Jataka 503
Sattigumba Jātaka
The Story of Sattigumba
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 story answers the Buddhist response to “nature or nurture.” The Buddha’s message is clear: it’s both. We are born into this world with our karma from previous lives. Then we are born into a certain situation: our parents and family, our communities, our schools, countries, race, religion, and so forth.
All of this gets fed into the present moment. It is all part of this process we call “me.” In this story we see how two brother parrots take opposite paths because of the company they keep. And this is the other fundamental message of the story. We become the people with whom we associate.
“With a great host.” The Master told this story while staying in the deer park Maddakucchi (near Rajagaha). It is about Devadatta. When Devadatta threw the stone (in an attempt to kill the Buddha), and a fragment pierced the Blessed One’s foot, there was great pain in it. Many of the Saṇgha gathered to see the Tathāgata. Now when the Blessed One saw the people gathered, he said to them, “Mendicants, this place is crowded. There will be a great gathering. Come now. Carry me in a litter to Maddakucchi.” And so the monastics did.
Jīvaka (the King’s physician and doctor to the Saṇgha) made the Tathāgata’s foot well. The monastics sat before the Master discussing this. “Sirs, Devadatta is an evildoer, and all of his followers are evil as well. Evildoers keep company with other evildoers.” The Master asked, “What are you discussing, brothers?” They told him. He said, “It has been so before. This is not the first time Devadatta the evildoer has kept company with other miscreants.” Then he told them this story from the past.
Once upon a time, a King named Pañcāla reigned in the city of Uttara-Pañcāla. The Great Being was born as the son of the king of the parrots. He was born in a grove of silk-cotton trees that grew on a high table land in the heart of a forest. He had two brothers. Up wind from this hill was a village where 500 robbers lived. Under its lee was a hermitage with 500 sages.
About the time when the parrots were molting, a gust of wind carried off one of the parrots. He fell in the robber village among the robbers’ weapons, and because he fell there, they called him “Sattigumba,” or “Bristling Spears.” Another parrot fell in the hermitage among the flowers that grew on a sandy spot. Because of this he was named Pupphaka, the Flower-bird. Sattigumba grew up amongst the robbers, and Pupphaka lived with the sages.
One day the King—arrayed bravely at the head of a great company—drove out in his splendid chariot to hunt the deer. Not far from the city, he entered a grove that was beautiful with a rich crop of flowers and fruit. He said, “If anyone lets a deer pass by him, he shall answer it!” Then he descended from the chariot. He took cover, standing, bow in hand, in the hut assigned him. The beaters beat the bushes to drive out the game. An antelope rose up and looked for a way in which to escape. He saw a gap by the King. He got through it and ran away.
Everyone asked who had let the deer escape. It was the King! Hearing this, they made fun of him. From embarrassment the King could not stomach the ridicule. “Now I'll catch that deer!” he cried. He mounted his chariot. “Full speed!” he said to the charioteer, and off he went to catch the deer.
So fast was the King that the others could not keep up with him. The King and charioteer—these two alone—chased the deer until midday, but they saw no deer. Finally, the King turned back. And seeing a delightful glen near the robber village, he got down, bathed, drank, and then went up from the water. The charioteer brought out a rug from the chariot and spread it beneath the shade of a tree. The King lay on it, and the charioteer sat at his feet rubbing them. The King dozed off, and then he awoke. The people of the robber village, even all the robbers, had gone into the woods to see the King. This meant that no one was left in the village but Sattigumba and the cook, a man named Patikolamba. At that moment Sattigumba came out of the village. Seeing the King, he thought, “What if we kill him as he sleeps and take his ornaments!” So he returned to Patikolamba, and told him all about it.
To explain this the Master recited five stanzas:
“With a great host Pañcāla’s King went out to hunt the deer,
Deep in the woods the monarch strayed, and not a soul was near.
“Lo, he beholds within the wood a shelter thieves had made,
Out came a parrot and forthwith these cruel words he said:
“A young man riding in a car, with jewels many a one,
And on his brow a golden crown shines ruddy like the sun!
“Both King and driver lie asleep there in the high midday,
Come, let us spoil them of their wealth and take it quick away!
“’Tis quiet as the deep midnight, both King and driver sleep,
Their wealth and jewels let us take and keep,
Kill them, and pile boughs on them in a heap.”
Thus addressed, the man went out and looked. Seeing that it was the King, he was frightened. He recited this stanza:
“Why, Sattigumba, are you mad? What words are these I hear?
Kings are like blazing bonfires, and most perilous to come near.”
