THE JATAKAS , livre ebook

‘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





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First published by Penguin Books India 200 6

This translation copyright © Sarah Shaw 200 6
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.

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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 Institute 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.