Part 3: Former births of the cocks

There is a city Ratnapura, a heap of various jewels, in the province Airāvata in this same Jambūdvīpa. Two merchants lived there, great friends of each other, Dhanavasu the one, and Datta the other. Their desire for wealth not being allayed, desirous as thirsty cātakas,^[1] they filled carts, wagons, et cetera, with various kinds of merchandise. Always together, they wandered through villages, mines, cities, capital villages, et cetera, for trade, like fathers of poverty. They, like Paramādhārmikas,^[2] drove their oxen when they were thirsty, hungry, tired, weak, crippled, lean, suffering from cold, heat, and thirst, with excessive loads, by means of ox-goads, blows with clubs, and twisting their tails. They cut the oxen’s swollen backs with knives, and they pierced again the nose-skin when the former hole was split. They did not turn loose the oxen at the right time because of their wish for haste and they themselves ate as they went along, intolerant of delay. They deceived the people with false weights, false measures, false coins, and false descriptions of articles. They deceived everyone, like crafty jackals, and fought each other from desire for one object. The two men, their minds always deluded by false belief, pitiless, overcome by greed, did not even make mention of dharma. So, painful meditation being experienced, they acquired an elephant-birth. For an animal-birth is the result of painful meditation. One day at the tīrtha Śrīnadī, subject to love and hate, they quarreled together, fought, and died.

They were born as elephants on the bank of Svarṇakūlā in the same Airāvata, named Tāmrakalaśa and Kāñcanakalaśa. They gradually grew up and with ichor dripping seven-fold,^[3] they wandered on the bank of the river, tearing down trees. One day as they, lords of herds, wandered, each with his own herd, they saw each other like reflections of their own images. They both ran at each other quickly to kill each other, with blazing anger from the anger of the former birth, like mountains with blazing forest-fires. For a long time the two elephants made tusk against tusk, trunk against trunk, and died at the same time, as if for a fight in another birth.

Nandimitra, rich in many buffaloes, lived in Ayodhyā in Bharatakṣetra in Jambūdvīpa. They became two fine buffaloes in his herd, very dear to him. They grew up large-bodied like young elephants. Dhanasena and Nandiṣeṇa, sons of King Śatruñjaya and Devānandā, saw the buffaloes. The two buffaloes, arrogant as buffaloes of Kṛtānta,^[4] were made to fight by the sons of the king of Ayodhyā out of curiosity.

After they had fought a long time, they died, and became strong-bodied rams, Kāla and Mahākāla. Meeting by chance in the same place they fought because of former hostility, died, and were born as these cocks with equal strength. One was not conquered by the other. Now as before one will not be conquered by the other.”

Megharatha said: “These cocks fought, arranged by Vidyādharas, not only because they were imbued with former hostility.” Incited by King Ghanaratha by a raised brow, Megharatha, his hands folded submissively, explained at length.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

Which live on rain-drops.

[2]:

Demons in hell. See I, n. 58.

[3]:

See I, n. 359.

[4]:

Animal-fights are still a very common form of amusement in India. The buffalo is Yama’s vehicle.