Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c31.2616

v2.c31.2616

Mātuposaka Jātaka (No. 455).—The Bodhisatta was once born as an elephant in the Himālaya and looked after his blind mother, who lived near Mount Caṇḍoraṇa. One day he met a forester who had lost his way, and, feeling sorry for him, the elephant set him on the right path, carrying him on his back. But the forester was wicked, and, on his return to Benares, told the king about the elephant. The king asked him to fetch the elephant, who, seeing the forester approaching, meekly followed him lest his virtue be impaired. The elephant was received in the city with great pomp and placed in the royal stables as the state elephant, but he would touch no morsel of food. The king enquired into this and learnt of the elephant’s blind mother. Thereupon the elephant was set free, and returned to the Himālaya amid the applause of the people. The king built a town near the elephant’s dwelling, where he showed him great honour, and later, when, at his mother’s death, the elephant went away to the Karaṇḍaka monastery to wait on the ascetics there, the king did the same for them.