The Bodhisatta was once born as the son of the king of Bārāṇasī. He came to understand the speech of animals, and thus learned from a she jackal whom he had offended that a hostile king with whom he would have to fight would march on to the city. His father bore him no love, and sent him to fight this king when he arrived. However, all the citizens followed the prince, and his father, very alarmed, retired into the forest with his queen, his chaplain, and a servant, named Parantapa, and lived in a hut. When the king and the chaplain went for fruit, the queen, though with child by the king, sinned with Parantapa and instigated him to kill the king while on his way to bathe in the river. The chaplain watched this deed but said nothing, and on his return feigned to have been suddenly blinded by a snake’s breath. The queen bore a son, and when he was sixteen, the chaplain told him of what had happened and taught him the use of a sword. Soon after, the boy killed Parantapa and returned with his mother and the chaplain to Bārāṇasī, where the Bodhisatta made him his viceroy.

The story was told in reference to Devadatta’s attempts to kill the Buddha. Devadatta is identified with the old king. J.iii.415-21.