[279] “The story of Devadatta,” adds a gloss, “as far as his appointment as Abhimāra, will be related in the Khaṇḍahāla Jātaka, as far as his rejection as Treasurer, in the Culla-haŋsa Jātaka, and as far as his sinking into the earth, in the Samudda-vānija Jātaka in the 12th Book.”
[280] See the translator’s ‘Buddhism,’ p. 76.
[281] This verse is quoted by the Dhammapada Commentator, p. 146, where the Introductory Story is substantially the same, though differing in some details. The first line of the verse is curious, as there is nothing in the fable about righteousness or courtesy. It either belonged originally to some other tale, or is made purposely in discord with the facts to hint still more strongly at the absurdity of the worthy deer attempting to make human poetry.
[282] This Introductory Story is given also as the occasion on which v. 160 of the Dhammapada was spoken (Fausböll, pp. 327 and foll.)
[283] The thirty-two constituent parts will be found enumerated in the Khuddaka Pāṭha, p. 3, and most of them are mentioned in the following verses, which are not attributed to the ‘attractive’ young wife, and which sound wooden enough after her spirited outburst. Possibly they are a quotation by this commentator of some monkish rhymes he thinks appropriate to the occasion. The whole of the conversation is omitted in the Dhammapada commentary.
Bound together by bones and sinews,
O’erspread with flesh and integument,
The body is hidden ‘neath its skin,—
It seems not as it really is!
It is filled inside—the trunk is filled—