30: The 12th Rains Retreat (Famine) – 1037
showing any frolicsome behaviour, they keep quiet. What is the reason? So he
put a question in the following verse (Ja 183):
Vālodakaṁ apparasaṁ nihīnaṁ,
pitvā mado jāyati gadrabhānaṁ,
imañ-ca pitvāna rasaṁ paṇītaṁ,
mado na sañjāyati sindhavānaṁ.
Wise man! The mules that have taken the secondary grape syrup of less
taste and poor quality and filtered with a piece of cloth made of fibres
from marsh date palms, are intoxicated with pride. Such intoxication has
not happened to the Sindhava horses though they have taken the delicious
grape juice. What is the reason?
In order to give his answer to the king, he uttered the following verse:
Appaṁ pivitvāna nihīna-jacco,
so majjatī tena janinda puṭṭho,
dhorayha-sīlī ca kulamhi jāto,
na majjatī agga-rasaṁ pivitvā.
Your majesty! The lowly born mule that has been effected by its
insignificant birth becomes intoxicated after drinking an inconsiderable
[743]
amount of secondary grape syrup. The Sindhava horses that
strenuously renders service to the country, though he had taken the
sweetest taste of the juice extracted from fresh grapes, is not intoxicated
because of his birth in a high family.
What the verse means to say is that because the mules are inferior by birth,
they become intoxicated after drinking less tasty secondary juice. On the
contrary the Sindhava steeds, on account of their superiority by birth, do
not show conceit or are not intoxicated with conceit though they have
taken the primary juice of best quality.
On hearing the Bodhisatta’s saying, the king had the mules driven out from the
courtyard. Taking the Bodhisatta’s advice the king performed meritorious deeds,
beginning with alms giving and passed away to another existence according to
his deeds (
kamma
).
Having delivered the Birth Story about the Sorry Drink (
Vālodaka-jātaka
, Ja
183), the Buddha concluded the story thus: “The 500 mules then have now
become the 500 attendants who eat the leftover food. The 500 Sindhava horses