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52. Cula-Janaka Jātaka

Ja 52

Delicate frost crystals line a dry grass stem in quiet morning light.

This edition includes the canonical verses together with the later commentarial stories.

“Toil on, my brother.”—This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about another backsliding Brother. All the incidents that are to be related here, will be given in the Maha-janaka Jātaka.

The king, seated beneath the white canopy of sovereignty, recited this stanza—

“Toil on, my brother; still in hope stand fast;
Faint not, nor tire, though harassed sore.
Myself I see, who, all my woes o’erpast,
Have fought my stubborn way ashore.

Here too the backsliding Brother won Arahatship. The All-wise Buddha was King Janaka.

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About this edition

Translation by Robert Chalmers · SuttaCentral · Public domain

The source expressly identifies this translation as public domain.

The Jātaka, or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births, edited by E.B. Cowell, published by The Cambridge University Press.

  • Vol. 1, translated by Robert Chalmers, 1895.
  • Vol. 2, translated by W.H.D. Rouse, 1895.
  • Vol. 3, translated by H.T. Francis and R.A. Neil, 1897.
  • Vol. 4, translated by W.H.D. Rouse, 1901.
  • Vol. 5, translated by H.T. Francis, 1905.
  • Vol. 6, translated by E.B. Cowell and W.H.D. Rouse, 1907.

These translations are in the public domain. You are free to do whatever you like with them.

Scanned, proofed and formatted at sacred-texts.com, January 2006–February 2010, by John Bruno Hare and others. Thanks to the Sacred Texts Archive for making these texts available in digital form.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.

Published source. Translation wording and order are preserved; source headings and notes are retained, with navigation and formatting adapted for this reader.

The opening image is AI-generated nature artwork for Buddhist Atlas, an evocative companion rather than a historical depiction.