Jataka 413
Dhūmakāri Jātaka
The Story of Dhūmakāri
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 story about knowing who your friends are and not taking for granted old, dear, loyal friends.
“The righteous king.” The Master told this story while he was living at Jetavana. It is about the Kosala King’s favor to a stranger. (The “Kosala King” was King Pasenadi.) At one time, the story goes, that King showed no favor to his old warriors who came to him in the usual way, but he honored and gave hospitality to strangers coming for the first time. Once he went to fight in a rebellious frontier province, but his old warriors would not fight. They thought that the newcomers who were in favor would do the fighting. But the newcomers would not, thinking that the old warriors would. As a result, the rebels prevailed. The King realized that his defeat was because of the mistake he had made in showing favor to newcomers. After he returned to Sāvatthi (the capital city of Kosala), he resolved to ask the Lord of Wisdom whether he was the only king who had ever been defeated for that reason. So after the morning meal, he went to Jetavana and put the question to the Master. The Master answered, “Great King, yours is not the only case. Kings from the past also were defeated by mistakenly showing favor to newcomers.” And so, at the King’s request, he told this story from the past.
Once upon a time in the city of Indapattana in the kingdom of the Kurus, a King was reigning. His name was “Dhanañjaya.” He was from the Yudhiṭṭhila clan. The Bodhisatta was born into the house of his family priest. His name was Vidhūrapaṇḍita. When he grew up, he learned all the arts at Takkasilā University. He then returned to Indapattana, and at his father’s death he became the family priest to the King and his counsellor in all things worldly and spiritual.
King Dhanañjaya disregarded his old soldiers and showed favor to newcomers. He went to fight in a rebellious frontier province. But neither his old warriors nor the newcomers would fight, each thinking the other party would see to the matter. As a result, the King was defeated. On his return to Indapattana he reflected that his defeat was due to the favor he had shown to newcomers. One day he thought, “Am I the only king who has ever been defeated through favor shown to newcorners, or have others had the same fate? I will ask Vidhūrapaṇḍita.” So he put the question to Vidhūrapaṇḍita when he visited the King on the levee.
The Master, declaring the purpose of his question, spoke half a stanza:
The righteous King Yudhiṭṭhila once asked Vidhūra wise,
“Brahmin, do you know in whose heart much bitter sorrow lies?”
Hearing him, the Bodhisatta said, “Great King, your sorrow is but a trifling sorrow. Of old, a brahmin goatherd named Dhūmakāri, took a great flock of goats, and making a pen in the forest, he kept them there. He had a smoking fire, and he lived on milk and the like, tending his goats. Seeing some deer of golden hue who had come, he felt a love for them, and disregarding his goats, he paid the honor due to them to the deer. In the autumn the deer moved away to the Himālaya Mountains. His goats were dead and the deer were gone from his sight. So out of sorrow he became sick with jaundice and died. So he paid honor to newcomers and perished, having sorrow and misery a hundred, a thousand times more than you.” Emphasizing the point of this story, he said:
A brahmin with a flock of goats, of high Vasiṭṭha’s race,
Kept smoking fire by night and day in forest dwelling place.
Smelling the smoke, a herd of deer, by gnats sore pestered, come
To find a dwelling for the rains near Dhūmakāri's home.
The deer have all attention now, his goats receive no care,
They come and go untended all, and so they perish there.
But now the gnats have left the wood, the autumn’s clear of rain,
The deer must seek the mountain heights and river springs again.
The brahmin sees the deer are gone, and all his goats are dead,
Jaundice attacks him worn with grief, and all his color’s fled.
So he who disregards his own, and calls a stranger dear,
Like Dhūmakāri, mourns alone with many a bitter tear.
Figure: The lonely goatherd
Such was the tale told by the Great Being to console the King. The King was comforted and pleased, and gave him great wealth. And from that time onward he showed favor to his own people. And doing deeds of charity and virtue, he became destined for rebirth in heaven.
After the lesson, the Master identified the birth: “At that time the Kuru King was Ānanda, Dhūmakāri was Pasenadi, the King of Kosala, and I was Vidhūrapaṇḍita.”
