Ja 361 The Birth Story about (the Lion) Posssessed of Beauty (5s)

Ja 361 Vaṇṇārohajātaka Compare no. 349 supra, Tibetan Tales, xxxiii: The Jackal as Calumniator, and Benfey’s Introduction to the Panchatantra.
The Birth Story about (the Lion) Posssessed of Beauty (5s)

In the present a layman who waits on the two chief disciples tries to set them against each other, but to no avail. The Buddha tells a story of how a jackal tried to undo the friendship of a lion with a tiger, but was chased away when they found out his game.

The Bodhisatta = the Tree Devatā who dwelt in the grove (vane nivuttharukkhadevatā),
Moggallāna = the tiger (vyaggha),
Sāriputta = the lion (sīha),
the beggar = the jackal (sigāla).

Past Compare: Ja 349 Sandhibheda, Ja 361 Vaṇṇāroha.

Keywords: Quarrels, Friendship, Devas, Animals.

“Is it thus, Sudātha.” [3.126] {3.191} This story the Teacher, while dwelling at Jetavana, told concerning the two chief disciples. On a certain occasion the two chief elders resolved during the rainy season to devote themselves to solitude. So they bade the Teacher farewell and leaving the company of the monks they went forth from Jetavana, carrying their bowl and robes with their own hands, and lived in a forest near a border village. And a certain man, who waited on the elders and lived upon their leftovers, dwelt apart in the same place. On seeing how happily these elders lived together, he thought: “I wonder if it is possible to set them at variance.” So he drew near to Sāriputta and said: “Can it be, venerable sir, that there is some quarrel between you and the venerable chief elder Moggallāna?” “Why so, sir?” he asked. “He ever, venerable sir, speaks in your dispraise and says, “When I am gone, what is Sāriputta worth compared with me in caste, lineage, family and country, or in the power of Attainments in the sacred volumes?” The elder smiled and said: “Be off, sir!”

Another day he drew near to the chief elder Moggallāna, and said the same thing. He too smiled and said: “Be off, sir!” Moggallāna went to Sāriputta and asked, “Has this fellow, who lives on our leavings, said anything to you?” “Yes, friend, he has.” “And he said exactly the same thing to me. We must drive him away.” “Very well, friend, drive him away.” The elder said: “You are not to come here,” and snapping his fingers at him, he drove him away. The two elders lived happily together, and returning to the Teacher, made obeisance to him and sat down. The Teacher spoke kindly to them and asked if they had kept their retreat pleasantly. They said: “A certain beggar wished to set us at variance, but failing in the attempt he ran away.” The Teacher said: “Verily, Sāriputta, not only now, but formerly also, he thought to set you at variance, but failing in the attempt he ran away.” And hereupon at his request he related a story of bygone days.

In the past when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was a Tree Devatā in a forest. {3.192} At that time a lion and a tiger lived in a mountain cave in that forest. A jackal was in attendance on them, and living on their leftovers began to grow fat in body. And one day he was struck with the thought: “I have never yet eaten the flesh of a lion or a tiger. I must set these two animals at variance, and when in consequence of their quarrel they have come by their death, I will eat their flesh.” So he drew near to the lion and said: “Is there any quarrel, sir, between you and the tiger?” “Why so, sir?” “Your reverence,” he said, “he ever speaks in your dispraise and says, “When I [3.127] am gone, this lion will never attain to the sixteenth part of my personal beauty, nor of my stature and girth, nor of my natural strength and power.” Then the lion said to him, “Off with you. He will never speak thus of me.” Then the jackal drew near to the tiger also, and spoke after the same manner. On hearing him, the tiger hastened to the lion, and asked, “Friend, is it true, that you said so and so of me?” And he spoke the first verse:

2. “Is it thus Subāhu speaks of me?
In grace of form and pedigree,
In might and prowess in the field,
Sudāṭha still to me must yield.

3. If such injurious words are thine,
No more shall you be friend of mine.
The man that lends a ready ear
To any gossip he may hear,

4. Soon picks a quarrel with a friend,
And love in bitter hate will end.
No friend suspects without a cause,
Or carefully looks out for flaws;

5. But on his friend in trust will rest
As child upon its mother’s breast, {3.193}
And ne’er will by a stranger’s word
Be parted from his bosom’s lord.”

When the qualities of a friend had been thus set forth in these four verses, the tiger said: “The fault is mine,” and begged pardon of the lion. And they continued to live happily together in the same place. But the jackal departed and fled elsewhere.