TheravādaJātaka Tales 119HOLYMAP · SACRED TEXTS
Jātaka TalesJātaka Tales 119

Jātaka Tales

Jātaka Tales 119

Akālarāvi-Jātaka

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English · E. B. Cowell (ed.), R. Chalmers, W. H. D. Rouse, H. T. Francis, R. A. Neil

Akālarāvi-Jātaka

“No parents trained.”—This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about a Brother who used to be noisy at wrong seasons. He is said to have come of a good Savatthi family and to have given up the world for the Truth, but to have neglected his duties and despised instruction. He never took count of the hours for duties, for ministry or for reciting the texts. Throughout the three watches of the night, as well as the hours of waking, he was never quiet;—so that the other Brethren could not get a wink of sleep. Accordingly, the Brethren in the Hall of Truth censured his conduct. Entering the Hall and learning on enquiry what they were talking about, the Master said, “Brethren, as now, so in past times, this Brother was noisy out of season, and for his unseasonable conduct was strangled.” So saying he told this story of the past.. Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born into a northern brahmin family, and when he grew up, learned all knowledge and became a teacher of world-wide fame with five hundred young brahmins studying under him. Now these young brahmins had a cock who crowed betimes and roused them to their studies. And this cock died. So they looked all about for another, and one of their number, when picking up firewood in the cemetery-grove, saw a cock there which he brought home and kept in a coop. But, as this second cock had been bred in a cemetery, he had no knowledge of times and seasons, and used to crow casually,—at midnight as well as at daybreak. Roused by his crowing at midnight, the young brahmins fell to their studies; by dawn they were tired out and could not for sleepiness keep their attention on the subject; and when he fell a-crowing in broad day they did not get a chance of quiet for repeating their lesson. And as it was the cock’s crowing both at midnight and by day which had brought their studies to a standstill, they took the bird and wrung his neck. Then they told their teacher that they had killed the cock that crowed in and out of season.

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English · E. B. Cowell (ed.), R. Chalmers, W. H. D. Rouse, H. T. Francis, R. A. Neil

Said their teacher, for their edification, “It was his bad bringing up that brought this cock to his end.” So saying, he uttered this stanza:—

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English · E. B. Cowell (ed.), R. Chalmers, W. H. D. Rouse, H. T. Francis, R. A. Neil

No parents trained, no teacher taught this bird: Both in and out of season was he heard.

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English · E. B. Cowell (ed.), R. Chalmers, W. H. D. Rouse, H. T. Francis, R. A. Neil

Such was the Bodhisatta’s teaching on the matter; and when he had lived his allotted time on earth, he passed away to fare according to his deserts.;

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English · E. B. Cowell (ed.), R. Chalmers, W. H. D. Rouse, H. T. Francis, R. A. Neil

His lesson ended, the Master identified the Birth as follows,—“This Brother was the cock of those times, who did not know when not to crow; my disciples were the young brahmins; and I their teacher.”

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Jātaka Tales 119English
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Pāli text: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka Buddhavasse 2500 (M.L. Maniratana Bunnag Dhamma Society Fund), as published by SuttaCentral. Public domain. · Source ↗

Pāli text: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka, via SuttaCentral. Public domain. The canonical Jātaka is the verses only; each verse is shown with the English stanza that translates it where the stanzas could be matched one to one, and after the English story otherwise.

The Cambridge translation edited by E. B. Cowell (1895–1907), read from scans of the printed volumes. Like other translators of the time, they put a few passages into Latin. A handful of Pāli names with diacritics may appear garbled.

The Jātaka, or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births, translated from the Pāli by various hands under the editorship of E. B. Cowell, 6 vols. (Cambridge University Press, 1895–1907). Public domain. Text read from scans in the Internet Archive (Smithsonian Libraries, Cornell University Library, University of California Libraries and others). · Source ↗

The Jātaka, or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births, ed. E. B. Cowell, 6 vols. (Cambridge, 1895–1907). Public domain. Read from scans of the printed edition: every word was checked against three or four independent scans of the same printing and corrected where they agree; footnotes, running heads and page numbers are left out. Diacritics the OCR could not read are not reproduced.

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