Jataka 447
Mahā Dhamma Pāla Jātaka
Protector of the Dharma
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 cute story but one that has to be taken with a grain of salt. In it the members of a family do not die young because of their virtue. Of course in real life this does happen. But the point is to be a good person and to act with kindness and generosity.
The Canonical description of the Buddha’s return home differs from the one told here. While it is true that the Buddha’s father became enlightened eventually, on the Buddha’s return home after his awakening, Suddhodana was not happy that his son was living as a beggar. In fact the Buddha never achieved the reputation in his homeland that he attained elsewhere in India.
“What custom is it?” The Master told this story, after his first visit (as Buddha) to Kapilapura (Kapilavatthu: Pali, Kapilavastu: Skt., where the Buddha lived before his spiritual quest), while he lived in his father’s Banyan Grove. It is about the King—his father’s—refusal to believe.
At the time, they say that the great King Suddhodana, having given a meal of rice gruel at his own home to the Buddha at the head of 20,000 monks, talked pleasantly to him during the meal, saying, “Sir, at the time of your striving, some deities came to me. And poised in the air, they said, ‘Your son, Prince Siddhattha, has died of starvation.’” And the Master replied, “Did you believe it, great King?” “Sir, I did not believe it! Even when the deities came hovering in the air and told me this, I refused to believe it, saying that there was no death for my son until he had obtained Buddhahood at the foot of the bodhi-tree.” The Master said, “Great King, long ago in the time of the great Dhammapāla, even when a world-renowned teacher said, ‘Your son is dead, these are his bones,’ you refused to believe it, answering, ‘In our family, they never die young.’ Then why should you believe it now?” And at his father’s request, the Master told this story from the past.
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was King of Benares, there was a village named Dhammapāla in the kingdom of Kāsi. It took that name because the family of one Dhammapāla lived there. And because he kept the Ten Paths of Virtue (1) Not taking the life of living beings, 2) not taking what is not freely given, 3) abstaining from sexual misconduct, 4) speaking truthfully, 5) not engaging in divisive speech, 6) not speaking abusively, 7) not gossiping, 8) not coveting the wealth of others, 9) refraining from ill-will, and 10) right view or wisdom), this brahmin was known where he lived as Dhammapāla, or the Lawkeeper. In his household even the servants gave alms, observed virtue, and kept the holy day.
At that time the Bodhisatta was reborn into that household. They gave him the name Dhammapāla-Kumāra, or Lawkeeper the Younger. As soon as he came of age, his father gave him a thousand gold coins and sent him to study at Takkasilā University. There he went. He studied with a world-renowned teacher, and he became the chief pupil in a company of 500 students.
Just then the eldest son of the teacher died. And the teacher, surrounded by his students, stood in the midst of his family and friends. Weeping, he did the boy’s funeral rites in the cemetery. The teacher, along with his family and all of his pupils, were weeping and wailing, but Dhammapāla alone neither wept nor wailed. Afterwards, when the 500 students had returned from the cemetery, they sat down in their teacher's presence and said, “Ah, so fine a lad, so good, a tender child, to be cut off at his tender age and parted from his father and mother!” Dhammapāla replied, “Tender indeed, as you say! Well, why did he die at a tender age? It is not right that children of a tender age should die.” Then they said to him, “Why, sir, do you not know that everyone is mortal?” “I know it. But no one dies in tender years. People die when they are grown old.” “Then are not all conditioned things transitory and impermanent?” “They are transitory, it is true. But in the days of youth, creatures do not die. It is only when they are old that they die.” “Oh, is that the custom of your family?” “Yes, that is the custom in my family.” The young men told this conversation to their teacher. He sent for Dhammapāla and asked him, “Is it true, Dhammapāla, my son, that in your family they do not die young?” “Yes, teacher,” he said, “it is true.”
On hearing this, the teacher thought, “This is a most marvelous thing he says! I will visit his father and ask him about it. And if it is true, I will live according to his rules of life.”
So when he had finished the rites for his son, after a lapse of seven or eight days he sent for Dhammapāla. He said, “My son, I am going away. While I am away, you are to teach my pupils.” So saying, he obtained the bones of a wild goat. He washed them and scented them and put them in a bag. Then taking with him a little page boy, he left Takkasilā. In due course he arrived at that village. There he asked the way to Mahā-dhammapāla’s house and went to the door.
