Ja 206 The Story about the Antelope
(Kuruṅgamigajātaka)
In the present Devadatta is going around trying to kill the Buddha. The latter tells a story of how he had done a similar thing in the past, when the Bodhisatta was an antelope, and Devadatta a hunter, and how he had been thwarted by his friends, the woodpecker and the tortoise.
1. Iṅgha vaddham-ayaṁ pāsaṁ, chinda dantehi kacchapa,
Ahaṁ tathā karissāmi, yathā nehiti luddako ti.
Come on, this strap, this snare, you must cut through it with your teeth, tortoise, I will do my part likewise, because of that the hunter won’t come.
[There is no word commentary to this verse.]
The tortoise re-entered the lake, and the deer re-entered the woods, the woodpecker from the tree top carried his children far away.
In this connection, carried, having taken them he departed, this is the meaning. It is odd that the commentary on this verse is so short.