The King and the Goat: A Jataka Tale
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Issue Date
1986
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Book, Whole
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Abstract
This book is consistent in form and bibliographical data with The Fish King's Power of Truth from the same year. A Naga ruler left his realm and took the shape of a snake. Senaka, the King of Benares, saw some boys abusing the snake and ordered them to stop. To reward him, the Naga gave him the gift to understand the speech of animals. A greedy wife coaxed Senaka to give her the secret spell to open her ears to the animals' talk. Senaka knew he would die for telling her, according to the promises he had made upon reception of the gift of understanding animals' talk. Shakra and one of her maidens then changed themselves into warring goats and appeared before Senaka. Shakra upbraided Senaka for selling himself when he had duties to take care of. When he said that he gave his word, he was advised to tell his wife that she needed to follow the procedure he had followed to get to understand animal speech. He proposed a trial of one hundred blows. She gave up after only a few. You care about your own suffering, but you did not care if I died to satisfy your greed. The queen left the kingdom and never returned. At the end, the Buddha reveals that he was Shakra, king of the gods, in the story. It is not clear what role Tulku and Mangalam play in the production of this booklet. They sign the introductory page about Jataka Tales.
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Dharma Publishing