The White Six-Tusked Elephant

Once upon a time eight thousand royal elephants, by
the exercise of supernatural powers moving through the
air, dwelt near lake Chaddanta in the Himalayas. At
this time the Bodhisatta came to life as the son of the
chief elephant. He was a pure white, with red feet and
face. By and by, when grown up, he was eighty-eight
hands high, one hundred and twenty hands long. He had
a trunk like to a silver rope, fifty-eight hands long, and
tusks fifteen hands in circumference, thirty hands long, and
emitting six-coloured rays. He was the chief of a herd
of eight thousand elephants and paid honour to pacceka
buddhas. His two head queens were Cullasubhadda and
Mahasubhadda. The king elephant, with his herd num-
bering eight thousand, took up his abode in a Golden
Cave. Now lake Chaddanta was fifty leagues long and
fifty broad. In the middle of it, for a space extending
twelve leagues, no sevala or panaka plant is found, and
it consists of water in appearance like a magic jewel.
Next to this, encircling this water, w r as a thicket of pure
white lilies, a league in breadth. Next to this, and en-
circling it, w r as a thicket of pure blue lotus, a league in
extent. Then came white and red lotuses, red and white
lilies, and white esculent lilies, each also a league in extent
and each encircling the one before. Next to these seven
thickets came a mixed tangle of white and other lilies,
also a league in extent, and encircling all the preceding-
ones. Next, in water as deep as elephants can stand in,
was a thicket of red paddy. Next, at the edge of the
water, was a grove of small shrubs, abounding in delicate
and fragrant blossoms of blue, yellow, red and white. So
these ten thickets were each a league in extent. Next
came a thicket of various kinds of kidney beans. Next
came a tangle of convolvulus, cucumber, pumpkin, gourd
and other creepers. Then a grove of sugar-cane of the
size of the areca-nut tree. Then a grove of plantains with
fruit as big as elephant's tusks. Then a field of paddy.
Then a grove of bread-fruit of the size of a water jar.
Next a grove of tamarinds with luscious fruit. Then a
grove of elephant-apple trees. Then a great forest of
different kinds of trees. Then a bamboo grove. Such
at this time was the magnificence of this region its
present magnificence is described in the Samyutta Com-
mentary but surrounding the bamboo grove were seven
mountains. Starting from the extreme outside first came
Little Black Mountain, next Great Black Mountain, then
Water Mountain, Moon Mountain, Sim Mountain, Jewel
Mountain, then the seventh in order Golden Mountain.
This was seven leagues in height, rising all round the lake
Chaddanta, like the rim of a bowl. The inner side of it
was of a golden colour. From the light that issued from
it lake Chaddanta shone like the newly risen sun. But
of the outer mountains, one was six leagues in height, one
five, one four, one three, one two, one a single league in
height. Now in the north-east corner of the lake, thus
girt about with seven mountains, in a spot where the wind
fell upon the water, grew a big banyan tree. Its trunk
was five leagues in circumference and seven leagues in
height. Four branches spread six leagues to the four
points of the compass, and the branch which rose straight
upwards was six leagues. So from the root upwards it
Avas thirteen leagues in height, and from the extremity of
the branches in one direction to the extremity of the
branches in the opposite direction it was twelve leagues.

