No. 28.
NANDI-VISĀLA JĀTAKA.
The Bull who Won the Bet.
"Speak kindly." — This the Master told when at Jetavana concerning the abusive language of the Six.[1]
For on one occasion the Six made a disturbance by scorning, snubbing, and annoying peaceable monks, and overwhelming them with the ten kinds of abuse. The monks told the Blessed One about it. He sent for the Six, and asked them whether it was true. And on their acknowledging it, he reproved them, saying, "Harsh speaking, O mendicants, is unpleasant, even to animals. An animal once made a man who addressed him harshly lose a thousand." And he told a tale.
Long ago a king of Gandhāra was reigning in Takkasilā, in the land of Gandhāra. The Bodisat came to life then as a bull.
Now, when he was yet a young calf, a certain Brāhman, after attending upon some devotees who were wont to
- ↑ These "Six" are noted characters in Buddhist legend. They are six bad monks, whose evil deeds and words are said to have given occasion to many a "bye-law," if one may so say, enacted in the Vinaya Piṭaka for the guidance of the members of the Buddhist Order of Mendicants.
