The Jatakas

by Sarah Shaw

  109. My women’s quarters, adorned in every way, I give to you, my son.

  Go into them, my son, for you will be king.

  110. Beautiful and skilled women, expert in song and dance, will make love to you:

  O what will you do in the forest?

  111. I will bring you adorned girls from enemy kings:

  when you have produced sons from these

  then you can go back as an ascetic!

  112. A storehouse, a treasury, powerful vehicles and delightful palaces

  I give to you, my son.

  113. Surrounded by circle of cows and accompanied by a retinue of slaves,

  Rule the kingdom, dear one,

  For what will you do in the forest?’

  And then the Great Being, in explanation of his lack of desire for kingship, said:

  114. ‘What is the point of wealth, which does not last?

  What is the point of a wife who will die?

  What is the point of the lustre of youth, 46 which old age will overcome?

  115. And in that, what delight is there, what sport, what sexual pleasure,

  and what wealth?

  What are young sons to me, O king?

  For I am free from ties.

  116. But I do know this: death does not pass me by.

  What is sexual pleasure and wealth

  for the one who has fallen to the end maker?

  117. [28] Just as the danger of falling to the ground

  is always there for fruit that is ripe,

  for those that are born as mortal men

  there is always the danger of death.

  118. At night some are not seen, but by morning all are visible.

  Then in the morning some are seen, but at night they are

  seen no more.

  119. And so exertion should be made today;

  for who knows the time of his own death?

  There is no truce with that great general, Death.

  120. Thieves steal wealth, but I, O king, am free from ties.

  Go king and return; but I have no desire for the kingdom.’

  So the Great Being’s discourse, and its application, reached its conclusion. When they had heard it the king and Queen Canda at the start, and then the sixteen thousand wives, all wished to become ascetics. The king had a drum beaten in the city: ‘Whoever wishes to become an ascetic with my son may do so!’ [29] And he had the doors of all the treasuries of gold opened. And he had inscribed on a golden plate: ‘At this spot here, and at this spot there, are big pots of treasure which people may take for themselves,’ and had it attached to a big bamboo pillar. And the people of the city left shop doors wide open, abandoned their houses and gathered round the king. The king, with a great crowd of people, became an ascetic with the Great Being. The hermitage, given by Sakka, was three yojanas long. The Great Being wandered around the leaf huts, assigning the leaf huts in the middle to women, as their natures were timid, and giving the leaf huts on the outskirts to men. And on the uposatha day they all stood on the ground by the fruit-bearing trees which had been created by Vissakamma, gathered the fruits and ate them, following the practice of the ascetic life. The Great Being sat in the sky, and knowing the mind of anyone whose thoughts went to desire, or hatred or violence, delivered his teaching. As soon as they heard it they quickly attained the higher knowledges and the attainments in meditation.

  Now, a neighbouring king heard that the king of Kasi had become an ascetic and decided to seize the city of Varanasi. He entered the city and, seeing it all decorated, went up into the king’s palace and looked at the seven different kinds of excellent jewels that were there. Thinking that there must be some danger associated with the wealth, he summoned some drunkards and asked them by which gate the king had left. They told him that it had been the eastern one, so thereupon he left by the same gate and went down to the banks of the river. Seeing his approach the Great Being went up to him, sat in the sky and delivered a discourse. The king then went with his retinue to become an ascetic, as did another king in the same way. Three kingdoms were now abandoned, and the elephants became wild, forest elephants and the horses wild, forest horses. The chariots just rotted away in the woods. The coins in the storehouses were treated as sand and scattered, and everyone reached the eight attainments in meditation. At the end of their lives they were bound for the Brahma heavens, and even the animals and elephants and horses, their minds calmed in the company of the wise, attained the six heavens of the sense sphere.

  The Teacher gave this discourse and said, ‘Not just now, bhikkhus, but in past times too, I renounced and abandoned a kingdom.’ He made the connections with the birth: ‘Uppalava nna was the goddess that lived in the parasol, Sariputta the charioteer, members of the royal family were the mother and the father, the Buddha’s followers were the retinue. And I was Mugapakkha’.