And the tree was furnished with eight thousand shoots
and stood forth in all its beauty, like to the bare Jewel
Mount. But on the west side of lake Chaddanta, in the
Golden Mount, was a golden cave, twelve leagues in
extent. Chaddanta the elephant king, with his following
of eight thousand elephants, in the rainy season lived in
the golden cave; in the hot season he stood at the foot
of the great banyan tree, amongst its shoots, welcoming
the breeze from off the water. Now one day they told
him, " The great Sal grove is in flower." So attended by
his herd he was minded to disport himself in the Sal
grove, and going thither he struck with his frontal globe
a Sal tree in full bloom. At that moment Cullasubhadda
stood to windward, and dry twigs mixed with dead leaves
and red ants fell upon her person. But Mahasubhadda
stood to leeward, and flowers with pollen and stalks and
green leaves fell on her. Thought Cullasubhadda, "He
let fall on the wife dear to him flowers and pollen and
fresh stalks and leaves, but on my person he dropped a
mixture of dry twigs, dead leaves and red ants. Well,
I shall know what to do ! " And she conceived a grudge
against the Great Being. Another day the king elephant
and his attendant herd went down to lake Chaddanta to
bathe. Then two young elephants took bundles of uslra
root in their trunks and gave him a bath, rubbing him
down as it were mount Kelasa. And when he came out
of the water, they bathed the two queen elephants, and
they too came out of the water and stood before the
Great Being. Then the eight thousand elephants entered
the lake and, disporting themselves in the water, plucked
various flowers from the lake, and adorned the Great
Being as if it had been a silver shrine, and afterwards
adorned the queen elephants. Then a certain elephant,
as he swam about the lake, gathered a large lotus with
seven shoots and offered it to the Great Being. And he,
taking it in his trunk, sprinkled the pollen on his fore-
head and presented the flower to the chief elephant,
Mahasubhadda. On seeing this her rival said, "This
lotus with seven shoots he also gives to his favourite
queen and not to me," and again she conceived a grudge
against him. Now one day when the Bodhisatta had
dressed luscious fruits and lotus stalks and fibres with the
nectar of the flower, and was entertaining five hundred
pacceka buddhas, Cullasubhadda offered the wild fruits
she had got to the pacceka buddhas, and she put up a
prayer to this effect : " Hereafter, when I pass hence, may
I be re-born as the royal maiden Subhadda in the Madda
king's family, and on coming of age may I attain to the
dignity of queen consort to the king of Benares. Then
I shall be dear and charming in his eyes, and in a position
to do what I please. So I will speak to the king and
send a hunter with a poisoned arrow to wound and slay
this elephant. And thus may I be able to have brought
to me a pair of his tusks that emit six-coloured rays."
Thenceforth she took no food and pining away in no long
time she died, and came to life again as the child of the
queen consort in the Madda kingdom, and was named
Subhadda. And when she was of a suitable age, they
gave her in marriage to the king of Benares. And she
was dear and pleasing in his eyes, and the chief of sixteen
thousand wives. And she recalled to mind her former
existences and thought, " My prayer is fulfilled ; now will
I have this elephant's tusks brought to me." Then she
anointed her body with common oil, put on a soiled robe,
and lay in bed pretending to be sick. The king said,
"Where is Subhadda?" And hearing that she was sick,
he entered the royal closet and sitting on the bed he
stroked her back and uttered the first stanza :

Large-eyed and peerless one, my queen, so pale, to grief a prey,
Like wreath that's trampled under foot, why fadest thou away ?

On hearing this she spoke the second stanza :

As it would seem, all in a dream, a longing- sore I had;
My wish is vain this boon to gain, and that is why I'm sad.

The king, on hearing this, spoke a stanza :

All joys to which in this glad world a mortal may aspire,
Whate'er they want is mine to grant, I give thee thy desire.

On hearing this the queen said, " Great king, my desire
is hard to attain ; I will not now say what it is, but I would
have all the hunters that there are in your kingdom
gathered together. Then will I tell it in the midst of
them." And to explain her meaning, she spoke the next
stanza :

Let hunters all obey thy call, within this realm who dwell,
And what I fain from them would gain, I'll in their presence tell.

The king agreed, and issuing forth from the royal
chamber he gave orders to his ministers, saying, "Have
it proclaimed by beat of drum that all the hunters that
are in the kingdom of Kasi, three hundred leagues in
extent, are to assemble." They did so, and in no long
time the hunters that dwelt in the kingdom of Kasi,
bringing a present according to their means, had their
arrival announced to the king. Now they amounted in
all to about sixty thousand. And the king, hearing that
they had come, stood at an open window and stretching
forth his hand he told the queen of their arrival and said:

Here then behold our hunters bold, well trained in veuery,
Theirs is the skill wild beasts to kill, and all would die for me.

The queen, on hearing this, addressed them and spoke
another stanza :

Ye hunters bold, assembled here,
Unto my words, I pray, give ear:
Dreaming, methought an elephant I saw,
Six-tusked 1 and white without a flaw:
His tusks I crave and fain would have ;
Nought else avails my life to save.

The hunters, on hearing this, replied :

Ne'er did our sires in times of old
A six-tusked elephant behold :
Tell us what kind of beast might be
That which appeared in dreams to thee.

After this still another stanza was spoken by them :

Four points, North, South, East, West, one sees,

Four intermediate are to these,

Nadir and zenith add, and then

Say at which point of all the ten

This royal elephant might be,

That in a dream appeared to thee.

