Reading Notes: Jataka Tales, The King's White Elephant, Part B


  • Elephant with the sore food - could have symbolism of Vishnu there
    • A recurring Hindu theme is that strangers/guests tend can be God in disguise
  • The elephant was nice and decided to pay the carpenters back with service
  • Elephant passed down the tradition to his younger elephant son (the white elephant)
    • Cultural elements present here
  • King buys the elephant 
    • Expected a sad ending here for some reason, but instead it was happy; moral is that doing good for others will have its own reward 
    • Good story to write here is what would have happened had the elephant decided to stay with the carpenter's kids 
    • Could also bring in divine aspects - what if the white elephant was an incarnation of Vishnu? Could he have given the carpenters a material reward that way?


A picture of a white elephant. Source.




Bibliography: Jataka Tales. "The King's White Elephant." Link to story

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