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Overview
In the Durayā telling, a rosary falls on a cat trying to steal dried fish. Claiming to keep the Buddha’s Precepts, it gathers a jungle-hen, ground cuckoo and the hare Tokkā at a cave. It invents offences to justify killing the birds, then calls their dead bodies permissible food. The hare asks to perform two gallops before dying and uses the second to leap over the cat and escape. The precept-keeping claim is the predator’s deception; it does not make the tale an account of actual Buddhist discipline.
P. B. Madahapola’s version begins with curd theft and an accidentally acquired rosary. Its victims are a rat, the squirrel Three-lined Chief and the ground cuckoo Bum-bum; the hare Tokkan requests light for a final dance and escapes when the cat moves from the doorway. In a third account, attributed to a Cultivating Caste teller, the owner deliberately bells the thieving cat. It invents Bell Worship, eats a rat and squirrel, but the jungle-cock blinds it with his spurs and escapes as the cat dies. The three versions and their differing survivors are retained separately; the common deception does not erase their details.
Parker’s notes explain the animal epithets and compare other pious-predator stories. His proposed derivations are not treated as established native etymologies. The rosaries and bell provide a deceptive appearance, with no power of transformation or protection stated.
Origins & earliest records
Sri Lankan narratives collected and translated by H. Parker
Records & interpretation
Complete tale and all its printed variants/comparative notes read; relevant introduction passages on collection and translation directly read.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume I
No. 66, The Cat who guarded the Precepts, pp. 349–354, all variants and notes
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Primary records and illustrations
Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume I
Volume I; No. 66. No. 66, The Cat who guarded the Precepts, pp. 349–354, all variants and notes
Complete main tale, all printed variants, comparisons and footnotes read. Narrative deception distinguished from true religious observance and anatomical fact; named or occupational teller attributions preserved individually in prose.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical collected oral narrative translationParker, Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon I — No. 66, The Cat who guarded the Precepts, pp. 349–354, all variants and notesResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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