In this episode, we’re doing a few Jataka Tales. All of them have western variations that you might have heard in Aesop’s fables or other stories.
We’ll again learn wisdom from animals, starting with a swan with golden feathers!
This first story is about a poor man, Hans, and his poor wife and their three poor children.
By poor, I don’t mean that they deserved sympathy. I meant they lacked wealth and material possessions. The poverty line as defined in Ancient India was not a very high bar, to begin with. This family of 5 did not have much to do much to fall below that threshold. Hans was a skilled worker, but there weren’t any jobs. So he managed the only way he knew how – he begged for food. Now begging was a well-respected occupation in those days. Especially for the poor.
So Hans was actually proud of his profession.
Every day, Hans would go about the village begging for food enough to feed his hungry family. His family was not exactly the ideal types.
His wife, Lalchi, could have worked if she wanted to. But she didn’t want to waste her talents on just any job. She was waiting for the perfect one to come along. Just as she had been waiting for 20 years.
Hans’s older daughter refused to work on account of what she said was an in-growing toenail.
His son refused because a fortune teller had told him it would bring bad luck. Surely, his family wasn’t expecting him to make their poor situation a lot worse, now were they? It’s not that he objected to doing hard work. Or so he claimed.
Hans’s youngest daughter said, “Goo Goo Ga Ga” but little else. It wasn’t clear if that meant she was unwilling to earn money for the family. Because she was a baby. So Hans didn’t press the issue. He went about begging, daily including weekends and all public holidays. And the family got by. Maybe “got by” is a bit of a strong choice of words. They barely managed. The wife complained about what Hans brought back. “Not rice and cabbages again!” she said. When was he planning to bring rich food? How many times must she tell him to go where the rich people were. So that he could bring back Samosas, Pooris, Shrikhand.
“If I have to eat one more bite of cabbage it might kill me,” grumbled Hans’ daughter while serving herself several spoonfuls of the stuff.
“When will we have Gulab Jamoons?” asked Hans’ boy. The fortune-teller clearly said our luck will begin to turn when we eat Gulab Jamoons one day.
Hans’ younger daughter, the baby, was silently chewing her food, at the end of which she simply picked up her bowl and said “More?”
Hans was delighted, she had just said her first word! But there was no more food. So Hans give up his own share which the baby happily ate. Without so much as a thank you.
After listening to an earful from his wife about how he was not doing his job providing for the family, Hans finally went to sleep, in anticipation of another long and exhausting day walking the streets door-to-door. He didn’t know how long he could keep this going.
Well, the answer was not very long. Because the next morning, when everyone else woke up close to noon, they were surprised to see Hans still in bed when he should have begun his begging about 6 hours ago.
They poked him until they discovered that he had passed away in his sleep. The family was quite distraught. Naturally, and not least because this meant they might have to start earning for themselves.
The neighbors and other villagers helped out Hans’s family for a while. Just out of respect for Hans’s memory. But they soon tired of this. Especially when the ungrateful family asked for more.
Hans meanwhile had been reborn. As a Swan. With Golden feathers.
And Hans retained all memories of his past life. Even while he was enjoying the life of a swan, which included doing nothing much – just flying around wherever he wanted, swimming around and playing with other swans, and eating delicious fish every day from the pond. Maybe he enjoyed the freedom because he didn’t tie himself down in any domestic responsibilities – he just didn’t marry.
But memories of his past life kept tugging at his emotions. And finally one day he decided to check out how his family was doing. He flew back to the village he used to live in. He felt a flood of memories come back as he observed the streets he had walked on, and the doors he had knocked.
As he reached his home, he noticed but was not surprised to see the lawn was overgrown with weeds. Hmm, maybe there were some delicious bugs in there too. He must check out the place after he’d met his former human family. He saw his wife and children all wailing. That surprised him. It had been a month since he’d died, surely they weren’t still mourning him?
But then it became clear that they were wailing out of hunger. Turns out the neighbors’ patience had worn thin and they had stopped cooking for Hans’ family.
Hans landed in front of them, and said in a human voice “why are you all sitting here wailing? Why don’t you use this opportunity to earn for yourselves.”
Hans’s family all screamed out of terror now.
“That bird talked,” said the wife.
