Jataka Tales Essay

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Summary of Tale No. 1: Apannaka Jataka In one of his lives Bodhisattva was born in Varanasi in a family of large merchants. Once he planned to set out on a business expedition with large merchandise requiring 500 wagons. On hearing this news another trader in Varanasi (named Devadatta) immediately assembled a similar convoy of 500 wagons towards the same destination. When Bodhisattva became aware of this information he reasoned that the forest passage would not be able to handle the huge load of 1000 wagons in one stretch and it would be in the mutual interest if they travel one after another separated by a gap of a few weeks to ease the load on the system, so that both can travel comfortably. Hence Bodhisattva called Devadatta for a discussion and explained his reasoning. He also gave the choice to Devadatta whether to go first or later. Since there were clear advantages in going first such as clear and unused road, fresh grass and fresh herbs for food, clear and unpolluted water and the big opportunity to fix the price of his own choice, Devadatta chose to go first. Bodhisattva agreed to this and opted to go later. However, he found some advantages in going later as well, such as traveling on a beaten tract, availability of softer grass for the oxen (the harder grass would have been consumed by oxen of the earlier retinue), usage of water from the wells dug by Devadatta (utilizing the infrastructure created by Devadatta) and avoiding the difficult task of price setting in a new market and benefiting from the use of already established prices. This forest passage was beset with scarcity of food and water and the threat of yakshas (a kind of demigod) who would deceive travelers and kill them. Devadatta prepared for water scarcity and carried large quantities of water in wagons. One yaksha seeing Devadatta’s big convoy thought of a treacherous plan. He came in wet
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