Losakajātaka
“The headstrong man.”—This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana about the Elder Losaka Tissa.
Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · Pāli: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka · Public domain (CC0) via SuttaCentral
1.1PTS 1.241“Yo atthakāmassa hitānukampino,One who does not follow advice when instructed11.2Ovajjamāno na karoti sāsanaṁ;by an ally who desires their good,1.3Ajiyā pādamolamba,grieves like Mittaka21.4Mittako viya socatī”ti.hanging off a goat’s foot.3
2.1Losakajātakaṁ paṭhamaṁ.
After an act of jealousy toward an arahant in a distant past life, so the story goes, Mittaka’s bad character, as much as his bad kamma, resulted in a series of extravagant tragedies over many lives.
Mittaka is called Mittavindaka in the past life story and Losaka Tissa in the story of the present. The name Losaka, otherwise unattested in Pali, is a patronymic stemming from Luśa Dhānāka of Rig Veda 10.35 and 10.36.
The details of how he came to be hanging off a goat’s foot are absurd and too complex to relate here. The events collate several stories of the archetypal scapegoat type, subsuming this ancient mythic and ritual idea under the doctrine of kamma. In such cases, absurdity is used for humorous effect, but it also draws on the surreal and fantastical narratives that swirl around the Vedic ritual. The story likely began as an explanation for a detail of Vedic sacrifice.