After these words Subhadda, looking at all the hunters,
spied amongst them one that was broad of foot, with a
calf swollen like a food basket, big in the knee and ribs,
thick-bearded, with yellow teeth, disfigured with scars,
head and shoulders above all, an ugly, hulking fellow,
named Sonuttara, who had once been an enemy of the
Great Being. And she thought, "He will be able to do
my bidding," and with the king's permission she took him
with her and, climbing to the highest floor of the seven-
storeyed palace, she threw open a window to the North,
and stretching forth her hand towards the Northern
Himalayas she uttered four stanzas:

Due north, beyond seven mountains vast,
One conies to Golden Cliff at last,
A height by goblin forms possessed
And bright with flowers from foot to crest.

Beneath this goblin peak is seen
A cloud-shaped mass of darkest green,
A royal banyan tree whose roots
Yield vigour to eight thousand shoots.

There dwells invincible in might
This elephant, six-tusked and white,
With herd eight thousand strong for fight.
Their tusks to chariot-poles are like,
Wind-swift are they to guard or strike.

Panting and grim they stand and glare,
Provoked by slightest breath of air,
If they one born of man should see,
Their wrath consumes him utterly.

Souuttara on hearing this was terrified to death and
said:

Turquoise or pearls of brilliant sheen,
With many a gold adornment, queen,
In royal houses may be seen.
What wouldst thou then with ivory do,
Or wilt thou slay these hunters true?

Then the queen spoke a stanza :

Consumed with grief and spite am I,
When I recall my injury.
Grant me, hunter, what I crave,
And five choice hamlets thou shalt have.

And with this she said, "Friend hunter, when I gave
a gift to the pacceka buddhas, I offered up a prayer that
I might have it in my power to kill this six-tusked elephant
and get possession of a pair of his tusks. This was not
merely seen by me in a vision, but the prayer that I
offered up will be fulfilled. Do thou go and fear not."
And so saying she reassured him. And he agreed to her
words and said, "So be it, lady; but first make it clear
to me and tell me where is his dwelling-place," and en-
quiring of her he spoke this stanza :

Where dwells he? Where may he be found?
What road is his, for bathing bound?
Where does this royal creature swim ?
Tell us the way to capture him.

Then by recalling her former existence she clearly saw
the spot and told him of it in these two stanzas :

Not far this bathing-place of his,

A deep and goodly pool it is,

There bees do swarm and flowers abound,

And there this royal beast is found.

Now lotus-crowned, fresh from his bath,
He gladly takes his homeward path,
As lily-white and tall he moves
Behind the queen he fondly loves.

Sonuttara on hearing this agreed, saying, " Well, lady,
I will kill the elephant and bring you his tusks." Then
in her joy she gave him a thousand pieces and said, " Go
home meanwhile, and at the end of seven days you shall
set out thither," and dismissing him she summoned smiths
and gave them an order and said, "Sirs, we have need
.of an axe, a spade, an auger, a hammer, an instrument
for cutting bamboos, a grass-cutter, an iron staff, a peg,
an iron three-pronged fork ; make them with all speed
and bring them to us." And sending for workers in
leather, she charged them, saying, " Sirs, you must make
us a leather sack, the size of a hogshead measure; we
need leather ropes and straps, shoes big enough for
an elephant, and a leather parachute: make them with
all speed and bring them to us." And both smiths and
workers in leather quickly made everything and brought
and offered them to her. Having provided everything
requisite for the journey, together with fire-drills and the
like, she put all the appliances and necessaries for the
journey, such as baked meal and so forth, in the leather
sack. The whole of it came to about a hogshead in size.
And Sonuttara, having completed his arrangements,
arrived on the seventh day and stood respectfully in the
presence of the queen. Then she said, " Friend, all ap-
pliances for your journey are completed : take then this
sack." And he being a stout knave, as strong as five
elephants, caught up the sack as if it had been a bag of
cakes, and placing it on his hips, stood as it were with
empty hands. Cullasubhadda gave the provisions to the
hunter's attendants and, telling the king, dismissed Sonut-
tara. And he, with an obeisance to the king and queen,
descended from the palace and, placing his goods in a
chariot, set out from the city with a great retinue, and
passing through a succession of villages and hamlets
reached the frontiers. Then he turned back the people
of the country and went on with the dwellers on the
borders till he entered the forest, and passing beyond
the haunts of men he sent back the border people too,
and proceeded quite alone on a road to a distance of
thirty leagues, traversing a dense growth of kusa and
other grasses, thickets of basil, reeds and rest-harrow,
clumps of thick-thorn and canes, thickets of mixed growth,
jungles of reed and cane, dense forest growth, impenetrable
even to a snake, thickets of trees and bamboos, tracts of
mud and water, mountain tracts, eighteen regions in all,
one after another. The jungles of grass he cut with a
sickle, the thickets of basil and the like he cleared with
his instrument for cutting bamboos, the trees he felled
with an axe, and the oversized ones he first pierced with
an auger. Then, pursuing his way, he fashioned a ladder
in the bamboo grove and climbing to the top of the
thicket, he laid a single bamboo, which he had cut, over
the next clump of bamboos, and thus creeping along on
the top of the thicket he reached a morass. Then he
spread a dry plank on the mud, and stepping on it he
threw another plank before him and so crossed the morass.
Then he made a canoe and by means of it crossed the
flooded region, and at last stood at the foot of the moun-
tains. Then he bound a three-pronged grappling-iron
with a rope and flinging it aloft he caused it to lodge fast
in the mountain. Then climbing up by the rope he drilled
the mountain with an iron staff tipped with adamant,
and knocking a peg into the hole he stood on it. Then
drawing out the grappling-iron he once more lodged it
high up on the mountain, and from this position letting
the leather rope hang down, he took hold of it and
descended and fastened the rope on the peg below. Then
seizing the rope with his left hand and taking a hammer
in his right he struck a blow on the rope, and having
thus pulled out the peg he once more climbed up. In
this way he mounted to the top of the first mountain and
then commencing his descent on the other side, having
knocked as before a peg into the top of the first mountain
and bound the rope on his leather sack and wrapped it
round the peg, he sat within the sack and let himself
down, uncoiling the rope like a spider letting out his
thread. Then letting his leather parachute catch the
wind, he went down like a bird so at least they say.
(Thus did the Master tell how in obedience to Subhadda's
words the hunter sallied forth from the city and traversed
seventeen different tracts till he reached a mountainous
region, and how he there crossed over six mountains and
climbed to the top of Golden Cliff:

