Summarize this: Jataka Tales
Part of the canon of sacred Buddhist literature, this collection of some 550 anecdotes and fables depicts earlier incarnations -- sometimes as an animal, sometimes as a human -- of the being who would become Siddhartha Gautama, the future Buddha. Traditional birth and death dates of Gautama are 563-483 BC. The Jataka tales are dated between 300 BC and 400 AD.
Many of the tales are set in or near Benares, now called Varanasi, a city in north central India on the Ganges River. One of the world's oldest cities, Varanasi is the most sacred place for Hindus. Buddhists and Muslims also have important religious sites nearby. According to tradition, Buddha began his teaching at Sarnath a short distance from this city.
The Future Buddha as a Wise Judge
A woman, carrying her child, went to the future Buddha's tank to wash. And having first bathed the child, she put on her upper garment and descended into the water to bathe herself.
Then a Yakshini, seeing the child, had a craving to eat it. And taking the form of a woman, she drew near, and asked the mother, "Friend, this is a very pretty child. Is it one of yours?" And when she was told it was, she asked if she might nurse it. And this being allowed, she nursed it a little, and then carried it off.
But when the mother saw this, she ran after her, and cried out, "Where are you taking my child to?" and caught hold of her.
The Yakshini boldly said, "Where did you get the child from? It is mine!" And so quarreling, they passed the door of the future Buddha's Judgment Hall.
He heard the noise, sent for them, inquired into the matter, and asked them whether they would abide by his decision. And they agreed. Then he had a line drawn on the ground; and told the Yakshini to take hold of the child's arms, and the mother to take hold of its legs; and said, "The child shall be hers who drags him over the line."
But as soon as they pulled at him, the mother, seeing how he suffered, grieved as if her heart would break. And letting him go, she stood there weeping.
Then the future Buddha asked the bystanders, "Whose hearts are tender to babes? Those who have borne children, or those who have not?"
And they answered, "Oh sire! The hearts of mothers are tender."
Then he said, "Who, think you, is the mother? She who has the child in her arms, or she who has let go?"
And they answered, "She who has let go is the mother."
And he said, "Then do you all think that the other was the thief?"
And they answered, "Sire! We cannot tell."
And he said, "Verily, this is a Yakshini, who took the child to eat it."
And he replied, "Because her eyes winked not, and were red, and she knew no fear, and had no pity, I knew it."
And so saying, he demanded of the thief, "Who are you?"
And she said, "Lord! I am a Yakshini."
And he asked, "Why did you take away this child?"
And she said, "I thought to eat him, Oh my Lord!"
And he rebuked her, saying, "Oh foolish woman! For your former sins you have been born a Yakshini, and now do you still sin!" And he laid a vow upon her to keep the Five Commandments, and let her go.
But the mother of the child exalted the future Buddha, and said, "Oh my Lord! Oh great physician! May your life be long!" And she went away, with her babe clasped to her bosom.
Source: Buddhist Birth-Stories; or, Jataka Tales: The Oldest Collection of Folk-Lore Extant, edited by V. Fausbøll and translated by T. W. Rhys Davids, vol. 1 (London: Trübner and Company, 1880), pp. xiv-xvi.
A type 926 folktale. Link to additional tales of this type: Child Custody. A wise judge identifies the rightful mother.
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The Mosquito and the Carpenter
Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta gained his livelihood as a trader. In these days in a border village in Kasi there dwelt a number of carpenters. And it chanced that one of them, a bald gray-haired man, was planing away at some wood with his head glistening like a copper bowl, when a mosquito settled on his scalp and stung him with its dart like sting.
Said the carpenter to his son, who was seated hard by, "My boy, there's a mosquito stinging me on the head. Do drive it away."
"Hold still then father," said the son. "One blow will settle it."
(At that very time the Bodhisatta had reached that village in the way of trade, and was sitting in the carpenter's shop.)
"Rid me of it!" cried the father.
"All right, father," answered the son, who was behind the old man's back, and, raising a sharp ax on high with intent to kill only the mosquito, he cleft his father's head in two. So the old man fell dead on the spot.
Thought the Bodhisatta, who had been an eye witness of the whole scene, "Better than such a friend is an enemy with sense, whom fear of men's vengeance will deter from killing a man." And he recited these lines:
Sense-lacking friends are worse than foes with sense;
Witness the son that sought the gnat to slay,
But cleft, poor fool, his father's skull in two.
So saying, the Bodhisatta rose up and departed, passing away in after days to fare according to his deserts. And as for the carpenter, his body was burned by his kinsfolk.