Reading Notes: Turtles and Demonesses

Two Turtle Jatakas

  • The Turtle and the King
    • There is a turtle that a king's young sons think is a demon 
      • King - loves sons a lot 
      • Sons - quite wimpy, seem entitled
    • Many suggestions are tossed about as to how to kill this poor "demon"
    • One man suggests throwing it in the lake
    • The turtle (who is very smart) uses reverse psychology to get them to throw him into the lake, where he lives happily 
      • What if the turtle tried to tell people he was not a demon?
  • The Turtle and the Geese
    • Turtle made friends with Geese
    • Geese invited him over; since he can't fly, he was supposed to clamp his mouth on a stick that the geese carried (aka, if he spoke or opened his mouth, he would fall from the air and die) 
    • Turtle heard children commenting on how geese were carrying him, fell and died (because he opened his mouth) 
      • Moral: think before you speak; the turtle was foolish
      • Potential plot twist: the geese were fooling him and taking him to kill and eat him
  • Selfish rakshasis: stole husbands from the street, ate them after they were bored of them
  • Rakshasis capture (more like captivate) some poor sailors into marrying them; captain hears his new "wife" crunching on man's meat and discovers he's a rakshasi 
  • He tells his people; those who believe him live, and those who don't end up dying 
    • Plot twists: the magical horse that saves them is also out to kill them?


A picture of Lakshman cutting off the nose of the rakshasi Shurpanaka (Ravana's sister)

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