The Jatakas

by Sarah Shaw

  7 The Ummagga Jataka (546) is particularly popular in Sri Lanka. For the use of riddles there, see Nandasena Ratnagalle, Folklore of Sri Lanka (Colombo: State Printing Corporation, 1991), pp. 125–33.

  8 It should be noted that the verses do not mention the paccekabuddha by name. At the time of the first composition of Jatakas it seems that the term had not been developed fully. On paccekabuddhas in the canon, see DPPN II 94–6, Winternitz, History of Indian Literature, p. 141, n. 3, and J. Garrett Jones, Tales and Teachings of the Buddha: The Jataka Stories in Relation to the Pali Canon (London: Allen and Unwin, 1979), pp. 166–70. The Pali suttas place less emphasis on these figures than the later tradition. They do not feature in any Jataka verses. For fuller studies of the subject, see K.R. Norman, ‘The Pratyeka-Buddha in Buddhism and Jainism’, Selected Papers, Vol. II (Oxford: PTS, 1991), pp. 233–49, and R. Kloppenborg, The Paccekabuddha: a Buddhist ascetic. A study of the concept of paccekabuddhas in Pali canonical and commentarial literature (Lieden: Brill, 1974).

  9 Other Jatakas where they appear include 408, 420, 421, 424, 442, 459 and 529.

  10 See Kumbhakara Jataka (408). These two incidents feature in Jain and Buddhist texts, suggesting an earlier strain of spiritual practice absorbed by both traditions. See K.R. Norman, ‘The Pratyeka-Buddha’.

  11 See Cone and Gombrich, Perfect Generosity, p. 73 (J VI 565–6).

  12 See ‘The Bodhisatta Vow: the far past’.

  13 A famous poem, ‘The Rhinoceros Horn’, also eulogizes a solitary spiritual existence (Sn 35–75).

  14 Mithila, the capital of the Videhan country, is mentioned in 22 Jatakas (see, in this volume, ‘The Story of Makhadeva’, 9). Mahajanaka’s eulogy to the city provides us with its fullest description. It is said to be seven yojanas long and was visited by the Buddha. It is usually identified with Janakapura, a small town within the Nepal border region (DPPN II 635).

  15 A saccakiriya, a statement of truth with magical efficacy, features in Jatakas 20 and 75.

  16 An example of the Bodhisatta’s less than exemplary behaviour when the occasion demands!

  17 Reading rajjaggahanappamano with a Burmese manuscript (Bd) so that ‘for taking the kingdom’ is in the nominative.

  18 That is, 350 people.

  19 Amending to lonodakena, ‘with salt water’.

  20 The Four Great Kings are the protective deities of the Buddhist tradition. They rule the heaven realm above the humans, though take their place also as inhabitants in the realm above that, the heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods (Tavatimsa). As guardians of each cardinal direction they are thought to protect anyone who keeps the uposatha day. The intervention of the goddess is a kind of overdetermination that vindicates the power of the uposatha: for the seven days before she does not notice the Bodhisatta, but decides to look after he has kept it. Manimekalai is the heroine of a Tamil folk epic, written by Sattanar in the fifth to the sixth century CE. Buddhism flourished in Tamil Nadu and it seems she was adopted as a protective goddess of the sea. See H. P. Ray, The Archaeology of Seafaring, pp. 270–1.

  21 Reading abhinippannam, ‘produced’, ‘accomplished’ with Bd, as suggested by PED 65, to give ‘product’.

  22 I have been unable to find any account of these auspicious slabs, though they feature elsewhere in the Jatakas (J 1 59). I have been unable to find any account of these auspicious slabs, though they feature elsewhere in the Jatakas (J 1 59).

  23 We see a few lines later that this is a bow.

  24 The word phussa means speckled, then brightly coloured and festive (PED 480). This wonderful state carriage is also described in J II 39 and J III 238.

  25 These are a sword, the white parasol, the turban, slippers and a yak’s tail fan, mentioned in Jataka 538.

  26 An army that extends on four sides, a traditional term, here perhaps meaning that the army has flanks in front of, behind, and on both sides of the carriage.

  27 In his last birth thirty-two auspicious marks were discerned on his body which meant that he would be either a wheel-turning monarch or a Buddha. (See Lakkhana Sutta, D III 142–79.) Although this is not his last birth, as a royal human in this birth he probably displays some. The marks pertaining to the feet are that his feet are well planted, so that he walks evenly and with level tread, that the mark of a wheel appears on the feet (and palms of his hands) and that he has extended heels. He has long fingers and toes that are like a net, and his hands and feet are soft and tender.

