A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.236

v2.c19.s3.t2.236

The numerous short and often very witty anecdotes of the Jātaka book, have originally even less connection with Buddhism than the fables and fairy tales have. The ancient Indians were just as fond of laughing at all kinds of fooleries as we are of laughing at the silly tricks of the "wise men of Gotham," and the like. This is proved by narratives such as that of the son who, wishing to kill a mosquito on the head of his sleeping father, shatters the father's skull;¹ or of the monkeys who are to water the trees, and do this by pulling up every tree by the roots, in order to see which requires more water and which less.² The fool is not infrequently a priest or a monk. Thus a Brahman mendicant monk comes to a place where two rams are fighting each other. As he sees the one ram jumping backwards before him, he imagines that the ram knows good manners, and wants to honour him. A merchant warns him that the ram is only taking a run prior to attack; but already the animal comes running forward and knocks the monk over, who cries out lamentingly: "Help! a saint is being murdered.³ There is grim humour in the story of the wicked king Mahāpiṅgala (No. 240):