Materials for the Study of the Tripiṭaka Volume 5
ข้อมูลพระไตรปิฎกศึกษา เล่ม ๕
MST 5
Materials for the Study of the Tripiṭaka Volume 5
ข้อมูลพระไตรปิฎกศึกษา เล่ม ๕
Peter Skilling
drawing on Pāli and vernacular
advent of Theravāda Buddhism to South-East Asia and the role of South-
Sudhana-jātaka: Prince Sudhana peeks from behind a tree at his
Kinnarī wife Princess Manoharā. From paintings depicting scenes from Thai
jātakas
Sudhana
Suwannasang
Back cover
Suwannasang: Wat
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Selected Papers
discuss Theravādin conceptions of
LIRI
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Selected Papers
Edited by Claudio Cicuzza
Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation • Lumbini International Research Institute
Bangkok and Lumbini 2009
Materials for the Study of the Tripiṭaka Volume 5
ข้อมูลพระไตรปิฎกศึกษา เล่ม ๕
Peter Skilling is a member of the École française d’Extrême-Orient (Bangkok
and Paris).
Front cover Sudhana-jātaka: Prince Sudhana peeks from behind a tree at his
Kinnarī wife Princess Manoharā. From paintings depicting scenes from Thai
literature including non-classical jātakas like Sudhana and Suwannasang.
Window frames of the Uposatha Hall of Wat Suthat Thepwararam, Bangkok,
mid-nineteenth century.
Back cover ‘Ngoh’ with Nang Rocana from the story of Suwannasang: Wat
Suthat Thepwararam, Bangkok, mid-nineteenth century.
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Selected Papers
PHOTO: DHANAKRIT LAORSUWAN
The twelve essays in this volume
survey aspects of Buddhism and
Buddhist literature in pre-modern
South-east Asia and Thailand,
drawing on Pāli and vernacular
texts, liturgy, and inscriptions. They
discuss Theravādin conceptions of
the Bodhisatta, relations between
Sanskrit and vernacular literature
in Thailand, and questions of the
transmission and dissemination
of Buddhist ideas and narratives
through sermon and ceremony. The
texts studied are both products and
agents in the intellectual and social
world of South-East Asian Buddhism.
Broader questions include the
advent of Theravāda Buddhism to South-East Asia and the role of SouthEast Asia in Buddhist studies.
MST 5
LIRI
Materials for the Study of the Tripiṭaka Volume 5
ข้อมูลพระไตรปิฎกศึกษา เล่ม ๕
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Selected Papers
Edited by Claudio Cicuzza
Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation • Lumbini International Research Institute
Bangkok and Lumbini 2009
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
i
ii
Materials for the Study of the Tripiṭaka Volume V
Peter Skilling
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Selected papers
Edited by Claudio Cicuzza
Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation
Lumbini International Research Institute
Bangkok and Lumbini 2009
iii
© Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation 2009
ISBN 978-974-660-104-7
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
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system, without prior permission in writing from the Fragile Palm Leaves
Foundation.
First published in April, 2009
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iv
Dedicated to
Ven. Bhikkhu Pāsādika
Prof. Hubert Durt
Prof. Dr. Prasert Na Nagara
with gratitude
v
vi
Contents
Page
Preface
Introduction by Justin McDaniel
Abbreviations
Eras, Periods of Thai history, Kings of the Early Bangkok Period,
Note on spelling and usage
ix
xi
xxiii
xxv
1. Manuscripts and inscriptions, languages and letters
2. Language and writing in South-East Asia and in Sukhothai
3. Pieces in the puzzle: Sanskrit literature in pre-modern Siam
4. The place of South-East Asia in Buddhist studies
5. Some literary references in ‘La Grande Inscription d’Angkor’ (IMA 38)
6. Ārādhanā Tham: ‘Invitation to teach the Dhamma’
7. Three types of Bodhisatta in Theravādin tradition
8. The advent of Theravāda Buddhism to mainland South-East Asia
9. Tripiṭaka in practice
10. The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology
11. Praises of the Buddha beyond praise
12. Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
1
17
27
46
69
80
90
104
120
128
155
161
Original publication details
Peter Skilling: Publications
Bibliography
Title Index
219
221
235
261
vii
viii
Preface
The twelve essays in this volume were published between 1996 and
2006. Six of them were published in Thailand, two in Japan, and the
remaining four in international journals. We are grateful to the
original publishers for giving us permission to reprint the articles. As
far as I know they still retain their currency in that they draw directly
on original sources which are still not available in European language
translations or studies. I hope that publishing them together here
will give them a wider access.
We decided not to make any substantial alterations to any of
the essays. As a result the reader may find a degree of overlap and
a certain amount of inconsistency. One of the few talents of which I
may boast is a flair for inconsistent spelling. In the present volume
the inconsistency has been augmented by the passage of time. Where
once I held firmly to ‘South-East Asia’, later I took the easy path and
changed to 'Southeast Asia’. But there is no easy path: British colonial
administrative records use ‘North-East Frontier’ and ‘North-West
Frontier’, and there is no end to possible variation. Closer to home
there are spellings like ‘Lanna’, ‘Lan Na’, ‘Lān2 Nā’, and so on.
The romanization of the Thai and Tai languages remains a
problem for everyone. There has been no consensus since a series
of essays were published in the early volumes of the Journal of the
Siam Society at the beginning of the twentieth century. Scholars have
followed the ‘graphic system’, but almost always with their own
modifications – that is, the system has not stood as a viable standard.
