Nigrodhamigajātaka
“Keep only with the Banyan Deer.”—This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana about the mother of the Elder named Prince Kassapa. The daughter, we learn, of a wealthy merchant of Rajagaha was deeply rooted in goodness and scorned all temporal things; she had reached her final existence, and within her breast, like a lamp in a pitcher, glowed her sure hope of winning Arahatship. As soon as she reached knowledge of herself, she took no joy in a worldly life but yearned to renounce the world. With this aim, she said to her mother and father, “My dear parents, my heart takes no joy in a worldly life; fain would I embrace the saving doctrine of the Buddha. Suffer me to take the vows.”
Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · Pāli: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka · Public domain (CC0) via SuttaCentral
1.1PTS 1.152“Nigrodhameva seveyya,Befriend only Banyan,11.2na sākhamupasaṁvase;stay away from Branch.1.3Nigrodhasmiṁ mataṁ seyyo,Better is death with Banyan1.4yañce sākhasmi jīvitan”ti.than life with Branch.
2.1Nigrodhamigajātakaṁ dutiyaṁ.
The king was a meat-lover who hunted deer each day. The deer made a pact to offer one from each herd by lot. When the lot fell on a pregnant doe in Branch’s herd, that wicked deer-king insisted she give herself up, but Banyan intervened and went himself. Seeing the noble deer-king’s self-sacrifice, the king spared his life, the lives of all deer, and even the lives of the fishes and birds.
This Jātaka was analyzed by T.W. Rhys Davids in his Buddhist India, who pointed out that it is an instance where the verse is unintelligible without the story. The story is illustrated on the stupa at Barhut.
