In Buddhism

Theravada (major branch of Buddhism)

Source: Pali Kanon: Pali Proper Names

Once, in Benares, there lived Mahadhanaka, son of a rich man. His parents had taught him nothing, and after their death he squandered all their wealth and fell into debt. Unable to escape his creditors, he summoned them and took them to the banks of the Ganges, promising to show them buried treasure. Arrived there, he jumped into the river. He lamented aloud as he was being carried away by the stream. The Bodhisatta was then a golden hued deer living on the banks of the river, and, hearing the mans wailing of anguish, he swam into the stream and saved him. After having ministered to him, the deer set him on the road to Benares and asked him to tell no one of the existence of the Bodhisatta.

The day the man reached Benares, proclamation was being made that the Queen Consort, Khema, having dreamed of a golden deer preaching to her, longed for the dream to come true. Mahadhanaka offered to take the king to such a deer and a hunt was organized. When the Bodhisatta saw the king with his retinue, he went up to the king and told him the story of Mahadhanaka. The king denounced the traitor and gave the Bodhisatta a boon that henceforth all creatures should be free from danger. Afterwards the Bodhisatta was taken to the city, where he saw the queen. Flocks of deer, now free from fear, devoured mens crops; but the king would not go against his promise and the Bodhisatta begged his herds to desist from doing damage.

The story was told in reference to Devadattas ingratitude and wickedness. Devadatta was Mahadhanaka and Ananda the king. J.iv.255 63; the story is included in the Jatakamala (No. 26).

context information

Theravāda is a major branch of Buddhism having the the Pali canon (tipitaka) as their canonical literature, which includes the vinaya-pitaka (monastic rules), the sutta-pitaka (Buddhist sermons) and the abhidhamma-pitaka (philosophy and psychology).

Languages of India and abroad

Pali-English dictionary

[Pali to Burmese]

Source: Sutta: Tipiṭaka Pāḷi-Myanmar Dictionary (တိပိဋက-ပါဠိမြန်မာ အဘိဓာန်)

ruhakajātaka—

(Burmese text): ရုဟကပုရောဟိတ်ပုဏ္ဏား၏-ဖြစ်ပြီး-လွန်ပြီး-သော အကျင့်ကို ဟောကြောင်းဖြစ်သည့်-စကားရပ်-ပါဠိ၊ ရုဟကဇာတ်။

(Auto-Translation): The discourse of the qualities of the Fulfilled One, having been completed, is the teachings of the Rohitassa, the stories of the Rohitassa.

context information

Pali is the language of the Tipiṭaka, which is the sacred canon of Theravāda Buddhism and contains much of the Buddha’s speech. Closeley related to Sanskrit, both languages are used interchangeably between religions.

See also (Relevant definitions)

Partial matches: Ruhaka, Jataka.

Full-text: Ruhaka, Indriya Jataka.

Relevant text

Search found 1 books and stories containing Ruhaka Jataka, Ruhaka-jātaka, Ruhakajataka, Ruhakajātaka; (plurals include: Ruhaka Jatakas, jātakas, Ruhakajatakas, Ruhakajātakas). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:

Jataka tales [English], Volume 1-6 (by Robert Chalmers)

Jataka 191: Ruhaka-jātaka < [Book II - Dukanipāta]

show preview