When one uses Pāli and Sanskrit sources, the situation becomes all
the more unsatisfactory. The graphic system allows international
scholars to understand the Indian form or origins of a word: they can
immediately recognize ‘Nagara Śrī Dharmarāja’ or ‘Śrīdeba’, but they
may have trouble finding them on a road-map. On the other hand,
‘Nakhon Si Thammarat’ and ‘Si Thep’ can be readily located, but their
Indian pedigrees have become obscured. To make matters even more
interesting, Thai has many hybrid forms, what we might call ‘Thai
hybrid Indic’. This hybrid Indic delights in Sanskrit and pseudoSanskrit forms. Sanskrit sūtra (discourse of the Buddha) is preferred to
Pāli sutta. Tripiṭaka becomes Traipiṭaka, in Thai pronounced Traibidok.
A genre of Thai cosmological works is called Traibhūmi, pronounced
Traiphum. While the term tebhūmi exists in Pāli, traibhūmi is not used
in Sanskrit. Pāli ānisaṃsa (benefit, reward, blessing) is often spelt
ix
x
Preface
ānisaṅsa and is pronounced anisong. Vaṃsa might be vaṅsa or vaṅśa,
and is usually pronounced wong.
In discussing texts in these essays I have preferred to retain the
spelling of titles as given, rather than to suppress the hybridity.
Vijaya may be vijaiya (pronounced wichai), as in the Uṇhissa- (Uṇhisa-,
Uṇhassa-, etc.) Vijaiya (pronounced Unahit-wichai). I do not think the
inconsistencies lead to the sacrifice of clarity, but the reader trained
in ‘standard Pāli’ is likely to shake his or her head in bewilderment
and disbelief.
My profound gratitude goes to Claudio Cicuzza for his dedication
to this project over a period of five years, during which the author
was more often absent than present – and even when present was
more often absent-minded than in the here and now of the book.
Thanks also go to Songwut Boonmak for his work on the design
and layout. I am grateful to Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and the
Khyentse Foundation for their interest in and support of my work,
to Justin McDaniel for his enthusiastic response to our request for an
introduction, and for his understanding when modesty impelled me
to trim many of the superlatives. I thank Prapod Assavavirulhakarn
for being a constant resource, and Arthid Sheravanijkul for assisting
in countless ways. Santi Pakdeekham’s unstinting help was essential
in getting the book through the final throes of publication. Many
others have read sections of the book over the years, offering
precious corrections, criticisms, and comments, and I offer them all
my thanks. Special thanks are dedicated to Giuliana Martini, who at
the last stage guided me through the landscape of typos during hourslong telephone calls from Hachioji. Any clumsiness or infelicity that
remain are my own responsibility.
Peter Skilling
Nandapurī
February 2009
Introduction
I exhort my students to make choices. They often approach me
with unbounded enthusiasm, eager to undertake research in a wide
variety of topics related to Buddhist studies. I quash this enthusiasm
with warnings about the sins of sacrificing depth and detail to the
desire to tackle big questions plaguing the field. Make choices.
Choose a language of research and become an unapologetic expert.
Choose a time period and know everything about it from literary
developments to trade patterns to agricultural output. Choose an
approach. You cannot be a good anthropologist, historian, philologist,
philosopher, archivist, political scientist, and statistician all at the
same time. Master a discipline. Scholars cannot just be inspirational,
they must be resources. Only scholars who have absolutely mastered
one time period, approach, and language can be a true resource.
However, reading and rereading this short collection of articles by
Peter Skilling, I realize now that I have been doing my students a
disservice.
I first met the person whom I shall call Achan Peter a little more
than ten years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a visiting
professor at Harvard University – the only visiting professor I had
ever met who wasn’t visiting from another academic institution. He
was an independent scholar without the normal academic pedigrees.
I had read dozens of his articles, but who he was and what choices
he had made in his career in Buddhist Studies were mysteries to
me. I remember distinctly that we were to meet on the steps of
the Widener Library. I imagined we would find a quiet place to sit.
I would ask my questions, steal some ideas, and we would part our
ways. Instead, Achan Peter asked if I would walk with him to a few
bookstores. We spent a long afternoon bending down or standing
on tiptoes examining seemingly every book on Asia spread across
thousands of linear feet of bookshelves, from Japanese art to
Mongolian history to Indo-European linguistics. He never answered
my questions directly, but I found myself grabbing napkins from a
coffee shop counter in order to write down the information he was
giving me about all and sundry. I thought I would be sitting at a table
and would be able to write in a proper notebook. No time, we had
to walk and talk, always interrupted by fragments of conversation
about the importance of this book on Sri Lanka or that essential study
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
on Borobudur. I was learning a great deal, my pen kept tearing the
flimsy light brown napkins, I was growing more and more confused.
Who was this scholar? He didn’t come from a teaching position at the
University at Uppsala, Oxford, or Kyoto. He did not have a doctorate
from Benares Hindu University, the University of Toronto, or Rome.
He apparently knew at least Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pali, and Thai. I did
not get my questions answered that particular day. I have in my
notes, translated from napkins, that finally over coffee later that day,
we talked about the early ‘indianized’ Oc-Eo culture of the Mekong
delta and other Vietnamese archaeological sites. I would spend the
next ten years having conversations at Oriental Books in Pasadena,
California, at Chulalongkorn University Bookstore in Bangkok, at
Arthur Probsthain Books in London, and at Evergreen Books in
Singapore, among many others.
Not all of our conversations were in informal situations. I had the
rare opportunity to work in the Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation’s
‘manuscript house’, an archive where more than ten thousand
palm-leaf and mulberry-paper manuscripts were being preserved,
documented, scanned, and made available for research. The
Foundation had saved the manuscripts from being scattered and lost
through the open markets in Thailand a decade or two earlier. The
conversations around manuscripts Achan Peter and I would have
over various hand selected varieties of mango were illuminating. His
advice on how to approach manuscripts in general was invaluable
to my research in Laos and Northern Thailand and was well-worth
the boat, two buses, and motorcycle taxi I used to have to take to
get to the manuscript library. His manuscript work and his collection
of primary and secondary sources in Tibetan, Japanese, and Chinese,
as well as South and Southeast Asian Buddhist sources, show the
value of not limiting oneself to a narrow expertise in Thai, Khmer, or
Tibetan texts or a single time period. His wide interests have not only
allowed him to see connections and trends that have been obscure to
scholars with less experience, but to be a resource to students and
scholars throughout the world. He has lent his extensive expertise to
institutions such as the Pali Text Society, the Lumbini International
Research Institute, and most recently the École française d’ExtrêmeOrient. He has published numerous articles as well as useful resources
like the Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation’s series of reference works,
Materials for the Study of the Tripiṭaka, and the several issues of the
Fragile Palm Leaves Newsletter.