  28 Mahajjhasayo: motivation, disposition.

  29 The Jataka trans. (PTS), VI, p. 26, n. 1 refers the reader to the Kathasaritasagara, The Ocean of Story, sections 72, 47 and 54, where the snake maiden gives the hero a sword and horse. See Thompson, ‘Bride helps suitor perform his tasks’, Motif Index, H 335.01 for counterparts in Irish, Icelandic, German, Italian and Japanese folk tale.

  30 Udana: literally an inspired or joyful utterance (PED 134 and DP 421–2).

  31 Paccekabuddhas are fully self-enlightened (samam), but do not teach the full path to awakening.

  32 A yojana has two meanings: the yoke of a carriage, used as the length meant here, and a measure of a distance of about seven miles, used earlier in the story from the past.

  33 See DP I 77.

  34 According to the Abhidhamma system, contact (phassa) is the first universal mental factor (cetasika) common to all mental states and sensory experience. We are experiencing such contacts all the time. According to the same system, vitakka, initial thought or the bringing of the mind to an object, is the first factor involved in the attainment of the first jhana, the first meditation. Where vitakka occurs in such a state and indeed in any good, skilful state of mind, it is associated with the second factor of the eightfold path, right intention. Contacts ‘which are not reflected upon’ (avitakkita) are therefore those which have not been investigated with mindfulness and skilful attention. The word vitakka does sometimes have a negative connotation in the suttas (M I 211–14) and indeed in the Abhidhamma, in consciousness where attention is wrongly placed. Here, however, vitakka is clearly meant to have a positive association as the correct application of the mind in response to any contacts that arise (See DhS 1, 2, 7 and 21).

  35 These are given in Jataka III 274 as generosity (dana), virtue (sila), letting go (pariccaga), straightness, gentleness, asceticism, lack of anger, non-harm, forbearance (khanti), and non-opposition. Three of these, generosity, virtue and forbearance, are the same words used for three of the perfections to be developed by the Bodhisatta. Lack of anger is considered to be the same as a fourth, loving kindness.

  36 The same story is given about a king in Jataka 408: the king becomes a paccekabuddha, an option not chosen by the Bodhisatta given his vow to attain Buddhahood. The similarity, however, reinforces the constant evocation of the pacceka path suggested in this story.

  37 The three worlds refer to the sense sphere, the heavens above that (brahmaloka) and the formless (arupa) realms.

  38 These verses are very repetitive: like all bardic and oral literature they depend heavily on repetition and stock formulae. A particular force would accompany the chanting of this section by, as would be usual, a group of monks who have all themselves chosen to renounce the worldly life. The lay life is described here in what would be perceived as its most glorious form: the wording of the eulogy of the city of Mithila is very like that used to describe the palace and city of the universal monarch in the Mahasudassana Sutta (D II 190–2). As with many verses of this type the repetitions are not rigidly mechanical: a group of chanters would need to be alert to catch the variations. The second line is the same for each verse from verse 25 to verse 47.

  39 For bandhuni, ‘kinsmen’, used here, see commentary and entry for bandhuni in PED 482.

  40 See PED 715 for ‘hips’, here susonna rather than ‘of good understanding’ (susanna): as this feature is linked with small waists, this translation seems more likely!

  41 Verses 79–108 follow the same pattern as for verses 48–77, with the people
and animals being left in Mithila becoming active in the questions as the ones who will no longer follow his movements. The break between the two sections is marked, crucially, in the impersonal objects left behind in verse 78, ‘the fine bronze dish and the pure gold plate’. They of course cannot follow the king and, in verse 109, the third section of this extended lyrical outburst moves to the contrasting eating accoutrement associated with the going forth: the earthenware bowl of the mendicant. The ‘fine bronze bowl and golden plate’ are not forgotten: they recur in verse 122, uttered by the Buddha, as signs of the royal, lay life, this time directly contrasted with the earthenware bowl, the emblem of the monastic.

  42 The text has a chariot maker (rathakaro), an odd choice of profession. Skills tend to be transferable amongst Indian craftsman so perhaps the man who carved the wood for a chariot was also called upon to make the templates for sandals?