“Of course I talked,” said Hans boldly. Something he had never dared to do to his wife when he had been in human form. “I’m Hans. I’ve been reborn as a Swan”
The shock wore off quickly. “So while we have all been suffering here, you’ve been flying around, swimming around, going anywhere, doing anything you want?” asked his wife, accusingly.
“How did you know? I didn’t actually say that”
“No, but Narada did a minute or two ago. Your children and I are dying of hunger. You must do something for us!” replied his wife
“You could work, you know?” Hans tried. But he soon gave up when the wife again complained about the lack of a suitable job. She wasn’t okay working for anyone else. She wanted to be her own boss, and that pretty much ruled out every single entry-level job.
The older daughter complained about a bone spur that was preventing her from doing anything. And the boy continued to refuse because of the fortune teller’s advice.
Hans sighed and then with surprisingly human-like dexterity, plucked one of his golden feathers and handed it to his wife. This is pure gold, go sell it and you shall have enough to live on for a while.
It was more than enough. Pure gold like that helped them order doordash food for the next month. Maybe it would have lasted two months if they had done takeout from restaurants. Or maybe a whole year if they had purchased groceries and cooked their own food. But they didn’t and a month later they were back to square one. Luckily for them, Hans visited again and gave them another feather.
The gold price had fluctuated enough in their favor that Hans’ family could now afford to build a mansion! And employ a cook!
Everything went okay and Hans’ steady supply of gold kept them all happy.
Well, not all of them. Hans’ wife decided that the prudent thing to do was to grab all of the golden feathers at once. I mean why shouldn’t she? They were rightfully hers anyway. The bird didn’t need so many golden feathers. All that weight was probably slowing down its flight.
So the next time that Hans landed, she grabbed him by the neck and over his protests quickly got to work plucking all his feathers. She’d managed to pluck every bit of gold from his body when she realized that all the feathers she had collected had now changed to ordinary swan feathers.
Hans’ wife’s reaction was dramatic. She sobbed and wailed and accused Hans. It was all his fault. It was he who had not actively resisted years ago when they made flimsy excuses not to work. Why hadn’t he put his foot down and asked them to work for a living instead of depending on him?
Hans silently agreed with her.
He lay deep in pain in a corner of the house listening to everyone’s taunts. His wife did keep him around hoping that golden feathers would grow again.
Weeks later when his feathers had started growing back they were ordinary.
Hans sneaked out the back door before anyone could realize this – he escaped vowing never to return again.
That is the end of that story. It’s remarkably similar to later variations of the Goose with the Golden egg which is more famous in western cultures. Although I’m pretty sure each claims to be older than the other. I do like to think that this version is more logically plausible.
The person who killed the Goose that laid the Golden Egg must have known their actions were irreversible and yet they went ahead with it. Hans’s wife on the other hand thought plucking feathers was totally okay and that the feathers would grow back golden, which is a reasonable thing to assume.
As is usual on the show, the names of the characters represent the roles they play. “Hans” is the word for “Swan” and Lalchi means Greedy.
Anyway, on to our second story. This one features a Lion and a Woodpecker.
A lion was doing the usual thing that lions do. Killing deer, Eating Deer, and sleeping were the only items on his daily to-do list.
Like all other lions on the show, this one was particularly vicious. He was also a glutton.
One day, when he was enthusiastically devouring a particularly large deer that he had killed, a piece of the deer’s bone got stuck in the lion’s throat.
Serves him right, you might say. And you might be right. But wait and watch as the lion went around in that state asking everyone who passed by to help him.
The lionesses declined as they claimed they couldn’t reach their large paw into his small throat. Besides they didn’t have opposable fingers. How could they dislodge the bone?
A passing human did have opposable fingers but at the sight of the lion, he dashed away in fear. Maybe the lion shouldn’t have opened their conversation with a growl.
The lion asked a deer to help. But the deer was too frightened to put its head in the lion’s mouth. Literally.
Until finally the Lion spoke to a woodpecker. Now you might be wondering how the Lion managed to communicate all this with his throat jammed, but this part is glossed over in the original story, so let’s ignore it here as well.
The woodpecker hesitated before refusing. Which is more than any other animal had done.
So the lion continued to talk to her.
“But there are logistical challenges. How can I do it?” said the woodpecker.
“You could peck the bone and break it in two,” said the Lion.
“That’s a myth. We woodpeckers are fast, but I don’t think we have enough time for me to break the bone by pecking at it”.
