REVIEWS

BOOK

(in the Burmese Recension ) Vol. II (lataka:;

Paiiiiasa-hitaka or Zimme PaIJniisa

26-50)

Edited by

Padmanabh

S. Jaini. Published by the Pali Text Society, London

19.83 pp. xliii 3 0 9 - 584 (Pali Text Society Text Series No. 173). A collection of birth-stories of the Buddha, th� lataka, Khuddaka-Nikiiya of the Pali Canon. with its

commentary,

entitled

Text Society, Lo n do n , between the years

the

is

included

V Fausboll's edition of the lataka

edition of the hi/aka

1897.

the

latakatthava>JIJana, was published by the Pal i

in six volumes with an index volume forming

1877 and

in

together

This was reprinted

contains 547 stories,

though

the seventh,

in 1962-1964.

the number

Fausboll's

generally

given

550 in referring to the Jataka collection. ,

,

Besides this 'canonical' collection of the

�•.of birth-stories of the Buddha, which have Leon Feer used the term

included

in 1875

under the

title

large numb�r

in

'extra- canonical' to refer to these. in

contributed to the Jou rna l AsiaUque

the

the

Etudes

Canon.

article he BOlJddhique�:

English translation of which, made by G. M. Foulkes, has been

an

Lll Jiilakas,

liitakas, there are a not been

published by Susil' Gupta (India) Private Ltd., in Calcut ta in 1963. In his arti ck , Feer

gave

information

canonical' collection, found at the (Thailand). "

about

isolated

'extra- canonical' jiitakas, and one 'extra­

fragments of which written

in

Cambodian characters, were

Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, among Pali manuscripts from Siam

Feer

identified

the title

of

this

collection

Panniira-lataklJ,

as

th�'

Fifty Jatakas.' It is an edition

is the subject

of

by Padmanabh S. Berkeley, was

·of its Text

of

the

our

recension

Burmese

concern

here.

Pr ofe ssor of Buddhist

Jaini,

of

latakas 1-25

Series

(PJ. I

hereafter),

The

bibliography and the

PanFi/isa-Jafaka

of

Studies,

pubJished by the Pali Text Society,

volume and the

the

recension,

this

which edited

University of Californi8,

London

in

1981

as No. 172

preliminary remarks he made

in this

in Vol. II under re v i ew here Pl. II hereafter) give much information ahout previous s t udi es relevant to the Panncisa-lataka, which Louis Finot gave Pannasa-Jiitaka

in

introduction

information can profitably be recapitulated here.

a concordance of

his

arti cle,

three

recensions

';Recherches

sur

la

of

the

sto r ie s

litterature

III

the

laotimne"

published in Paris in

1917, in Vol. XVII of the Bulletin de L'ecole Franc;Qise d' r!xtreme-Orient (BEFEO). One of these recensions is in Laotian, and the other two, the. Cambodian-Thai

us that Jf three Pali versions of the Paniiiisa-·lataka originating in Cambodia, Thailand and Burma, ;ource, �as

not

the as

Cambodian

the

known

and

and

the

Thai

Burmese, a rc in Pali. collections

texts of both arc aimost

seem

identical

to Buddhist tradition outside

the

to

(Pl. I

Iaini

draw

p.v.)

inform s

upon

a common

The Pann"sa-Jata!ca

countries of Sou theast As;�\.

BOOK REVIEW

189

For information about the Laotian versi on of the Pannasa-Jiitaka, Jaini refers to H. Deydier's publicati on of 1952 (PJ. II. p. xl) which. however, is not 1 isted in the bibl iography. The reference here is possibly to Deydier's Introduction d fa cnnna;ssance du Laos, wh i ch Jaini mentions elsewhere as giving a brief descrip­ us

tion of the

Laotian

version

Hammal av e

of

Pannrisa-J ataka

the

(BSOAS) V ol .

Orienta { and African Studies

XXIX,

(Bulletin

Sclwo!

the

of

of

3,1966. p 534 note 8). Venerable

gives information about the Laotian version of some pf the

Saddhatissa

stories of the Panniisa-Jiitaka in his contribution on Pali Litera/ure from LaoJ to the Memorial Volume p ubl ishe d

in honor of Bhikkhu

Del hi .

Pali and Buddhism ed A. K. Narain,

B.

Jagd i sh

Kas hyap (Studies in

R. Publishing

Corporation· 1979

pp 327-40). Pali text of the first twenty-five stories of th� Cambodian-Thai recen­

The

s io n of the Pannasa Jatuka was published by the Instilut Bouddhique (Phn o m in five volumes, d uri ng the years 1953-1962. Si am e se translation of this verses in Bangkok

volumes,

under

in

recension

abllidged

Prince Damrong made an

published

it

with

originall Pali

the

This translation was published again in 1956, irl. two

1926. title

the

and

Pcuh)

(Panniisa . Jiiraka ) .

