| J.518 |
Pa.n.dara Jaataka | Pa.n.daraka Jaataka |
A ship was once wrecked in mid-ocean and only a man called Karambiya survived. He
was cast up on a desert island where he wandered about naked and destitute. The people
thought he was an ascetic and built him a hermitage. Among his followers were a garuda-king
and a naga-king named Pandara. One day, at the instigation of the Garuda, the ascetic
wheedled out of Pandara the secret of how the nagas prevented themselves from being
carried away by garudas. They swallow large stones thus making themselves very heavy.
If garudas seized them by their tails, they would have to disgorge the stones and
could easily be carried off. Karambiya betrayed the secret to the garuda-king, who
thereupon seized Pandara in the right way and carried him away. Pandara begged for
mercy and the garuda set him free, warning him never again to tell his secret. Thereafter
the garuda and Pandara lived as friends. Pandara cursed Karambiya and his head split
into seven pieces. The story was related in reference to the wickedness of Devadatta
who is identified with Karambiya. Pandara was Sariputta and the garuda the bodhisatva. |
60/461 |
Jaataka |
Khuddhaka |
J.v.075ff, J.vi.177 |
hypocrisy, betrayal |