Jambuka

Who is Jambuka?

Jambuka is an ascetic described in the 70th verse of the Dhammapada, a Buddhist text.

Jambuka was the son of a wealthy man in Savatthi, who was born with peculiar habits due to negative karma accrued from past lives. In his childhood he showed a desire to sleep on the floor rather than in a bed, and instead of consuming rice, he preferred to consume his own excrement. After he had grown older, his parents sent him to train with the ajivakas, the naked ascetics. However, upon discovering his penchant for consuming excrement, the ascetics then expelled him. He consumed excrement by night and by day, standing still on one leg with his mouth open. He claimed that he kept his mouth open as he lived on air and that he stood on one leg so that it would not be too heavy for the earth to bear him. He would boast "I never sit down, I never go to sleep", earning the name Jambuka, meaning a jackal.

Jambuka would refuse the offerings of food given to him, claiming that he would not consume anything but air, or he would only partake a small amount with a tip of a blade of grass, claiming that the offerings had brought merit to the offerer.