze on the youth. He, likewise, gazed at the queen, and the pair fell in love with each another.
The Garuḍa king used his supernatural powers to stir up a storm in the city. The people in the palace fled through fear of it collapsing. Then he used his power to cause darkness. Then he carried off the queen with him in the air, and he made his way to his own home on Nāga island.
But no one knew of the disappearance of Sussondī. The Garuḍa took his pleasure with her, and still went to play dice with the King. Now the King had a minstrel named Sagga, and not knowing where the Queen had gone, the King said to the the minstrel, “Go now and explore every land and sea and discover what has become of the queen.” And so saying he bade him to leave.
He took what was necessary for his journey. He began the search from the city gate, and after some time he arrived in the city of Bhārukaccha. At that time certain merchants of Bhārukaccha were setting sail for the Golden Land. He approached them and said, “I am a minstrel. If you give me passage, I will act as your minstrel. Take me with you.” They agreed, and once they put him on board, they weighed anchor.
When the ship was fairly off, they called him and asked him to make music for them. He said, “I could make music, but if I do, the fish will be so excited that your vessel will be wrecked.”
“If a mere mortal,” they said, “makes music, there will be no excitement on the part of the fish. Play for us.”
“Then do not be angry with me,” he said. And tuning his lute and keeping perfect harmony between the words of his song and the accompaniment of the lute string, he made music for them. The fish were maddened at the sound and thrashed about. A sea monster leaped up on the ship and broke it in two.
Sagga lay on a plank and was carried along by the wind until he reached a banyan tree on the Nāga island where the Garuḍa king lived. Now Queen Sussondī, whenever the Garuḍa King went to play dice, came down from where she was living. And as she was wandering on the edge of the shore, she saw and recognized the minstrel Sagga. She asked him how he had gotten there. He told her the whole story. And she comforted him and said, “Do not be afraid.” And embracing him in her arms, she carried him to her home and laid him on a couch. Once he was revived, she fed him with heavenly food, bathed him in heavenly scented water, dressed him in heavenly clothing, and adorned him with flowers of heavenly perfume. Then she had him lay down on a heavenly couch.
In this way she watched over him. Whenever the Garuḍa king returned, she hid her lover, and as soon as the king was gone, under the influence of passion she took her pleasure with him.
Figure: The happy minstrel
After a month and a half some merchants, who lived in Benares, landed at the foot of the banyan tree in this island to get firewood and water. The minstrel went on board ship with them. When they reached Benares, as soon as he saw the King—who was playing at dice—Sagga took his lute, and making music sang the first stanza:
I scent the fragrance of the timira grove,
I hear the moaning of the weary sea.
Tamba, I am tormented with my love,
For fair Sussondī lives well far from me.
On hearing this the Garuḍa king uttered the second stanza:
How did you cross the stormy main,
And Seruma in safety gain?
How did you Sagga, tell me, pray,
To fair Sussondī win thy way?
Then Sagga repeated three stanzas:
With trading-folk from Bhārukaccha land
My ship was wrecked by monsters of the sea.
I on a plank did safely gain the strand,
When an anointed Queen with gentle hand
Upbore me tenderly upon her knee,
As though to her a true son I might be.
She food and clothing brought, and as I lay
With love-lorn eyes hung o’er my couch all day.
Know, Tamba, well; this word is true I say.
The Garuḍa, while the minstrel spoke, was filled with regrets and said, “Although I live in the land of the Garuḍas, I failed to guard her safely. What is this wicked woman to me?” So he brought her back and presented her to the King, and then he left. And after that, he did not go there anymore.
The Master, his lesson ended, taught the Four Noble Truths. At the conclusion of the teaching, the worldly-minded monk attained fruition of the First Path (stream-entry). Then the Master identified the birth: “At that time Ānanda was the King of Benares, and I was the Garuḍa King.”
