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Once upon a time when King Brahmadatta reigned over the City of Benares, the citizen of the kingdom lived happily under the King’s sovereignty and virtues. Later the Queen gave birth to a son. The child was cute and endowed with signs of the Man of Virtues. |
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On the day of celebrating the child’s birth and naming him, the royal soothsayers checked on the newly-born’s physical signs and foretold that the child would grow up to become a capable monarch in ruling the country and a great warrior at the same time. Moreover, he would be astute in using five types of weapon. The prediction was much to the King’s delight. |
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Time passed. Panjawutkumara grew up and becoming sagacious and full of strength. These qualifications made him outstanding among others in his contemporary.
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| At the age of 16, the King sent him to have the formal education in the university city of Takkasila, in Thandhara Region. He studied various subjects with the well-known teachers of the time. |
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Not before long, the Royal Prince could complete his education as he had expected. He did well in the field of using five particular weapons such as the bow and arrow, the dagger, the lance and the lathi. Moreover, throughout those years in education, he could develop himself to become a shrewd and smart young man just as what had been prophesied since he was only a baby boy.
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The Prince, after his successful graduation, bid the farewell to his teachers and journeyed back to his home kingdom, the Benares City. After leaving the prestige institute of the time behind, he alone travelled homeward bound. He, however, instead of selecting the normal passenger’s route, decided to go out the beaten track for a sight-seeing tour of the rural areas and the forests.
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Panjawutkumara had been wandering for several days and nights. One day he was passing through a small village and heading towards another jungle settled next to it.
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Panjawutkumara upon hearing the well-wished suggestion had no an iota of fear or feeling daunted.
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| The valorous and determined Panjawutkumara still wanted to keep his direction. He walked boldly towards the forest with carefulness in his every step. |
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| The mentioned ogre was named ‘Silae-salom’ which it meant ‘glutinous hair’. Upon seeing the young Prince invaded his area, it transformed itself to be colossal and tall as the height of the palm tree. It trod with long measured toward the intruder.
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| Panjawutkumara took aim his bow and launched the poison-coated arrow towards the ogre. The deadly arrow dashed through the air. However, it, instead of running into the ogre’s flesh, stuck on the glutinous hairs on its shin. It could anyhow make the ogre balk at the Prince’s fearless attempt. |
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| The ogre continued stepping towards the dauntless Prince while the young Prince kept assaulting him with his arrow shooting. |
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| No matter how hard the Prince had tried attacking the ogre with the arrows. The shafts could only affix all over its glutinous coat of hair; finally his quiver became empty. |
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| The ogre easily shook off all of the shafts in an instant. Then he stamped further toward his attacker. |
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| Panjawutkumara drew out his dagger and came up against the ogre. He quickly delivered a blow of the dagger on the ogre with his mighty force. The turned out, besides unable to make any injury to the giant opponent, his dagger stuck at its hair. |
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| Panjawutkumara did not give in. He pulled out his lance and thrashed the ogre with all his might. Once again the lance could only stick on the ogre‘s coat. |
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Panjawut so beat the ogre with his lathi in full force. Unfortunately, again the lathi could only stick on its hair. Now all his weapons were on all over the ogre’s body. Well ! Panjawutkumara was not at all dismayed at the deadly close encounter.
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| Panjawutkumara pounced upon the ogre and hit it with his right fist; quickly followed by his left. Immediately both of his fists struck on its hair. |
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| He decided to kick the ogre with his right leg followed by his left. Again, all failed to make the ogre get hurt. He still refused to give up his attempt. He bumped the ogre with his head. It proved it was useless. Now he was hanging on the front side of the ogre’s shin. |
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| However the situation could not make the diehard Prince quail or tremble with fear. The ogre had never before seen such a resolute person as this. He so became respected the young Prince’s intrepidity. |
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| Hearing Panjawutkumara’s threatens, the glutinous-haired ogre dreaded being dead. So he said … |
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| The sticky-haired ogre listened to what Panjawutkumara said in silence and attentively because of the admiration toward the Prince. This was the first time in its life of having a chance listening to a sermon. The Prince then cautioned the ogre against living its life in reckless and strongly advised it to observe the five precepts. |
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| After being tamed, the ogre finally agreed to observe the Five Precepts. When things had been settled, the young Prince travelled back to the village and informed the villagers that they had no need to be afraid of the glutinous-hair ogre anymore because it had changed to become righteous within the restraint of the Five Precepts and stopped taking others’ lives for food. He also asked the village folks to take turn bringing the ogre food. They happily agreed. Then Panjawutkumara went on his home journey. |
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Panjawut Jataka |
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The motive of the Lord Buddha’s recollection of this story can be summarized as follows |
… At the time of residing at Jetavana Temple, the Lord Buddha heard that a monk behaved himself in lazy way. He ignored the Dhamma study and the meditation practice. He lived a monastic life without will. The Lord so summoned him to inquire about his behaviour. After receiving the full information, the Awaken One kindly admonished him with the words: ‘Behold monk, in the past, the wise devoting their lives on the perseverance pursuit in the right way earned themselves the power of the throne.’ Then the Lord recollected one of His previous existences when He was born Panjawutkumara to reveal. The details as mentioned above.
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:The inspirations drawn from the story of this Jataka: |
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....1. The consistent pursuit can bring about reverence to the pursuer who may only be a mere ordinary without high-raking post. He is respected by others including even the gang of ruffians. Because of witnessing his strong determination, they have a shivering sensation and dare not to act aggressive toward him.
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2. All beings alike are afraid of death. However, when the time comes, people with the willpower feel dauntless. This kind of people must have devoted their lives for the pursuit of perseverance for a long time and are adept in meditation practice. They aim at entering Nibbana in the future. They so feel confident that, with all their consistently-cultivated virtues and goodness, they will take a better quality of rebirth in the hereafter. So death cannot cow them in anyway.
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