The Demon with the Matted Hair

The Buddha, who was known as the Teacher, once met a monk who had given up trying to live a good life. “Is it true that you have stopped trying?” the Teacher asked him. “Yes, Blessed One,” said the monk. “Brother,” said the Teacher, “long ago, wise men kept on trying where trying was needed, and so they won a kingdom.” And he told this story of long ago.

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was King of Benares, the Bodhisatta, the being who would one day become the Buddha, was born as the son of the chief queen. On the day he was given his name, the king invited eight hundred Brahmins, gave them everything they wished for and asked them to read the lucky marks on the baby’s body.

The Brahmins, who were skilled at such things, saw how fine the marks were. “Great King,” they said, “your son is full of goodness. When you die, he will be king. He will be famous for his skill with the five weapons, and he will be the greatest man in all India.”

So the baby was named the Prince of the Five Weapons, after the sword, the spear, the bow, the battle-axe and the shield.

When the prince was sixteen years old and grown up enough to be sensible, the king said to him, “My son, go and finish your education.”

“Who shall teach me?” asked the boy.

“Go to the city of Takkasila in the kingdom of Candahar,” said the king. “There is a teacher there whose name is known far and wide, and I want you to learn from him. Give him this as his fee.” And he gave his son a thousand pieces of money and sent him on his way.

The prince went to Takkasila and studied with the teacher, who gave him the five weapons as a gift when his lessons were over. Then the prince said goodbye and set off for home, carrying all five.

On the road to Benares, he came to a forest where the Demon with the Matted Hair lived. Some men at the edge of the forest saw him coming and called out, “Hey, young sir, stay out of that wood! A demon called Matted Hair lives there, and he kills every man he sees!” And they tried to stop him.

But the prince trusted in himself, and he walked straight on, as fearless as a lion with a flowing mane.

When he reached the middle of the forest, the demon appeared. He made himself as tall as a palm tree. His head was as big as a temple tower, his eyes were as large as saucers, and he had two lumpy, knobbly tusks. He had the face of a hawk, a belly of many colours, and blue hands and feet.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he bellowed. “Stop! You will make me a fine dinner!”

“Demon,” said the prince, “I came here trusting in myself. Be careful how you come near me. Here is a poisoned arrow, and I am going to shoot you down with it!” With that warning, he fitted an arrow dipped in deadly poison to his bow and let it fly.

The arrow stuck in the demon’s hair. The prince shot again and again, fifty arrows in all, and every one of them stuck in the demon’s thick, matted hair. The demon simply snapped them off and threw them down at his feet. Then he came closer.

The prince drew his sword, which was thirty-three inches long, and struck at the demon, shouting threats. The sword stuck fast in the demon’s hair! He struck with his spear, and that stuck too! He struck with his club, and that stuck as well!

When the prince saw that his club was stuck, he spoke to the demon. “You, Demon!” he said. “Have you never heard of me, the Prince of the Five Weapons? When I came into your forest, I did not trust only in my bow and my other weapons. Today I will beat you and grind you to dust!” And with a shout he hit the demon with his right hand. It stuck fast in the hair! He hit him with his left hand, and that stuck too! He kicked him with his right foot, and that stuck. He kicked with his left foot, and that stuck as well. Then he rammed the demon with his head, shouting, “I’ll grind you to dust!” And his head stuck fast like all the rest.

So the prince was caught in five places, held tight and dangling in the air. Yet he felt no fear. He was not even nervous.

The demon thought to himself, “This man is a lion! A noble man! He is more than a man! Here he is, caught by a demon like me, and he is not the least bit afraid. In all the time I have been terrorising this road, I have never seen anyone like him. Why isn’t he afraid?” He found that he could not bring himself to eat the prince. Instead he asked, “Young sir, why aren’t you frightened to death?”

“Why should I be afraid, Demon?” said the prince. “A man can only die once in each life. Besides, there is a thunderbolt inside my belly. If you eat me, you will never be able to digest it. It will tear your insides to pieces and kill you, and then we shall both be dead. That is why I am not afraid of anything.” By the thunderbolt, the prince meant the weapon of wisdom that he carried within him.

