During the reign of six Kings it could not be captured on account of the spell, but at last a hunter with the assistance of a tame peahen owing to whose presence the bird forgot to utter the spell, succeeded in catching it in a spring net.[2] The Peacock proved to the satisfaction of the King that he had been a devout monarch himself in a former life, keeping the five Precepts, and after being rewarded with an existence in the heaven of Śakra had been re-born on earth as a Golden Peacock. After this he was allowed to return to “the golden hill of Daṇḍaka.” The bird admitted that “all who eat of me become immortal and have eternal youth.” In the second story the Peacock was released by the hunter, whom he converted to Buddhism.
In all the earlier part of this Jātaka tale there is no trace of Buddhism; the Peacock was a sun worshipper, pure and simple. It is evident that the latter part has been tacked on to it in order to give it a Buddhist complexion.
It is possible, therefore, that the Sinhalese form of the tale preserves an early version which the composer of the Jātaka story modified to suit his purpose. See my note in vol. i, p. 240, on the story of the Jackal and the Turtle.
[1] Similarly, in the Mahā Bhārata (Vaṇa Parva, iii) it is declared that the repetition of the Hymn to the Sun recited by Yudhishthira grants any boon, and that its reading in the morning and evening twilight frees a man or woman from danger. [↑]
[2] In the second story it was a spring noose, which held the Peacock dangling in the air, caught by the leg. Apparently this is what the Sinhalese narrator meant. [↑]
No. 171
The Story of the Brāhmaṇa’s Kitten
In a certain country a Brāhmaṇa reared a kitten, it is said. He said that he reared the kitten in order to give it [in marriage] to the greatest person of all in this world.