The Elephant and the Dog

Also known as Bhaddasala Jataka

• 3 minute read
• Ages 5-9
• Jataka Tales

The King of Benares had a state elephant, enormous and well cared for, who lived in a stable of his own and was fed the best rice in the kingdom.

A stray dog began coming to the stable to eat the rice that fell from the elephant's mouth.

He was a thin, nervous animal and at first he only came when nobody was about. The elephant watched him and did not chase him off.

Then the elephant began pushing food towards him on purpose.

Friends

After that they were together all the time.

The dog slept between the elephant's front feet. The elephant would pick him up in his trunk and swing him gently and set him on his own head, and the dog would sit up there while the elephant walked round the yard.

They ate together. They would not eat if the other was not there.

This went on for a long time and everybody at the palace got used to it.

The sale

Then a villager came through Benares, saw the dog, and thought he was a fine animal and much improved by good feeding.

He asked the keeper who owned him. The keeper said nobody did, he was a stray. So the villager gave the keeper a small sum, put a rope on the dog and took him away to his village a long way off.

The elephant looked for him.

When he did not come back the elephant stopped eating. Then he stopped drinking. Then he stopped letting the keepers wash him or come near him, and stood in his stable with his head down, and would not move.

The King's minister

The King sent his wisest minister to find out what was wrong with the elephant.

The minister examined him and found nothing at all. No fever, no swelling, no injury, no sign of sickness anywhere.

So he asked the keepers a different question.

"Has anything changed here? Anything at all?"

They thought about it, and said no. Then one of them said, well, there was a dog.

The minister went back to the King.

"There is nothing wrong with your elephant's body," he said. "He had a friend and the friend has gone. Send word through the country that whoever has the dog from the elephant's stable should let him go, and no blame to anyone."

The word went out. The villager heard it and slipped the rope off.

And the dog ran the whole way back, all that distance, and came into the yard, and the elephant picked him up in his trunk and put him on his head and would not put him down for a long while.

Then they both ate.