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8. Gamani Jātaka

Ja 8

Tiny fern shoots and water droplets beside a clear woodland spring.

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

“Their heart’s desire.”—This story was told by the Master while at Jetavana about a Brother who gave up persevering. In this Jataka both the Introductory Story and the Story of the Past will be given in the Eleventh Book in connexion with the Samvara-jataka; the incidents are the same both for that Jataka and for this, but the stanzas are different.

Abiding stedfast in the counsels of the Bodhisatta, Prince Gamani, finding himself—though the youngest of a hundred brothers—surrounded by those hundred brothers as a retinue and seated beneath the white canopy of kingship, PTS vp En 30 contemplated his glory and thought—“All this glory I owe to my teacher.” And, in his joy, he burst into this heartfelt utterance—

Their heart’s desire they reap, who hurry not;
Know, Gamani, ripe excellence is thine.

PTS vp Pali 137 Seven or eight days after he had become king, all his brothers departed to their own homes. King Gamani, after ruling his kingdom in righteousness, passed away to fare according to his deserts. The Bodhisatta also passed away to fare according to his deserts.


His lesson ended, the Master preached the Truths, at the close whereof the faint-hearted Brother won Arahatship. Having told the two stories, the Master shewed the connexion linking them both together and identified the Birth.

Connections

Collection & context

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.