Reading Notes: Jataka Anthology

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit

Source: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

• A rabbit was asleep under a tree, dreaming about the world coming to an end
• A coconut falls behind the rabbit, awakening him
• The rabbit thinks the world is ending and takes off running
• While the rabbit is running, he tells another rabbit that the world is ending
• Hundreds of rabbits hear the world is ending, and run by a deer and tell the deer the world is ending
• Soon an elephant and a fox join in on the running
• Eventually, the animals come upon a lion
• The lion did not believe the world was ending and made the rabbit take him back to the source of the story that the world was ending
• The lion found the coconut, then returned to the rest of the animals to tell them the world was not ending as they had feared

Two Turtle Jatakas 

Source: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

• The Turtle and the King
• King's children find turtle by a lake, think it is a demon
• Children tell the king a demon is at the lake
• The king's men catch the turtle
• Children talk of how the turtle will be killed, someone mentions dumping the turtle in a lake with rapids
• Turtle pretends to think the lake is very cruel and survives happily when the king's men place him in the water
• The Turtle and the Geese
• A turtle befriends two geese
• The geese get ready to migrate, ask turtle to come along
• Turtle goes along by holding stick in his mouth that geese are carrying
• Turtle falls to his death when children make fun of the situation and he tries to respond

The Crocodile in the River

Source: Vanarinda Jataka, in The Jataka: Volume 1 translated by Robert Chalmers

• Another story about Buddha's birth as a monkey king
• Crocodile also trying to eat the monkey's heart in this story too
• Crocodile hides by a rock waiting for the monkey to catch him
• Monkey notices rock is at different elevation
• Monkey pretends that the rock usually talks to him, crocodile believes him and answers
• Monkey tells crocodile to open mouth and he would jump in
• Crocodile listens and closes eyes and opens mouth
• Monkey jumps on top of crocodile's head and onto bank
• Crocodile recites a poem about how cunning the monkey is

The image from Wikimedia shows a mugger crocodile, one of India's
three species of crocodile.

The Monkey who Gathered Lotuses

Source: The Jataka Volume 1 translated by Robert Chalmers

• Buddha birthed as a monkey
• Had not asked his father and asked his mother why, mother told him that his father is king and kills his sons so they do not take over the tribe
• Bodhisatta decides to visit father
• Bodhisatta's father decides to try to kill Bodhisatta by sending him to a lake to pick lotuses, but the lake is haunted by an ogre
• Bodhisatta notices no animals return from lake and decides to swoop over lake to pick flowers
• Ogre is so impressed that he carries flowers back to tribe for Bodhisatta
• The father dies and Bodhisatta is named king of the tribe
• A poem is recited at the end