Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales (Shedlock) Part B


(Photo from Pexels)

The Crow that Thought It Knew - Buddha becomes a marsh crow, Viraka the strong. A different crow, Savitthaka, and his wife decided to live next to Viraka. Viraka was a marsh crow, so he could dive into the water and bring up fish. Savitthaka sees how he is living off the fish, and offers to become his servent. Viraka begins eating only as much fish as he has to and giving the rest to Savitthaka, who does the same, giving the rest to his wife. Savitthaka becomes filled with pride, and decides that since he looks the same as Viraka, they are the same and he says he will catch his own fish from now on. Viraka tells him that he isn't a marsh bird and will destroy himself if he goes under the water. Savitthaka does it anyway, gets tangled in weeds and can't come up for air. His wife asks Viraka if she knows what happened to him, and he tells her:

"He was not born to dive beneath the wave,
But what he could not do he needs must try;
So the poor bird has found a watery grave,
Entangled in the weeds, and left to die."

Notes: Joker as Viraka, Crow as Savitthaka. (Instead of a wife, the other thieves are present). Crow insists he is better and more powerful than Joker after he sees Joker's way of doing things in the palace. He insists on doing things his way and they fight. In the end, his father sends a cognitive version of himself to eliminate him for not following orders. Joker tries to persuade him to change his mind, it's not too late, they can do it together the right way. Crow is about to accept Joker's help when things go south and that part of the palace is about to flood, trapping them all. Crow ensures that Joker and the others survive by bringing down a partition that traps him and his cognitive self in the area that floods. He doesn't make it out.

The Dreamer in the Wood - I really liked this story but am pretty sure I will use the other. Saving a link to it just in case. 


Jataka Tales from  Eastern Stories and Legends by Shedlock. Web Source.

No comments:

Post a Comment