Chudok

Pannyii1

by the F ine : Arts

Depar tment of the National Library, Bangkok (BSOAS XXIX p 535 note 11). This

;econd

edition

contains

::am bod ia n version.

61

stori:=s

of the

instead

traditional

�n Historical and Str uctur a l Study of 'he Pann iisa Jdtaka \nn Arbor,

M ichigan ,

Mai

Ianthawaddy Press,

PJ.

Darnrong's translation

The BUimese r ecen s io n of the Panniisa-Jiitaka,

( Chieng

( Mi crofilms

Fifty)

edite d

was in

Rangoon.

pp a ratus or var iant readings.

It

1911. has

International

xl).

II. p.

popularly

anonymously

ofl i979

summaries ·of tr:e:

publication No. 79-8731) contains long

[hai stories basect on Prince

')alFlilsa

founditi the

50

Jaini reports that D. M. Fickle's doctoral diss ertation

known

and

as

�imn;e

published

by' tht

This edition had no in t rodu cti on , critical long been out o f

opies are said to be found today ev�n in

Burma

and only a fe'.\'

print

(BSOAS XXIX

534 'tnote

p.

0; Pl. I p.v) .

l

welcc-pe

In thi s context, Jaini's edition of the Panntisll - Jiit aka is mos t

,11

Only a few stories of the collection. hOld be first crit ical study of t he work. �cciv ed the a t tenti on of scholars earlier. One of these is the Samlltfdtz,hoso

iitaka,

a

critica l

ealing with the le ir language,

edition and a tra nsl ation of which, along with aniritr�dubon

manus cr ipt material

of the

was published by Mme.

G

peculi�riii

collections and the Te rral in Paris in

BEFEO .

XL

•

'

I

s

of

I, r

956 pp 249-351, under the title, Samuddaghosajeitaka: conte Pali tire aa' PidilJasa itaka (BSOAS XXIX p. 534 n ot e 8). A translation and an .analysis, the eliimajataka of the collection appeared in 1959 under the naIIle of..

¢hal�

iartini

(BEFEO XLIX

G.

pp

609-16 ) .

rel atio n

The Sudhanukumiirajiitaka of the

co

tion

t he Kinnarijiitaka of the M.ahava 1. tne' ical udhanakumaravadana of the Divytivad/ina and some Burmese and Thai s " ba sed on the story in his arti cle 'The Story of Sudhana .and M",llJ ara: 'as

studied

by

Jaini

in

lays (l

analysis

33-558 ) .

of

Jai·ni

the

texts

evaluated

to

.•

and the Borobudu r reliefs the

historical

(BSOAS XXIX 3. I'

importance of anoth.er

. story

.

pp.

�. t�e.

1

.

.

J

.

. .

1 •

'!

'\ . "';! .�

.J

HANDURUKANDE

RA.TNA

Pannasa-Jataka, viz. the Va!!ungulirajajataka in the artic le, 'On the B u d dha Ima!.'. which he contr i b uted to the Jagdilh Kashyap

,

the Buddha and to the

oral

to the f i rst image

literary evid ence lending authenticity for the first tir'

provides

of the

traditions

Memorial Volume (ed. A. K. Narc'

This hitaka con t ains a reference

" Delhi 1979 pp. 183-188).

per tai ning to the existence of

Chinese a

travellers

Fa-Hsien

and

Hiuen- Tsa

sa ndal-w ood image of the B uddha carved dud:

Jaini gives the relevant excerpts from the jlitaka

the Buddha 's lifetime: , article.

Jaini says that he first became interested

in

the

problem

in

r

of the Panna&

Jiitaka on reading Terral's study of the Samuddaghosajataka. Noting that t1-' , Burmese portion of the article was based solely upon the Rangoon edition (I

,1911, Jaini looked for manuscripts of the Panfiasa-Jiitaka in libra ries in R angoo ] Mandalay and Pagan,

during a

visit

to

Burma

in

1961.

Meeting

with

littJ

success, he le arnt from all elderly M ahdthera, the chief abbot of Pagan, that th work was consi dered apocryphal and dis a pproved of by King My ndon of Mandala,

.' (1853-1878), resulting in

only a very

in the monasteries of Burma. Th e I . tradition current in his young days.

few m anu script s of the work i nforma tion

abbot's Prince

Damrong

was

based

being on

fount.

an

ora

also refers to this traditio,

1926. II i n his pref a ce to the first edition of the Pafinasa-Jataka published in 1962, J ain i was able to obtain a photocopy of a manuscript dated S akaraj 1169 foun d

!

i.e.

