Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c16.964

v1.c16.964

Meanwhile, the Buddha and the monks were seated in Jīvaka’s house, but when the meal was about to be served the Buddha ordered it to be stopped, saying that there were other monks left in the monastery. A servant was sent to find them, and Cūlapanthaka, aware of this, contrived that the whole grove appeared full of monks engaged in various activities. When the messenger reported this, he was told to discover which of the monks was Cūlapanthaka and to bring him. But all the monks answered to this name, and the messenger was forced to return without him. “Take by the hand the first who says that he is Cūlapanthaka,” ordered the Buddha; and when this was done the other figures vanished. At the conclusion of the meal, Cūlapanthaka was asked to return thanks, and “like a young lion roaring defiance” the Elder ranged over the whole of the Piṭakas in his sermon. Thenceforth his fame spread, and the Buddha, in order to prove how in previous births also Cūlapanthaka had profited by advice received, related to the monks the Cullasetthi Jātaka.³ The Dhammapada Commentary⁴ gives another story of Cūlapanthaka’s past. He went to Takkasilā to learn under a teacher, but though he did everything for his teacher he could learn nothing. The teacher, feeling sorry for him, taught him a charm: “*Ghaṭṭesi ghaṭṭesi, kiṃ kāraṇā ghaṭṭesi? ahaṃ pi taṃ jānāmi*” (“You try and try; what are you trying for? I know it too”). When he had returned home thieves entered his house, but he woke up from his sleep and repeated the charm, whereupon the thieves fled, leaving behind them even their clothes. The king of Benares, wandering about the city in disguise, seeing what had happened, sent for Cūlapanthaka the next day and learnt from him the charm after paying him one thousand. Soon afterwards the king’s commander-in-chief bribed the court barber to cut the king’s throat, but while the barber was sharpening his razor the king repeated the charm. The barber, thinking that his intended crime was discovered, confessed his guilt. The king, realising that the youth had saved his life, appointed him commander-in-chief in place of the traitor, whom he banished. The youth was Cūlapanthaka and the teacher was the Bodhisatta.