Hakeem Nafeesurrahman Thanvi: basic fix content additionally and cleaned formatting for accuracy

2026-01-20T06:54:17Z

basic fix content additionally and cleaned formatting for accuracy

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			{{Short description\|One of the Jataka tales}}
	[[File:Mahakapi Jataka in Bharhut.jpg\|thumb\|300px\|Mahakapi Jataka in [[Bharhut]], 2nd century BCE.]]		[[File:Mahakapi Jataka in Bharhut.jpg\|thumb\|300px\|Mahakapi Jataka in [[Bharhut]], 2nd century BCE.]]
	[[File:Mahakapi Jataka.jpg\|thumb\|300px\|Mahakapi Jataka in [[Sanchi]]. The Buddha, in a previous life as the king of 80.000 monkeys, helps them flee and travel a stream with his own body. 1st century BCE.<ref>Marshall [https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.459148 p.70]</ref>]]		[[File:Mahakapi Jataka.jpg\|thumb\|300px\|Mahakapi Jataka in [[Sanchi]]. The Buddha, in a previous life as the king of 80.000 monkeys, helps them flee and travel a stream with his own body. 1st century BCE.<ref>Marshall [https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.459148 p.70]</ref>]]
			The '''Mahakapi Jataka''' is one of the [[Jataka tales]] or stories of the former lives of the [[Buddha]], when he was still a [[Bodhisattva]], as a king of the monkeys.<ref>Jataka Or Stories of the Buddha's Former Birth, Volumes 1 to 2, E. B. Cowell, Asian Educational Services, 2000 [https://books.google.com/books?id=SyuOuvn7kdsC&pg=PA37 p.37]</ref>

	The '''Mahakapi Jataka''' is one of the [[Jataka tales]] or stories of the former lives of the [[Buddha]], when he was still a [[Bodhisattva]], as a king of the monkeys<ref>Jataka Or Stories of the Buddha's Former Birth, Volumes 1 to 2, E. B. Cowell, Asian Educational Services, 2000 [https://books.google.com/books?id=SyuOuvn7kdsC&pg=PA37 p.37]</ref>

	==Story==		==Story==
	The story runs that the [[Bodhisattva]] was born as a monkey, ruler over 80,000 monkeys. They lived at a spot near the [[Ganges]] and ate of the fruit of a great [[mango tree]]. King [[Brahmadatta]] of [[Benares]], desiring to possess the mangoes, surrounded the tree with his soldiers, in order to kill the animals, but the Bodhisattva formed a bridge over the stream with his own body and by this means enabled the whole tribe to escape into safety.		The story runs that the [[Bodhisattva]] was born as a monkey, ruler over 80,000 monkeys. They lived at a spot near the [[Ganges]] and ate of the fruit of a great [[mango tree]]. King [[Brahmadatta]] of [[Benares]], desiring to possess the mangoes, surrounded the tree with his soldiers, in order to kill the animals, but the Bodhisattva formed a bridge over the stream with his own body and by this means enabled the whole tribe to escape into safety.

	[[Devadatta]], the jealous and wicked cousin of the Buddha, was in that life one of the monkeys and, thinking it a good chance to destroy his enemy, jumped on the Bodhisattva’s back and broke his ~~heart~~.		[[Devadatta]], the jealous and wicked cousin of the Buddha, was in that life one of the monkeys and, thinking it a good chance to destroy his enemy, jumped on the Bodhisattva’s back and broke his spine.

	The king, seeing the good deed of the Bodhisattva and repenting of his own attempt to kill him, tended him with great care when he was dying and afterwards gave him royal obsequies.<ref>thejatakatales.com [https://thejatakatales.com/mahakapi-jataka-407/]</ref>		The king, seeing the good deed of the Bodhisattva and repenting of his own attempt to kill him, tended him with great care when he was dying and afterwards gave him royal obsequies.<ref>thejatakatales.com [https://thejatakatales.com/mahakapi-jataka-407/]</ref>
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	[[Category:Indian literature]]		[[Category:Indian literature]]
	[[Category:Jataka tales]]		[[Category:Jataka tales]]
	[[Category:~~Animals~~ in Buddhism]]		[[Category:Primates in Buddhism]]
	[[Category:Indian folklore]]		[[Category:Indian folklore]]
	[[Category:Indian fairy tales]]		[[Category:Indian fairy tales]]
	[[Category:Indian legends]]		[[Category:Indian legends]]

imported>Gotitbro: +Category:Indian folklore; +Category:Indian fairy tales; +Category:Indian legends using HotCat