The demon thought, “This young man is telling the truth. Even a scrap of a lion-man like this, no bigger than a bean, would be too much for me to digest. I will let him go.” And so, terrified, he let the prince go free.

“Young sir,” he said, “you are a lion among men. I will not eat you. I set you free from my hands, just as the moon comes out of the jaws of the demon Rahu after an eclipse. Go home to your friends and family!”

“Demon, I will go, as you say,” replied the prince. “You were born a demon, cruel and hungry for the flesh and blood of others, because of the wicked things you did in your past lives. If you go on doing wicked things, you will only pass from darkness into deeper darkness. But now that you have seen me, you will find you cannot do evil any more. Taking the lives of living creatures leads to being born as an animal, or as a hungry ghost, or as a demon, and if someone who does it is born as a man, his life will be short.”

He went on to explain the harm that comes from the five kinds of wickedness and the good that comes from the five kinds of goodness, and he gave the demon so much to think about that at last the demon was tamed. The prince taught him to live by the five rules of goodness and to worship the spirit to whom offerings were made in that forest. Then, after giving him much good advice, the prince left the wood.

At the edge of the forest he told the people there everything that had happened, and he went on to Benares with his five weapons. In time he became king and ruled justly, and after a life of giving to the poor and doing good, he passed on to whatever his deeds had earned him.

When the Teacher had finished this story, he spoke a verse:

“Whoever has a heart and mind free from all craving,
and looks for peace by living a good life,
will in time cut all the ties
that bind him to this world, and be free.”

Then the Teacher explained the Four Noble Truths, and when he had finished, the monk who had stopped trying reached the highest goal. And the Teacher told them who was who in the tale: “In those days the demon was Angulimala, and the Prince of the Five Weapons was I myself.”

Where this tale comes from

This is a Jataka tale, one of the ancient stories of the Buddha’s former lives. It is No. 55 in Fausböll’s edition, the Pancavudha-Jataka, and was translated by W. H. D. Rouse of Christ’s College, Cambridge, for Joseph Jacobs’s Indian Fairy Tales, published in London by David Nutt in 1892.

In his notes, Jacobs compares the story with the Tar Baby episode in Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus, in which Brer Rabbit gets stuck fast after hitting and kicking a figure made of tar.

Read the original: Joseph Jacobs, Indian Fairy Tales (Project Gutenberg #7128, The Demon with the Matted Hair)

Reading guidance: Ages 9–12 with adult discussion; includes a man-eating demon, poisoned weapons, threats of death and religious teachings about rebirth.

A closer reading

The repeated blows create an escalating trap: the prince loses his weapons, then the use of his hands, feet and head. Applying more of the same force makes his position worse. The change comes when the demon asks a question and the prince answers; the encounter moves from combat to interpretation.

The prince calls the thunderbolt in his belly wisdom, while the demon hears a threat he cannot digest. That difference in understanding helps secure release. The story then goes beyond escape: the prince stays to teach the being who threatened him, making changed conduct part of the resolution.

The opening and closing return the adventure to the monk who has stopped trying. Within that religious frame, persistence concerns the cultivation of conduct and understanding. It is not a general instruction to ignore warnings, enter danger or attack until every option is gone. The remarks about rebirth express the tale’s doctrinal world and should not be used to infer that real illness, short life or animal existence proves personal wrongdoing.

Try this with the story

Make a sequence of what the prince tries and what happens to it. Mark the moment at which the demon stops attacking and begins asking. Compare the goal of defeating an opponent with the later goal of changing his conduct.

Think about it

• Why does repeating physical attacks make the prince’s position worse?
• How do the prince and demon understand the thunderbolt differently?
• What does the prince do after he is released?
• How does the monk’s frame change the meaning of perseverance?

You may also like

• The Hawks And Their Friends — another Jataka tale
• Raja Rasalu — another young Indian hero who faces a fearsome giant