Buddhist shelf · Pali Canon · Jātaka 273 · Tikanipāta · Udapānavagga
KacchapajātakaJātaka 273 · Volume 2, translated by W. H. D. Rouse (1895)
Public domain. W. H. D. Rouse’s translation was published in 1895. The Pali is the Mahāsaṅgīti edition published by SuttaCentral under CC0. The canonical Pali Jātaka consists of the verses only (3 verses here); the prose story around them comes from the later commentary, which the English translates in full. So the verses are shown beside the whole English story, not verse by verse.
Pali verses
“Ko nu uddhitabhattova,
pūrahatthova brāhmaṇo;
Kahaṁ nu bhikkhaṁ acari,
kaṁ saddhaṁ upasaṅkami”.
“Ahaṁ kapismi dummedho,
anāmāsāni āmasiṁ;
Tvaṁ maṁ mocaya bhaddaṁ te,
mutto gaccheyya pabbataṁ”.
“Kacchapā kassapā honti,
Koṇḍaññā honti makkaṭā;
Muñca kassapa koṇḍaññaṁ,
Kataṁ methunakaṁ tayā”ti.
English Rouse 1895
[359] "Quis pateram extendens," etc.--This story the Master told during a. stay in Jetavana, how a quarrel was made up between two magnates of the king's court in Kosala 1. The circumstances have been told in the Second Book.
Brahmadatta quondam Benari regnante, Bodisatta sacerdotali genere regno Kasensi natus, postquam ad puberem aetatem pervenit, in urbe Takkasila studiis se dedit, et mox, cum lubidines tandem compressisset, solitarius homo in agro Himavanto prope ripam Gangae frondibus ramisque arborum mapale contexit ubi habitaret, Facultates Potentiasque magicas foveret, gaudium perpetuae cogitationis perciperet. Tum quidem hoc modo nato ita mens erat placida placataque ut ad summam patientiam unus pervenerit.
Quem in limine casae sedentem visitabat Simius quidam impudentissimus pessimusque, inque aurem eius semen emittere solebat, neque tamen eius commovere poterat, sed sedebat porro summa animi tranquillitate Bodisatta. Accidit quondam ut ex aqua Testudo egressa somnum ore aperto captaret, in sole apricans. Quam cum vidisset Simius ille impudens, nec mora, pene in os inserto incepit futuere. Continuo Testudo experrecta os velut cistellam conclusit dentibusque comprendit id quod incertum erat. Simius cum nequiret nimium dolorem mulcere 'quo eam,' inquit, 'cui persuadeam ut hoc dolore me liberet?' Fore ut liberaretur ratus si ad Bodisattam pervenisset, Testudine ambabus manibus sublata ad Bodisattam pergit: qui ludos fecit Simium versibus his: [360]
"quis pateram extendens 1 nostram mendicat ad aulam?
unde venis? precibus quae, precor, esca datast?"
Quibus auditis Simius respondit:
"quod tetigisse nefas, tetigi: sum simius amens:
eripe me! creptus mox nemora alta petam."
Continuo pergit Bodisatta, Simium allocutus:
"Cassapa testudo genus est: Condannus at ille:
Cassapa Condannum mitte fututa precor 2."
[361] His verbis valde delectata Testudo Simium omisit: qui Bodisattae dicta salute, se in fugam dedit, neque umquam postea eum locum ne oculis quidem usurpavit. Testudo quoque cum salutem dixisset abiit, at Bodisatta, defixo in contemplatione perpetua animo, tandem in eum locum, cuius dominus Brahma deus, pervenit.
When this discourse was ended, the Master declared the Truths and identified the Birth: "The two magnates were the Monkey and Tortoise, and I was the hermit."
Translator’s notes (3)
p. 246, n. 1 Compare Nos. 154, 165.
p. 247, n. 1 The tortoise looked like a begging bowl.
p. 247, n. 2 A curious verse, as bearing on the laws of marriage. Kassapa means 'belonging to the Tortoise clan' (for which sec e.g. Muir, Sanskrit Texts, i. 438). The scholiast's note is: "The Tortoises are of the Kassapa clan, monkeys of the Koṇḍañña" = Skr. Kauṇḍinya, "between which two clans there is intermarriage (āvāhavivāhasambandho); now that it is consummated, let go."