  They reached the island of Sri Lanka: the elder Khuddakatissa from Mamga 1a, the elders Mahavamsaka and Phussadeva from Katakandhakara, the elder Maharakkhita from Uparima nd akamala, the elder Mahatissa from Bhaggari, the elder Mahasiva, from Vamattapabbhara, and the elder Mahamaliyadeva, from Kalavela. 47 These elders are known as latecomers into the assembly of Kuddala, the assembly of Mugapakkha, the assembly of Ayoghara and the assembly of Hatthipala. 48 But the elder Mahanaga from Maddha and the elder Maliyamahadeva commented on the day of the parinibbana, the complete enlightenment of the Buddha: ‘Well friend, today the company of those who were in the assembly of Mugapakkha has come to an end.’ They asked why and this was the reply: ‘Sir, I then was a drunkard. And when I could not get the others to come with me for a drink, because they had all renounced, I became an ascetic too.’

  Notes

  1 See S. Leksukhum, with photos by G. Mermet, ‘The Ten Great Jatakas’, Temples of Gold: Seven Centuries of Thai Buddhist Paintings (London: Thames and Hudson, 2001), pp. 136–59.

  2 See this book, discussion for Jataka 95, p. 76.

  3 Steven Collins, Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities (Cambridge: OUP, 1998), p. 433ff provides illuminating discussion of this story as a Buddhist utopian vision.

  4 It was the duty of a king to inflict punishment on his subjects (Mahabharata, XII, 15). Punishments in ancient India were unbelievably harsh: see A.L. Basham, The Wonder that was India, London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1967, pp. 118–22.

  5 Ibid., p. 139. In the Ayutthaya period, this scene adorned the walls of the pavilion of the Somdet Phra Buddha Kosacharn at Wat Buddhaisawan. It is depicted in temples throughout Bangkok and, in the provinces, in Wat Ta Khu at Nakhon Ratchasima and at Wat Yai Intharam at Chonburi (north wall, west panel), where he twirls the chariot above his head.

  6 See Basham, The Wonder that was India, pp. 191–233.

  7 For the forest dweller’s life, see W. Doniger and B.K. Smith, The Laws of Manu (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991), chapter 6, pp. 117– 27.

  8 See ‘The Far Past’ (J I 21).

  9 Basket of Conduct, 36–8 (Cariyapitaka III, 1–19) and J I 46.

  10 The Story of Gotama Buddha, 31 (J I 25).

  11 J I 23.

  12 J IV 377

  13 J VI 184.

  14 See D II 172 for some gamblers and dancing drunkards.

  15 It is not yet ‘the beautiful place’ that is nibbana, but it is on its way. See Path of Purification, 215 (Vism VII, 33) sundaram thanam and, for discussion of nibbana as a ‘place’, Collins, Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities, p. 224.

  16 E. Wray, C. Rosenfield, and D. Bailey, with photographs by J.D. Wray, Ten Lives of the Buddha: Siamese Temple Paintings and Jataka Tales (New York: Weatherhill, revised paperback edn, 1996), pictures, pp. 27–8, comment, pp. 134, 136.

  17 This can be seen on the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts website, at http://ignca.nic.in/asp/showbig.asp?projid=jtk2.

  18 Mentioned in http://www.azibaza.com/lectures_burm_arts.htm.

  19 ‘Buddhist paintings in Sri Lanka’, Albert Dharmasiri, http:// www.artslanka.org/buddhistart/body.html
.

  20 This is the final renunciation, when Gotama leaves his family in the quest for Buddhahood.

  21 Jataka 531. This is usually thought to mean that the wives of the king are sent on to the street in order to conceive from any man there. In the Kusa Jataka (531) the virtuous chief queen leaves the palace, is kidnapped by Sakka, masquerading as an old man, and is taken to a heaven realm where she conceives a son, called Kusa after the grass she brings back as proof of her visit and her fidelity. There are some problems, though, with the idea that the women went out and slept with any man. Traditionally, Indian culture regards barrenness as the problem of the woman concerned, not a male difficulty, which would be implied by the practice of going on to the street: though they were perhaps just been realistic about the problem. Another difficulty is that unless the succession was matrilineal, which is certainly possible, the product of the union would not technically be the heir. So could it be the case that the women used to go out as mendicants for a while, to adopt an ascetic life? This is a less sensational interpretation, but one that is supported by the usual Indian literary convention that women wanting a child go into the forest, live as ascetics in a forest and are granted their wish by a god. In the Kusa Jataka the women leave the palace on uposatha days.

