AVADANA/JATAKA

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Sigala Jataka
Mati Posaka Jataka
Story  of King Sivi 
Vidhura Jataka
Story of King Surupa
Story of Bhuridatta
Kaccapavadana
Cula Nandiya Jataka
Kancanakkhanda Jataka
King Padmaka Jataka
Story of Manohara
Story of Mandhatar
Samuddavanija Jataka
Story of the Sibi King
Story of the Dharma Seeker
Story of Sambula
Story of Rudrayana
Story of Bhallatiya
Valahassa Jataka
Story of Maitrakanyaka

"Thus instructed by the fays the King returned upon his ways,
He ceased to hunt, and fed the needy, and so enjoyed his fleeting days."
"Take a lesson from the fays, and quarrel not,
but mend your ways.
Lest you suffer, like the fairy, your own error all your days.

"Take a lesson from the fays, and bicker not,
but mend your ways.
Lest you suffer, like the fairy, your own error all your days."

From the Divyavadana, No. 37. The rendition of the tale that appears below is based on the translation by N. J. Krom that appears in Barabudur: An Archaeological Description.

• Relief 64. Rudrayana asks the merchants about Rajagtha and Bimbisara.

• Relief 66. A banquet is offered to Rudrayana

King Bimbisara justly ruled over the city of Rajagrha during the time that the Buddha dwelt there. In the far-distant city of Roruka, King Rudrayana ruled in a no less beneficent fashion. When merchants from Rajagrha brought their goods to Roruka; the king was eager to hear news of their homeland, about which the merchants had many good things to say about both country and king. This caused King Rudrayana to long for intercourse with King Bimbisara, so he gave them a letter and a chest of jewels to deliver to their king.

• Relief 65. Bimbisara receives the letter.

• Relief 67. Bimbisara receives the box of jewels.

• Relief 68. Rudrayana receives the chest of garments.

The merchants soon returned with a letter from King Bimbisara as well as a chest full of rich garments for Roruka's reigning monarch. It was now Rudrayana's turn to send back a gift and for this prupose he chose his famous cuirass, which not only had miraculous powers but was also ornemented with priceless jewels.

• Relief 69. Bimbisara receives the cuirass.

Embarrassed by the magnificence of this present, King Bimbisara sought out the counsel of the Buddha, who advised the king to have the Tathagata's likeness painted onto a cloth and delivered to the ruler of Roruka. At first, the painters were unable to successfully render the Buddha's image succeed onto cloth. So the Buddha cast his own shadow on the cloth, thereby causing his image to be outlined in color. In addition, the remaining white space around the Buddha's image was filled in with suitable words and verses.

Then King Bimbisara wrote a letter telling King Rudrayana that he was now sending him the most precious thing that the world contained, which he must receive with due honor. And so it was done.

• Relief 70. The portrait of the Buddha is received in state at Roruka.

• Relief 71. Rudrayana makes inquiries about the Buddha.

Rudrayana escorted the treasure with troops along decorated roads into the city. When the cloth was unrolled, some merchants who happened to be present, shouted "Hail Buddha!" The king at once made inquiries as to who or what Buddha might be, and was told his story.

Rudrayana pondered over the writing on the picture and after meditating further on these principles, finally attained the rank of a srota-apanna. Desiring greatly to obtain the presence of a bhiksu at his court, he and dispatched another letter to Bimbisara. Hering of the correspondance, the Buddha himself selected the venerable Mahakatyayana to appear in King Rudrayana's court, where he was received with great respect.

• Relief 72. Mahakatyayana preaches at the court.

Mahakatyayana's preaching made numbers of converts among the population. Chief among these were the heads of two families, Tisya and Pusya, who attained the grade of arhat and whose remains after death were honored and preserved in two stupas.

The king's approval of Mahakatyayana's preaching roused in the women's apartment a longing to hear the doctrine. However, the bhiksu Mahakatyayana declared that he was not allowed to enter therein and therefore advised the court to send for a bhiksun1 from Rajagrha.

• Relief 73. Caila preaches in the zenana.

• Relief 74. Queen Candraprabha is ordained nun.

