Reading Notes: Eastern stories and legends Part C

The golden Banyan deer

Source

1: There was 2 hawks, an osprey, a turtle, and a lion. The haws needed friends, so they made friends with the other animals to protect eachother if danger ever arose. Later, a bunch of fisherman came and heard the sounds of the hawk's children and wanted to eat them, so the dad hawk went to the osprey and it helped extinguish the fire until midnight. Then, the turtle's kid put out the fire and dragged the men into the water. Then, the hawks asked the lion to help, and he scared away the men.

2: The Bodisat was a tin and brass dealer. He and another dealer (same merch) decided to split a town in half so they could sell equally. His competitor went to a house where they tried selling their gold (covered in dirt so disguised) plate for his tin, he denied to make them think the plate was worthless. Then, the Bodisat went to them and told them their plate was gold. They were convinced that the Bodisat turned the plate gold (cause the other guy said it was worthless) and sold it to him for all his money and merch (Fair trade.) The other dealer found out what had happened, and tried to chase after the Bodisat but he was already long gone.

3: The Bodisat was born a noble's son. He was very humble and fixed up the village, but one day a group of robbers tried to rob the village. The king wanted to kill them, but the Bodisat pleaded to spare their lives. The execution failed, and the king demanded to know why. The Bodisat simply said that he and the executioners (elephants) were abiding by the commandments. The king gave all the robbers property in the village.

4: The king asked his gardener about an antelope that kept on roaming the garden, and gave the gardener some honey to catch it. The gardener gained the antelopes trust and lead it to the palace. The animal freaked out, and the king said "We have frightened it, it will never come back" and let it go to the jungle

5: The Bodisat was born a golden deer with white antlers. He lived in a forest with a herd of 500 deer under the king Banyan deer (Bodisat was the king.) The local town surrounded the Banyan and Monkey deer (Another tribe of deer, monkey deer is also golden) to give to their king. The king spared the 2 golden deer, but killed the others one by one. The 2 king deer decided to take turns sacrificing one of their herd, that way they don't have to live in the fear of crossbows shooting wildly into the herd. The monkey deer'd turn came, and he sacrificed a pregnant deer. She begged, but he declined to spare her. She talked to the Banyan deer and he decided to take her place. The executioner was confused cause this deer was spared by the king, and told the king. The king asked the Banyan deer "why" and he explained. Then the king granted them both their lives, then all the deer, and animals. The banyan deer told him that the kindness of sparing the whole animal kingdom would grant the king into heaven. Later, the deer kept eating the crops, and the townsfolk asked the king what to do. The king said "don't kill the deer" and the Banyan deer heard this and told his herd to never eat crops if there is a leaf tied around the edge of the field (a sign to not eat the crops)

6: Buddha was born as a brahmin and went to school to become the #1 in his class of 500. The teacher's son died, and everyone buried the body. Buddha asked why the son died, cause in his family only the old died. The teacher went out to Buddha's dad to see if this was true, and left Buddha in charge of class. The teacher learned why Buddha's family never died young, because they walk in righteousness.

7: 4 gods came to a festival of the gods on Earth and they brought wreaths of celestial flowers. They told the humans that only the righteous could wear the flowers. A false priest went to the 4 gods and asked for their wreaths and saying he never did anything wrong (he did, he just lied to the gods) and he got the 4 wreaths and the gods disappeared. When they left, the flowers began to spike the priest's head. He cried and begged for forgiveness, and once he outed himself as a prideful and lying priest, the gods removed the flowers.

Bibliography:
Marie Shedlock
Eastern Stories and Legends
http://iereadingguides.blogspot.com/2015/05/free-books-shedlock-eastern-stories-and.html