  22 DP I 756 suggests balankapada here—having crow’s feet—but this sounds a bit like the marks on a face.

  23 There seems to be more than one meaning to this name, however, which as we shall see proves significant. PED 306–7 notes, ‘There is an ancient confusion between the roots tim, tamas, etc. (to be dark), tim, temeti (to be wet), and stim to be motionless.’

  24 Nirodha samapatti is considered the highest stage of meditative attainment.

  25 See DP I 151; antaruddhi: hernia rupture.

  26 The Mire hell is described in Jataka 541 (J VI 111).

  27 See DP I 693–4 on kilesa for sexual passion or desire.

  28 Certain features, such as different-coloured eyes, would be regarded as bringing bad luck in a horse; the chariot or carriage would perhaps be in a colour considered inauspicious, or one which had been used for inauspicious purposes, such as the removal of a dead body.

  29 This would be a way of moving the queen without touching her with the whole of his hand.

  30 The word paccayo,‘cause, condition, ground’ here is interesting. The strong supporting condition, upanissaya paccayo, the ninth cause in the list of twenty-four causes that constitute the seventh book of the Abhidhamma, the Patthana, is associated with conditions that help to elicit a change in state: the right food, lodging or teacher. The Bodhisatta hopes that his actions will be the ‘strong supporting condition’ for spiritual change both in himself and in his parents. The term was used widely by this time in all Buddhist systems, not just the Theravada.

  31 All attempts to associate the Great Being with the inauspicious meet with failure, presumably through the good offices of the gods: the chariot leaves by the lucky eastern gate and the charioteer thinks a beautiful woodland is a charnel ground.

  32 Emending hatthapadena to hatthapade na (literally, ‘not hands or feet’) which makes the sentence a negative one, with ‘hands and feet’ then the object of the verb.

  33 The word purindada is a distortion of the Vedic word meaning ‘breaker of fortresses’. Through the punning wordplay beloved of ancient Indians (nirukta) the term was taken by Buddhist commentators to mean ‘formerly a giver’ (pure + da).

  34 I am following the suggestion of W. Geiger, B. Ghosh trans., K.R. Norman revised, A Pali Grammar (Oxford: PTS, 1994), p. 29 in translating nighannasi as a future of nikhanati (‘dig into, bury’).

  35 This is the only place the word darito occurs. It could have been misread by a scribe so it is emended to dalito, split or torn.

  36 I have emended rathassa (of the chariot) to ratthassa (of the kingdom) as presumably it is kingdom rather than chariot which the prince has lost.

  37 The recollection of one’s own virtues always seems odd to the modern mind! Calling to mind one’s own good behaviour is, however, a Buddhist meditative exercise (silanussati), intended to allay fear and bring happiness in daily life. It is one of the forty subjects for meditation recommended by Buddhaghosa, in The Path of Purification.

  38 The commentary says that this refers to the fact that he was prepared to wait for sixteen years before success.

  39 For accetha (‘neglect’), read appetha (‘fix’, ‘fasten’, and hence ‘impale’). See ‘acceti’ DP I 25.

  40 Vissakamma is artist, designer and decorator to the gods! (DPPN II 906–7).

  41 The five higher knowledges (abhinna) are: 1) the psychic powers, with ability to become many, become invisible, walk through a wall as if it is air, etc., 2) the Divine Ear that hears sounds far and near, heavenly or human, 3) penetration of the minds of others, 4) memory of past lives and 5) the Divine Eye that sees the arising and falling of beings in different conditions (D I 78–83).

  42 Something is wrong with this passage: it is not possible to construe. See DP I 484; Be: upadhi ratham aruyha[ntu] suvannehi alamkata.

  43 At the suggestion of the Sinhalese manuscript (Cks) I have put bhunjami,‘I eat’rather than bunje,‘I would eat’, which is given in the PTS text.

  44 See S I 5 for a sutta in which the Buddha utters a strikingly similar verse to a shining god on the benefits of the ascetic life.

  45 Reading gacchanto (‘going’ and hence, for the context here, ‘passing by’), Bd. These lines are curious; the riddling tone is clear though the exact meaning is not.