Thereafter a nun named Qaila arrived in King Rudrayana's court, whose words made a deep impression, especially on queen Candraprabha. When the queen received a warning of her approaching death, she asked and obtained her husband's consent tobecome a nun in hope of reaching the state of an arhat and reincarnation as a goddess.

• Relief 75. The goddess Candraorabha appears to her former husband.

• Relief 76. Rudrayana announces his intention of abdicating.

When this later came to pass, she appeared to the king as goddess and urged him to follow her example so that they could be re-united in heaven. Following her advice, the king resigned the kingdom in favor of his son Qikhandin. He then counseled the new king to govern justly and act on the advice of his wise ministers Hiru and Bhiru. The former king then retired to Rajagrha where he was ordained by the Buddha himself.

• Relief 77. Rudrayana the monk and King Bimbisara.

When the venerable Rudrayana went begging in the streets of Rajagrha, he encountered King Bimbisara, who could not understand the renouncement of his former colleague and tried through various inducements to persuade him to change his mind and return to the pleasures of life. However, Rudrayana remained firm in his convictions.

• Relief 78. Rudrayana hears of his son's misconduct, Qikhandin gives the order for his father's murder.

Meanwhile things began to go wrong back in Roruka, where King Qikhandin was ruling unjustly and oppressing his subjects. When the two ministers continued to weary the king with their repeated warnings, Qikhandin dismissed them and appointed bad councillors in their place. Merchants related all this to Rudrayana, who thought that it was his duty to return to Roruka and set his son once more on the right path.

His plan became known to his son's new ministers, who, fearing their downfall, wished by all means to prevent Rudrayana's return. After persuading King Qikhandin that his father intended to take the government again into his own hands, they advised the monarch to have the old king put to death. The murderers encountered Rudrayan while the former king was on his way home. Before his executioners were able to strike, Rudrayana gained their permission to withdraw. Seated beneath a tree the former monarch was able to attain the state of an arhat.

With his last words the former king pronounced that his son was doomed to hell for murdering his own father as well as for killing an arhat. After making this observation, the former king willingly allowed himself to be put to death.

• Relief 79. Qikhandin is informed of the murder; his conversation with the queen-mother.

Only when the ministers had brought the murderers to him did King Qikhandin realized the heinious crime that he had committed. In despair, he recalled the advise of his former ministers Hiru and Bhiru. In response, the evil councillors endeavoured to convince the king that his remorse was misplaced.

The queen-mother undertook to assist them by telling her son that Rudrayana was not his father. She also attempted to show the king that the status of an arhat was worthless. The queen-mother and the two evil ministers cause a hole to be made under the stupas of Tisya and Pusya. They then induced two young cats to live within, animals that had been trained to appear at a certain sign, take a bit of meat and then circumambulate the stupa before returning to their hole.

• Relief 80. The performance of the trained cats at the stupas.

The two evil ministers requested that the king accompany them to visit the stupas of Tisya and Pusya. When they arrived, the ministers addressed the king as follows:

"As sure as ye, Tisya and Pusya, have always deceived people and are now changed into cats dwelling in your own stupa, I adjure ye to fetch this bit of meat, to walk the pradaksina round the stupas and then return to your hole."

The cats then performed what had been taught and the king was quite convinced that the arhat-ship was an imposture.

So the king continued in his evil ways, depriving the monks and nuns of nourishment and thereby causing them to desert the city. As he departed the city for the final time, the bikshu Mahakatyayana endeavoured to avoid the king by going another way. On the evil advice of his ministers, the king ordered his followers to throw handfuls of sand onto the monk until the bikshu was buried under a sandheap. Fortunately the king's former ministers Hiru and Bhiru arrived on the scene and, with the help of some cowherds, rescued Mahakatyayana from an untimely death.

• Relief 81. The king returns after his vengeance on Mahakalyayana; the monk foretells the destruction of the city.

The holy man then prophesied the end of the evil king and his city. For six days it would rain precious things, he proclaimed, but on the seventh a storm of sand would annihilate all of Roruka. He then told the two former ministers make ready a ship,and on the sixth day load it up with the showers of jewels that would descend and then sail away. following the bikshu's advice, the two ministers--together with their treasures--became the founders of new cities called Hiruka and Bhirukaccha.