“Okay, how about you grab the bone in your beak and pull it out?” asked the Lion
“What if you close your mouth and eat me?”
“I won’t,” said the Lion.
“Not that I don’t trust you,” said the woodpecker who totally did not trust the Lion, “but I have to have light to operate in there. I must keep your mouth propped open with a stick maybe.
“That bone is really hurting me, so I’ll be grateful if you remove it. If you must use a stick to keep my mouth open, so be it”
The king of the beasts, grateful? That is what swung the woodpecker in the direction of helping him. She imagined himself sitting on the Lion’s shoulder, barking orders at other animals as she and the Lion together ruled the jungle. “I’ll do it,” she said to the Lion.
She found a good-sized stick and with her beak placed it inside the lion’s jaws to keep his mouth propped open.
The woodpecker then flitted in, grabbed the bone, and flew out. She would have also removed the stick except that the lion simply forced his jaws closed, shattering the stick.
“Ah, that is such a relief,” he said and walked away back to his home. “Now as for all the animals who refused to help me, I’m going to have my sweet revenge. I’ll start by eating more deer tonight. And this time it shall be prepared for me boneless”
The woodpecker did not like this. The Lion was walking away without so much as a thank you for saving his life. “Wait a minute. What about my reward?” she asked
“Reward! You thought you’d be getting a reward for this?” sneered the Lion. “Bless your stars that I did not just eat you. Isn’t it rewarding enough that you can claim to your family and friends that you put your head inside the Lion’s mouth and survived?”
And that was that. There are many variations of this story in many other cultures. This features in Aesop’s fables as well. In those other versions, the Lion is replaced by a Wolf or a Tiger. And the Woodpecker by other birds including a Crane, a Stork, an Egret, and a Partridge.
Our final story for today features a Fox and a Crow.
One day a Crow got lucky. You see, every day it was eating boring food. A mouse here, insects there. All nutritious no doubt. But not the kind to be excited about.
The way the Crow got lucky is that he discovered a tree. A very special tree that had rose-apples. These were tastier than anything the Crow had eaten in his life. He sat on a branch eating them when a fox came by. The fox had been eyeing the rose-apple tree for a while. The fruit looked and smelled delicious. And yet somehow not a single piece of fruit had fallen to the ground. The fox had to wait patiently. Now he saw his chance as he looked at a particularly juicy-looking rose apple in the crow’s mouth.
“Hi Ms. Crow. How are you doing today?” he asked
Ms. Crow looked at him but did not say anything. Her beak was firmly gripping the rose-apple.
“I have come especially to meet you, Ms. Crow” continued Mr. Fox. “I’m a talent specialist and I’ve come because I’m going to make you a star.”
Ms. Crow was still silent.
“I have heard about your singing. Some say Swifts and Tailorbirds sing better than Crows, but you, madam, stand-alone. Come sign a deal with me and I’ll sign you up for a show – we can go international – Sydney Opera House, the Lincoln Center, Royal Albert Hall”
Ms. Crow was still silent.
“All I want Madam is for you to sing something for me, anything. Just a few notes will be good enough” continued Mr. Fox.
Ms. Crow finally reacted. Mr. Fox prepared himself to catch the juicy rose-apple just as it would fall out of her mouth.
But to Mr. Fox’s disappointment, Ms. Crow simply took out the rose apple and placed it next to her in a nook of the branch from where it would not fall off.
The disappointment was short-lived because Ms. Crow then said “It takes greatness to appreciate greatness”. Saying that she shook the tree so that some rose-apples fell down for Mr. Fox to grab.
That’s the end of the story. Though the premise is the same as Aesop’s version the outcome is rather different. In Aesop’s version, the crow does sing and the fox grabs the fruit or the piece of cheese or bread.
While Aesop’s message was to be watchful for flatterers with ulterior motives, the Buddha’s message is a little different. Flattery will get you everywhere.
I’ll also point out that there is a record of a version of this story going back 4000 years, back to the Indus Valley Civilization! Which might make this the oldest surviving record of a folktale. In Lothal, a pot is decorated with a fox and a crow holding a piece of fish in its mouth. Check out this link for some pictures.
That’s all for now.
Next Time
In the next episode, we’ll pick up where we left off with the Ramayana, as Ram and Laxman continue their search for Sita but first they must find Sugriva.