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Overview
A tigress begins suckling a wandering lion cub as a companion for her own cub. The returning lioness agrees that they should share care, and the cubs are named Sudaṇshṭhra, the lion, and Subāhu, the tiger. Their mothers later urge them to remain brothers and reject slander. The adult lion invites the less successful tiger to hunt alongside him, reducing the leftovers available to an old jackal.
The jackal invents threats and frames each brother’s ordinary gestures as preparation to attack. Unlike the lion and bull in the preceding version, these companions question one another. They discover that both warnings came from the jackal, which the lion kills with a blow. A deity praises testing accusations before abandoning friends. Their names and foster relationship belong to this version; the tiger Subāhu is not equated with the similarly named Rāmāyaṇa figure.
Origins & earliest records
Indian Buddhist narrative preserved in Tibetan translation
Records & interpretation
Whole chapter and its footnotes directly read in the digitized1906 edition.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Tibetan Tales Derived from Indian Sources
XXXIII.B, The Jackal as Calumniator, pp. 328–331; chapter note cites Kah-gyur vi. ff. 239–243
- 02
Tibetan Tales Derived from Indian Sources — XXXIII The Jackal as Calumniator
Tibetan Tales Derived from Indian Sources, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1906, title-page transcription independently checked. Tibetan Kah-gyur to German by F. Anton von Schiefner, then German to English by W.R.S.Ralston. Complete selectedXXIX–XXXIX314–343, including bothXXXIII variants and all notes, independently read. ChapterXXXVIII read as adjacent corpus context without inventing a new profile; source-language originals not collated.
Family, evolution & connections
Sudaṇshṭhra and Subāhu’s foster household — Ralston XXXIII.B
Two biological mother–cub relations within a jointly nursing foster household, pp. 328–331.
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- Joint nursing household — foster brotherhood
- Unnamed lioness — mother of Sudaṇshṭhra
- Unnamed tigress — mother of Subāhu
Opening mother-and-cub statements, reciprocal care arrangement, supplied cub names and mothers’ express brotherhood instruction. The root groups caregivers; it does not imply a shared parent or marriage between them. Solid nested relations show each cub’s biological mother; reciprocal nursing makes the cubs foster brothers. No father is supplied. The preceding lion-and-bull story is a separate version, and the jackal’s uncle address does not establish biological kinship.
Unnamed lioness in Ralston XXXIII.B
The lioness is Sudaṇshṭhra’s mother and joins the tigress in nursing and caring for both cubs. Shared nursing establishes foster brotherhood, not biological siblinghood.
Unnamed tigress in Ralston XXXIII.B
Subāhu is the tigress’s cub. She nurses the visiting lion cub, and the mothers later instruct their jointly reared children to behave as brothers.
Primary records and illustrations
Schiefner/Ralston, Tibetan Tales Derived from Indian Sources (London, 1906)
XXXIII.B, The Jackal as Calumniator. XXXIII.B, The Jackal as Calumniator, pp. 328–331; chapter note cites Kah-gyur vi. ff. 239–243
Complete chapter and all notes read. Translation’s canonical locator retained; original Tibetan not independently inspected. Actual endings, explicit identities and comparative material kept separate, with no death/kinship/anatomy inferred beyond the telling.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Tibetan Tales Derived from Indian Sources
Tibetan Tales Derived from Indian Sources, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1906, title-page transcription independently checked. Tibetan Kah-gyur to German by F. Anton von Schiefner, then German to English by W.R.S.Ralston. Complete selectedXXIX–XXXIX314–343, including bothXXXIII variants and all notes, independently read. ChapterXXXVIII read as adjacent corpus context without inventing a new profile; source-language originals not collated.
- A tigress first nurses a lion cub, then she and its lioness mother jointly raise Sudaṇshṭhra and Subāhu and ask them to be brothers. A jackal later tries to divide the young lion and tiger over feeding remnants. Unlike variantA’s fatal mutual suspicion, they test the hostile reports, discover the common informant and remain allied. The lion kills the calumniating jackal.
XXXIII The Jackal as Calumniator, completeB328–331; common note Kah-gyurvi.ff239–243
Historical German-mediated English rendering, not independently collated Tibetan manuscript. Page labels from hosted transcription. Religious/moral assertions remain narrative framing. No verse, ritual, prayer, medical preparation or modern adaptation copied.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical translation of Buddhist narrativeSchiefner/Ralston, Tibetan Tales (1906), XXXIII.B, The Jackal as Calumniator, pp. 328–331; chapter note cites Kah-gyur vi. ff. 239–243Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.