  43 On the suggestion of the Sri Lankan manuscript (Cs) and PED 421 (under parikanta) I have read pariyantam, (‘limit’, ‘border’) here to give ‘edges’.

  44 A Brahma heaven realm where those are born who have attained the second meditation, characterized by joy, happiness and one-pointedness. See Jataka 99.

  45 It says a gavuta, which was about two miles (PED 250).

  46 This Narada features in Sudhabhojana Jataka (Jataka 535), where he is also said to be Sariputta in an earlier birth as is the case in this tale. The higher knowledges are the psychic powers (iddhis), said to become available to the practitioner after he has attained the fourth meditation (jhana). Sometimes the list appears with a sixth (D III 281), the destruction of the corruptions (asavas), associated with the attainment of enlightenment. As Narada has himself made a vow to become the chief disciple of the Buddha, he would not have taken this option.

  47 This passage poses a number of linguistic difficulties; it appears to rest both upon an inference that the Bodhisatta is claiming to be enlightened and Narada’s almost brahminical interpretation that while there is still a body there can be no freedom from defilements. In Buddhist terminology the one who has ‘crossed over’(tinno) is enlightened and has left behind defilements, though here this would be an inappropriate term as the Bodhisatta has postponed his enlightenment until his final lifetime. While the Bodhisatta claims in verse 130 only to have stepped over the town boundary, he clearly regards this as a step symbolic of the freedom of the ascetic life and perhaps Narada felt he was underestimating the inner dangers ahead. At any rate Narada’s use of the word seems to be a satiric play incorporating some or all of these levels of meaning. He is saying that the Bodhisatta might have crossed over the town boundary, that symbolizes his movement to the ascetic life, but he still needs to be vigilant. The Bodhisatta accepts the admonishment with good grace (verse 134).

  48 Lit. ‘may a completely joyful abiding come to pass for you’. The commentary says that he refers to the four divine abidings (brahmaviharas) of loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. This verse is a free translation of lines which would be stilted if translated literally.

  49 For the translation ‘haughtiness’, see unnatan (DP I 434–5).

  50 Kammam vijjam ca dhammam. The commentary, in perhaps a rather cumbersome manner, relates the first to the ten skilful kinds of action, the second to the five higher knowledges and the meditative attainments and the third to the preparatory work for the kasina practice.

  51 Migajina is identified at the end with the arahat Moggallana, the other chief disciple of the Buddha in his last life.

  52 PED 282 suggests that na jatucca in the text should be na jatu ca, ‘not at all’, ‘never’.

  53 This verse follows almost exactly the same grammatical pattern as verse 140.

  54 Reading hatamanam, ‘damaged’, ‘harmed’, with a Burmese manuscript (Bd).

  55 These verses pose difficulties, but I have by and large followed the commentary’s suggestions.

  56 Rajjam tuvam karayanti (kareti, DP I 652). It is not clear whether the king is advising his queen not to administer the kingdom or discouraging her from installing their son. I have taken it as advice for the queen herself, given perhaps because she is a woman, or because she personally will generate unfortunate kamma by being a monarch. The commentary takes it to mean that there will be an unfortunate outcome from installing their son as king and taking charge herself too. It is unlikely to be a warning against her installing the son. The conclusion of the story does not suggest that the son’s assumption of the throne is anything other than desirable. Given her attitude towards the king at the end of the story it is improbable that Sivali would encourage her son to be king if her husband had disapproved of it (for karayanti see DP I 652).

  57 Literally ‘such a blameless piece of alms food does not exist’.

  58 Munibhuto. A muni meant originally a teacher who has taken a vow of silence.

  59 Here, as in verse 167, I have followed a Burmese manuscript (Bd) to read vivadappatto, ‘full of’ or ‘with’ dispute.

  60 The Pali is very unclear here and gives ‘servant’ in the feminine, as in the comparable verse after the little girl has spoken (v. 160). As the arrow maker is mentioned, however, I have taken him as the servant (taking pessiyo with a Sri Lankan manuscript, Cks) and adjusted the text to the masculine, to create what seems to be an intended parallel between this and verse 160. The verse seems to be corrupt, however, and it may be that the ‘servant’ once referred to the girl with the bangle (for an emendation based on this supposition, see VRI).

  61 The attainment (samapatti) are the eight meditations (jhana) with, sometimes a ninth—the attainment of cessation (nirodha samapatti), only obtainable by stream enterers. This should not be accessible to a Bodhisatta, who postpones his enlightenment though, as the next story (540) demonstrates, he does appear to attain such a state even when not a stream enterer.

