Once, there lived a jackal named Chandarava.
One day he was very hungry, and could not find any food.
So, he wandered into a nearby village in search of food.
The dogs in the village saw the jackal, and a group of dogs surrounded him, barking and attacking with their sharp teeth.
The jackal started running to save itself, but the dogs chased.
In an attempt to flee from the dogs, he ran into a house, which belonged to a washerman.
There was a big vat of blue dye inside.
As he jumped without knowing, his entire body was dyed in blue colour. He no longer looked like a jackal.
Frustrated, he came out. When the dogs saw him again, they were unable to recognize him anymore. Fearing that it was an unknown animal, they became terrified and ran off in all directions.
The disappointed jackal went back to the jungle, but the blue dye would not come off.
When the other animals in the jungle saw this blue-coloured jackal, they ran away in terror. They said to themselves, “This is an unknown animal, and we don’t know the strength of this new animal. It is better to run away.”
When the jackal realized that all the animals were running away. He called back at the frightened animals and said, “Hey animals! Why are you running away? Don’t be afraid. Brahma, the Lord of all creations, has me made me himself, with his own hands. Brahma said to me, ‘The animals in the jungle do not have a proper king. Go to the jungle and protect the animals.'”
“That is the reason I have come here”, he continued, “Come and live in peace in my kingdom and under my protection. I have been crowned the King of all three worlds (Heaven, Earth and Hell)
The other animals were convinced, and they surrounded him as his subjects, and said “O Master, we await your commands. Please let us know whatever you want”.
The ‘blue’ jackal assigned specific responsibilities to every animal. They were mostly on how to serve him. But he did not have anything to do with the other jackals, and did not want to come near them in fear of being recognized. So, the jackals of the jungle were chased away.
And so it went, while the smaller animals would serve him with his other needs, the lions and the tigers would go out to hunt for prey, and place them before the jackal every day.
He would then distribute the food amongst other animals, and himself.
In this manner, he discharged his royal duties, for all the animals under his kingdom.
Quite some time elapsed in this way, and there was peace between animals.
One evening, the ‘blue’ jackal heard a pack of jackals howling at a distance.
Unable to overcome his natural instinct, he was so spellbound that he was filled with tears of joy. He immediately sat up, and began to howl like every other jackal.
When the lion and the other animals heard this, they realized how he was only a jackal and how they have been fooled all the time.
They held their heads down in shame, but only for a moment – because, they became very angry on the jackal for fooling them.
They angrily said to each other, “This jackal has fooled us. We will not let him live anymore. He should be punished.”
When the jackal realized, he tried to flee from them. But the animals got hold of him and he got severely beaten by them.
The wise indeed say:
One, who treats his own people with scorn, shall surely suffer a bitter end.
http://www.talesofpanchatantra.com/the-story-of-the-blue-jackal
Leave A Comment