Jataka 456
Juṇha Jātaka
King Juṇha
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
In this story the Bodhisatta’s name is “Juṇha” which means “bright moonlight.” It is a fitting and lovely name for him.
This story is about Ānanda. Ānanda was the Buddha’s faithful attendant for the last 25 years of the Buddha’s life. He is one of the most pivotal people in Buddhist history, and one of the most endearing as well.
This Jātaka tells the story of how Ānanda became the Buddha’s attendant. As sometimes happens in the Jātakas, the story is a little muddied, so here I will relay a different telling that I think is a little clearer. It is from the web site post, “The Buddha and his Disciples.”
When the Buddha indicated that he would like Ananda to be his personal attendant, Ananda said he would accept the position, but only on several conditions. The first four conditions were that the Buddha should never give him any of the food that he received, nor any of the robes, that he should not be given any special accommodation, and that he would not have to accompany the Buddha when he accepted invitations to people's homes. Ananda insisted on these four conditions because he did not want people to think that he was serving the Buddha out of desire for material gain. The last four conditions were related to Ananda's desire to help in the promotion of the Dharma. These conditions were: that if he was invited to a meal, he could transfer the invitation to the Buddha; that if people came from outlying areas to see the Buddha, he would have the privilege of introducing them; that if he had any doubts about the Dharma, he should be able to talk to the Buddha about them at any time and that if the Buddha gave a discourse in his absence, he would later repeat it in his presence. The Buddha smilingly accepted these conditions and thus began a relationship between the two men that was to last for the next twenty-five years.
“O king of men.” The Master told this story while he was at Jetavana. It is about the boons received by Elder Ānanda. During the 20 years of his Buddhahood, the Blessed One's attendants were not always the same. Sometimes it was Elder Nāgasamāla. Sometimes it was Nāgita, Upavāṇa, Sunakkhatta, Cunda, or Sāgala. Sometimes Meghiya waited upon the Blessed One.
One day the Blessed One said to the Saṇgha, “Now I am old, brothers. And when I say, ‘Let us go in this way,’ some of the monks go by another way. Some drop my bowl and robe on the ground. Choose one monk to always attend to me.”
Then they all rose up, beginning with Elder Sāriputta. They laid their joined hands to their heads, crying, “I will serve you, sir. I will serve you!” But he refused them, saying, “Your prayer is forestalled! Enough.” Then the monastics said to the Elder Ānanda, “Do you, friend, ask for the post of attendant?” The Elder said, “If the Blessed One will not give me the robe which he himself has received, if he will not give me his portion of food, if he will not grant me to live in the same fragrant cell, if he will not have me with him to go where he is invited. But if the Blessed One will go with me where I am invited, if I will be allowed to announce at the moment of arrival those who come from foreign parts and foreign countries to see the Blessed One, if I shall be allowed to approach the Blessed One whenever doubt about the Dharma shall arise, if whenever the Blessed One shall give a discourse in my absence, he will repeat his discourse to me as soon as I return. Then I will attend upon the Blessed One.” These eight boons he requested, four negative and four positive. And the Blessed One granted them to him.
After that he attended continually upon his Master for five and twenty years. So having obtained the preeminence in the five points, and having gained seven blessings—blessing of doctrine, blessing of instruction, blessing of the knowledge of causes, blessing of inquiry as to one’s good, blessing of dwelling in a holy place, blessing of enlightened devotion, blessing of potential Buddhahood—in the presence of the Buddha, he received the heritage of eight boons and became famous in the Buddha’s tradition, and he shone as the moon in the heavens.
(It is not clear what the “five points” are, but they could be the Precepts.)
One day they began to talk about this in the Dharma Hal. “Friend, the Tathāgata has satisfied Elder Ānanda by granting his boons.” The Master entered and asked, “What are you discussing, brothers, as you sit here?” They told him. Then he said, “It is not now the first time, brothers, but in former days as well that I satisfied Ānanda with a boon. In former days, as now, whatever he asked, I gave him.” And so saying, he told them this story from the past.