The bird answered in another stanza:
“Fool’s talk, Patikolamba, this. And you are mad, not I.
My mother’s naked. Why condemn the calling we live by?”
(“My mother’s naked” is an idiomatic expression o the time. It means that Sattigumba is accusing Patikolamba of disrespecting their profession as thieves.)
Now the King awoke, and hearing them talk together in the language of men, he perceiving the danger. He recited the following stanza to arouse his charioteer:
“Up with you quick, friend charioteer, and yoke the chariot,
We need another shelter, since this parrot I like not.”
He rose quickly and ran to the team. Then he recited a stanza:
“The car is yoked, O mighty King, is yoked and ready there,
Step in, O King! and let us go seek shelter otherwhere.”
No sooner was he inside, than he drove the thoroughbreds away as swift as the wind. When Sattigumba saw the chariot departing, overwhelmed with excitement he repeated two stanzas:
“Now where are all the fellows gone that used to haunt this spot?
Away Pañcāla flies, let go because they saw him not.
“Shall he get clear away with life? Take javelin, spear, and bow,
Away Pañcāla flies, behold! O do not let him go!”
So he raved and fluttered to and fro. Meanwhile, in due course the King arrived at the hermitage of the sages. At that time the sages were all away. They were out gathering fruits and roots, and only the Parrot Puppha was left in the hermitage. When he saw the King, he went to meet him and addressed him courteously.
Then the Master recited four stanzas to explain:
The parrot with his ruddy beak right courteously did say,
“Welcome, O King! A happy chance directed you this way!
Mighty you are and glorious. What errand brings you, pray?
“The tindook and the piyal leaves, and kāsumārī sweet,
Though few and little, take the best we have, O King, and eat.
“And this cool water, from a cave high hidden on a hill,
O mighty monarch, take of it, drink if it be your will.
“All gleaning in the wood are they who here are wont to live,
Arise, O King, yourself and take, I have no hands to give.”
The King was pleased at this courteous address. He answered with a couple of stanzas:
“No better fowl was ever hatched; a very righteous bird.
But the other parrot over there said many a cruel word.
‘“O let him not leave here alive, O come and slay or bind!
He cried! I sought this hermitage, and safety here I find.”
Thus addressed by the King, Pupphaka uttered two stanzas:
“Brothers we are, O mighty King, of one self-mother bred,
Reared both together in one tree, in different pastures fed.
“For Sattigumba to the thieves, I to the sages came,
Those bad, these good, and hence it comes our ways are not the same.”
He then explained the differences in detail, repeating a pair of stanzas:
“There wounds and bonds and trickery, cheating and shabby turns,
Raiding, and deeds of violence, such is the lore he learns.
“Here self-control, sobriety, kindness, the right and true,
Shelter and drink for strangers, these were round me as I grew.”
Next he declared the Dharma to the King in the following stanzas:
“To whomsoever, good or bad, a man shall honor pay,
Vicious or virtuous, that man holds him beneath his sway.
“Like as the comrade one admires, like as the chosen friend,
Such will become the man who keeps beside him, in the end.
“Friendship makes like, and touch by touch infects, you’ll find it true,
Poison the arrow, and soon the quiver is poisoned too.
“The wise avoid bad company, for fear of staining touch,
Wrap rotten fish in grass, you'll find the grass stinks just as much.
And they who keep fool’s company themselves will soon be such.
“Sweet frankincense wrapped in a leaf, the leaf will smell as sweet.
So they themselves will soon grow wise, that sit at wise men’s feet.
“By this similitude the wise should his own profit know,
Let him avoid bad company and with the righteous go.
Heaven waits the righteous, but the bad are doomed to hell below.”
Figure: Pupphaka teaches the Dharma to the King.
The King was pleased with this exposition. Then the sages returned. The King greeted the sages, saying, “Be gracious, sirs, come and live in my grounds.” He implored them to accept the invitation. When he got home, he proclaimed immunity for all parrots. The sages came there as well and visited him. The King gave them his park to live in, and he took care of them so long as he lived. When he went to swell the hosts of heaven, his son had the royal umbrella (the symbol of royal authority) raised over him. He took care of the sages as well, and so it went on from father to son through seven generations of kings who were all generous with alms. And the Great Being lived in the woods until he passed away according to his deeds (karma).
AWhen this lesson had ended, the Master said, “Thus, brothers, you see that Devadatta kept bad company before, just as he now does.” Then he identified the birth: “At that time, Devadatta was Sattigumba, his followers were the robbers, Ānanda was the King, the Buddha’s followers were the sages, and I was Parrot Pupphaka.”