  62 Jhanam. It does not say which meditative state. The kasina practices are meditations on one of the elements, or a colour, for which a device is constructed.

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  The story of Sama

  Sama Jataka (540)

  Vol. VI, 68–95

  The story of Sama is beloved throughout South-East Asia for its portrayal of loving kindness (metta), the ninth perfection. 1 Here, as was suggested in Jataka 385, this quality is imbued with a magical power beyond even that of the higher knowledges (abhinnas) in Buddhism. It apparently achieves the impossible: the revival of the dead. It tells of a couple, recently descended from a Brahma heaven, who eschew sexual passion and live as ascetics in woods in the Himalayas, suffusing the area around with loving kindness. They have a child, with the help of Sakka, to whose care they devote themselves completely. Sheltering from a storm, however, they stumble on a termite mound, are poisoned by an enraged snake and become blinded. Their son Sama, finds them and cares for them until he too is attacked, by the arrow of a hunter king, and apparently dies. A local goddess intervenes to ensure that she and the parents return to the ‘body’ and revive him. They each make statements of truth, Sama is revived, his parents have their sight restored and the errant king returns to his kingdom. In the Ramayana version of the same tale, recounted on Dasaratha’s deathbed, the man who has been shot does not recover. 2 A sense of the beauty of loving kindness animates this rural idyll, however: it is a paean to the transformatory power of metta, both in daily life and as a meditative practice, which seems almost boundless in its effect.

  The story is fuelled by the drama of a harsh dose of realism. The protagonists learn through starkly brutal circumstances the difficulties of finding and balancing the practice of loving kindness with awareness of the forces that militate against it. This can be seen firstly in the story of the couple. Their decision to practise an ascetic life is not criticized and is explained by their recent descent from a Brahma heaven, which has made them distasteful of the ‘way of the world’. It has the support of the gods of the heaven of the Thirty-Three, who aid any active pursuit of virtue in the world. Ancient In
dians, however, placed a high value on sexual happiness (kama) as a means of ensuring well-being and the continuation of the family line. The couple have not considered the possibility of needing care themselves and have to be persuaded by that great champion of common sense, King Sakka, to beget one, a son conceived through his powers. The parents also seem oversolicitous to the child once born: with that unerring psychological accuracy that one finds sometimes in Jataka narrative, the Bodhisatta’s nagging fears when they are out of his sight seem justified. The vengeful bite from the snake is attributed to a combination of the couple’s own past kamma, their lack of awareness and the spite of another being. The immediate cause is also that they smell of sweat, according to Indian literary convention one of the distinguishing features of humans, as opposed to gods. 3 By trying to isolate themselves from the outside world and their human physicality, the parents have made themselves open to attack. They have created around themselves an enclave that reminds them of a Brahma heaven, but become blinded, literally, by inappropriate love. For the one pursuing loving kindness as a meditation practice, the commentator Buddhaghosa, warns against hatred on the one hand and unbalanced affection on the other. 4 Through the events of the story both worm their way into the couple’s pastoral world.

  The development to maturity of the Bodhisatta, despite the oddity of his upbringing, has a universal applicability. Protected in a cocoon for the first part of his life, he cries to see his parents blinded but laughs too: he is delighted that he can now look after them, with their roles reversed. He has to construct bridges everywhere for his unseeing mother and father, an image strikingly suggestive of all children’s attempts to build up an identity acceptable to their parents. He creates a world that they can live in and, as they had done for him, dedicates himself to their care and protection. The domestic details of his daily routine in looking after them are practical and well realized, down to the complicated rituals involving carrying heated pots of water to bathe their feet and keep their limbs warm. However, as his parents had done before him, he lives in a familiar, inner world that does not prepare him for life outside his protected space. Surrounded wherever he goes by animals tamed by kindness alone, he has no expectancy of attack and, when spotted by the king, is mistaken for a god or a naga, but not a man. As the first verse indicates, he also loses the quality of alertness to the outside world which is the hallmark of Buddhist practice: he is ‘careless’ (pamattam), despite his remarkable ascetic bearing. We are told that he re-establishes mindfulness (sati), with impressive poise and presence of mind, even though apparently fatally wounded. It is suggested, however, that he too has been insufficiently aware of danger in the world around.