Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Religion
Buddhist birth stories; or, Jataka tales, Volume 1
Jataka stories, English
[268] The whole of this story, including the introduction, is found
also, word for word, in the commentary on the ‘Scripture Verses’
(Fausböll, pp. 302-305); and the commentator adds that the Buddha then
further uttered the 141st verse of that collection:
Not nakedness, not plaited hair, not dirt,
Not fasting oft, nor lying on the ground;
Not dust and ashes, nor vigils hard and stern,
Can purify that man who still is tossed
Upon the waves of doubt!
The same verse occurs in the Chinese work translated by Mr. Beal (The
’Dhammapada, etc.,’ p. 96). Another verse of similar purport has been
quoted above (p. 69), and a third will be found in _Āmagandha Sutta_
(Sutta Nipāta, p. 168, verse 11). The same sentiment occurs in the
_Mahā-Bhārta_, iii. 13445, translated in Muir’s ‘Metrical Translations
from Sanskrit Writers,’ p. 75, and in the Northern Buddhist work
_Divyāvadāna_ (Burnouf, Introduction à l’Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien,
p. 313).
[269] For Nos. 7 and 8, see respectively Bhaddasāla Jātaka, Book xii.,
and Saŋvara Jātaka, Book xi.
[270] Comp. the Makhā-deva Sutta, No. 83 in the Majjhima Nikāya.
[271] See above, pp. 81-83.
[272] He is mentioned in the Mahāvaŋsa, p. 8, in a list of the
legendary kings of old.
[273] At p. 81, above, the same idea is put into the mouth of Gotama
himself.
[274] _Ime kilese._ The use of the determinative pronoun implies that
the king is meant to refer to the particular imperfections known as
_kilesā_. They are acquisitiveness, ill-temper, dullness of perception,
vanity, wrong views, doubt, sloth, arrogance, want of self-respect, and
want of respect for public opinion.
[275] The whole story is given below, in the Nimi Jātaka, Book xii.
[276] See the Translator’s ‘Buddhism,’ p. 65, and the authorities there
quoted, to which add Culla Vagga, VII. i. 1-4. The name Bhaddiya means
the Happy One, and the story has very probably arisen in explanation of
the name.
[277] The word translated “Happiness” is also a name of Arahatship or
Nirvāna (that is, perfect peace, goodness, and wisdom).
[278] This story is founded on the similar story told of Bhaddiya (the
same Bhaddiya as the one mentioned in the Introductory Story) in the
Culla Vagga, VII. i. 5, 6. The next story but one (the Banyan Deer) is
one of those illustrated in the Bharhut sculptures. Both must therefore
belong to the very earliest period in Buddhist history.
[279] “The story of Devadatta,” adds a gloss, “as far as his
appointment as Abhimāra, will be related in the Khaṇḍahāla Jātaka, as
far as his rejection as Treasurer, in the Culla-haŋsa Jātaka, and as
far as his sinking into the earth, in the Samudda-vānija Jātaka in the
12th Book.”
[280] See the translator’s ‘Buddhism,’ p. 76.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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