Jataka 417
Kaccāni Jātaka
The Story of Kaccāni
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 lovely story with an interesting twist. When Sakka, King of the devas, proposes punishing her misbehaving son and daughter-in-law, she begs forgiveness in order to save her grandson. Thus the Bodhisatta, in this case, receives a lesson in virtue from the old woman.
“Robed in white.” The Master told this story while he was living at Jetavana. It is about a man who supported his mother. The story is that the man was from a good family in Sāvatthi. On his father’s death, he devoted himself to his mother. He tended her by washing her mouth, cleaning her teeth, bathing her, washing her feet, and so on. He fed her gruel, rice, and other food. She said to him, “Dear son, there are other duties in a householder’s life. You must marry a maid of a suitable family, someone who will tend to me. And then you can do your proper work.” “Mother, it is for my own good and pleasure that I care for you. Who else would wait on you so well?” “Son, you ought to do something to advance the fortune of our house.” “I have no care for a householder’s life. I will tend to you, and after you are dead and burned, I will become a recluse.” She pressed him again and again. Finally, without winning him over or gaining his consent, she brought a maid of a suitable family for him. He married and lived with her because he would not oppose his mother.
The wife observed the great attention the care with which her husband waited on his mother. Because she wanted to follow his lead, she, too, waited on her with care. Noticing his wife’s devotion, he gave his wife all the best food he could get. As time went by she foolishly thought in her pride, “He gives me all the best food he can get. He must be anxious to get rid of his mother. I will find some means for doing so.”
So one day she said, “Husband, your mother scolds me when you leave the house.” He said nothing. She thought, “I will irritate the old woman and make her disagreeable to her son.” After that she gave the mother rice gruel that was either very hot or very cold or had very salt or no salt at all. When the old woman complained that it was too hot or did not have enough salt, she threw cold water in to fill the dish. And when she complained that it was cold and saltless, she would make cry, “Just now you said it was too hot and had too little salt. Who can satisfy you?”
At the bath she would throw very hot water on the old woman’s back. When she said, “Daughter, my back is burning,” the woman would throw some very cold water on her. When there were complaints about this, she would make up a story to tell the neighbors. “This woman said just now it was too hot. Now she screams ‘it is too cold.’ Who can endure her impudence?”
If the old woman complained that her bed was full of fleas, she would take the bed out and shake her own bed over it. Then she would bring it back declaring, “I’ve given it a shake.” The good old lady, having twice as many fleas biting her now, would spend the night sitting up and complain of being bitten all night. The other woman would retort, "Your bed was shaken yesterday and the day before, too. Who can satisfy such a woman’s needs?”
To set the old woman’s son against her, she scattered phlegm and mucus and grey hairs here and there, and when he asked who was making the whole house so dirty, she would say, “Your mother does it. But if she is told not to do so, she complains. I can’t stay in the same house with such an old witch. You must decide whether she stays or I stay.” He listened to her and said, “Wife, you are still young and can make a living wherever you go. But my mother is weak, and I am her support. Go and return to your own family.”
When she heard this, she was afraid and thought, “He cannot break with his mother who is so very dear to him. But if I go to my old home, I will have a miserable life alone. I will reconcile with my mother-in-law and care for her as I used to.” And from then on, this is what she did.
One day that lay brother went to Jetavana to hear the Dharma. Saluting the Master, he stood on one side. The Master asked him if he were tending to his duties, if he were attentive in tending to his mother. He answered, “Yes, Lord. My mother brought me a maid to be my wife against my will. She did many inappropriate things.” And after he told him all that had happened, he said, “The woman could not make me break with my mother, and now she cares for her with all due respect.” The Master heard the story and said, “This time you would not do her bidding. But in the past you cast out your mother at her bidding, and due to me you took her back again to your house and tended to her.” And at the man’s request, he told this story from the past.
Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, a young man of a certain family—on his father’s death—devoted himself to his mother. He tended to her as in the introductory story. The details are given in full above. But in this case, when his wife said she could not live with the old witch and that he must decide which of them should go, he took her at her word that his mother was at fault. He said, “Mother, you are always causing strife in the house. Go and live somewhere else, wherever you choose.” She obeyed, weeping, and went to a certain friend’s house. She worked for wages and was able to earn a living but only with great difficulty.
After she left, her daughter-in-law conceived a child. She went about saying to her husband and the neighbors that such a thing could never have happened as long as the old witch was in the house. After the child was born, she said to her husband, “I could never have had a son while your mother stayed in the house. But now I have done so. So now you can see what a witch she was.”
The old woman heard that the son’s birth was thought to be due to her leaving the house, and she thought, “Surely Justice must be dead in the world. If it were not so, these people would not have had a son and a comfortable life after mistreating and casting out their mother. I will make an offering for the dead Justice.” So one day she took ground sesame and rice and a little pot and a spoon. She went to a cemetery of corpses and kindled a fire under an oven made with three human skulls. Then she went down into the water, bathed herself—head and all—and washed her clothes. Then she went back to her fireplace, loosened her hair, and began to wash the rice.
At that time the Bodhisatta was Sakka, King of the devas. Now the Bodhisattas are vigilant. At the instant he saw—in his survey of the world—that the poor old woman was making a death offering to Justice as if Justice were dead. Wishing to show his power in helping her, he went down disguised as a brahmin travelling on the high road. At the sight of her, he left the road. And standing near her, he began a conversation by saying, “Mother, people do not cook food in cemeteries. What are you going to do with this sesame and rice when it is cooked?” So he spoke the first stanza:
Robed in white, with dripping hair,
Why, Kaccāni, boil the pot?
Washing rice and sesame there,
Will you use them when they’re hot?
In response, she spoke the second stanza:
Brahmin, not for food will I
Use the sesame and the rice.
Justice dead; its memory
I would crown with sacrifice.
Then Sakka spoke the third stanza:
Lady, before you decide,
Who has told you such a lie?
Strong in might and thousand-eyed
True Justice can never die.
Hearing him, the woman spoke two stanzas:
Brahmin, I have witness strong,
“Justice dead” I must believe.
All men now who follow wrong
Great prosperity receive.
Barren once, my good son’s spouse
Beats me, and she bears a son.
She is lady of our house,
I am outcast and undone.
Then Sakka spoke the sixth stanza:
No, I live eternally.
‘Twas for your sake that I came.
She beat you, but her son and she
Shall be ashes in my flame.
Hearing him, she cried, “Alas, what do you say? I will try to save my grandson from death.” And so she spoke the seventh stanza:
King of gods, your will be done.
If for me you left the sky,
May my children and their son
Live with me in amity.
Then Sakka spoke the eighth stanza:
Kātiyāni’s will be done.
Beaten, on Justice you rely.
With your children and their son
Share one home in amity.
(“Kātiyāni” is another form of the name “Kaccāni.”)
Figure: Kaccāni begs for her grandson’s life
After saying this, Sakka—now transformed back into his divine appearance—stood in the air using his supernatural power. He said, “Kaccāni, do not be afraid. By my power your son and daughter-in-law will come. And after begging your forgiveness. They will take you back with them. Live with them in peace.” Then he went back to his own realm.
By Sakka’s power the son and daughter-in-law thought about her goodness. And asking around the village, they discovered that she had gone to the cemetery. They went along the road calling for her. When they saw her, they fell at her feet. They begged for and received her forgiveness for their offence. She welcomed her grandson. So they all went home in delight and from then on lived together.
Joyful with her good son’s wife
Kātiyāni then did dwell.
Indra pacified their strife,
Son and grandson tend her well.
This stanza is inspired by Perfect Wisdom.
After the lesson the Master taught the Four Noble Truths. After the teaching that lay brother was established in the fruition of the First Path (stream-entry). Then he identified the birth: “At that time the man who supported his mother was the man who is supporting his mother today. The wife of that time was the wife of today, and I was Sakka.”