Relief 82. The shower of precious stones.

• Relief 83. The erection of the stupa at Khara.

Not until the rain of sand began to fall did Mahakatyayana leave a city doomed to ruin. He was acccompanied by Cyamaka--the son of Hiru--and the godess of Roruka, who had asked to follow them. They flew through the air until the came to Khara. Here the godess was obliged to remain, because one of the citizens, in order to secure her beneficent presence for his town, had made her promise to take care of his stick and key till he returned. Then he had made away with himself so that the goddess would be unable to depart.

• Relief 84. Cyamaka is offered a kingdom.

The saint Mahakatyayanat left behind as a remembrance his bowl over which a stupa was erected and a festival founded. Then he continued his flight with Cyamaka. Having noticed that when the young man sat under a tree the shadow of the tree never left him, they offered the young man the title of king because the residents were in need of a good monarch.

• Relief 85. Erection of the stupa at Vokkana.

• Relief 86. Hiru lands at Hiruka.

• Relief 87. Mahakatyayana returns to Sravasti.

• Relief 88. Bhiksu lands at Bhirukaccha.

In the end, Mahakatyayana came to Vokkana alone. Here he presented his staff to his former mother, over which a stupa was eventually erected. After giving his shoes to the goddess of the North so that they could be honored in a stupa, he arrived at Travesty, where he related what had happened to the delight of the bhiksus in attendance.

No. 504. The Bhallatiya Jakata - 1st Gallery Balustrade, Upper Register 89-90

While dwelling at the Jetavana grove, the Master told the following story about the 'Jessamine Bride' Mallika.

One day a quarrel broke out between Mallika and the king concerning the monarch's conjugal rights. The king became so angry that he would no longer look at her.

"I suppose," she thought, "that the Tathagata does not know that the king has become with me."

When the Master learnt of it, he decided to seek alms in Benares the very next day. Accompanied by the Brethren, he repaired to the gate of the king's palace.

Venturing forth to meet the Blessed One, the king relieved the Master of his bowl, took him up onto the terrace of the palace. Setting the Brethren down in due order, the king poured the water of welcome, and then offered up excellent food. After the meal was over, the king sat down on one side.

"Why has Mallika not appeared?" asked the Master.

"Tis due to her own foolish pride in her prosperity," replied the king.

"0 great king," said the Master. "Long ago when you were a kinnari, you were kept apart for a single night from your kinnara mate, an event which caused you to mourn for seven hundred years."

Then at the king's request, the Master told this story of the past.

Once upon a time, a king named Bhallatiya reigned in Benares. Seized with a desire to eat venison that had been broiled over charcoal, that monarch left his kingdom in the charge of his courtiers. Girding himself with the five weapons and issued forth from the city gates, he traveled to the Himalaya region, together with a well-trained pack of clever pedigree hounds.

After following the course of the Ganges river until he could go no further, the king veered off to one side in order to explore a length of one of that great river's tributary streams. Killing both deer and pig along the way, he paused now and then to enjoy their broiled flesh.

After climbing to a great height, the king eventually reached a place where that pleasant tributary stream ran full. Although the water was presently breast-high, at other times of the year, the stream's height, no doubt, would be no more than knee-deep.

He saw fish and tortoises of all sorts gamboling about that place and the sand at the water's edge was like unto silver. Moreover, the branches of the trees that lined both banks of that stream were bent beneath loads of flowers and fruit. Bird and bees drunk with the sweet nectar of fruit and flowers flitted about the stream's shady shores, where herds of all manner of deer were wont to frequent.

Now on the bank of this beautiful mountain stream two fairies fondly embraced and kissed one another, then fell a weeping and wailing most pitifully.

As the king climbed Mount Gandhamadana by way of this river bank,
he came upon two fairies who were weeping.

"Whatever can these fair creatures be crying about?" wondered the king. "I shall have to go and ask them."

Giving a glance to his hounds, the king snapped his fingers. In recognition of this sign, the thoroughbred dogs--who knew their work well-crept into the underwood and then crouched down on their bellies so that they could not easily be seen.

