-
Citta-Sambhūta Jātaka (No.498)
The Bodhisatta was once born as a Candāla in
Ujjeni in the kingdom of Avanti. He was
called Citta and his brother Sambhūta. One day, when they were out sweeping, two
rich women on their way to the park noticed them and turned back. Their
followers, disappointed at their loss of a picnic, beat the two Candālas.
Then the brothers went to Takkasilā to
study. Citta became very proficient, and was sent one day, in place of his
teacher, to the house of a villager who had invited the teacher and his pupils.
But while there, in a moment of forgetfulness, the brothers used the Candāla
dialect, and having thus disclosed their caste, were driven out of Takkāsilā.
In their next birth they became does and in a subsequent birth ospreys. They
were always together and always met their death together. Later Citta was born
as the son of the chaplain of Kosambī, and Sambhūta as son of the king of
Uttarapańcāla. Citta, becoming an ascetic
at the age of sixteen, remembered his past births. He waited till Sambhūta had
reigned for fifty years, and knowing that he also had some recollection of his
previous existences, taught a stanza to a lad and sent him to recite it before
the king. Sambhūta heard the stanza, remembered his brother, and, after inquiry,
visited Citta, who had then gone to the royal park. There Citta gave him counsel,
and not long after Sambhūta renounced the world. After death they were both born
in the Brahma world.
Ananda is identified with Sambhūta. The story was told in reference to two
monks, colleagues of Mahā-Kassapa, who were greatly devoted to each other.
J.iv.390-401.

|