DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45392#0378
Buddha & the Gospel of Buddhism
and she beheld in her heart the very spot where he was
taking his pleasure, how
Fresh from his bath and lotus-wreathed,
He moves along the homeward track.
Vast is his brake and lily white.
And there before him walks a dear-loved qtteen.
Of all the huntsmen, one by name Sonuttara, who was a
hideous lout and big and strong, undertook the task, and
being furnished with all needful implements, he set forth
on his way. It needed seven years of weary going to
reach Chaddanta’s haunts; but no sooner come there,
than Sonuttara dug a pit and covered it with logs and
grass, and donning the yellow robes of a man of religion,
and taking his bow and poisoned arrow, he hid himself
and lay in wait. Presently Chaddanta passed by, and
Sonuttara wounded him with the poisoned arrow. But
the elephant subduing his feelings of resentment, asked
the hunter, ‘ Why have you wounded me ? is it for your
own ends or to satisfy the will of another? ’ The hunter
answered that Subhadda, the consort of the King of
Benares, had sent him to secure the tusks. Chaddanta
reflected, ‘ It is not that she wishes for the tusks, but she
desires my death; ’ and he said:
Come now, thou hunter, and before I die
Saw throzigh my ivory tusks;
And bid the jealous queen rejoice—
'■Here are the tusks, the elephant is dead.'
So Chaddanta bowed his head, and Sonuttara began to
saw the tusks; and when he could not cut them, the
great elephant took the saw in his trunk and moved it to
and fro till the tusks were severed. Then he gave up
292
and she beheld in her heart the very spot where he was
taking his pleasure, how
Fresh from his bath and lotus-wreathed,
He moves along the homeward track.
Vast is his brake and lily white.
And there before him walks a dear-loved qtteen.
Of all the huntsmen, one by name Sonuttara, who was a
hideous lout and big and strong, undertook the task, and
being furnished with all needful implements, he set forth
on his way. It needed seven years of weary going to
reach Chaddanta’s haunts; but no sooner come there,
than Sonuttara dug a pit and covered it with logs and
grass, and donning the yellow robes of a man of religion,
and taking his bow and poisoned arrow, he hid himself
and lay in wait. Presently Chaddanta passed by, and
Sonuttara wounded him with the poisoned arrow. But
the elephant subduing his feelings of resentment, asked
the hunter, ‘ Why have you wounded me ? is it for your
own ends or to satisfy the will of another? ’ The hunter
answered that Subhadda, the consort of the King of
Benares, had sent him to secure the tusks. Chaddanta
reflected, ‘ It is not that she wishes for the tusks, but she
desires my death; ’ and he said:
Come now, thou hunter, and before I die
Saw throzigh my ivory tusks;
And bid the jealous queen rejoice—
'■Here are the tusks, the elephant is dead.'
So Chaddanta bowed his head, and Sonuttara began to
saw the tusks; and when he could not cut them, the
great elephant took the saw in his trunk and moved it to
and fro till the tusks were severed. Then he gave up
292