The hunter hearing, unalarmed,
Set forth with bow and quiver armed,
And crossing o'er seven mountains vast
Beached noble Golden Cliff at last.

Gaining the goblin-haunted height,

What cloud-shaped mass bursts on his sight?

A royal banyan 'tis whose roots

Support eight thousand spreading shoots.

There stood invincible in might

An elephant six-tusked and white,

With herd eight thousand strong for fight;

Their tusks to chariot-poles are like:

Wind-swift are they to guard or strike.

Hard by a pool 'tis full to the brim,
Fit place for royal beast to swim;
Its lovely banks with flowers abound
And buzzing bees swarm all around.

Marking the way the creature went
Whene'er on bathing thought intent,
He sunk a pit, to deed so mean
Urged by the wrath of spiteful queen.)

Here continues the regular story: the hunter, it is
said, after seven years, seven months and seven days,
having reached the dwelling-place of the Great Being in
the manner related above, took note of his dwelling-place
and dug a pit there, thinking, " I will take my stand here
and wound the lord of elephants and bring about his
death." Thus did he arrange matters and went into the
forest and cut down trees to make posts and prepared a
lot of kusa-grass. Then when the elephants went to bathe,
in the spot where the king elephant used to stand, he dug
a square pit with a huge mattock, and the soil that he dug
out he sprinkled on the top of the water, as if he were
sowing seed, and on the top of stones like mortars he fixed
posts, and fitted them with weights and ropes and spread
planks over them. Next he made a hole of the size of an
arrow and threw on the top earth and rubbish, and on one
side he made an entrance for himself, and so, when the pit
was finished, at break of day he fastened on a false top
knot and donned robes of yellow and, taking his bow and
a poisoned arrow, he went down and stood in the pit.

(The Master, to make the whole thing clear, said 1 :

The pit with planks he first did hide,
Then bow in hand he got inside,
And as the elephant passed by,
A mighty shaft the wretch let fly.

The wounded beast loud roared with pain,
And all the herd roared back again:
Crushed boughs and trampled grass betray
Where panic flight directs their way.

Their lord had well nigh slain his foe,
So mad with pain was he, when lo!
A robe of yellow met his eyes,
Emblem of sainthood, sage's guise
And deemed inviolate by the wise.)

The Great Being, falling into conversation with the
hunter, spoke a couple of stanzas:

Whoso is marred with sinful taint
And void of truth and self-restraint,
Though robed in yellow he may be,
The yellow dress deserves not he.

