Tibetan tales (derived from Indian sources)
by W. R. S. Ralston | 1906 | 134,175 words
This page related the story of “the jackal saves the lion” from those tibetan tales (derived from Indian sources) found in the Kah-gyur (Kangyur or Kanjur). This represents part of the sacred Tibetan canon of Buddhist literature. Many of such stories correspond to similar legends found in the West, or even those found in Polynesia.
Chapter 35 - The Jackal saves the Lion
[Source: Kah-gyur, iv. f. 244*.]
In lost past times, when the Bodisat remained in an incomplete state of merit-accumulation, he lived in a certain hill district as a lion, king of the beasts. In the neighbourhood of the hill there dwelt five hundred jackals, which followed after him and devoured what he left. When the lion had killed any animal, and had eaten of its good flesh and drunk of its good blood, be used to leave it lying on the ground and go away. This state of things lasted a long time.
Once when the lion, king of beasts, was hunting beasts at night, he fell into a well, and all the five hundred jackals, with one exception, dispersed in divers directions. Only one of the jackals paid any attention to the lion, sitting by the edge of the well, and thinking in what way he could draw the lion out. While running to and fro in the neighbourhood of the well, he saw a small lake at no great distance. Having observed it, he dug a canal on one side, and filled the well with water from the lake, so that the lion was able to get out. A deity uttered this verse:—
“The mighty as well as the rest must make themselves friends. See how the jackal rescued the lion from out of an old well.”