Ja 212 The Birth Story about the Left-Over Rice (2s)

In the present one monk longs for his former wife. The Buddha tells a story of the two of them in a former life, and how she served him up the leftover rice of her lover, and was not worthy of being attached to.

The Bodhisatta = the acrobat (naṭaputta),
the dissatisfied monk = the brahmin (brāhmaṇa),
his former wife = the brahmini (brāhmaṇī).

Keywords: Attachment, Cheating, Women.

“Hot at top.” [2.117] This is a story told by the Teacher while at Jetavana, about one who hankered after a lost wife. The monk in question was asked by the Teacher if he really was lovesick. “Yes,” he said, “so he was.” “For whom?” was the next question. “For my late wife.” “Monk,” the Teacher said, “this same woman in former days was wicked, and made you eat the leavings of her lover.” Then he told this story of the past.

In the past, while Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as one of a family of poor acrobats, that lived by begging. So when he grew up, he was needy and squalid, and by begging he lived.

There was at the time, in a certain village of Kāsi, a brahmin whose wife was bad and wicked, and did wrong. {2.168} And it befell that the husband went abroad one day upon some matter, and her lover watching his time went to visit the house. After she had received him, he said: “I will eat a bit before I go.” So she made ready the food, and served up rice hot with sauce and curry, and gave it him, bidding him eat; she herself stood at the door, watching for the brahmin’s coming. And while the lover was eating, the Bodhisatta stood waiting for a morsel.

At that moment the brahmin set his face for home. And his wife saw him drawing nigh, and ran in quickly, “Up, my man is coming!” and she made her lover go down into the store-room. The husband came in; she gave him a seat, and water for washing the hands; and upon the cold rice that was left by the other she turned out some hot rice, and set it before him. He put his hand into the rice, and felt that it was hot above and cold below. “This must be someone else’s leavings,” thought he; and so he asked the woman about it in the words of the first verse:

1. Añño uparimo vaṇṇo, añño vaṇṇo ca heṭṭhimo,
Brāhmaṇī tveva pucchāmi: kiṁ heṭṭhā, kiñ-ca upparī ti?

The appearance on top differs, the appearance below differs, brahminī I ask you: why is below cold, why is on top hot?

In this connection, the appearance means the form. This is questioning why on top is in a hot state, and below in a cold state, so he spoke.

Why is below cold, why is on top hot? The food that is served would normally be cold on top, and would be hot underneath, but here it is not so, because of that I ask you: “What is the reason the food is hot on top, and cold underneath?”

Again and again he asked, but she, fearing lest her deed should be discovered, held her peace. Then a thought came into our gymnast’s mind. “The man down in the store-room must be a lover, and this is the master of the house; the wife says nothing, for fear that her deed be made manifest. So ho! I will declare the whole matter, and show the brahmin that a man is hidden in his larder!” {2.169} And he told him the whole [2.118] matter; how that when he had gone out from his house, another had come in, and had done wrong; how he had eaten the first rice, and the wife had stood by the door to watch the road; and how the other man had been hidden in the store-room. And in so saying, he repeated the second verse:

2. Ahaṁ naṭosmi bhaddante, bhikkhakosmi idhāgato,
Ayañ-hi koṭṭham-otiṇṇo, ayaṁ so yaṁ gavesasī ti.

I am an actor, venerable one, I have come here for almsfood, truly he descended into the storeroom, you must seek him there.

In this connection, I am an actor, venerable one, means master, I am an actor by nature.

I have come here for almsfood, I have come to this place seeking alms for almsfood.

Truly he descended into the storeroom, but her paramour is enjoying this food and has descended into your storeroom through fear.

You must seek him there, he who you ask about, because of these leftovers, ought to be sought for there.

By his top-knot he haled the man out of the store-room, and bade him take care not to do the like again; and then he went away. The brahmin rebuked and beat them both, and gave them such a lesson that they were not likely to do the same again. Afterwards he passed away to fare according to his deeds.

When the Teacher had ended his discourse, he declared the Truths, and identified the Jātaka, at the conclusion of the Truths the lovesick monk reached the Fruit of the First Path, “Your late wife was then the brahmin’s lady; you, the lovesick monk, were the brahmin himself; and I was the gymnast.”