Manikantha Jataka

This is Jataka No. 253 of the Pali Canon, and its frame story is also found in the Vinaya Pitaka, in the Suttavibhaṅga (Saṅghādisesa 6, Vin III 145). The Buddha told it at the Aggāḷava shrine near Āḷavī, about the building of monks' cells. Monks in Āḷavī were pressing people for materials, workers and servants for their huts, until people fled at the mere sight of them. The elder Mahākassapa went on his alms round in Āḷavī, found people running from him too, and reported the matter to the Buddha. The Buddha gathered the monks, rebuked them, and said that even nāgas, who live among seven precious stones, dislike being begged from, so humans would dislike it all the more.

In the time of King Brahmadatta of Benares, the Bodhisatta (the Buddha-to-be, in this earlier birth) was born as the son of a rich brahmin, and a younger brother was born soon after. When their parents died, both brothers became ascetics and built leaf huts on a bend of the Ganges, the elder living upstream and the younger downstream.

The nāga king Maṇikaṇṭha (Jewel-throat) took human form and befriended the younger ascetic. Their bond grew so strong that the nāga would resume his serpent form, coil around the ascetic, and embrace him.

Though the nāga meant only friendship by this embrace, it left the younger ascetic thin, pale and sickly.

The elder brother visited and asked about his condition. The younger explained, and the elder asked whether he wanted the nāga to keep visiting. He did not. The elder noted that the nāga wore a precious jewel.

The elder advised the younger to ask the nāga for the jewel on three successive days: on the first day before the nāga sat down, at the hut; on the second at the door as the nāga arrived; and on the third as the nāga emerged from the river.

The ascetic followed this plan. On the first two days the nāga fled without entering the hut. On the third day, speaking from the water, he refused in two verses, saying that his jewel brings him abundant divine food and drink, that the man asked too much, and that he would never return to the hermitage. The nāga dived beneath the water and never came back.

With the nāga gone, the younger ascetic grew even weaker, more yellow and more emaciated, pining for the nāga king. The elder visited again and learned this. He then spoke a third verse: one should not beg for what another holds dear, because excessive begging makes one detested, and the nāga who was begged for his jewel simply vanished. The elder consoled his brother and returned to his own hermitage, and both brothers went on to develop the higher knowledges and attainments, destined for the Brahma realm.

The Buddha closed by returning his listeners to the monks of Āḷavī. The same pattern that had driven a nāga king from a riverside hut could as easily drive ordinary people away from monks whose requests had grown excessive. At the end, he identified the characters: Ānanda was the younger brother, the ascetic who begged for the jewel, and the Buddha himself was the elder.

The nāga's refusal came only on the third day, spoken from the water, and it was as plain as it was final: his jewel gave him abundant divine food and drink, and this man asked too much. The story is quoted in two later Jātakas, Ja 323 and Ja 403. One scholar has tentatively suggested that it may be depicted on the Bharhut Stūpa, in a relief showing a man conversing with a five-headed cobra. For the monks of Āḷavī, the lesson was simple: a request pressed without restraint can cost a gift its giver, and a friendship its friend.