  46 Reading vannena here, to give ‘complexion’ or ‘lustre’, following a Burmese manuscript (Bd). See PED 596.

  47 This is an odd reference that links this story to the Kuddala Jataka (70; J I 315), the Ayoghara Jataka (510; J IV 499), and the Hatthipala Jataka (509; J IV 490)—all of which involve the Bodhisatta taking family and friends outside the city to live a renunciate life. No proper explanation as to how the arrival of these elders is linked to earlier events is given in any of the tales. Possibly this description of earlier rebirths of some elders who were thought to visit Sri Lanka after the death of the Buddha represents an attempt to posit an ancient lineage with a longstanding connection with the Bodhisatta.

  48 These refer to the Kuddala, this story, Ayoghara and Hatthipala.

  {25}

  The story of Mahajanaka

  Mahajanaka Jataka (539)

  Vol. VI, 30–68

  Discussion about the story

  The condition of all beings, samsara, is often described as an ocean in ancient Indian thought. The codifier of law, Manu, categorizes those that have undertaken a sea journey with those who should be excluded from rituals: purification would be required after any voyage. 1 Buddhism, however, travelled with mercantile interests that crossed oceans and so depended upon sea travel for its dissemination. 2 This story is most widely known through a maritime image, of the Bodhisatta being rescued by a goddess after swimming for seven days on his own after a shipwreck. It is one of the most frequently depicted scenes in the temple art of Sri Lanka and Thailand, both seafaring nations. Despite the story’s link with renunciation, the scene in the ocean prompted ancient sources to associate it with the perfection of vigour or effort (viriya), a word cognate to the Latin word for‘man’ (vir) and hence English words such as virility and virtuosity. The introduction to the Jatakas says, ‘All the men died in the middle of the ocean, with no shore in sight; but there was nothing at variance in my mind (cittassa annatha)and this is the perfection of effort.’ 3 Mahajanaka’s valiant attempts to survive are treated in the tradition of the last ten Jatakas as representing this perfection too: in some depictions his effort looks as light as air, as if he is being lifted from the wreck by Manimekhala as he falls. 4

  The story’s exploration of the nature of appropriate effort, ‘with nothing at variance’, is communicated with considerable dramatic skill. Winternitz says of its ‘overwhelming power’ that it could only have been inspired ‘by t
he deepest inner conviction and no less poetical talent’. 5 Split into two distinct sections, the tale nonetheless represents a unified sequence from the heroic quest of a prince to regain his throne, to the king’s subsequent efforts to adopt the renunciate life. In the first part, the Bodhisatta shows a combination of courage and inventiveness characteristic of a folk hero. The taunting of the brahmin boys about his birth when living in exile and the interchange with his mother in which he resists her advice not to go to sea show his strength before the ordeal of his survival for seven days after the shipwreck. This, however, along with his display of shrewd common sense to avoid death, is the real test of the Bodhisatta’s mettle. After his long swim of seven days which culminates in his eloquent debate with the goddess, Manimekhala, he is tested by situations where the correct placing of effort lies in acquiescence, not action. He lets the goddess carry him to safety, the magical carriage that chooses a king goes straight to him while he sleeps and the kingship is offered to him rather than being claimed. When the two protagonists come together, tests of wit and skill are needed. In this, many features are recognizable from the ordeals and romantic courtships of folk traditions around the world, particularly where a throne is concerned. 6 Sivali seems to represent the glories of the city of Mithila. She herself has imposed a quick and gruelling test on the earlier candidates for her hand—a ruthless piece of character assessment whose shaming echoes the routing of Penelope’s suitors and the abasement of the sailors by Circe in the Odyssey. This is the first time that she herself has been tested. The prince parries her demands, by paying attention to the palace rather than her, and changes the rules of engagement. Unlike the other humiliated suitors, he proceeds at his own pace, does not search her out, but waits for her to choose him, which she does, by accepting him with her hand. Throughout this part of the story we see the need for different kinds of effort, not all requiring obvious strain or ‘brawn’. Mahajanaka’s silent recognition of his subjects while lying on the stone, his regal response to the tests of the princess, and his careful measuring of what is necessary as, for instance, in the stringing of the bow, a task that he performs with an ease compared to women carding cotton, are all achievements that contribute to his suitability to be king.