Introduction
xiii
One might imagine from my comments than Achan Peter is a
pure textualist who is more comfortable in libraries and bookstores
than in the field. This could not be further from the truth. He is
what I would call a textual anthropologist, meaning not only that
he sees how texts are used in various contexts, but also the ways
in which texts have changed over time through different editions,
translations, liturgical, magical, and homiletic settings. He has taken
me to Ratchaburi, Ayutthaya, Singhburi, and other places, and to the
monastery of the legendary Mon monk Luang Pho Uttama along the
Burmese-Thai border to pay our last respects.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to write a brief introduction
to this selection of twelve articles. This is only a small collection of
relatively recent writings, which were thematically selected by
editor Claudio Cicuzza (an eclectic and multi-talented scholar in his
own right) because they concentrate on Pali and vernacular texts
and textual history in Southeast Asia and because, although all of
them have been published before, some are very hard to find. The
detailed notes, the appendixes at the end of several of the articles,
and the comprehensive bibliography join together to make the
volume a reference work which will stand the test of time. I must add
that many more are the studies that remain unpublished – two that
I especially wish had made it into this volume are a history of Thai
Buddhist liturgies and a discussion of the problematics of the term
‘Theravāda’. Nevertheless, thanks to Claudio’s painstaking efforts,
now at least the writings included here are accessible to a wider
reading audience.
Although Achan Peter has refused to make conventional choices
in his work and career, Claudio has made admirable ones in preparing
this volume. What follows is a small but representative selection
of essays on Southeast Asian Buddhist texts and textual practices.
Achan Peter writes about literary and ritual trends in Southeast Asia
broadly, but each article is highly detailed and copiously referenced.
He demonstrates that the only way to make grand claims about the
advent of Theravāda Buddhism in Southeast Asia, the relationship
between orality and textuality, or the place of Buddhist Studies in
Southeast Asia, is to concentrate on the details and to study languages
and primary sources thoroughly. These studies are rarely speculative,
but always exhaustive.
Now let me make a few brief introductory notes to some of the
individual studies. Four look directly at the place of Pali and Sanskrit
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
language and literature in Thailand specifically, and in Southeast
Asia more broadly: ‘Pāli in Early South-East Asia and in Sukhothai’
(originally published in 2004), ‘Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East
Asia’ (2006), ‘Pieces in the Puzzle: Sanskrit Literature in Pre-modern
Siam’ and ‘Manuscripts and Inscriptions, Languages and Letters’
(2003). The first has been renamed and refined here as ‘Language and
Writing in Southeast Asia and Sukhothai’ and begins with a succinct
overview of the movement of Pali Buddhist literature into Southeast
Asia and the rise of Buddhist writing in Shan, Arakanese, Mon, Lao,
Thai, Khmer, and other vernaculars. It is emphasized that the rise
of vernacular literary traditions did not lead to the ‘death’ of Pali,
a subject tackled more directly in the last section of ‘Manuscripts,
Inscriptions, Languages, and Letters’. This marks the Mahāvihāran
lineages of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia as different from Buddhist
textual traditions in Tibet, Japan, and China where classical Sanskrit
ceased to be studied by all but a ‘small elite’ (p. 19). Achan Peter also
notes that the various scripts used to write Pali and vernaculars in
Southeast Asia were not only tools of communication to the masses,
but also reveal the wide variety of textual communities which
adopted and slowly changed the way Pali texts were rendered,
collected, and cited. Of particular importance is the explanation of the
subtle differences between ‘khom’ scripts and the categorization of
inscriptions as ‘citation inscriptions’ and ‘composition inscriptions’.
A curious fact is further pointed out – in Sri Lanka, long known as the
virtual homeland of Pali texts, there are almost no Pali inscriptions,
while there are numerous early citation inscriptions in lower Burma
and in the central regions of Thailand. The final section offers some
details on the early Pali textual evidence from Sukhothai.
‘Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia’ was one of the
most influential articles in my own research career. I first read
a longer draft of this article almost six years before the published
version saw the light of day. I carried this quickly tattered and much
annotated draft in my shoulder bag during two years of manuscript
field work in Laos and Thailand. In fact ‘Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in
Southeast Asia’ could easily be a separate monograph. It provides a
lucid description of the history and literary qualities of the canonical
or classicaal jātakas and gives a fresh study of the local and regional
collections of ‘apocryphal’ jātakas (Thai: chadok nok-nibat) known
as the Paññāsa-jātaka, ‘Fifty Jātakas’ (Thai: Ha-sip chat). Moreover,
the essay emphasizes that there is neither simply one collection
Introduction
xv
known as the Paññāsa-jātaka in the region nor do these collections
contain fifty stories! The essay also explores the use of the jātakas
in different communities, a textual anthropology which is expanded
in Achan’s most recent book (with Pattaratorn Chirapravati, Pierre
Pichard, Santi Pakdeekham, and Prapod Assavavirulhakarn) on the
art, architecture, and history of Sukhothai’s Wat Sri Chum, The Past
Lives of the Buddha (Bangkok: River Books, 2007).
‘Pieces in the Puzzle: Sanskrit Literature in Pre-modern Siam’
looks at a topic hitherto unexplored in any systematic way – the
range and role of Sanskrit texts in Southeast Asia. Most of the Sanskrit
sources in Southeast Asia are undated fragments scattered across a
number of areas. Therefore, many scholars have ignored the Sanskrit
evidence because of a general preference for determining origins and
Ur-texts and then proceeding to trace Indic and other ‘influences’.
