Khandhavatta Jātaka

The Khandhavatta Jataka, numbered 203 in the Pali collection and recorded in the Jataka Atthakatha, was told by the Buddha at Jetavana. It concerns a certain monk who was sitting at the door of his living room, chopping sticks. A snake crept out of a rotten log and bit his toe, and the monk died on the spot.

The news spread through the monastery. In the Hall of Truth the monks began to talk about it, saying that Brother So-and-so had been chopping wood at his door when a snake bit him and he died at once. The Master came in and asked what they were discussing, and they told him.

The Buddha said that if the monk had practised kindness toward the four royal families of serpents, the snake would not have bitten him. He added that wise ascetics of the past, before any Buddha was born, had used this kindness and had been freed from fear of serpents. Then he told an old-world tale.

Once, when Brahmadatta reigned in Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as a young brahmin of Kasi. When he came of age he quelled his passions and became an ascetic. He developed the supernormal faculties and the meditative attainments. He built a hermitage by a bend of the Ganges near the foot of the Himalaya, and there he lived with a band of ascetics, absorbed in the joy of meditation.

At that time there were many kinds of snakes along the bank of the Ganges, and they did harm to the hermits. Many of the ascetics died of snake bites. They told the matter to the Bodhisatta, who called the whole company together to meet him.

The Bodhisatta told them that if they showed goodwill to the four royal races of snakes, no serpent would bite them. From that time on, he said, they should show goodwill to those four families. Then he spoke the verse. It declares love for the Virupakkha snakes, love for the Erapatha snakes, love for the Chabbyaputta snakes, and love for the Kanhagotamas.

Next he widened the circle. He wished love to all creatures, whether footless, two-footed, four-footed or many-footed. Then he spoke a verse of prayer, asking that none of these beings do him harm. A further verse wished that all creatures that are born, that breathe and that move on the earth, be happy and never fall into mischief. In this way he showed that love must be given to every being without distinction.

The Bodhisatta then reminded the ascetics of the Three Jewels. He said that the Buddha, the Law and the Order are infinite, while creeping things, snakes, scorpions, centipedes, spiders, lizards and mice are finite and measurable. By the power of the infinite Three Jewels, he said, they might be guarded night and day against these limited creatures. He ended with a stanza of honour to the Blessed One and to the seven Buddhas who have passed away. In this way he composed a guardian charm and gave it to his band of sages.

From then on the sages kept the Bodhisatta's counsel in mind. They cherished love and goodwill and remembered the virtues of the Buddha. As they did so, all the snake kind departed from them. The Bodhisatta went on cultivating the sublime states (the meditative qualities of boundless love, compassion, joy, and equanimity) and was reborn in the Brahma world.

When the Master had ended the discourse, he identified the birth. The monks who now followed the Buddha had, in that former life, been the followers of the sage, whose own teacher in that birth was the Buddha himself. A note to the translation observes that the verses recur in the Cullavagga of the Vinaya (a section of the monastic rule-books), and that snake charms are common in Sanskrit literature too.

This story is not a promise that goodwill turns every danger aside. It is a lesson in how to live among creatures one cannot control. The ascetics could not remove the snakes, but they could change their own hearts. They moved from fear to care, and from care to a steady, disciplined practice. The charm is useful because it joins two things: a boundless wish for the welfare of all beings, and a mind that remembers what is greater than any single fear. Later Buddhist communities kept the verses as a protective chant for exactly that reason.