2021-03-07T21:17:29Z

+Category:Indian folklore; +Category:Indian fairy tales; +Category:Indian legends using HotCat

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[[File:Mahakapi Jataka in Bharhut.jpg|thumb|300px|Mahakapi Jataka in [[Bharhut]], 2nd century BCE.]]
[[File:Mahakapi Jataka.jpg|thumb|300px|Mahakapi Jataka in [[Sanchi]]. The Buddha, in a previous life as the king of 80.000 monkeys, helps them flee and travel a stream with his own body. 1st century BCE.<ref>Marshall [https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.459148 p.70]</ref>]]

The '''Mahakapi Jataka''' is one of the [[Jataka tales]] or stories of the former lives of the [[Buddha]], when he was still a [[Bodhisattva]], as a king of the monkeys<ref>Jataka Or Stories of the Buddha's Former Birth, Volumes 1 to 2, E. B. Cowell, Asian Educational Services, 2000 [https://books.google.com/books?id=SyuOuvn7kdsC&pg=PA37 p.37]</ref>

==Story==
The story runs that the [[Bodhisattva]] was born as a monkey, ruler over 80,000 monkeys. They lived at a spot near the [[Ganges]] and ate of the fruit of a great [[mango tree]]. King [[Brahmadatta]] of [[Benares]], desiring to possess the mangoes, surrounded the tree with his soldiers, in order to kill the animals, but the Bodhisattva formed a bridge over the stream with his own body and by this means enabled the whole tribe to escape into safety.

[[Devadatta]], the jealous and wicked cousin of the Buddha, was in that life one of the monkeys and, thinking it a good chance to destroy his enemy, jumped on the Bodhisattva’s back and broke his heart.

The king, seeing the good deed of the Bodhisattva and repenting of his own attempt to kill him, tended him with great care when he was dying and afterwards gave him royal obsequies.<ref>thejatakatales.com [https://thejatakatales.com/mahakapi-jataka-407/]</ref>

==Depiction in Bharhut==
In this jataka tale the Buddha, in a previous incarnation as a monkey king, self-sacrificingly offers his own body as a bridge by which his fellow monkeys can escape from a human king who is attacking them. A short section of the river, across which the monkeys are escaping, is indicated by fish designs. Directly below that, the impressed humans are holding out a blanket to catch him when he falls. At the very bottom (continuous narrative), the now recovered Buddha-to-be preaches to the king.

==Depiction in Sanchi==
Down the panel of the relief from [[Sanchi]] (Stupa No1, Western Gateway) flows, from top to bottom, the river Ganges. To the left, at the top, is the great mango tree to which
two monkeys are clinging, while the king of the monkeys is stretched across the river from the mango tree to the opposite bank, and over his body some monkeys have
already escaped to the rocks and jungles beyond.

In the lower part of the panel, to the left, is king Brahmadatta on horseback with his soldiers, one of whom with bow and arrow is aiming upwards at the Bodhisattva. Higher up the panel the figure of the king is repeated, sitting beneath the mango tree and conversing with the dying Bodhisattva, who, according to the Jataka story, gave the king good advice on the duties
of a chief.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Source==
* Public Domain text of "A Guide to Sanchi" published in 1918 in [[India]], [[John Marshall (archaeologist)|John Marshall]] (1876-1958) [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.459148]

[[Category:Indian literature]]
[[Category:Jataka tales]]
[[Category:Animals in Buddhism]]
[[Category:Indian folklore]]
[[Category:Indian fairy tales]]
[[Category:Indian legends]]

Mahakapi Jataka - Revision history

Hakeem Nafeesurrahman Thanvi: basic fix content additionally and cleaned formatting for accuracy

imported>Gotitbro: +Category:Indian folklore; +Category:Indian fairy tales; +Category:Indian legends using HotCat