Achan Peter goes in a different direction, writing:
At the outset I would like to point out that I am not entirely happy
with this ‘quest for origins’, which seems to privilege the Indian over
the local, the classical over the vernacular, the old over the new. If we
find that a text has an Indian antecedent, we should reflect carefully
on the relations between the two. Rarely, if ever, is there a case of
straightforward borrowing: the Thai counterparts are creative
adaptations, conscious recastings, of their ‘originals’. In addition, we
should note that many works in the Siamese corpus that pose as sūtras
and jātakas are original compositions, and that they are significant
contributions to world Buddhist literature and culture. The Siamese
contribution has not been adequately recognized, despite the fact
that it is prodigious and full of surprises. (See p. 28 in this volume.)
Indeed there are a number of surprises. Here he presents five Southeast
Asian Pali/vernacular ‘texts’ – Jambūpati-sūtra, Uṇhissavijaya-sūtra,
Lokaneyyapakaraṇa, Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana, and Paññāpāramī. Each
text is traced backwards and forwards from manuscript evidence
in Southeast Asia (often Lanna and Lao archives) back to India and
throughout Southeast Asia. The process of tracing the texts is the
point, not finding the origin. In this way, the study of each text stands
alone and advances our knowledge, and at the same time it provides
an excellent model for future textual studies in the region. After
investigating these five, he offers some provocative ‘possibilities’
that help us understand textual transmission in general.
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
‘Manuscripts and Inscriptions, Languages and Letters’ looks closely
not at individual texts or languages, but at the material culture of
textual transmission in the region. This study speaks to art historians
and palaeographers as much as to scholars of Buddhist studies. Claudio
Cicuzza opens the entire collection with this article. This is appropriate
as without understanding texts as ‘objects’ with their own technological
as well as material limitations and possibilities, we cannot hope to
fully appreciate their semantic contents within the communities that
cherished or even discarded them. Achan Peter offers an understanding of
‘bi-scripts’, composite texts, and orthographic idiosyncrasies, which are
often ignored by textualists who tend to be satisfied with a Roman script
edition or a modern translation. Printed editions too often erase the
contexts, linguistic features, and material technology of pre-modern texts.
He sums it up simply: ‘language has its own landscape’ (below, p. 3).
Moving from broader studies of texts and textual communities
in Southeast Asia to close studies of individual texts we have: ‘Some
literary References in the Grande Inscription d’Angkor’ (2001) and
‘Three Types of Bodhisattva in Theravāda Tradition: A Bibliographical
Excursion’ (2002). Here we find two very different studies. The first
examines the famous ‘Great Inscription’ of Angkor Wat, which Achan
interprets as an example of the fluid intertextuality of Southeast
Asian Buddhist literature. A single text can contain explicit, indirect,
or subtle references to other canonical and non-canonical, classical
and vernacular texts. Therefore, one must be wary of studying any
text in isolation or of limiting one’s choice of expertise either to a
particular country, a single language, or a defined time period. In
this long eighteenth-century inscription, for example, he looks
closely at three allusions to other texts: to Lokaneyyappakaraṇa, to the
story of Nāṅ Bhogavatī, and to the story of Jotika-seṭṭhī. The first is an
apocryphal Southeast Asian jātaka composed in Pali and popular in
vernacular translations. The second is a vernacular Thai narrative
found in manuscripts in Southern Thailand. The last concerns Jotika,
a fabulously rich devotee in the time of the Buddha, whose name
and status are invoked in inscriptions and even in an administrative
position in the Ayutthaya and Ratanakosin periods, showing how
certain ‘canonical’ individuals became ideals of human aspiration
in Southeast Asia. Other seṭṭhi (entrepreneurs) are well-known in
stories throughout the region, and although it is not mentioned in
this article, Achan Peter shows that the Buddhists in the area (and
throughout Asia) were rarely apprehensive of aspiring to wealth
Introduction
xvii
and power. Buddhism is not merely an ascetic tradition. To trace
intertextual references like this requires a broad vision and a knack
for detail.
‘Three Types of Bodhisattva in Theravāda Tradition: A
Bibliographical Excursion’ should appeal to a wide audience of
students of Mahāyāna as well as of Theravāda Buddhism. Three
possible Bodhisattva ‘careers’ described in Pali texts form the basis
of the discussion; although they can be compared on some points
with material in Sanskrit from non-Theravādin lineages, the point is
that the Theravādin or Pali theory is self-confident and independent.
Here we find another common feature of Achan’s work – looking
closely at one text to illuminate broader trends in Buddhist thought.
Close textual study is combined with copious reference to a wide
range of textual traditions, thus encouraging students of Buddhism
to hone their linguistic skills while at the same time seeing Buddhism
as a tradition that crosses geographical, linguistic, and historical
boundaries.
In another group of articles, Achan Peter moves from a study
of texts and languages to the ways in which texts are used in ritual
and in sermons: ‘Ārādhanā Tham: Invitation to Teach the Dhamma’
(2002), ‘Tripiṭaka in Practice in the Fourth and Fifth Reigns: Relics
and Images according to Somdet Phra Saṅgharāja Pussadeva’s
Paṭhamasambodhi Sermon’ (2002), a product of collaboration with
Achan Prapod Assavavirulhakarn (now Dean, Faculty of Arts,
Chulalongkorn University), ‘The Sambuddhe Verses and Later
Theravādin Buddhology’ (1996), and ‘Praises of the Buddha beyond
Praise’ (1998). The first two, originally published in Manusya, a
journal published by Chulalongkorn University, are rather difficult
to find outside Thailand. The articles should be read together as
they inform each other. The last two articles were published in the
Journal of the Pali Text Society, but they are included here because they
deserve to be read by those outside of Pali textual studies. These
four articles are significant for a number of reasons. First, they are
abundantly referenced not only to primary and secondary sources
in Pali, Sanskrit, French, and German, but also to the work of Thai
scholars. The contributions of Thai Buddhist studies experts have
been ignored for too long in the field of Southeast Asian Buddhism,
even by those who study Buddhism in Thailand. Only recently have
Western scholars started to learn from the arguments and research
agendas of their Thai colleagues. Achan Peter’s work demonstrates
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
the benefits of paying close attention to Thai intellectual trends and
publications.
