Tales from India

Week 7: India and Japan - Assignments - Reading - Resources - Images

Jataka Tales: The Ass in a Lion's Skin

Reading time: (3 minutes).
The donkey in the lion's skin is also a fable found in the Aesop's fable tradition. In the Buddhist fable, however, the owner of the donkey is one of the main characters - and he is the one who decides to dress up his donkey in the skin of a lion.

AT the same time, when Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares, the future Buddha was born one of a peasant family; and when he grew up, he gained his living by tilling the ground.

At that time a hawker used to go from place to place, trafficking in goods carried by an ass. Now at each place he came to, when he took the pack down from the ass's back, he used to clothe him in a lion's skin, and turn him loose in the rice and barley fields. And when the watchmen in the fields saw the ass, they dared not go near him, taking him for a lion.

So one day the hawker stopped in a village; and whilst he was getting his own breakfast cooked, he dressed the ass in a lion's skin, and turned him loose in a barley-field. The watchmen in the field dared not go up to him; but going home, they published the news. Then all the villagers came out with weapons in their hands; and blowing chanks, and beating drums, they went near the field and shouted.

Terrified with the fear of death, the ass uttered a cry - the bray of an ass!

And when he knew him then to be an ass, the future Buddha pronounced the First Verse:

"This is not a lion's roaring,
Nor a tiger's, nor a panther's;
Dressed in a lion's skin,
'Tis a wretched ass that roars!".

But when the villagers knew the creature to be an ass, they beat him till his bones broke; and, carrying off the lion's skin, went away.

Then the hawker came; and seeing the ass fallen into so bad a plight, pronounced the Second Verse:

"Long might the ass,
Clad in a lion's skin,
Have fed on the barley green.
But he brayed!
And that moment he came to ruin."

And even whilst he was yet speaking the ass died on the spot!

Questions. Make sure you can answer these questions about what you just read:

  • why did the hawker (traveling salesman) dress his donkey up in a lion skin?
  • how did the villagers find out this was not really a donkey?
  • what finally happened to the donkey in the end?

Source: Indian Fairy Tales (1890), by Joseph Jacobs, illustrated by John Batten. Weblink..

Modern Languages / Anthropology 3043: Folklore & Mythology. Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.
Page last updated: October 9, 2004 12:52 PM