Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives (Volume 1). Aryashura

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СКАЧАТЬ presandhi syat sastravit.

      (3) Where a word begins with h and the previous word ends with a double consonant, this is our simplified spelling to show the pre-sandhi form: tad hasati is commonly written as tad dhasati, but we write tadd hasati so that the original initial letter is obvious.

      compounds

      We also punctuate the division of compounds (samasa), simply by inserting a thin vertical line between words. There are words where the decision whether to regard them as compounds is arbitrary. Our principle has been to try to guide readers to the correct dictionary entries.

      Exemplar of CSL Style

      Where the Devanagari script reads:

      Others would print:

      We print:

      And in English:

      May Ganesha’s domed forehead protect you! Streaked with vermilion dust, it seems to be emitting the spreading rays of the rising sun to pacify the teeming darkness of obstructions.

      (“Nava·sahasanka and the Serpent Princess” 1.3) ________

INTRODUCTION

      The Jataka Genre

      T

      radition holds that when the Buddha became enlightened he acquired the ability to see his own past lives as well as those of others. This belief in the possibility of knowing previous rebirths opened the door to a whole genre of literature called jataka (literally “birthstory”), which was dedicated to depicting the past lives of the Buddha when he was still aspiring for enlightenment. It is in these vibrant portrayals of deeds performed by the future Buddha in a variety of different rebirths, including as animals, deities, ascetics, kings, brahmins, and others, that Buddhist narrative often becomes its most captivating. The “Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives” (Jatakamala) by Arya·shura (Aryashura), translated here in two Clay Sanskrit Library volumes, is one of the most famous examples of this hugely popular genre.

      The importance of jataka stories in traditional Buddhist culture cannot be overestimated. Not only in India but throughout Asia, jatakas have played a prominent role in Buddhist art, literature, ritual, and pedagogy and are still popular today in many Buddhist societies.¹ Whether scattered throughout exegetical texts or gathered together in separate collections, jatakas pervade Buddhist literature in various manifestations, where they are frequently found in large numbers. Five hundred and forty seven jatakas make up a text called the Jatakatthavannana, just one of several collections in the Pali tradition, with some stories containing hundreds of verses, while Arya·shura’s “Garland of the ________

      Buddha’s Past Lives” consists of thirty-four tales, widely acclaimed for their sophisticated style. In the visual arts, a significant number of jataka sculptures are found at the stupa monuments of Bharhut and Sanchi in Central India, thereby laying claim to being some of the earliest extant Buddhist art (approximately first century bce).² Similarly, Arya·shura’s “Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives,” which has enjoyed a celebrated reputation in both India and Tibet, seems to have played an important role at Ajanta in Maharashtra, where verse inscriptions from the text are found alongside mural paintings of the Ksantivadijataka and “The birth-story of Maitri·bala” (Maitribalajataka 8.1, approximately fifth century ce) (Luders 1902). In sum, one could justly assert that, in terms of their pervasiveness and the sheer frequency of their representation, jatakas enjoy a position in Buddhist culture that rivals even the life-story of the Buddha himself.

      The Bodhi·sattva and the Perfections

      When considering the doctrinal background of the jataka genre, it is important to understand that in mainstream Indian Buddhist thought there are three qualitatively different types of enlightenment or, to use a more correct translation, “awakening” (bodhi), a state that brings an end to suffering and rebirth through a direct insight into the impermanent nature of the world. They are: the awakening of an arhat, the awakening of a pratyeka/buddha, and the awakening of a perfectly-awakened Buddha (samyak/sambuddha). An arhat becomes awakened by hear- ing and following a Buddha’s teaching (hence the term sra- ________

      vaka, “hearer”), whereas a pratyeka/buddha becomes awakened by himself without hearing the teaching of a Buddha. A perfectly-awakened Buddha also realizes nirvana by himself. However, his level of wisdom and morality is greater than that of an arhat or pratyeka/buddha. Not only does he cultivate, to a supreme level and over countless eons, a group of virtues called the “perfections” (paramita), he also establishes a teaching (sasana) and a monastic following (samgha) in his determination to save the world from the suffering of continuous rebirth. All Indian Buddhist traditions agree in judging the path to perfect Buddhahood as the highest. Mahayana Buddhism differs only in that it demands an exclusive adherence to this most difficult of spiritual paths.

      A person who vows to become a perfectly awakened Buddha is called a Bodhi·sattva (“Awakening Being”).³ It is therefore a prerequisite of any jataka story to identify one of its characters as the Bodhi·sattva figure, who is usually, but not always, the protagonist. In the “Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives,” the Bodhi·sattva is always born as a male and often in an eminent form of rebirth, with well-developed mental and physical qualities. A cursory survey reveals that in thirteen of the thirty-four stories in the “Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives” the Bodhi·sattva is born as royalty; in five stories he is born as a brahmin; in three stories he is born as a god; in nine stories he is, or becomes, an ascetic; and in eleven stories he is born as an animal.⁴

      According to the exegetical literature, every jataka story is supposed to reflect the Bodhi·sattva’s cultivation of a particular perfection (with the total number of perfections ________

      varying depending on the tradition). In reality, however, such doctrinal niceties are often not reflected in the stories themselves or otherwise form the background of attention. While jataka stories do often assume a didactic tone, to see them merely as decorative illustrations of doctrinal tenets, made palatable for popular consumption, would be a gross simplification. On the contrary, it is often here in the polysemous context of narrative expression, with its complex imagery and potent allusions, that tensions within Buddhist thought are most sensitively probed and Buddhist values most ambiguously negotiated.

      Historical Background to Arya·shura’s

      “Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives”

      The general rule that we know little about the historical context of classical Indian authors is unfortunately no less applicable to Arya·shura.⁵ A small amount of information is provided by a Sanskrit commentary called the Jatakamalatika, which states that Arya·shura was a prince in the Deccan who became a Buddhist monk (Khoroche 1989: xi). But this probably owes more to hagiography than historical fact and, given the late date of the text, conjecturally dated by Peter Khoroche (1989: xi) to the fourteenth century ce, one cannot be certain that it is solidly based.⁶

      Most scholarship agrees in dating Arya·shura to approximately the fourth century ce, a conjecture based largely on stylistic considerations.⁷ More concrete evidence for this date has, however, been provided by Michael Hahn ________

      (1981), who has shown that passages composed by the Indian poet Hari·bhatta (Haribhatta) are quoted in a Chinese text called “The Sutra of the Wise Man and the Fool” (Hsien-yu-ching), which dates to 445 ce, thereby providing a lower limit for the author. Since Hari·bhatta openly refers to Arya·shura as his paradigm (Hahn 2007: 4), we can assume that Arya·shura lived earlier СКАЧАТЬ