Secondly, these studies question the term ‘Tripiṭaka’. I drew on the
first two articles in my doctoral dissertation (submitted to Harvard
University in 2003), particularly because they count among the few
publications that demonstrate how the general Buddhist public in
Southeast Asia comes to know the Tripiṭaka. There has been a general
assumption that good Buddhists study the Tripiṭaka, but there has
not been much investigation into what the term Tripiṭaka actually
invokes in the mind of an everyday student of Buddhism. Achan
Peter and Achan Prapod assert that the Tripiṭaka ‘left the library and
entered society through the sermon’ (p. 120). Sermons as well as
visual images in mural paintings were the vehicles by which people
came to know the ideas and narratives of the Tripiṭaka. Therefore,
a full study of a curriculum involves examining these points of
encounter where the canon was negotiated by the teacher in oral
performance. These points of encounter, manipulation, and creative
engagement reflect an episteme where classical and canonical texts
are neither sacrosanct nor static. The canon, in practice, is fluid and
open. Just as monastic library collections and the choice of source
texts for pedagogical use are wide-ranging and most often noncanonical, in modern Thailand and Laos (and pre-modern Thailand
and Laos as seen in section one) the term Tipiṭaka (Tripiṭaka/Traibidok)
refers not just to the ‘three baskets’ as the Pali canon which received
its final codification by the Mahāvihāra school in Sri Lanka over
1500 years ago, but to all types of religious books. In Achan Peter
and Achan Prapod’s more specific study of Somdet Phra Saṅgharāja
Pussadeva’s Paṭhamasambodhi sermon there is a translation for the
first time of a royally authorized sermon on the influential Southeast
Asian biography of the Buddha, the Paṭhamasambodhi, which gives a
good example of how in Thailand, as in Laos, Cambodia, and Burma,
Pali texts were adapted when communicated orally. Thirdly, these
articles are important because, as in other studies, Achans Peter
and Prapod show the importance of tracing texts not only through
manuscripts but also through different printed editions, as shown
by the fact that in the case of the Paṭhamasambodhi it is only in the
second edition of the sermon, which was sponsored as a cremation
volume, that we find an introduction to the sermon revealing the
importance attributed to this work by Prince Damrong Rajanubhab.
In ‘The Sambuddhe Verses and Later Theravādin Buddhology’
Introduction
xix
and ‘Praises of the Buddha beyond Praise’, Achan Peter presents two
short Pali texts. In the case of the former, the text is not rare, rather
it is an extremely popular liturgical text in Thailand and in Burma
that had been previously overlooked by scholars of Pali Buddhism.
He shows how these seemingly straightforward stanzas with which
lay and ordained people praise the 512,028, 1,024,055, or even
2,048,109 past Buddhas oblige us to reconsider the assumption that
for Theravādins only one Buddha, Sakyamuni, is relevant at any one
historical moment. Achan traces the concept through inscriptional
and textual evidence from India, Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand.
Thence he shows how the way Buddhas of the past are listed and
imagined can be further understood by looking at the theories of
various lineages of future Buddhas. Such close study of this short
liturgical, non-canonical text, provocatively reassesses basic Buddhist
understandings of soteriology and time itself. The second article
also takes a short liturgical text and explores the ways in which it
questions fundamental concepts of Buddhahood and the cosmos. It
shows how canonical maxims are read through local Thai texts over
time. Finally, both are examples taking into account the importance
of liturgy and performance, as well as exemplary studies in ‘closereading’. I read them as a graduate student in 1999, and they changed
the very way I approached texts. At that time, I was trying to decide
whether to concentrate on canonical/classical or non-canonical/
vernacular texts. These articles showed me that those very options
are stultifying and that the Buddhist world of Southeast Asia is one in
which, as Achan Peter writes in another essay in this volume:
Many more questions can be asked. Our knowledge is always
incomplete, our conclusions are always in need of reformulation, our
methodology is always in need of revision. I hope in this essay to have
pointed out some of the gaps in the study of Buddhism, to have given
at least a hint of the rich resources available for the study of SouthEast Asian Buddhism, and to have made some suggestions about
how to look at not only South-East Asian Buddhism but Buddhism in
general. (See p. 68 in this volume.)
Southeast Asian Buddhism in general is examined in the two
most far reaching contributions in the collection: ‘The Advent of
Theravāda Buddhism to Mainland South-east Asia’ (1997), and ‘The
Place of South-East Asia in Buddhist Studies’. The latter was first
delivered as a talk on November 21, 2000. I used a copy of the draft
xx
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
talk for several years when preparing lectures. I surmise that the
former is informed by the conversations and collaboration between
Achan Peter and his close colleague, Achan Prapod, who wrote his
dissertation submitted at the University of California at Berkeley in
1990 on a similar theme. In both articles Achan Peter dispels some
oft-repeated myths about the ‘Theravāda’ and at the same time
shows how the study of Buddhism in Southeast Asia can be relevant
and fruitful for scholars in Buddhist Studies more broadly. ‘The
Advent of Theravāda Buddhism to Mainland South-east Asia’, unlike
Prapod Assavavirulhakarn’s impressive dissertation (regrettably still
unpublished) does not look at archaeological and linguistic evidence
to trace the movement of Theravāda teachers into Suvarṇabhūmi,
but largely focuses on the problem of the ‘school identification’.