The first servant of the brahmin who saw him, whoever it was, took the sunshade from his hand. He took his shoes and took the bag from the servant. He told them to tell the lad’s father that here was the teacher of his son Dhammapāla the Younger standing at the door. “Good,” said the servants. They summoned the father to him. Quickly he went to the threshold and said “Come in,” leading the way into his house. Seating the visitor on a couch, he did a host’s duty by washing his feet and so forth.
When the teacher had eaten, they sat down for a friendly conversation together. He said, “Brahmin, your son young Dhammapāla, when full of wisdom and a perfect master of the Three Vedas and the Eighteen Accomplishments, by an unhappy chance has lost his life. All conditioned things are impermanent. Do not grieve for him!” The brahmin clapped his hands and laughed loudly. “Why do you laugh, brahmin?” asked the other. “Because,” he said, “it is not my son who is dead. It must be someone else.” “No, brahmin,” was the answer, “your son is dead, and no one else. Look on his bones and believe.” So saying, he unwrapped the bones. “These are your son’s bones,” he said. “A wild goat’s bones, perhaps,” said the other, “or a dog’s. But my son is not dead. In our family—for seven generations—no one has died in tender years. And you are speaking a lie!” Then they all clapped their hands and laughed out loud.
Figure: “A wild goat’s bones, perhaps.”
The teacher, when he beheld this wonderful thing, was very pleased. He said, “Brahmin, this custom in your family line, that the young do not die, cannot be without cause. Why is it then that you do not die young?” And he asked his question by repeating the first stanza:
“What custom is it, or what holy way,
Of what good deed is this the fruit, I pray?
Tell me, O Brahmin, what the reason is,
Why in your line the young never die—say!”
Then the brahmin, to explain what virtues prevented anyone in his family from dying young, repeated the following stanzas:
“We walk in uprightness, we speak no lies,
All foul and defilements we keep afar,
We do avoid all things that evil are,
Therefore in youth not one among us dies.
“We hear the deeds of foolish and of wise,
Of what the foolish do no heed we take,
The wise we follow, and the fools forsake,
Therefore in youth not one among us dies.
“In alms giving our contentment lies,
Even while giving we are well content.
Nor having given, do we then repent,
Therefore in youth not one among us dies.
“Priests, brahmins, wayfarers we satisfy,
Beggars, and mendicants, and all who need,
We give them drink, and hungry folk we feed,
Therefore the young among us do not die.
“Wedded, for others’ wives we do not sigh,
But we are faithful to the marriage vow.
And faithfulness to us our wives endow
Therefore the young among us do not die.
“The children that from these true wives are sprung
Are wise abundantly, to learning bred,
Versed in the Vedas, and all perfected,
Therefore none dies of us while he is young.
“Each to do right for sake of heaven tries,
So lives the father, and so lives the mother,
So son and daughter, sister so and brother,
Therefore no one of us when youthful dies.
“For sake of heaven our servants, too, apply
Their lives to goodness, men and maidens all,
Retainers, servitors, each meanest thrall,
Therefore the young among us do not die."
And lastly, by these two stanzas he declared the goodness of those who walk in righteousness:
“Righteousness saves him that thereto is bent,
Righteousness practiced well brings happiness.
They that do righteously this boon do bless—
The righteous comes not into punishment.
“Righteousness saves the righteous, as a shade
Saves in the time of rain, the lad still lives.
Goodness to Dhammapāla safety gives,
Some other’s bones are these you have conveyed.”
On hearing this, the teacher replied, “A happy journey is this journey of mine, fruitful, not without fruit!” Then full of happiness, he begged pardon of Dhammapāla’s father and added, “I came here and brought these wild goat’s bones with me in order to test you. Your son is safe and well. I pray you, give to me your rules for preserving life.” Then the other wrote it on a leaf. After staying in that place for a few days, he returned to Takkasilā. And having instructed Dhammapāla in all the branches of skill and learning, he dismissed him with a great troop of followers.
When the Master ended his discourse to the Great King Suddhodana, he taught the Four Noble Truths. At the conclusion of the teaching, the King became established in the fruit of the Third Path (non-returner). Then he identified the birth: “At that time, my mother and father were the Mahārāja’s family, Sāriputta was the teacher, the retinue was the Buddha’s Saṇgha, and I was the younger Dhammapāla.”
