Buddhist Birth Stories (Jātaka Tales) — SelectionsBuddhismLegend / Oral TraditionPaliShareBuddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 29T. W. Rhys Davids (1880) - EnglishMoreVersion - 1 availableT. W. Rhys Davids (1880)LanguageEnglishEspañol‹Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 1Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 2Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 3Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 4Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 5Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 6Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 9Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 10Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 11Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 12Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 13Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 14Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 15Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 16Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 18Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 19Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 20Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 21Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 22Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 23Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 24Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 25Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 26Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 27Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 28Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 29Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 30Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 31Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 32Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 33Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 34Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 35Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 36Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 37Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 38Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 39Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 40›Tale No. 29: The Old Woman’s Black Bull / Kaṇha JātakaBuddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 29ListenPlay this chapter in spoken English.Save chapterListen to chapter“Whene’er the load be heavy.”--This the Master told while at Jetavana, about the Double Miracle. That and the Descent from Heaven will be explained in the Birth Story of the Sarabha Antelope, in the Thirteenth Book. The Supreme Buddha performed on that occasion the Double Miracle, remained some time in heaven, and on the Great Day of the Pavāraṇā Festival descended at the city of Saŋkassa, and entered Jetavana with a great retinue. When the monks were seated in the Lecture Hall, they began to extol the virtue of the Teacher, saying, “Truly, Brethren! unequalled is the power of the Tathāgata. The yoke the Tathāgata bears none else is able to bear. Though the Six Teachers kept on saying, ‘We will work wonders! We will work wonders!’ they could not do even one. Ah! how unequalled is the power of the Tathāgata!” When the Teacher came there, he asked them what they were discussing, and they told him. Then he said, “O mendicants! who should now bear the yoke that I can bear? For even when an animal in a former birth I could find no one to drag the weight I dragged.” And he told a tale. * * * * * Long ago, when Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares, the Bodisat returned to life as a bull. Now, when it was still a young calf, its owners stopped a while in an old woman’s house, and gave him to her when they settled their account for their lodging. And she brought him up, treating him like a son, and feeding him on gruel and rice. He soon became known as “The old woman’s Blackie.” When he grew up, he roamed about, as black as collyrium, with the village cattle, and was very good-tempered and quiet. The village children used to catch hold of his horns, or ears, or dewlaps, and hang on to him; or amuse themselves by pulling his tail, or riding about on his back. One day he said to himself, “My mother is wretchedly poor. She’s taken so much pains, too, in bringing me up, and has treated me like a son. What if I were to work for hire, and so relieve her distress!” And from that day he was always on the look out for a job. Now one day a young caravan owner arrived at a neighbouring ford with five hundred bullock-waggons. And his bullocks were not only unable to drag the carts across, but even when he yoked the five hundred pair in a row they could not move one cart by itself. The Bodisat was grazing with the village cattle close to the ford. The young caravan owner was a famous judge of cattle, and began looking about to see whether there were among them any thoroughbred bull able to drag over the carts. Seeing the Bodisat, he thought he would do; and asked the herdsmen-- “Who may be the owners, my men, of this fellow? I should like to yoke him to the cart, and am willing to give a reward for having the carts dragged over.” “Catch him and yoke him then!” said they. “He has no owner hereabouts.” But when he began to put a string through his nose and drag him along, he could not get him to come. For the Bodisat, it is said, wouldn’t go till he was promised a reward. The young caravan owner, seeing what his object was, said to him, “Sir! if you’ll drag over these five hundred carts for me, I’ll pay you wages at the rate of two pence for each cart--a thousand pieces in all.” Then the Bodisat went along of his own accord. And the men yoked him to the cart. And with a mighty effort he dragged it up and landed it safe on the high ground. And in the same manner he dragged up all the carts. So the caravan owner then put five hundred pennies in a bundle, one for each cart, and tied it round his neck. The bull said to himself, “This fellow is not giving me wages according to the rate agreed upon. I shan’t let him go on now!” And so he went and stood in the way of the front cart, and they tried in vain to get him away. The caravan owner thought, “He knows, I suppose, that the pay is too little;” and wrapping a thousand pieces in a cloth, tied them up in a bundle, and hung that round his neck. And as soon as he had got the bundle with a thousand inside he went off to his ‘mother.’ Then the village children called out, “See! what’s that round the neck of the old woman’s Blackie?” and began to run up to him. But he chased after them, so that they took to their heels before they got near him; and he went straight to his mother. And he appeared with eyes all bloodshot, utterly exhausted from dragging over so many carts. “How did you got this, dear?” said the good old woman, when she saw the bag round his neck. And when she heard, on inquiry from the herdsmen, what had happened, she exclaimed, “Am I so anxious, then, to live on the fruit of your toil, my darling! Why do you put yourself to all this pain?” And she bathed him in warm water, and rubbed him all over with oil, and gave him to drink, and fed him up with good food. And at the end of her life she passed away according to her deeds, and the Bodisat with her. * * * * * When the Teacher had finished this lesson in virtue, in illustration of that saying of his (“Not now only, O mendicants, has the Bodisat been excellent in power; he was so also in a former birth”), he made the connexion, and, as Buddha, uttered the following stanza: Whene’er the load be heavy, Where’er the ruts be deep, Let them yoke ‘Blackie’ then, And he will drag the load! Then the Blessed One told them, “At that time, O mendicants, only the Black Bull could drag the load.” And he then made the connexion and summed up the Jātaka: “The old woman of that time was Uppala-vaṇṇā, but ‘the old woman’s Blackie’ was I myself.” ‹Previous chapterBuddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 28Next chapterBuddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I 30›Similar passagesBy tradition and source labelFind similarCompare selectedCompare with similarAsk Deep ThoughtSelect passages to search for parallels.Tap any verse to select it, then compare selected passages or ask Deep Thought. Public domain