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YASHPEH
International Folktales Collection

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Story No. 2931


Sārambha-Jātaka

Book Name:

The Jataka (Volume I)

Tradition: India

"Speak kindly." – This story was told by the Master while at Sāvatthi, about the precept touching abusive language. The introductory story and the story of the past are the same as in the Nandivisāla-jātaka above. [1]

But in this case [375] there is the difference that the Bodhisatta was an ox named Sārambha, and belonged to a brahmin of Takkasilā in the kingdom of Gandhāra. After telling the story of the past, the Master, as Buddha, uttered this stanza: –

Speak kindly, revile not your fellow;

Love kindness; reviling breeds sorrow.

When the Master had ended his lesson he identified the Birth by saying, "Ānanda was the brahmin of those days, Uppalavaṇṇā his wife, and I Sārambha."

Comments:

[1] No. 28.

Abstract:

Like No. 28. How by incivil words to his bull a brahmin lost a bet, which by civility to the animal he afterwards won.

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