Parantapa Jātaka

Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as the son of the chief Queen. When he grew up, he learned all the arts at Takkasilā University. There he learned a spell for understanding the speech of animals. After listening duly to his teacher, he returned to Benares. His father appointed him viceroy. But even though he did this, he became anxious to kill him and would not even see him.

A female jackal with two cubs entered the city at night by a sewer when men had retired to rest. In the Bodhisatta’s palace, near his bedroom, there was a chamber. There a single traveler, who had taken his shoes off and put them by his feet on the floor, was lying down. He was not yet asleep and was lying on a plank. The jackal cubs were hungry and gave out a cry. Their mother said in the speech of jackals, “Do not make any noise, dears. There is a man in that chamber who has taken his shoes off and laid them on the floor. He is lying on a plank, but he is not yet asleep. When he falls asleep, I will take his shoes and give you food.”

By the power of the spell the Bodhisatta understood her speech. He left his bedroom, opened a window, and said, “Who is there?” “I, your majesty, a traveler.” “Where are your shoes?” “On the floor.” “Take them and hang them up.” When she heard this the jackal was angry with the Bodhisatta.

Then one day she entered the city again in the same way. That day a drunken man went down to drink in a lotus tank. He fell in, sank, and drowned. He had with him the two garments he was wearing, a thousand gold pieces in his undergarment, and a ring on his finger. The jackal cubs cried out in hunger, and the mother said, “Be quiet, dears. There is a dead man in this lotus tank. He has property. He is lying dead on the tank stair. I will give you his flesh to eat.” The Bodhisatta, hearing her, opened the window and said, “Who is in the chamber?" Someone who was there arose and said, “I.” “Go and take the clothes, the thousand pieces of gold, and the ring from the man who is lying dead in that lotus tank. Then make the body sink so that it cannot rise out of the water.” The man did so. The jackal was angry again. “The other day you prevented my children from eating the shoes. Today you prevent them eating the dead man. Very well. Three days from today a hostile King will come and surround the city. Your father will send you into battle, and they will cut off your head. I will drink your throat’s blood and satisfy my anger. You made yourself an enemy of mine, and I will see to it.” In this way she cried, abusing the Bodhisatta. Then she took her cubs and went away.

On the third day the hostile King came and surrounded the city. His father said to the Bodhisatta, “Go, dear son, and fight him.” “O King, I have seen a vision. I cannot go or I will lose my life.” “What is your life or death to me? Go.”

The Great Being obeyed. He took his men, avoiding the gate where the hostile King was posted. He went out by another gate that he had opened. As he left, the whole city became deserted, for all the men left with him. He encamped in an open space and waited. The King thought, “My viceroy has emptied the city and fled with all my forces. The enemy is lying all around the city. I am but a dead man.” To save his life he took his chief Queen, his family priest, and a single attendant named Parantapa. With them he fled in disguise by night and entered a wood. Hearing of his flight, the Bodhisatta re-entered the city, defeated the hostile King in battle, and took the kingdom.

In the woods, his father made a hut of leaves on a river bank. He lived there on wild fruits. He and the family priest used to go looking for wild fruits. The servant Parantapa would stay with the Queen in the hut. She was with child by the King. But because she spent so much time with Parantapa, she committed adultery with him. One day she said to him, “If the King knows, neither you nor I will live. Kill him.”

“How should I do that?” “He makes you carry his sword and bathing dress when he goes to bathe. Surprise him at the bathing place. Cut off his head and chop his body to pieces with the sword and then bury him in the ground.” He agreed.

One day the priest went out for wild fruits. He climbed a tree near the King’s bathing place and was gathering the fruit. The King wanted to bathe. He went to the water with Parantapa carrying his sword and bathing dress. As he was going to bathe, Parantapa, meaning to kill him when off his guard, seized him by the neck and raised the sword. The King cried out in fear. The priest heard the cry and saw from above that Parantapa was murdering him. But he was terrified, and slipping down from his branch in the tree, he hid in a thicket. Parantapa heard the noise as he slipped down, and after killing and burying the King he thought, “There was a noise of someone slipping from a branch thereabouts. Who is there?” But seeing no one, he bathed, and then he went away.

Then the priest came out of his hiding place. Knowing that the King had been cut into pieces and buried in a pit, he bathed. But afraid for his life, he pretended to be blind when he went back to the hut. Parantapa saw him and asked what had happened to him. He pretended not to know him and said, “O King, I have returned with my eyes lost. I was standing by an anthill in a wood full of snakes, and the venom of some snake must have fallen on me.” Parantapa thought the priest was addressing him as King in ignorance, and to put his mind at rest he said, “Brahmin, never mind. I will take care of you.” And so having comforted him, he gave him plenty of wild fruits.

From that time on it was Parantapa who gathered the fruits. Eventually the Queen gave birth to a son. As he was growing up, she said to Parantapa one day in the early morning, “Did anyone see you when you killed the King?” “No one saw me. But I heard the noise of something slipping off of a tree branch. Whether it was a man or an animal I cannot tell you. But whenever fear overcomes me it must be from the cause of the boughs creaking.” And so he said to her the first stanza:

Terror and fear fall on me even now,

For then a man or beast did shake a bough.

They thought the priest was asleep, but he was awake and heard them talking. One day, when Parantapa had gone to gather wild fruits, the priest remembered his brahmin wife, and he spoke the second stanza in lamentation:

My true wife’s home is near at hand. My love will make me be

Pale like Parantapa and thin, at quivering of a tree.

The Queen asked what he was saying. He said, “I was only thinking…” But one day again he spoke the third stanza:

My dear wife’s in Benares, her absence wears me now,

To turn pale like Parantapa at shaking of a bough.

Again one day he spoke a fourth stanza:

Her black eye’s glow, her speech and smiles in thought do bring me now,

To turn pale like Parantapa at shaking of a bough.

In time the young Prince grew up and reached the age of 16. Then the brahmin made him take a stick, and going with him to the bathing place, he opened his eyes and looked. “Are you not blind, brahmin?” said the prince. “I am not, but by this means I have saved my life. Do you know who your father is?” “Yes.” “That man is not your father. Your father was the King of Benares. That man is a servant of your house. He committed adultery with your mother, and in this very spot he killed and buried your father.” And so saying, he dug up the ground, pulled up the bones, and showed them to him. The prince grew very angry. He asked, “What am I to do?” “Do to that man what he did to your father.” And having in this way showed him the whole matter, he taught him how to handle a sword in just a few days.

Then one day the Prince took the sword and his bathing dress and said, “Father, let us go and bathe.” Parantapa consented and went with him. When they went down into the water, the Prince took his top knot in the left hand and the sword in the right, and he said, “At this very spot you took my father by the top knot and killed him as he cried out. And now I will do likewise to you.” Parantapa wailed in fear of death and spoke two stanzas:

Surely that sound has come to you and told you what befell,

Surely the man who bent the bough has come the tale to tell.

The foolish thought that once I had has reached your knowledge now,

That day a witness, man or beast, was there and shook the bough.

Then the prince spoke the last stanza:

‘Twas you who slew my father with trait’rous word, untrue,

You hid his body in the boughs, now fear has come to you.

And so saying, he killed him on the spot. He buried him and covered the grave with branches. Then he washed the sword and went back to the hut of leaves. He told the priest how he had killed Parantapa. He reprimanded his mother. Then he said, “What shall we do now?” The three of them went back to Benares. The Bodhisatta made the young Prince his viceroy, and doing charity and other good works, he passed fully through the path to heaven.