Banyan was the king of the deer. He was the golden deer.
His eyes were described as jewels.
His antlers were described as silver crescents.
His hooves looked like pears.
If I saw this deer idk what I'd do. I would probably freeze, memorized by its beauty. As someone who likes to deer hunt, I have gained an appreciation for the animal. They are quite beautiful creatures to begin with so I Banyan must have been stunning.
Banyan was not the only deer king. There was another named Branch.
They both ruled over 500 deer.
The king of Benares was a big deer hunter. He went out every day.
The king and his men trampled many crop field while riding their horses to the hunting areas.
The peasants who worked these fields begged them to stop.
They came up with the idea to push the deer into the into the kings garden so that he would no longer have to travel to hunt.
These men surrounded the forest with sticks and spears making sure to cut off any escape route for the deer.
They then chased the deer out of the woods and into the king's garden (which was actually another forest across from the other forest, the crop fields separated them).
They shut the gates behind the deer so that none of them could escape.
The peasants came to the king an told him what they had done.
They said he no longer needed to pass through their fields to hunt.
The king was thankful.
From then on he just hunted in his forest.
He told all of his men that the two golden deer must not be killed.
Many deer were wounded many times before being killed. (This is exactly what you do not want to do as a hunter)
Branch came to Banyan to propose a solution.
One deer under Branch would give itself up every other day. On the other days, one deer under Banyan would give itself up.
These deer took turns.
It became a doe's turn but she had a fawn that she did not want to leave behind.
Banyan went and took her place.
The king seeing this act of kindness decided to never kill any more deer.
As a matter of fact, he never killed any more animals.
Bibliography
Banyan from Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat
Image Information: Spotted Deer Native to India: Wikipedia
_male.jpg){kind=link}
No comments:
Post a Comment