Pāli Dictionary

Kaṇḍina Jātaka

Jātaka

A Jātaka about a mountain stag whose devotion to a doe leads him to follow her into a village at harvest time despite the danger, only to be caught and killed by ambushing hunters while she escapes, witnessed by a forest deity who draws from it teachings on three kinds of infamy, including yielding oneself to another’s domination.

A mountain stag fell in love with a doe who had gone into the forest from the village during the time of the ripening of the corn. When the time came for the doe to return to the village, the stag, in his love, accompanied her. The people of the village, knowing of the deer’s return, lay in ambush for them. The doe, seeing a huntsman, sent the stag on ahead, and he was killed and eaten. The doe escaped. The Bodhisatta, who was a forest-deva, seeing the incident, taught the other forest-dwellers on the three infamies:

It is infamy to cause another’s death;

infamous is the land ruled by a woman:

infamous are the men who yield themselves to women’s dominance (J.i.153-6).

The circumstances in which the story was related are given in the Indriya Jātaka.

Ja 13

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