Achan Peter has studied the schools of early Buddhism in several
other publications not included in this volume. Here, he takes on
another fundamental problem in the study of Buddhism – is there
such a historical entity known as the Theravāda and if so, what
makes it distinctive, as a school of Buddhism in Southeast Asia? Thus,
the very foundations of Theravāda Buddhism, long considered one of
the oldest and most traditional schools of Buddhism, are questioned.
Firstly, there is almost no evidence of a separate and so-named
school of Theravāda Buddhism in mainland India. Secondly, what we
call the Theravāda may and may not be the same as the school of
Buddhism connected with the Mahāvihāra in Sri Lanka. Even though
both the Mahāvihāra and Abhayagiri schools used Pali and even
though there is epigraphical evidence for the presence of the latter
for at least a short period in central Java, does this mean that we
can trace a direct line from the Mahāvihāra or Abhayagirivihāra to
different lineages of Burmese, Cambodian, Thai, and Lao Buddhism?
The best evidence for school affiliation in Southeast Asia comes
from Mon and Pyu kingdom inscriptions in what are today central
Thailand and lower Burma respectively. From this evidence, he
demonstrates that ‘All told, there is no conclusive local evidence that
the early Theravāda of South-East Asia was affiliated with either the
Mahāvihāra or the Abhayagiri’ (114). In reading the inscriptions he
also asks an important question – is the evidence of the use of the Pali
language alone enough to justify identifying a particular inscription
as ‘Theravādin’? Or perhaps we should ask: are ‘Pali Buddhism’ and
‘Theravāda Buddhism’ synonymous? Further investigation leads him
to this important observation:
Introduction
xxi
We should not regard the establishment and development of
Buddhism in the region as a mere mechanical process. Rather, it
was a human, and hence unpredictable, progress in which decisions
were made and acted upon by individuals and communities. A single
charismatic monk could attract followers and sponsors of status
to his school; a single ruler could, whether for political, economic,
or purely religious reasons, decide to favour a particular saṅgha.
Changing trade routes or political alliances could bring new patterns
of patronage. (See p. 116 in this volume.)
‘The Place of South-East Asia in Buddhist Studies’ is essential reading
for students of Buddhism in general. Southeast Asian Buddhist beliefs
and practices have long been understudied compared to Tibetan,
Japanese, Sri Lankan, and Chinese Buddhisms. There is much they can
teach us. First, Achan Peter inquires into the geographic parameters
of Southeast Asian Buddhism. Does it include places like Bangladesh
which has a sizeable Buddhist population around Chittagong? Those
parts of Assam where important Buddhist communities and sites still
exist? The Tai speaking Buddhist communities of Yunnan? Secondly,
a major problem that has faced the field is pointed out – studies
limited by the boundaries of modern nation-states. Thai or Burmese
Buddhism is not a single entity; regional, linguistic, and cultural subgroups like the Arakanese, Mon, and Shan straddle and defy modern
borders. These sub-groups do not exist in a vacuum, but interact
with others in different ways. This diversity of Southeast Asian
Buddhism has not been adequately addressed in our scholarship.
When differences are noted, they have been seen as minor compared
to the similarities that they share because it is assumed that they are
all part of the ‘Theravāda school’. This is a central problem in the
study of Southeast Asian Buddhism:
[A] conceptual problem lies in the fact that the Buddhism of SouthEast Asia is seen through the frame – or forced into the Procrustean
bed – of a ‘Theravādin Buddhism’ inevitably described as ‘early’,
‘conservative’, ‘unworldly’… to lump all of South-East Asia under
‘Theravāda’ oversimplifies and obscures the historical development
of monasticism, ritual, and literature. Furthermore, if the monks
(there have been no nuns for at least a thousand years) ordain within
lineages that trace their origins to the Sri Lankan Thera school, it
does not follow that the laity were or are ‘Theravādins’ by ‘faith’,
‘creed’, or ‘profession’, and indeed both monastic and lay (the
boundary is at any rate fluid) practices entail many specifically local
xxii
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
or regional elements. By the same token, rituals, sacred images, art,
and architecture are not ‘Theravādin’. I prefer to use specific terms
and to try to understand these phenomena as part of socio-historical
evolution. (See p. 49 in this volume.)
How do we go about confronting some of these basic conceptual
problems? As Achan Peter argues, ‘specific data are needed for
general studies, and it is the general studies that place specific data
in context’ (51). There have been a number of specific studies of
inscriptions, images, and texts, but very little in the way of general
studies which grow out of this close study of details. One problem
which faces those who seek to gain a broad and deep knowledge
of Southeast Asian Buddhism is the need to study both classical
and vernacular languages. Moreover, scholars need to rise above
their own disciplines in archaeology, history, philology, art history,
anthropology, and the like. They need to begin to use all possible
evidence – inscriptions, manuscripts, literature (secular and religious),
art, and rituals. Only with this openness can we begin to show, as
scholars, the contributions Southeast Asian writers, ritualists, artists,
political theorists, and ethicists have made to the world heritage of
Buddhism. This collection of Peter Skilling’s work on the region and
on Buddhist Studies in general gives us an admirable model of the
possibilities inherent in this material and in this field. I have learned
a great deal and I trust that the reader will as well.
Justin McDaniel
University of California, Riverside
Abbreviations
AN
BEFEO
BhB
BHSD
BSR
ChS
DN
ed.
EFEO
IMA
IPMC1
IsIAO
IsMEO
JAOS
JIABS
JPTS
JSPS
JSS
LSPÉB
Mm
MN
MST
P
PÉFEO
PLCS
PTS
PVL
SN
v.
