ENGLISH LITERATURE

TITLE: Titta Sutta : Buddhist Parable of the Blind men and

the Elephant.
AUTHOR: Unknown
CHARACTERS:1)Lord Buddha
2)Some recluses and Brahmins (who asserted and
held the view : The world is eternal ,only this is true and
any other view is false.
3) Bhikkus
4)King of savatti
5) A man ( to whom the king ordered to bring the
elephant).
6) Elephant
7) Blind men
INTRODUCTION:
The parable of The Blind men and The Elephant is probably
the most widely known and it’s most loved of all the world’
parables by from the earliest version of this parable is to be
found in the UDANA and is attributed to Buddha.
This article is about the rhetoric truth and legal
scholarship more specifical to express how legal scholars
use rhetorical device to illustrate the belief about the
relationship between truth and scholarship.
Story analysis:
The story is told from the point of view of the king and the
recluses and Brahmins,who are not blind men but can see that
the blind men are unable to grasp the full reality of the elephant
and are only able to get hold of part of the truth.The story os
constantly told in order to neutralize the affirmation of the great
religions,to suggest that they learn humility and recognise that
none of them we can have more than one aspect of the truth.
But ofcourse ,the real point of the story is exactly the
opposite .If the king is also blind there would be no story
.Buddha uses this story in his scripture to point to the ignorance
of religious preachers and followers.And according to Buddha
,these preachers and stick to their narrow views,A verse from the
scripture summarises the nature ofsuch men