A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

In Jātaka 55 the ogre Hairy-grip, also named Silesaloma in a modern primary-text revision, confronts Prince Pañcāvudha in a dangerous forest. It makes itself appear as tall as a palm tree, with huge eyes, protruding tusks, a beak-like mouth and a blotched belly. The prince’s poisoned arrows adhere to its shaggy coat. Sword, spear and club fail in turn; his hands, feet and head also become trapped when he strikes the creature.

The prince nevertheless refuses to fear death. He tells the monster that swallowing him would bring destruction through a weapon inside him. The narrator explains this as the weapon of knowledge rather than ordinary anatomy. Hairy-grip releases him, hears instruction in moral conduct and is established as the forest’s devatā. The encounter therefore ends in a change of role, from predator to a local being receiving offerings.

W. H. D. Rouse’s translation prepared for Joseph Jacobs’s Indian Fairy Tales (1892), chapter XXV, supplies further details of the encounter. The demon enlarges itself to palm-tree height, with a head compared to a pagoda, a hawk’s face, a multicoloured belly and blue hands and feet. It breaks off the fifty arrows lodged in its hair before approaching the prince. Its hesitation then arises from admiration for the captive’s courage, followed by fear of the indigestible weapon the prince claims to carry. The narrative explicitly interprets that weapon as knowledge; it does not describe a physical thunderbolt being discharged.

The English witnesses differ at the conversion’s conclusion. Where the Chalmers account above establishes the former predator as the forest’s devatā, Rouse says the prince teaches it the five virtues and makes it worship the deity receiving offerings in that wood. These translations are retained separately here; the Pali wording has not been independently collated. Rouse also preserves the teaching frame at Jetavana: a monk who has abandoned effort is encouraged by the story and reaches sainthood, while the closing identification names Angulimala as the demon in that former birth and the Buddha as Prince Five Weapons. The demon’s comparison of releasing its prisoner to Rahu releasing the moon is a simile, not an identification of the two beings.

Adhesive hairAssumed gigantic formForest ambushMoral conversion
01

Origins & earliest records

South Asian Buddhist Jātaka narrative tradition

02

Records & interpretation

Directly read historical English primary-text translation, located by tale number and printed pages.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    The Jātaka, Volume I

    Robert Chalmers (historical English translator); E. B. Cowell (general editor)

    Jātaka 55, pp. 137–139; publication date of hosted volume not independently checked. Prose narrative and verse are presented together in the translated collection.

  2. 02

    Indian Fairy Tales

    Joseph Jacobs (selector and editor); W. H. D. Rouse (translator of chapter XXV) · 1892

    XXV, “The Demon with the Matted Hair,” pp. 194–198; source and comparative notes pp. 251–253. David Nutt, London. Complete English narrative, teaching frame, ending and notes read; Jacobs identifies Fausböll’s Jātaka 55 as Rouse’s source. Original Pali not collated.

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

Direct primary record

The Jātaka, Volume I

Volume I. Jātaka 55, pp. 137–139

Narrative directly read. Printed English pages distinguished from bracketed Pali-edition pagination; no plate image verified. Independently read Jacobs 1892 XXV in full, pp. 194–198, and notes 251–253; translation expressly by W. H. D. Rouse from Fausböll Jātaka 55. Adds edition-scoped appearance and teaching-frame details, preserving worship-of-deity versus becomes-devatā translation difference. Pali and original page scans not independently collated. Cache: data/cache/asia-continuation/jacobs-25.txt and jacobs-notes-25.txt.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical primary-text translationThe Jātaka, Volume I — Jātaka 55, pp. 137–139Research access: 2026-10-05
  2. Primary-text translation revisionPañcāvudha Jātaka 55 — modern primary-text revision using SilesalomaResearch access: 2026-10-05
  3. Historical English primary-text translation and editorial notesJacobs, Indian Fairy Tales (1892), XXV and notesResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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