Paṇḍara Jātaka

Jataka No. 518 of the Pali Canon tells of Pandara, king of the nagas, and of the Supanna (garuda) king, who in this telling is the Bodhisatta. Nagas and supannas were ancient enemies, and the supannas lost many of their own in attacking the nagas. The nagas had a defense they guarded closely: when a supanna seized a naga by the head, the naga had swallowed heavy stones and lay waiting, and the bird would be dragged down and die in the streaming water.

In the time of King Brahmadatta of Benares, a ship carrying five hundred traders was wrecked at sea, and only one man survived. He came ashore at the port of Karambiya, naked and destitute, and begged. The townsfolk took his nakedness for contentment, offered him clothes which he refused, and built him a hermitage, and he became known as the Karambiyan ascetic. Both the naga king Pandara and the Supanna king, each unaware of the other's visits, came to honour him.

The Supanna king asked the ascetic to find out how the nagas could be seized without loss, since so many of his people died in the attempt. The ascetic agreed.

When Pandara next came, the ascetic questioned him. Pandara refused at first, fearing that the secret, once spoken, would endanger his kin. The ascetic swore that he would tell no one. On the third day Pandara gave way and revealed the method: the nagas swallow heavy stones and lie in wait, bite the supannas who seize their heads, and the supannas die in the water. He added, trusting the man he had come to honour, that a naga held by the tail and hung head downward would have to disgorge the stones and could be carried off.

The ascetic passed all this to the Supanna king, who scolded Pandara's indiscretion in his own mind. Then he raised a wind, seized the naga king by the tail, and made him vomit the stones. He rose into the air with Pandara hanging head downward.

Hanging in the sky, Pandara lamented in verse that he had brought his sorrow on himself by trusting a man who wore the dress of holiness and by revealing what should have stayed hidden. The Supanna king answered that Pandara alone was to blame, and taught that a secret should not be given even to friends, kin or wives. He also spoke of the conduct of a true ascetic: patience, restraint, and the abandoning of slander and anger.

Pandara begged for his life. The Supanna king spared him, regarded him as a pupil or a son, set him down on the ground, and promised him protection. Then, to test his heart, he returned to the naga realm and raised a wind. Believing he was about to be seized again, Pandara swallowed stones and sand, swelled, and raised his hood as if to strike. The Supanna king asked him why, and Pandara answered in verses about suspicion and trust. The two were reconciled and went together to the hermitage.

There Pandara told the ascetic that he stood free, though not through any love of the ascetic's. The ascetic claimed he had spoken out of affection for the bird king, and Pandara rebuked him for hiding unlawful acts behind an ascetic's garb. Then the naga king pronounced a truth-curse on the informer and traitor. The ascetic's head split into seven pieces before his eyes, the earth cracked open beneath him, and he was swallowed up and reborn in the Avici hell. The two kings returned to their own realms.

The Buddha told this tale after Devadatta was swallowed by the earth for his falsehood. He identified the ascetic as Devadatta, the naga king Pandara as Sariputta, and the Supanna king as himself. The closing verse warns that one should not betray a friend, for the ascetic died at the serpent king's word. A secret given in trust is a weapon in another's hands, and no holy robe makes its betrayal safe.