Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales Reading A

In the first story, a king called Brahmadatta ruled over a land that had an adjoining forest. A troupe of monkeys lived in some trees in that forest, and were always careful to keep their presence secret. There were fresh mangoes on the trees and the chief always told them that if the stream carried fruit to the land where people lived, the people would come and take all their food. One day, fruit made its way over to the town. The king came with his subjects to get the fruit and kill the monkeys by trapping them on a tree. To save his troupe, the chief of monkeys made a bridge with a branch, but it was too short to reach, so he had to make his back part of the bridge. His back was broken by saving the monkeys, but the king felt so bad for the chief of monkeys that he gave him a nice last day of his life.

The other stories seemed very similar to this one. They're all about animals being killed or about to be killed until they are spared. For example, there was one involving two clans of deer that were not being hunted by a king because they were golden, and the king wanted to spare the golden deer. Instead, he hunted all the normal deer. The golden deer tried to save the normal deer by taking turns going where they might be hunted. One day, the leader of one clan, Banyan, took his turn, but the king would not hunt him. The king vowed to spare not only the golden deer, but all the other deer and animals in the forest.

My favorite story was about a man who wanted to make his family rich so that his daughters and wife would be spoiled. Unfortunately, a fairy turned him into a golden goose. He visited his family so that they could sell his golden feathers. His wife thought maybe the goose would stop coming, so they plucked out all of his feathers and always had money. However, his wife kept the poor goose (her husband) in a barrel with no food. Soon, white feathers grew on the goose and it flew away "far away to a forest where every bird was happy."

Image: Webshots

I tried to read the story about the swans, but I kept imagining different colored swans living in a pretty lake and the story seemed lame in comparison to the picture I was constructing in my mind.



Bibliograpy: Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat. Link to Reading Guide.