126. The Story of the Characteristics of Swords [AsilakkhaÏa-Jātaka]

At one time Buddha was living in Jetavanārāma. At that time the king of Kosala had a Brahmin who could tell whether a sword was lucky by smelling it. When smiths would bring their swords, if they had given bribes, he said, “It is good.” To those who did not give bribes, he said to them, “It is bad.” All in the course of time knew the deceptive nature of this man. Knowing his nature, one smith made a sword and making it very sharp, put it in a sheath filled with hot chili powder. He brought it to the king. The king summoned the Brahmin and requested him to tell them the goodness or badness of the sword.

The Brahmin, in accord with the order of the king, took the sword out from the sheath and placing it near his nose tried to smell it. Immediately, before he could say anything, the chili powder smelled by him caused him to sneeze. He could not remove the sword from his nose quickly enough, so when he sneezed, the sword cut off the tip of his nose. This story spread everywhere and eventually it reached even the monks in the preaching hall.

One day in the preaching hall of Jetavanārāma the assembled monks were speaking about this. When the Buddha visited there, the monks paid respect to the Buddha.

The Buddha asked, “Oh monks, what were you discussing before I came here?” Then the monks related the story of the Brahmin who smelled swords for the king of Kosala. Buddha said, “Not only today this man faced this mishap, but also in the past he faced the same fate.” The monks requested the Buddha to disclose the past story. The Buddha spoke then the past story:

At one time, a king called Brahmadatta ruled in Benares. He had a fortune-telling Brahmin who by smelling swords could tell their goodness or badness. He took bribes from the sword smiths. He condemned the work of those smiths who had not given bribes because they had not given him bribes.

Once a certain trickster smith made a good sword and made it well sharpened. He applied hot chili powder to it and took it to the king. The king summoned the Brahmin to examine the sword. As it was covered with hot chili powder, when he smelled it, he sneezed before he was able to remove the sword from his nose. The tip of his nose was cut off, and he was ashamed because of this. The king became very sad because of this and requested his craftsmen to make a fake tip for the Brahmin’s nose with wax. And the Brahmin again asked to work for the king.

At this time the king had a nephew at his palace, and also his daughter. The two of them since they were very young, had grown up together. When they got older, they fell in love with each other. The king did not know this secret love. The king and his ministers one day discussed the marriage of the princess. The king said, “I will give my daughter to a prince of another kingdom.  If I do so, I will gain two new supporters, the prince and his father, to defend my kingdom.” Since then, the princess was not allowed to see the nephew with whom she had grown up so as to try to prevent them from falling in love. This strengthened their love for one another. And the nephew wanted to marry the princess as they both were now grown up.

The nephew therefore made a stratagem to marry the princess. He met the servant woman of the princess and gave her a bribe of a thousand gold coins. He requested her to keep the princess away for one day from the palace so that he could get to her. The woman said, “Do not worry. I will do it. I will take responsibility for that.”

Thinking of a stratagem, she went to the king and said, “Your lordship, your daughter is under the influence of an evil spirit. She is becoming unlucky and emaciated. Therefore, we will have to remove the evil spirit from her body.” The king asked, “What can we do for that?” The woman said, “In such-and-such a place there is a certain cemetery. There you need to make a stage. Keep a corpse on top of it, and cover it placing a bed over the dead body. We will place the princess on the bed and bathe her. Then the evil spirit will leave her.”

Hearing this, the king ordered her to do all these things and gave her all she had requested. She then undertook the task. She also tied some dried chili powder in a cloth, and she hid it near the bed so the nephew would be able to take it. She requested the nephew to go there and lie under the bed as the dead body. She explained to the nephew how to carry this off. The woman said to the caretakers, “When I come to the cemetery and wash the princess, the dead body will sneeze two or three times, come out from under the bed, and seize and devour the first one whom he sees. Therefore, be warned. Run away.” This was also mentioned to the nephew and princess, and the nephew was told, “When the caretakers run away, take the princess out of the cemetery, and after taking a bath with her, go wherever you like.”

On the day they set to have the service, the nephew went early and lay down under the bed she had prepared. The woman mentioned again to all the caretakers in the cemetery, “When the dead body sneezes, you will have to be ready for the death of the first one he seizes.” When, as she said, the nephew started to sneeze, all the caretakers laying their weapons down beside them, ran away from the cemetery screaming loudly. The retinue and other dignitaries who had come to witness this also all ran away.

When the nephew came out from under the bed, he took the princess, took a good bath, and went to his house with her. Hearing this news, the king became happy and he gave his daughter to the nephew.

Finalizing this story the Buddha said, “At that time the fortune-telling Brahmin who was skilled in sniffing swords was this fortune-telling Brahmin of today. The nephew prince of the king of Benares was I who am the Buddha.”

The moral: “What causes a loss for one person, may cause a gain for someone else.”

126. The Story of the Characteristics of Swords [AsilakkhaÏa-Jātaka]

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