• Kurungamiga Jātaka (No.21, 206)

1. Kurungamiga Jātaka (No.21).Once the Bodhisatta was an antelope who used to eat the fruit of a sepanni-tree. One day a huntsman discovered him and lay in wait to kill him, but the Bodhisatta suspected his presence and so escaped death.

The story was told in reference to Devadatta's plots to kill the Buddha, the huntsman being identified with Devadatta. J. i.173f.

2. Kurungamiga Jātaka (No.206).In a forest lived three friends: an antelope, a woodpecker and a tortoise. One night the antelope was caught in a huntsman's noose, and the tortoise set about biting through the thongs of the noose while the woodpecker, uttering cries of ill-omen, kept the huntsman in his hut. The antelope escaped, but the tortoise, exhausted by his labours, was caught by the huntsman. The antelope thereupon enticed the hunter into the forest and, eluding him, released the tortoise. The antelope was the Bodhisatta, Sāriputta the woodpecker, Moggallāna the tortoise and Devadatta the hunter.

The story was told in reference to Devadatta's wickedness (J.ii.152ff; DhA.iii.152f).

This Jātaka is figured on the Bharhut Stupa. Cunningham: p.67 and PL xxvii.9.