Discourse on Laṭukika Jātaka

Then the Buddha went on to explain to them that sometimes it is possible that a weak one could get an opportunity to destroy a strong one while, on other occasions, the strong one gets the chance to wreak havoc with a weak one. Giving the instance where a young skylark had caused the death of a full grown elephant, He gave the following discourse on Laṭukika Jātaka of Pancaka Nipata:

“Excellencies.... Once upon a time, a Bodhisatta was born as an elephant during the reign of King Brahmadatta in Bārāṇasī. When it grew up, it had a fine appearance with a huge body. It lived in the forests of Himalayas, governing a herd of elephants numbering eighty thousand.

At that time a female skylark happened to have laid her eggs on the beaten tracks of elephants. The Bodhisatta elephant travelled, in the company of eighty thousand elephants, along the route at a time when the chicken skylarks were not yet capable of flying. Eventually, the Bodhisatta and his herd of elephants arrived at the spot where the skylarks were staying.

When the skylark saw the king elephant, she was worried about the safety of her chickens. She thought: “If I did not approach the king elephant, it would surely tread upon my chickens and kill them. I should immediately approach it with a request for a rightful protection of my chickens.” So with her wings closed together as if to make obeisance, she stood right in front of the king elephant and made her submission:

Vandāmi tam kuñcara saṭṭhihayanam
ārannakam yuthapatim yasassiṃ
pakkhehi tam pañcalikaṃ karomi
mā me vadhī puttake dubbalāya.

O Your Majesty, King of elephants.... one whose strength wanes only at the age of sixty, chief of the herd of elephants that roam in the forest, I salute you, paying my homage to you with clasped wings. I pray that my children be spared their lives by not treading upon them.

Whereupon the Bodhisatta gave her comfort with those words: “O young female skylark, don't be downhearted, I will protect your chickens so that no harm will come to them,” and he stood over the young ones shielding them with his body. All the elephants by-passed him and the young skylarks were saved. The Bodhisatta then called the female skylark and gave an advice before he left: “Young female skylark, a large rogue elephant, with no companions, will come this way after us. He will not take our words. When he comes along, you had better approach him also for the safety of your children, praying him to spare their lives.”

When the female skylark saw the rogue elephant coming along, she approached him with her wings clasped in homage and beseeched him thus as advised by the elephant King!:

Vandami taṃ kuñjara ekacāriṃ
āraññakam pabbatasānugocaraṃ
pakkhehi tam pañcalikaṃ karomi
mā me vadi puttake dubbalāya

O elephant king, a lone wanderer of the forests, grazing in the valleys of rocky and sandy hills, I salute you, paying my homage to you with clasped wings. I pray that my young ones will be spared their lives by not treading upon them.

On hearing the female skylark’s humble request, the rogue elephant replied:

Vadissami te laṭukike puttakāni
kiṃ me tuvam kahasi dubbalāsi
satam sahassanipi tadisīnam
vāmena pādena papothayeyyaṃ

Hey, you female skylark.... (Why do you keep your young ones in my way? That’s enough of your insolence). I shall tread upon them and crush them to death. How can you revenge on me when you are weak and I am powerful enough to pulverise one lakh of your kind with my left foot.

So saying the rogue elephant crushed the young ones of the female skylark to dust, and caused them to be washed away in the stream of his urine and departed, shouting with the voice of a crane.

Perched on the branch of a tree, the female skylark threatened: “Hey, you silly brute of an elephant! You have the upper hand this time and go away, crowing gleefully in the tone of a crane. You just wait! Within two or three days you will see my move. You are not aware that intellectual might is more powerful than physical force, I will let you know that fact within a few days.

Na heva sabbattha balena kiccaṃ
balam hi bālassa vadhāya hoti
karissāmi te nāgarājā anatthaṃ
yo me vadhī puttake dubbalāya

O elephant king.... not every thing could be accomplished by means of physical force alone; unwise use of physical strength could be suicidal. You have mercilessly crushed to death my helpless children;I will bring about your destruction within a few days.

After thus making the war-cry, the female skylark managed within two or three days to gain the friendship of a crow by waiting upon it. Being delighted by the skylark’s pleasant behaviour, the crow asked her: “Is there any thing I can do for you?” The skylark replied: “What I want to ask you as a favour is to cause damage to the pair of eyes of the rogue elephant that used to roam about alone; that is the assistance I need.”

The crow gave his word: “I will do it.” The skylark then went to a big dark-blue female fly and formed friendship with it in a like manner. When the fly asked her what she wanted, she requested: “When my friend the crow has once damaged the eyes of the lone rogue elephant, it is my wish that you help me by laying your eggs in the sockets of the elephant’s damaged eyes.” When the dark-blue female fly gave her assurance for cooperation, saying: “Yes, I will,” the skylark approached a frog and sought its friendship as before. The frog asked her what it could do to help her and she replied: “When the lone rogue elephant has gone blind through the assistance of my two friends, the crow and the fly, and is looking for water to quench his thirst, I wish you to croak from the top of the hill. When the elephant climbs up the hill after hearing your voice, you might get down to the bottom of the cliff to make sound from there. This is all the assistance I look for from my frog friend.” The frog gave, likewise, his promise to assist the female skylark.

On the following day, the crow pounded the eyes of the elephant with its beak as requested by the skylark; the dark-blue fly laid its eggs in the damaged eyes. Suffering painfully from damaged eyes now infested with maggots and from intense thirst, the lone rogue elephant groped blindly after water.

The frog then started croaking from the top of the hill, hearing the frog croaking, and thinking: “Where the frog croaks, there must be water,” the elephant climbed up the hill with great hope. The frog went down the cliff and started making noise from the bottom of the hill. Heading towards the cliff from where the sound seemed to come, the elephant went tumbling down the hill and died through the fall.

The skylark was delighted when it came to know the death of its enemy, the rogue elephant, and uttered, out of joy: “Oh I have seen the back of my enemy,” so saying, it strutted to and fro on the back of the elephant several times and made off to a place of its liking.”

The Buddha exhorted the two groups of the royal family, saying: “O your Royal Highnesses, you should not engage in hostilities with any one; as explained, even an elephant of great strength could be brought to ruin by the combined efforts of small powerless creatures, such as the crow, the dark-blue fly, the frog and the skylark,” and He continued to teach the following verse of Abhisam Buddha:

Kakañca passa laṭukikaṃ
manḍḍhūkam nīlamakkhikaṃ
ete nagam aghatesuṃ
passa verassa verinaṃ
tasama hi veraṃ na kayirātha
appiyenapi kenaci.

O members of the Sakyan clan! Look at these small creatures, the crow, the skylark, the frog and the dark-blue fly; these four creatures, because they were united, had brought about the complete downfall of a powerful bull elephant. You can see the outcome of hatred accruing to a person who wish to engage in hostilities. Therefore, you should not carry on a feud with anyone, not even with someone you do not like.

In winding up the discourse, the Buddha revealed that: “The rogue elephant at that time was Devadatta of today and the noble leader of the elephant herd at that time was Myself.”