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta reigned in Benares, a son of his named Prince Juṇha, or the Moonlight Prince, was studying at Takkasilā University. One night, after he had been listening carefully to his teacher’s instruction, he left the house of his teacher in the dark, and he set out for home. A certain brahmin had been seeking alms and was also going home. And the prince, not seeing him, ran into the brahmin and broke his alms bowl with a blow of his arm. The brahmin fell with a cry. In compassion the prince turned around, and taking hold of the man’s hands. he raised him to his feet. The brahmin said, “Now, my son, you have broken my alms bowl, so give me the price of a meal.” The Prince said, “I cannot now give you the price of a meal, brahmin. But I am Prince Juṇha, son of the King of Kāsi. And when I return to my kingdom, you may come to me and ask for the money.”
When his education was finished, he took leave of his teacher, and—returning to Benares—he showed his father what he had learned.
“I have seen my son before my death,” said the King, “and I will see him made King indeed.” Then he anointed him and made him King, and under the name of King Juṇha, the Prince ruled in righteousness.
When the brahmin heard about this, he thought that now he could recover the price of his meal. So off he went to Benares. There he saw the city all decorated. The King was moving in a solemn procession right-wise (clockwise) around it. Taking his stand on a high place, the brahmin stretched out his hand and cried, “Victory to the King!” But the King passed by without looking at him. When the brahmin saw that he had not been noticed, he asked for an explanation by repeating the first stanza:
“O King of men, hear what I have to say!
Not without cause have I come here this day.
‘Tis said, O best of men, one should not pass
A wandering brahmin standing in the way.”
On hearing these words the King turned back the elephant with his jeweled goad, and he repeated the second stanza:
“I heard, I stand, come brahmin, quickly say,
What cause it is has brought you here today?
What boon is it that you would ask of me
That you have come to see me? Speak, I pray!”
What further conversation the King and brahmin had by way of question and answer is told in the remaining stanzas:
“Give me five villages, all choice and fine,
A hundred slave-girls, seven hundred kine,
More than a thousand ornaments of gold,
And two wives give me, of like birth with mine.”
(“Kine” are cows.)
“Have you a penance, brahmin, dread to tell,
Or have you many a charm and many a spell,
Or goblins, your orders ready to do,
Or any claim for having served me well?”
“No penance have I, and no charm and spell,
No demons ready to obey me well,
Nor reward for service can I claim.
But we have met before, the truth to tell.”
Figure: “But we have met before, the truth to tell.”
“I cannot call to mind, in time past o’er,
That I have ever seen your face before.
Tell me, I beg you, tell this thing to me,
When have we met, or where, in days of yore?”
“In the fair city of Gandhāra’s King,
Takkasilā, my lord, was our dwelling.
There in the pitchy darkness of the night
Shoulder to shoulder you and I did fling.
“And as we both were standing there, O Prince,
A friendly talk between us straight begins.
Then we together met, and only then,
Nor ever once before, nor ever since.”
“Whenever, brahmin, a wise man has met
A good man in the world, he should not let
Friendship once made or old acquaintance go
For nothing, nor the thing once done forget.
“’Tis fools deny the thing once done, and let
Old friendships fail of those they once have met.
Many a deed of fools to nothing comes,
They are ungrateful, and they can forget.
"But trusty men cannot forget the past,
Their friendship and acquaintance ever fast.
A trifle done by such is not disowned.
Thus trusty men are grateful to the last.
“Five villages I give you, choice and fine,
A hundred slave-girls, and seven hundred kine,
More than a thousand ornaments of gold,
And more, two wives of equal birth with thine.”
"O King, thus it is when the good agree.
As the full moon among the stars we see,
Even so, O Lord of Kāsi, so am I,
Now you have kept the bargain made with me.”
The Bodhisatta paid him great honor.
When the Master had ended this discourse, he said, “This is not the first time, brothers, that I have satisfied Ānanda with boons. I have done it before.” With these words, he identified the birth: “At that time Ānanda was the brahmin, and I was the King.”
