The Jatakas
Page 1
‘When my concentrated mind was purified, I directed it to the knowledge of the recollection of past lives’—The Buddha on the night of his enlightenment
Associated with the living traditions of folk tale, drama and epic, the Jatakas recount the development of the Bodhisatta–the being destined to become the present Buddha in his final life–not just through the events of one lifetime but of hundreds. Written in Pali, the language of the Theravada Buddhist canon, the Jatakas comprise one of the largest and oldest collections of stories in the world dating from the fifth century BCE to the third century CE. Generations in South and South-east Asia have grown up with these tales.
This volume contains twenty-six stories drawn from various ancient sources, and each story reflects one of the ten perfections–giving, restraint, renunciation, wisdom, strength, acceptance, truthfulness, resolve, loving kindness and equanimity. A detailed introduction elaborates on the ten perfections, explains the forms of enlightenment as well as the structure, and the historical and geographical contexts of the stories. Sarah shaw brings to life the teachings of Buddhism for the scholar and lay reader alike.
Translated, with an introduction, by SARAH SHAW
Cover: Illustration of Rescue at Sea (Ms. Pali a.27R)
© Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
PENGUIN CLASSICS
THE JATAKAS
SARAH SHAW was educated at Manchester University, where she read Greek and English. She did her doctorate in English Literature there and went on to the study of Pali and Sanskrit in Oxford. She has written a book about meditation in the Pali canon, which is being published as part of a series in connection with the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. She is a teacher and writer and is married with three children. A Buddhist for some years, she practises with the Samatha Association in Britain.
THE JATAKAS
Birth Stories of
the Bodhisatta
Translated from the Pali by
SARAH SHAW
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published by Penguin Books India 2006
This translation copyright © Sarah Shaw 2006
Cover image courtesy Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-01-4400-147-7
This Digital Edition published 2010. e-ISBN: 978-81-8475-034-8
Digital conversion prepared by DK Digital Media, India.
This e-book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser and without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above-mentioned publisher of this e-book.
This book is dedicated to
the memory of my parents,
Hamish and Kathleen Bremner
Contents
Copyright
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
A note on the texts
Author’s note
Introduction
The Far Past: The Bodhisatta Vow and the Ten Perfections
1. A true story Apannaka Jataka (1)
2. The story of Makhadeva Makhadeva Jataka (9)
3. The cane stalk story Nalapana Jataka (20)
4. The story of the partridge Tittira Jataka (37)
5. The Vedabbha mantra storyVedabbha Jataka (48)
6. The story of five weaponsPancavudha Jataka (55)
7. The story of the fishMaccha Jataka (75)
8. The hair-standing-on-end story Lomahamsa Jataka 94
9. The story of the great king of glory Mahasudassana Jataka (95)
10. The story of more than a thousand Parosahassa Jataka (99)
11. The story of the draining bucket 1 Udancani Jataka (106)
12. A rustic story Bahiya Jataka (108)
13. The kusa grass story Kusanali Jataka (121)
14. The cat story Bialara Jataka (128)
15. The story of the kimsuka tree Kimsukopama Jataka (248)
16. The story of the tortoise Kacchapa Jataka (273)
17. The story of the one who taught forbearance Khantivadi Jataka (313)
18. The story of the hare Sasa Jataka (316)
19. The story of Nandiya the deer Nandiya Jataka (385)
20. The story of the barleymeal sack Satthubhasta Jataka (402)
21. The story of the monkey king Mahakapi Jataka (407)
22. The story of the swift goose Javanaham taka (476)
23. The story of Campeyya Campeyya Jataka (506)
24. The story of Temiya, the dumb cripple Mugapakkha Jataka (538)
25. The story of Mahajanaka Mahajanaka Jataka (539 )
26. The story of Sama Sama Jataka (540)
Further reading and bibliography
Appendix A: The disciples of the Buddha
Appendix B: Cosmology
Appendix C: Indian sites that portray Jatakas
Glossary and index of proper names
Acknowledgements
If Jatakas were being written now there would have to be one about generosity in the giving of time. I have often had the benefit of this kind while working on these translations. So I would like to thank L.S. Cousins, past president of the Samatha Trust and the Pali Text Society, for teaching me for many years and for helping me out. I would also like to thank Professor Richard Gombrich for his teaching over the last few years. Both have influenced and taught me so much that the debt cannot be covered fully by footnotes. Dr Justin Meiland has also often given a great deal of useful comment, both on points of translation and about Jatakas in general. Other people I would like to thank for reading sections or giving comments are Ven. Dhammasami, Dr John Elsner, Dr Susan Francia, Sarah Norman, Dr Valerie Roebuck, Professor Grevel Lindop and Dr Peter Skilling. My editor, Sumitra Srinivasan, has been very helpful and alert to inconsistencies. The staff and librarians at the Oriental Institute and the Indian Institu
te libraries have also always been helpful. My greatest thanks are to my family, my husband, Charles, and children, Jeremy, Roland and Lucy. My dog, Bramble, who died while I was completing the script, was a reminder to me that animals can help to keep us human.
