Kulāvakajātaka
“Let all the forest’s nestlings.”—This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about a brother who drank water without straining it.
Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · Pāli: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka · Public domain (CC0) via SuttaCentral
1.1PTS 1.203“Kulāvakā mātali simbalismiṁ,Mātali, don’t ram the bird nests11.2Īsāmukhena parivajjayassu;in the red silk-cotton woods with your draft-pole.1.3Kāmaṁ cajāma asuresu pāṇaṁ,I’d rather give up our lives to the titans1.4Māme dijā vikkulāvā ahesun”ti.than deprive these birds of their nests.
2.1Kulāvakajātakaṁ paṭhamaṁ.
Apart from a couple of variant readings, this verse is identical with that from SN 11.6.
In Buddhist and Brahmanical literature, Mātali is the charioteer of Indra/Sakka. Here Sakka is telling him not to harm the nests, acknowledging the unacceptable ecological damage of warfare.
The commentary interprets kulāvakā as “nestlings”, but it refers rather to the “nests”.
