Reading Notes: Jataka Tales, Part B

Image Source: Mother Deer and Fawn by Dave Bonta, via flickr


In "The Banyan Deer" there are two herds of deer, the Banyan Deer and the Monkey Deer, and each herd has a king.

The human king of the country the deer live in loves deer meat, and hunts them regularly. However, when the king hunts he takes many townspeople with him and they are not able to do their work or complete their chores. This irritates the townspeople, and they decide to make a fenced in area that will hold all the deer so the king can easily get deer whenever he wants deer meat without taking any townspeople.

Once the deer are in the park, the king or his chef come to hunt the deer regularly, but they usually end up injuring more than the one deer they kill. The two deer kings agree to a plan to minimize the loss to their herds by one herd sending a deer to be killed one day and the other the next alternating each day going forward.

This system works until one day, a mother Monkey Deer with a young child's lot is up to be sacrificed. She asks the Monkey Deer king to spare her, but he says he cannot. She then asks the Banyan Deer king who offers to go in her place.

When the king's chef sees the Banyan Deer king sacrificing himself he goes to get the king to find out what is going on. The Banyan Deer king explains why he is offering himself instead of the young mother.

The King is so moved he does not kill any of the deer that day or forever after.

Bibliography.

"The Banyan Deer" from Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbit. Source

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