List of abbreviations
A Anguttaranikaya
Cp Cariyapitaka
CPD Critical Pali Dictionary
D Dighanikaya
DhS Dhammasangani
DP Dictionary of Pali
DPPN Dictionary of Pali Proper Names
J Jataka
M Majjhimanikaya
PED Pali–English Dictionary
PTS Pali Text Society
S Samyuttanikaya
SED Sanskrit–English Dictionary
Sn Suttanipata
Vin Vinaya
Vism Visuddhimagga
VRI Vipassana Research Institute
A note on the texts
The text I have used is the Pali Text Society (PTS) transliteration into Roman script compiled by Fausbøll in the nineteenth century, which he based initially on three Sinhalese manuscripts. 1 As work progressed, Burmese manuscripts became available to him. In his 1877 preface, he freely admits he is not happy with the result or his differentiation between commentary and story, which, as we see in the Introduction, is not an easy matter. The very fact we have such a good text, though, is a tribute to a great scholar who was clearly facing all kinds of difficulties, ranging from manuscripts being lost in the post to lack of funds to find other manuscripts dotted around the globe! For this translation I have usually just followed his guidelines, for the most part taking what he puts in large type as story and, following his implicit guidance as to what is story and what later commentary, leaving out the sections he denotes through small type. The exception to this has been in translating ‘the story from the present’. This is in small type in his edition but there is no evidence that it is later than ‘the story from the past’ in the form that we have it now. 2 For variant readings I have also used his denotation at the bottom of the page: B and a letter for the appropriate Burmese manuscript and C for the Sinhalese. While the whole area needs thorough reappraisal, if possible in the light of all available manuscripts, we do at least have a workable text. There is also now a Burmese version of the text, available for free distribution, along with the entire Pali canon, on CD Rom. 3 This sometimes simplifies and avoids a potentially authentic difficult reading but is very useful where the Palili is obscure in the PTS version. Many scholars now use this as their working text.
It is surprising that there has been no complete translation of the 547 tales since the late nineteenth-century edition of six volumes was undertaken under the general editorship of E.B. Cowell. So a word of praise should go to this often maligned but heroic endeavour, now over a hundred years old. The style, particularly that of the verses, which were then ambitiously placed in rhyme, is replete with the ‘leagues’, ‘eftsoons’and ‘forsooths’ that characterized Victorian storytelling. Our taste for archaisms has gone but the very existence of translations for all the Jatakas is a testament to the enthusiasm of scholarship at that time. I do not suppose any university or funding body would support such a project now. The stories are easily obtainable from the Pali Text Society in Oxford. 4 More recent translations of selections of specific Jatakas are difficult to obtain. H.T. Francis and E.J. Thomas translated 114 in 1916 in an edition that is almost impossible to find, though it includes helpful notes on counterparts to the stories in other cultures. 5 I have not translated the last, Vessantara, because the job has been done well so recently. For anyone who would like a modern translation of Jataka 547, Margaret Cone’s is an admirable example. 6 Its introduction, by Richard Gombrich, is also the best short essay available on the background to all the Jatakas.
In my Introduction which follows, I have included the number of the relevant story in parentheses when referring to a specific Jataka.
Notes
1 The Jataka together with its commentary being Tales of the Anterior Births of Gotama Buddha. 6 vols. (1877–96; Oxford, PTS reprint: 1990–1).
2 See M. Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature (Srinivasa Sarma revised), 2 vols. (Delhi, Varanasi, Patna: Motilal, 1983), II, p. 120, n.1. See also M. Cone and R.F. Gombrich, The Perfect Generosity of Prince Vessantara: A Buddhist Epic translated from the Pali and illustrated by unpublished paintings from Sinhalese temples (Oxford: OUP, 1977), pp. xxx–xxxi.
3 The disc may be obtained free of charge from Vipassana Research Institute, Dhammagiri, Igatpuri 422 403, Dist Nasik, India. See www.tipitaka.org.
4 In 6 vols, 1895–1907, all reprinted in Oxford in 1990 in three volumes.
5 Jataka Tales (Cambridge, 1916).
6 Cone and Gombrich, The Perfect Generosity.
Author’s note
Epithets for Gotama Buddha, the Bodhisatta in his final life (‘the present’), who has attained complete awakening and can teach others:
The Buddha
The Exalted One (Bhagava)
The Fully Awakened One (Abhisambuddha)
The Teacher (Sattha)
The Ten-Powered One (Dasabala)
The Thus-gone (Tathagata)
Epithets for the Bodhisatta, the one bound for, or to, enlightenment, the hero of the tales (‘the past’), who is preparing to become a Buddha in his final life:
Bodhisatta
The Great Being (Mahasatta)
The Ten Perfections (paramis)
The number of a story with a rebirth attributed to a particular perfection of quality, either by an ancient source or the storyitself, is given after each. The perfections are discussed in detail in the Introduction and specific perfections are discussed in the introductory essays to tales that are starred.