Vin
VOHD
Aṅguttara-nikāya
Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient (Paris)
Bhūmibalo Foundation edition
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary (Edgerton [1953] 1972)
Buddhist Studies Review (London)
Chaṭṭha Saṅgīti edition
Dīgha-nikāya
edition; edited
École française d’Extrême-Orient
Inscriptions modernes d’Angkor
Inventaire provisoire des manuscripts du Cambodge.
Première Partie (de Bernon 2004)
Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente (Rome)
Istituto per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (Rome)
Journal of the American Oriental Society
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist
Studies
Journal of the Pali Text Society
Journal of the Office of the Supreme Patriarch’s
Secretary = Warasanchotmaikhao samnak-lekhanukan
Somdetphrasangkharat (Bangkok)
Journal of Siam Society (Bangkok)
Linh-Son—Publication d’études bouddhologiques (Paris)
Mahāmakuṭarājavidyālaya edition
Majjhima-nikāya
Materials for the Study of the Tripiṭaka
(see IPMC1, PLCS, PVL)
Peking edition of the Kanjur (Otani Reprint)
Publication de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient (Paris)
Pāli Literature Transmitted in Central Siam
(Skilling and Santi Pakdeekham 2002).
Pali Text Society edition
Pāli and Vernacular Literature Transmitted in Central
and Northern Siam (Skilling and Santi Pekdeekham 2004)
Saṃyutta-nikāya
verse
Vinaya
Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland
xxiii
xxiv
WFB Review
WZKS
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
World Fellowship of Buddhists Review (Bangkok)
Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens
(Vienna)
Eras
BE
CE
BCE
CS
RE
Buddhist Era (BE – 543 = CE)
Christian Era (CE + 543 = BE)
Before Christian Era (543 – BCE = BE)
Lesser Śaka Era (Culaśakarāja) (CS + 638 = CE)
Ratanakosin Era
Periods of Thai history
Sukhothai
Ayutthaya
Thonburi
Ratanakosin (Bangkok)
1239?-1438
1351-1767
1767-1782
1782-present
Kings of the Early Bangkok Period
Rama I (Phra Phutthayotfa Chulalok Chaoyuhua)
1782-1809
Rama II (Phra Phutthalœtla Naphalai Chaoyuhua)
1809-1824
Rama III (Phra Nangklao Chaoyuhua)
1824-1851
Rama IV (Phra Chomklao Chaoyuhua
1851-1868
(commonly known in the West as King Mongkut)
Rama V (Phra Chulachomklao Chaoyuhua)
1868-1910
(commonly known in the West as King Chulalongkorn)
Rama VI (Phra Mongkutklao Chaoyuhua)
1910-1925
(commonly known in the West as King Vajiravudh)
Note on spelling and usage
Thai words are spelt according to the Royal Institute system of [1968] 1982
(with some exceptions for proper names). In the titles of texts and in certain
formal terms, words of Indian origin are spelt according to standard Indic
usage: Paññasa-jataka, for example, rather than, as pronounced in Thai,
Panyatsa-chadok.
xxv
xxvi
1
Manuscripts and inscriptions, languages and letters
T
HIS ARTICLE STUDIES AND DISCUSSES TWO PRIMARY HISTORICAL
sources, inscriptions and manuscripts, in mainland South-East
Asia, primarily Siam. My interests extend beyond doctrinal and
literary history – the evolution and expression of ideas – to social,
economic, political, and institutional history, as well as to the
evolution of liturgy, ritual, and iconography. The expressions of
Buddhism evolve continually, as only to be expected in this world of
impermanence and flux.
Script and language
The main scripts in the region derive from a single writing system,
Indian Brāhmī, more specifically a southern variety conventionally
termed ‘Pallava’. In the earliest period, from the fourth or fifth to
the seventh centuries CE, this script was used for Sanskrit and Pāli,
and was strikingly similar throughout the region, even in insular
South-East Asia. By the eighth and ninth centuries, languagespecific scripts were devised to record vernaculars like Khmer,
Cham, Mon, and Pyu.
1
2
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
In the early centuries of the second millennium, the Thai in
central Siam developed two scripts from the Old Khmer script:
‘Khom Pāli’ for writing Pāli and ‘Khom Thai’ for writing Thai. The two
scripts were taught together up until the late nineteenth century,
when both Pāli and Thai began to be written in the Thai script. In
the Centre, South, and parts of the North-East extant inscriptions
and manuscripts use Khom Pāli, Khom Thai, Thai, Khmer, and Mon
scripts, for the Pāli, Thai, Khmer, and Mon languages. In the North
and North-East we find the several Tham scripts, used for recording
Pāli, and the Lanna, Fak Kham, Thai Noi, Shan, and Burmese used
for vernaculars.
In the nineteenth century King Rāma IV (as a monk, before he
ascended the throne) devised the Ariyaka script for the writing of
Pāli. It was used by a limited circle in the Dhammayutika monasteries
of the capital until it was replaced by the Thai script during the Fifth
Reign. The brahmans, with their centre in the Bot Phram near Wat
Suthat, used a ‘Siamese Grantha’. In the corpus of inscriptions there
are a few epigraphs in Nāgarī, one in Sinhala script (but Pāli language),
and two in Tamil script and language. The use of scripts from nonIndian writing systems was limited: there are a very few relatively
early inscriptions in Chinese: one from Si Thep (ca. eighth century?),
another from Ayutthaya (Wat Rajaburana: fourteenth century?), and
there are much later ones from Thonburi and Bangkok. The roman
script was used in a few royal inscriptions by the late nineteenth
century. Muslim communities use the Arabic script.
