Kharādiyajātaka
“For when a deer.”—This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana about an unruly Brother. Tradition says that this Brother was unruly and would not heed admonition. Accordingly, the Master asked him, saying, “Is it true, as they say, that you are unruly and will not heed admonition?”
Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · Pāli: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka · Public domain (CC0) via SuttaCentral
1.1PTS 1.160“Aṭṭhakkhuraṁ kharādiye,“Please accept the eight-hooved ass,11.2migaṁ vaṅkātivaṅkinaṁ;the deer more wily than the wily.”21.3Sattahi kālātikkantaṁ,“He has skipped the appointment seven times—1.4na naṁ ovaditussahe”ti.I’ll make no attempt to instruct him.”
2.1Kharādiyajātakaṁ pañcamaṁ.
The story tells how the Bodhisatta declared the deer unteachable after he failed to show up for lessons on the ruses of deer seven times. The verses and stories form a pair with the next Jātaka. Though the verses are in different metres, the prevalence of shared terms, ideas, and poetic play shows they must have been composed together.
The commentary takes kharādiye as the vocative of kharādiyā, the name of the Bodhisatta’s sister. However, I take khara as “ass, mule” and ādiye as second optative, “you should accept”. Asses have solid hooves, as opposed to the cloven-footed deer.
The commentary says his antlers were “crooked root to tip”. But it probably refers to the ruses of animals (MN 51:4.14, AN 8.13:1.11), in which case it may well have been meant as praise.