1

wh ich was not the basis for the Rang oon e dit ion, pr ovid e d Jaini with material

I

for

1807 a

A.

D.,

critical edition of

a

in

the

monastery

in

r e cension

Burmese

Mandalay, of

This

manuscrip;

Pafinrisa Jiitaka.

the

Using

, the Rangoon edition as the main text, laini g ives variant readings from the unpublished Mandalay manuscript in the notes to his carefull y edited text of l the PaFifiasa-Jataka (BSOAS XXIX p p . 534-5; PJ. I pp. v, vi ) . Volume I of J ain i 's edition of the Pafinasa-Jataka co n tains the Pali text of 'the following 25 stor i e s , on pages 3-308: A dittareljajataka; Tulaka pa1Jtj;fajataka; SammajiJlakum(irajiitaka; Danacaga

(Ca ga da'1a)

Arindamajataka;

Sumbhamitta jataka;

jataka: DhammikarJa1Jc)itarajajataka:

Sam uddaghosaja taka>'

Siridharamahasejjhijataka>·

Sankhapattarajaj(j£alw; Sudhanukumarajataka; Narajivajataka; DasapaFihavisajjanajcttaka,'

Surupa r74aja taka;

Kambalariijajataka;

Atthaparikkharajiitaka;

Gopalakasulajataka;

Siricudama1Jirajajataka;

Sirivipulakittirajajafaka; Sattadhanujatdi<:a;

Candakuma�ajataka;

'S�ilhitrl,ajajataka: Ratanapajjotajataka; D\Jesisaha'rLsajiitaka and the Viriyapa�t¢itajataka The pagination of Volume 1 is continued next 25

stories on pages

Vipularajajc;taka:

309-568.

II, which contains the

of the stories

in this volume

are:

Mahapadumaj ataka; Mahc/Suraunarajajataka; Brahmaghr)sariijajataka;

Setamiuikajiita.'
The titl e s

in Volume

Pradipaddnajataka;

Subhaddariijajataka:

Velamajiitaka;

SO)J.anandariijajataka;

Suva'J"1akumiir ajiilaka;

4.kkharalikhitajataka;

Va¢4hanajataka;

�ataka; Sidtlhisiiracakkavattijiitaka;

Bahalaputtajiitaka;

Va!!angu!iriijajiitaka; BrahmakumiiraJtitaka;

Bodilira

Sirasakumiira./ataka,· Sucikatiipasajiitaka;

Akatann 'ljiitaka; Dukammartijajataka; Silajataka and Mahasudassanaj iitaka.

Viviida-­

The introduction which pr ece d e s the text in PJ. II seek s to trace the origin )f the stories in the Panfiasa-jiitaka whi ch remained unknown to the Buddhists

'

BOOK

191 of India and

Sri

REVIEW

Lanka over a long period of time .

laini

observes that

tt

narrator s of the stories h'ld i nexh'l u stible sources to draw from, viz. the Avadari Howev er , he says that ther literature in Sanskrit ani the A!!h�kath,js in P a li .

is no doubt tha t the MahanipllJa section (Jataka Nos

538-547) of the canonic2

liJal(a, which obvious l y served as the model for the form adopted by the �uthor of th e collection, was the primary source. S t ressing the need to ide n ti fy thes source s , none of which are a cknowledged by the authors of the stories, in orde to establish the historical rehtionship of the collecti6n to the extant Buddhis

literature, laini gives a critical

analysis of each of the stories in the

In this analysis, he points out textu a l similarities

jataka.

between

Paiiniisa s[Orie:

the

in the collection itself, traces the connection of the stories with the Pali , text! and thei r A nhakathas, and also non - Pali literature; attempts to ident ify all) mo t ifs in th e stories which, not usually found in the extant l iter ature, would appe ar to be the innovations of Southeast Asian Buddhists; and draws attention to

pl aces and instances where artistic representations of the stor ies are laini warns th e readers against taking the elements of pl o t

analysis

of t he

stories

as

a nyth i ng approaching total plot

found. in his

he gives

summaries.

adding

the good news that a complete summary of each story prepared by him is l)�ing under the t itle, Synopse� of th e Jdtakas of the Zimmi Pa'IJ1J.iisa by the

published Center for He giv e s

the

South

the

Sout he as t Asia

and

further

translat io n of this

text until

th at the Pa li Text Society will

the

stories

Univ ersi ty of C a li forni a, BerkdT

I. B

initiative

Chieng

that

the

n ow northern Thailand

the stor h .

l inguis tic

indicawd

peculiarit>. in

or igin at ed

Paiiiiiisa-Jitaka

is

transl a t i ') 1

by a discu��l(1n

introduction is followed

tradi t ional claim

The

Mai in what is

this

Hor n er had not tran sl a ted all

in the

worked at

is to be hoped

It

having

in

of the place, date, and authorship of the work and theof its language.

