Reading Notes: Jataka: The Monkey Who Gathered Lotuses

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I chose to focus on The Monkey Who Gathered Lotuses for this week's reading. Translated by Robert Chalmers in 1895, it is one of myriad tales contained within The Jataka, Volume I. There were parallels within this story to Cronus, a mighty titan who chose to eat his offspring rather than allow them to one day usurp his throne. In that story, the mother of the children protected one of them and spirited the child away to grow up strong and safe away from a dangerous father. Also too, in that story the child returned (as Zeus) and defeated Cronus.

The monkey son, who is actually the Bodhisatta, upon meeting his father realizes his life is in danger. Sent to gather colored lotus flowers from a lake haunted by a terrible ogre, the monkey observes that footprints only lead down to the lake. The image of a monkey whizzing across a lake surface gathering flowers without entering the water is comical, but still better is the mental image of this terrible ogre returning with the monkey, carrying back the precious flowers to the monkey king who envisioned death for his son.

The monkey is portrayed as clever and resourceful, surviving what would have been his death by an analysis of his situation. The ogre views the young monkey's qualities of dexterity, valor, and resourcefulness as kingly qualities, and chooses to follow and aid the young monkey son. The machinations of the evil monkey king are thwarted by his own hand, which is also a recurring theme in many ancient stories of other cultures. This story is related by the Master while speaking on the topic of going about to kill; by making the decision to kill others, he has doomed himself. The destiny aspect: no matter what the evil king chooses, he is still destroyed by his progeny.

While this telling focuses on an evil king who chooses to destroy, it could just as easily be told from the viewpoint of a desperate king who is married to a cruel mistress who plots his death and her ascension to the throne via her offspring. What if the monkey king was actually a decent, hard-working fellow who had the misfortune to marry a Rakshasa but not the courage to break up with her? Her children could have been monstrous creatures who could never carry the burden of the throne. Rather than killing them outright, he chose to deny them the option to reproduce, limiting the spread of this influence within his kingdom. This could be because he still loves her, and could not bear to end their existence, or hers. The meeting of the young man and the old king could have been a coup, which demanded action else his kingdom would be destroyed and overrun by demons. That charming monkey could have ensnared the ogre in a spell and recruited an ogre army, charging back to the king to claim the throne for his own.

This may not fall squarely within the Jataka tales, nor the Bodhisatta legends, but it could be a very interesting twist.

Image Information: Flying Monkey
Image Source: GlobalTimes

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