The Two Stags

Long ago a king ruled in the city of Rajagaha, in the land of Magadha. In those days the Bodisat was born as a deer. When he grew up, he lived in the forest as leader of a herd of a thousand deer. He had two sons. One was called Lakkhana, which means Beauty, and the other was called Kala, which means Brownie.

When the deer leader grew old, he called his sons. “My dear ones, I am old now. You must lead the herd.” And he gave each son five hundred deer to look after.

Now in Magadha, at harvest time, when the corn ripens in the fields, the deer in the nearby forest are in great danger. Here and there people dig pits, set sharp stakes, put out stone traps and lay snares to catch the animals that might eat their crops, and many deer are killed.

When the old deer saw that harvest time was coming, he sent for his sons. “My children, the crops are growing, and many deer will be killed. Your mother and I are old, and we will manage somehow without going far. But you must lead your herds up into the hills of the forest, and come back when the crops have been cut.”

“Very well,” they said, and off they went with their herds.

The people who lived along the way knew the deer’s habits. “At such a time the deer go up to the hills,” they said, “and at such a time they come down.” So they hid in different places along the path and shot many deer as they went by.

Brownie was a dull deer. He did not know that there are good times to travel and bad times. He led his herd early and late, at dawn and at dusk, right past the village gates. And the people, some out in the open and some hiding, killed many of his deer. So by his foolishness Brownie lost a great part of his herd, and he reached the forest with only a few.

Beauty was wise and clever and full of good ideas. He knew when to move and when to stay still. He kept away from the village gates. He did not travel by day, or even at dawn or dusk. He traveled only in the middle of the night, and so he reached the forest without losing a single deer.

The deer stayed in the hills for four months. When the crops had been cut, they came down. Brownie went home the same foolish way he had gone, and he lost all the rest of his herd and arrived alone. But Beauty came home to his father with all five hundred of his deer, not one missing.

When the old deer saw his sons coming, he talked it over with the herd and made up this verse:

The good and the gentle win the prize.
See Beauty coming with all his family!
And look at poor Brownie, who has lost them all!

So the old deer welcomed his son. He lived to a good old age, and then he passed on, as his deeds deserved.

Where this tale comes from

This is the Lakkhana Jataka, No. 11 in T. W. Rhys Davids’s Buddhist Birth Stories (1880), titled “The Story of ‘Beauty.’” Rhys Davids gives the young stags the pet names Beauty and Brownie for Lakkhana, “the beautifully marked one,” and Kala, “the dark one.”

The Buddha tells it at the Bamboo Grove near Rajagaha, after his disciple Sariputta brings back five hundred monks who had followed Devadatta away. In the closing words Brownie is Devadatta, Beauty is Sariputta and the father deer is the Buddha himself. Here we tell only the deer story from long ago.

Read the original: Buddhist Birth Stories (Project Gutenberg)

Reading guidance: Ages 9–12; includes traps, repeated killing and the loss of an entire herd. This is not a gentle preschool listening lesson.

A closer reading

Both sons follow the instruction to leave, but only Lakkhana works out how to travel safely. Obedience to the destination is not enough; timing and route determine what happens to the herd. Kala repeats the same choices on the return journey instead of learning from the first losses.

The translated names Beauty and Brownie should not be mistaken for an argument that looks or color reveal character. The evidence of leadership is conduct: one leader considers where hunters wait and when the herd can pass, while the other exposes his followers repeatedly. The herd’s welfare, rather than the leader’s own survival, is the measure of success.

Try this with the story

Draw outbound and return routes for each herd, noting village gates and travel times. Mark which information Kala could learn from the first journey. Explain why returning alive alone does not make his leadership successful.

Talk about it

• How do both sons follow the instruction but obtain different results?
• What should Kala learn from the first journey?
• Why should behavior rather than a translated name guide our judgment?

You may also like

• The Banyan Deer (Nigrodhamiga Jataka) — another Jataka about a wise deer leader
• The Quarrel of the Quails — a flock that stays safe only while it works together
• The Wise and Foolish Merchants — a wise leader and a foolish one on the same road