Ja 221 min read

The Dog

Kukkurajātaka

“The dogs that in the royal palace grow.”—This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about acting for the good of kinsfolk, as will be related in the Twelfth Book in the Bhaddasala-jataka. It was to drive home that lesson that he told this story of the past.

Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · Pāli: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka · Public domain (CC0) via SuttaCentral

0.1JātakaStories of Past Lives 22
0.2EkakanipātaThe Book of the Ones
0.3KuruṅgavaggaThe Four-horned Antelope

0.42. KukkurajātakaHounds: a past life story

1.1PTS 1.177“Ye kukkurā rājakulamhi vaddhā,The dogs raised in the royal family,¹1.2Koleyyakā vaṇṇabalūpapannā;pedigreed, handsome and strong,²1.3Teme na vajjhā mayamasma vajjhā,are not slaughtered, we are slaughtered—1.4Nāyaṁ saghaccā dubbalaghātikāyan”ti.this is not the mutts deserving death, <j>this is the killing of the weak.

2.1Kukkurajātakaṁ dutiyaṁ.

Translator’s notes

The Bodhisatta, born as a leader of a pack of dogs in the cemetery (!), protests the unjust slaughter of the wild dogs when it is the fancy hounds of the court who are the real culprits.
↩ ja22:1.1
For koleyyakā see AN 7.63:10.3.
↩ ja22:1.2