But one that's free from sinful taint,
Endued with truth and self-restraint,
And firmly fixed in righteousness,
Deserves to wear the yellow dress.

So saying, the Great Being, extinguishing all feeling
of anger towards him, asked him, saying, "Why did you
wound me ? Was it for your own advantage or were you
suborned by some one else ? "

Then the hunter told him and uttered this^stanza :

The king- of Kasi's favoured queen
Subhadda told me she had seen
Thy form in dreams, "and so," said she,
" I want his tusks ; go, bring 1 them me."

Hearing- this, and recognizing- that this was the work
of Cullasubhadda, he bore his sufferings patiently and
thought, "She does not want my tusks; she sent him
because she wished to kill me," and, to illustrate the
matter, he uttered a couple of stanzas :

Rich store of goodly tusks have I,
Relics of my dead ancestry,
And this well knows that wrathful dame,
'Tis at my life the wretch doth aim.

Rise, hunter, and or ere I die,

Saw off these tusks of ivory:

Go bid the shrew be of good cheer,

"The beast is slain; his tusks are here."

Hearing his words the hunter rose up from the place
where he was sitting and, saw in hand, came close to him
to cut off his tusks. Now the elephant, being eighty-eight
hands high, like a mountain, was not thrown down. Hence
the man could not reach to his tusks. So the Great
Being, bending his body towards him, lay with his head
down. Then the hunter climbed up the trunk of the
Great Being, pressing it with his feet as though it were
a silver rope, and stood on his forehead as if it had been
Kelasa peak. Then he inserted his foot into his mouth,
and striking the fleshy part of it with his knee, he climbed
down from the beast's forehead and thrust the saw into
his mouth. The Great Being suffered excruciating pain
and his mouth was charged with blood. The hunter,
shifting about from place to place, was still unable to cut
the tusks with his saw. So the Great Being letting the
blood drop from his mouth, resigning himself to the
agony, asked, saying, " Sir, cannot you cut them ? " And
on his saying "No," he recovered his presence of mind
and said, "Well then, since I myself have not strength
enough to raise my trunk, do you lift it up for me and let
it seize the end of the saw/' The hunter did so : and the
Great Being seized the saw with his trunk and moved it
backwards and forwards, and the tusks were cut oft* as it
were sprouts. Then bidding him take the tusks, he said,
" I don't give you these, friend hunter, because I do not
value them, nor as one desiring the position of Sakka,
Mara or Brahma, but the tusks of omniscience are a
hundred thousand times dearer to me than these are,
and may this meritorious act be to me the cause of
attaining Omniscience." And as he gave him the tusks,
he asked, " How long were you coining here ? " " Seven
years, seven months, and seven days." " Go then by the
magic power of these tusks, and you shall reach Benares
in seven days." And he gave him a safe conduct and let
him go. And after he had sent him away, before the other
elephants and Subhadda had returned, he was dead.

When he was gone, the herd of elephants not finding
their enemy came back.

And with them also came Subhadda, and they all then
and there with weeping and lamentation betook them to
the pacceka buddhas who had been so friendly to the
Great Being, and said, "Sirs, he who supplied you with
the necessaries of life has died from the wound of a
poisoned arrow. Come and see where his dead body is
exposed. " And the five hundred pacceka buddhas passing
through the air alighted in the sacred enclosure. At that
moment two young elephants, lifting up the body of the
king elephant with their tusks, and so causing it to do
homage to the pacceka buddhas, raised it aloft on a pyre
and burned it. The pacceka buddhas all through the
night rehearsed scripture texts in the cemetery. The
eight thousand elephants, after extinguishing the flames,
first bathed and then, with Subhadda at their head,
returned to their place of abode.

And Sonuttara within seven davs reached Benares
with his tusks.

Now in offering them to the queen, he said, " Lady, the
elephant, against whom you conceived a grudge in your
heart for a trifling offence, has been slain by me." "Do
you tell me that he is dead?" she cried. And he gave
her the tusks, saying, " Be assured that he is dead : here
are his tusks." She received the tusks adorned with six
different coloured rays on her jewelled fan, and, placing
them on her lap, gazed at the tusks of one who in a former
existence had been her dear lord and she thought, " This
fellow has come with the tusks he cut from the auspicious
elephant that he slew with a poisoned shaft." And at the
remembrance of the Great Being she was filled with so
great sorrow that she could not endure it, but her heart
then and there was broken and that very day she died.