Horner

days of her life .

last

take the

published, and com ple te d if Miss.

The analy s i s of the

S tudie s,

that the late Miss.

information

by the title of the

Burmese recension, Zimme PWlJ;Zasu.

H ow ev er , as ma ny as twenty stories tb:l t

exclusive to the Zimme PalJ1Jasa as

ind i c ated

give n by Fin ot ,

by

the

may have, in Ja ini' s opinion, been

or ig in a l stock.

Commenting on the a bsence

events of h istor i c a l

i mpor tan ce

lear n e d monks from

Sri

tw el fth century A· provided by

the

points

or

out that there

is

of phrase such as: our

text takes

S akk a......... departs

place ...

This AiicaoavatT

would

the only

arr'iva I

there

stray

one

T h e lower limit of the dati:

given

as

1589 A.

sctl1l �h�

D.,

a

date

in L aotian characters.

to heaven (p.xx); The story part in

is almost word for word identical with

usurper king P\tts out a bo u n ty for anyone

has imprisoned

h

of

well-written except for a few odd turns

ba ck

(p.xxii); the st or y

the Nidllnakatha (p.xxii); The

is

wh i ch is

The i n troduct ion is informative and

the

to

BUrma

version of the Paiiiiasa·-Jdtaka is

D. w hile the upper limit

oldest manuscript

in

such as wars,

reference to Sihaladipa in the SuvalJIJakumiirajeitaka. of the compilation of the Bur m ese

added

are

h;r(�:.

of

in these stories of any allus.kl

of this area,

Lanka, laini

concordance

many prin ce sses (p . xxv); Day and

spend praising the three jewels (p.xxx).

I noted

the

following

(p�xxiii); night he printing

errors in the introduction:

(pp xx,xxii), saHi (p.xxv) ;

S am en. era for yakkhanT

RATNA

HANDURUKANDE

cemetary

for c em etery (p.xiv); Sakkha for Sak (p.xxiv) ; Ummadayantisala. for Ummadayan (p.xxv) ; Ananada for A na nda (p xxi ) . P

sa ma t). era

for yakkhinT

'

of the introduction gives the date o f a publication

(Phnom I

am

the

of

lnstitut

BOilddhi�

P enh ) as 1953-61 wh il e its date given in the bibliography is

unable to check

(compar e

PJ.

I p. v

G.

this.

Terral's

publicat ion

corrected to read as

bibliography has to be

a nd BSOAS XXIX p. 534 note

1956

of

appearing

l is t ed

in

ti'

XLVI I,

BEFEO

in

8)

1953-19E

and not XLIX, 1.

II of Jaini's editio The foll owing indexes are given at the end of Vol. of the Pannasa-Jataka. A. Index of Names (I noted here that the page:; we aI" referred to under the entry Afi j anavati contain in fact the Aiijanavati occurs in a

268 is a

m i sprint

for

on p

n ote

248

page is not listed

in the list of pages

Words, Forms and Spellings peculiar

Addit i o n s ;

wh i c h

250, to

D. Index of Emen d ations ; and

reading

under

Aiicnnavat in the in de"

Anj a n a vati: ) ; B.

PanntiSa-Jataka;

C.

I nde x

E. Index of Varia nt

Index of

0

Minol

Readings in the

Rangoon Edition and the Mandalay Manuscript. These indexe s will be of value,

\ as is hoped by the edi tor , linguistic studies

in

studies

pert ain ing

to

the

Punnasa -Jiitaka

and

of tl� Burmese usage of Pali.

In the course of his dis c uss i o ns relating to the Pannasa-Jdtaka, Jaini has repeatedly drawn attention to the need for a comparative

study

all the known recensions of the text ,

language_

He bas also po inted

out

its

value

and which

a

sep a r a te

extends

far

study

its

of

beyond

the

Professor

sphere

of

Of

with reference to the Sanskrit Avadana l i t er at ur e and to Southeast Asian Buddhism. One must hope that he popular of various aspects who has ta ke n su�h pains in st u dyin g the text and is conversant with the philology ,

part icula rly

problem, will himself undertake these further stud i es and bring to

its

culmi

a­

tion the rich contribution he has already made to the study of B uddhis t narrative two-volume ed it ion of the Burmese recension or the

iiterature, III presenting a Pa'nna sa -Jataka.

Ratna

Hand:lrukande