Generosity (dana) 95, 316*
Virtue (sila) 506*
Renunciation (nekkhamma) 9*, 538, 539
Wisdom (panna) 402*
Effort (viriya) 1, 55*, 539
Forbearance (khanti) 75, 313*
Truth (sacca) 75*
Resolve (adhitthana) 20, 538*
Loving kindness (metta) 75, 385*, 540*
Equanimity (upekkha), 94*, 273*
Introduction
A Jataka is a story about a birth, and this collection of tales is about the repeated births—and deaths—of the Bodhisatta, the being destined to become the present Buddha in his final life. Written in Pali, the language of the Theravada Buddhist canon, the tales comprise one of the largest and oldest collections of stories in the world. The earliest sections, the verses, are considered amongst the very earliest part of the Pali tradition and date from the fifth century BCE; the later parts were incorporated during the period up to the third century CE. Partly because they arose at a time when literature was transmitted orally and partly because storytelling tends to extemporize, the stories were shaped and developed over this period before the final version became settled. The 547 stories all evolve from one vow: the determination made by the Bodhisatta, at the feet of the last Buddha, Dipankara, to postpone his own enlightenment and freedom from the endless round of existences until he is ready to become a Buddha himself and teach others. This undertaking, recorded in the Jatakanidana, a lengthy introduction to the Jataka stories that is regarded as a separate work, sets him apart from other beings. 1 In the many aeons when there is no Buddha to teach the world—for according to early Buddhism such teachers occur only rarely in human history—the Bodhisatta tries to build the strengths, resources and experience ready for his final birth. 2 These endeavours form the basis of the Jataka stories and confer the unusual abilities that make him in his last life not just an arahat, an awakened one, but a Buddha, capable of leaving a teaching behind for others. In the time of the Buddha and for the period in which his teaching (sasana) lasts, others may follow the path that he has left for them.
The idea that birth occurs
again and again, widespread through most of the traditions of the Indian subcontinent, does not only provide us with a theme of profound religious and philosophical implications, it also gives an unusually flexible means of linking narratives of many different kinds. Although associated with other Indian traditions of folk tale, drama and epic, Jatakas are unique: they are the only collection of stories in the world in which the development of one central character is tested not just through the events of one lifetime abut of hundreds. Through his vow the Bodhisatta is able to experience many different types of rebirth: as animals (such as monkey, fish, elephant, horse and mouse), tree-spirit and serpent king (naga); and when in human form, as many different classes, including untouchable, merchant, cook, archer, forester, warrior, musician, brahmin, minister and king. Sometimes he is a god. According to later commentarial traditions, that soon become incorporated into the Jatakas themselves, he fulfils in these lifetimes all ten perfections (parami) of generosity (dana), virtue or restraint (sila), renunciation (nekkhamma), wisdom (panna), effort (viriya), forbearance (khanti), truthfulness (sacca), resolve (adhitthana), loving kindness (metta) and equanimity (upekkha). These qualities enable him not only to find a path to enlightenment but to teach others too. In most South-East Asian countries, the last ten lifetimes are treated as particularly significant and are associated with the completion of each one of the perfections in turn. 3
The popular Buddhism that is embedded in Jatakas still lies at the heart of the living tradition. Countless people in Buddhist countries such as Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Cambodia have grown up with these tales as a main source of teaching, anecdote and imaginative background. Traditionally, children were introduced to their religion through hearing the stories in temples, from monks visiting their house or at festivals, though there is no evidence in the stories themselves that the very young were ever regarded as a specific audience. The artistic creativity inspired by Jatakas in temple art is an impressive testament to the central place these stories held in often non-literate Buddhist settings. They are depicted in early stone relief and paintings at Ajanta, Bharhut and Sanchi in India, at Polonnoruwa and Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, and later, in temples throughout South-East Asian countries as Buddhism spread. Some portrayals, such as in Bharhut and caves 9 and 10 at Ajanta, date from the first or second century BCE. In the fifth century the Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hien saw Jataka illustrations in Gandhara and a large procession of figures from all the Jatakas in Abhayagiri in Sri Lanka. 4 The stories are shown from the medieval period onwards in paintings around Kandy, Sri Lanka. 5 In Thai temples vast murals focus on incidents from the last ten stories. More recent depictions that surround newer temples in South-East Asian countries have been painted with the brilliant colours and techniques of modern folk art, but the stories depicted are those that are still popular after centuries. ‘The story of the hare in the moon’ (316), for instance, which featured at the ancient sites of Bharhut and Nagarjunakonda in India, is still found painted everywhere. On a different note, the continued accessibility of the stories can be seen in their depiction in cartoon books throughout the East, popular amongst non-Buddhists too. The Indian Pancharatna comic Jataka series, for instance, shows that Jataka style, with its succession of dramatic events and encounters between eloquent animals is perfectly suited to the medium. 6 Drama, song, dance and puppetry throughout South-East Asia have all been influenced by Jatakas. In rural areas of Myanmar, the Vessantara story is constantly recited and enacted where the Buddha’s own life story is almost unknown. 7 The influence of the stories extended out from the temple into the political and public sphere. The nineteenth-century Burmese king, Mindon, urged his ministers to behave like their counterparts in the Jatakas; the orders of the time list Jatakas felt to be particularly useful. 8 In Laos much of the legal system was established on principles laid down in Jatakas, which are also used as precedent in courts of law.