As soon as the king saw that his hounds were out of the way, he silently laid his bow, his quiver and his other weapons down next to a tree that stood near. Without letting his footsteps betray him, the king stole gently up to the fairies, and asked: "Why are you weeping?"

In response to the king's question, the male kinnari said nothing. However, his kinnara mate offered the following reply:

"Malla, Three-peak, Yellow Hill,
We traverse, following each cool rill.
Human-like the wild things deem us:
But huntsmen call us goblins still."

Then the king continued:

"Though like lovers you caress,
You weep as though in deep distress.
O you human-seeming creatures,
Why this weeping? Come, confess!

"Though like lovers you caress
You weep as though in deep distress.
O you human-seeming creatures,
Why this sorrowing! Come, confess!

"Though like lovers you caress
You weep as though in deep distress.
O you human-seeming creatures,
Why this mourning? Come, confess?"

In response, the female fairy answered:

"We apart one night had lain,
Both loveless and in bitter pain,
Thinking each of the other,
But never will that night come back again."

The king then inquired:

"Why then spend that night alone
Which cost you to utter a sigh and groan.
O you human-seeming creatures,
For money lost? A father gone?"

The kinnara replied:

"Shaded thick yon river flows between the rocks. A storm arose. Then with anxious care to find me right across my loved one goes.

"All the while with busy feet, I was gathering thyme and meadowsweet, all to make my love a garland and myself, when we again should meet.

"Clustering harebell, violet blue, and white narcissus fresh with dew, all to make my love a garland and myself, when we again should meet.

"Then I plucked a bunch of rose, that is the fairest flower that grows, all to make my love a garland and myself, when we again should meet.

"Flowers next and leaves I found,
and strewed them thickly on the ground,
Where the live-long night together we might slumber soft and sound.

"Sandal and sweet woods anon I pounded finely upon a stone,
Perfume for my love's limbs making, sweetest perfume for my own.

"By the river flowing fast I gathered lilies to the last
But evening came, the river swelling, made it hopeless to get past.

"There we stood on either shore, Each on the other gazing over. How we laughed and cried together! Ah that night we suffered sore.

"Morning came, the sun was high and soon we saw the river dried. Then we crossed, and close embracing both at once we laughed and cried.

"Seven hundred years but three since we were parted, I and he.
When two loving hearts are severed it seems a whole long life to be."

The king then inquired:

"What's the limit of your years? If this by rumors old appears
Or the teaching of the elders, tell me it, and have no fears."

The kinnara replied:

"A thousand summers, strong and hale,
never deadly pains assail,
Little sorrow, bliss abundant,
to the end love's joys prevail."

After listening to the kinnara's replies, the king thought: "These creatures, who are less than human, go weeping for seven hundred years just because of one night's parting. meanwhile here am I, the Lord of a realm spanning three hundred leagues. Leaving behind all my magnificence, I now wander about this forest. What a great mistake I have made."

Having had this realization, the king decided to return home immediately. When that monarch had arrived back in Benares, the courtiers asked the king whether he had encountered anything marvelous in his travels through the Himalayas. So he told them the whole story. From that day forward, the king gave alms and endeavored to enjoy his wealth.

Explaining this matter, the Master recited these stanzas:

"Thus instructed by the fays
The King returned upon his ways,
He ceased to hunt, and fed the needy,
and so enjoyed his fleeting days."

"Take a lesson from the fays,
And quarrel not, but mend your ways.
Lest you suffer, like the fairy,
your own error all your days.

"Take a lesson from the fays,
And bicker not, but mend your ways.
Lest you suffer, like the fairy,
Your own error all your days."

After having heard the Tathagata's admonition, the Lady Mallika rose her couch, joined her hands together, made a reverent obeisance, and then recited this last stanza:

"Holy man, with willing mind
I hear thy words so good and kind.
Blessings on thee! Thou hast spoken,
All my sorrow's left behind."

Ever afterwards the King of Kosala lived with her in harmony.

Having ended this discourse, the Master identified the Birth:

"At that time the King of Kosala was the kinnari, Lady Mallika was his kinnara mate, and I myself was King Bhallatiya."

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