| J.357 |
La.tukika Jaataka |
A quail once laid her eggs in the feeding ground of the elephants. When the young
ones were hatched, the Bodhisatva, leader of the elephants, passed along that way
with the herd, and, at the request of the mother quail, carefully avoided the young
ones. A rogue elephant, who came later, however, though warned in the same way, trod
on the nest and fouled it. The quail swore revenge and got a crow to put out the
elephantís eyes and a fly to lay maggots in them. When in great pain, the elephant
sought water, she persuaded a frog to croak on a mountaintop and thus led the elephant
to fall over a precipice to his death. The story was told in reference to Devadatta
who is identified with the rogue elephant. In the accounts of the quarrel between
the Sakyans and the Koliyans, this Jataka is said to have been one of those preached
by the Buddha, showing that even a weak animal such as a quail could cause the death
of an elephant. |
58/757 |
Jaataka |
Khuddhaka |
J.iii.174ff. |
consideration |