Written languages include Sanskrit, Pāli, Mon, Khmer, Thai,
Lanna Thai, Shan, Lao, Isan Thai, Southern Thai, and Burmese. Given
this linguistic complexity, it is not surprising that there are bilingual
inscriptions, for example Sanskrit/Khmer, Pāli/Mon, Pāli/Thai, or
Pāli/Lanna Thai. Most bilinguals record a composite text in which the
languages have different functions. Opening invocations and closing
benedictions are in Sanskrit or Pāli, while details of a grant or other
‘official’ matters are in a vernacular.1
For Indian bilinguals see Richard Salomon, Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the
Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 109; for Khmer and Cham bilinguals,
see J.G. de Casparis (ed.), Sanskrit Outside India (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991, Vol. VII
of Johannes Bronkhorst [ed.], Panels of the VIIth World Sanskrit Conference), p. 3,
and Claude Jacques, ‘The Use of Sanskrit in the Khmer and Cham Inscriptions’,
1
Manuscripts and inscriptions, languages and letters
3
A feature of Thai, Lanna Thai, and Isan bilinguals is the use of
two (or very rarely three) scripts in the same inscription or text, for
example Thai script for Thai language combined with Khom script
for Pāli, or Fak Kham for Lanna language and Tham for Pāli. These,
in which a classical language is marked by use of a special script,
may be called ‘biscripts’. As far as I know neighbouring cultures
do not use biscripts: the Mon use the Mon script for both Mon and
Pāli, the Burmese the Burmese script for both Burmese and Pāli, the
Khmer the Khmer script for both Khmer and Pāli.2 (I do not count
multilingual records such as the early twelfth century quadrilingual
‘Myazedi’ inscription erected by Rājakumāra at Pagan, since the four
languages – Mon, Pāli, Burmese, and Pyu – are each given a separate
face. That is, the languages and scripts are not combined in the same
text. Further, the Pāli is in the Mon script.)
The complexity of the history of the study and publication of
South-East Asian inscriptions is reflected in the opening sentence of
Claude Jacques’ ‘Use of Sanskrit in the Khmer and Cham Inscriptions’:3
‘the very first Sanskrit inscription of Cambodia (actually found in
Laos) was published by Hendrik Kern in the Annales de l’ExtrêmeOrient in 1873’. That is, a Sanskrit inscription from Laos, deemed to
belong to ‘Cambodia’, was published by a Dutch scholar in a French
journal. In the same way, many inscriptions from Siam – in Sanskrit,
Khmer, and Pāli – have been published in French in Inscriptions du
Cambodge, and Thai-language inscriptions from Burma have been
published in the semi-official Thai “Corpus of inscriptions”, Prachum
Silacharuk. Language has its own landscape, and inscription has its
own imperative, which is often obscured by the modern map.
The inscription of Pāli
The earliest evidence for the use of Pāli in Siam is in inscriptions
from Central Thailand.4 Not even a single inscription is dated, and it
in ibid., pp. 5–12; for Indonesian bilinguals see J.G. de Casparis, ‘The uses of
Sanskrit in inscriptions of Indonesia and Malaysia’, in ibid., pp. 30–32.
2
The Pāli is distinguished from the vernaculars by the absence of the special
marks and letters used in the latter, but the basic script is the same.
3
Claude Jacques, op. cit., p. 5.
4
Peter Skilling, ‘Some Citation Inscriptions from South-East Asia’, JPTS XXVII
(2002), pp. 159–175, and below, pp. 105–111.
4
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
is difficult to date the records on palæographic grounds alone. The
result is that over the years different scholars have assigned different
dates to the same inscriptions. In any case, the picture is sufficiently
clear for us to conclude that Pāli was inscribed in central Siam by the
sixth century CE, in Dvāravatī and neighbouring states.
These early inscriptions are not original or local compositions;
rather, they are citations from classical Pāli texts from India and,
in at least one case, from Sri Lanka. Most common of all was the
ye dhammā inscription, which is found inscribed on stone, brick,
and terracotta.5 It is sometimes inscribed alone, sometimes in
combination with other texts. It is inscribed on bricks or slabs
of stone, or on cetiyas and images of the Buddha. The practice of
inscribing ye dhammā is very rare in Sri Lanka, but common in India.
How can we explain the abundance of ye dhammā inscriptions in
Siam? According to classical definitions it is a ‘dhamma-cetiya’ or
‘shrine of the teaching’, to be placed in a stūpa and revered. It is
also connected with the consecration of cetiyas and images.
Other texts inscribed during the early period include formulas
on the Four Truths of the Noble (ariya-sacca) and Dependent Arising
(paṭicca-samuppāda). Some of the Pāli inscriptions were studied and
published by George Cœdès (1886–1969), both in his study of socalled ‘votive tablets’ and in his work on inscriptions. Since Cœdès’
time many more Pāli inscriptions have been published in Thai, but
for the most part remain unpublished in European Languages.
The inscription of Pāli did not end with Dvāravatī. It continued
in Ayutthaya and Sukhothai, where some original inscriptions were
composed, and in Krung Ratanakosin or Bangkok. It flourished
especially in the second half of the nineteenth century, when texts
were inscribed to be installed in stūpas or displayed on stone slabs.
One of the biggest projects was the inscription of the complete
Dhammapada and several other texts in Khom script around the
inner gallery of the Phra Pathom Cetiya. In the late twentieth
century the Tipiṭaka and other texts were inscribed on marble
slabs at Phuttha Monthon (Buddhamaṇḍala), in Nakhon Pathom
province.
Peter Skilling, ‘Traces of the Dharma: Preliminary reports on some ye
dhammā and ye dharmā inscriptions from Mainland South-East Asia’, Bulletin
de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 90–91 (2003/2004), pp. 273–287.
5
Manuscripts and inscriptions, languages and letters
5
Buddhist literature of Siam
‘Literature’ can be defined or delimited in several ways. The New Oxford
Dictionary of English offers ‘written works, especially those considered
of superior or lasting artistic merit’.6 The dust-jacket informs us that
this lexicon is ‘the foremost authority on English’ and is one of ‘the
World’s Most Trusted Dictionaries’, but nonetheless the definition of
this important term, which does not even allow the existence of ‘oral
literature’, is weak. The definition alerts us to the fact that literature
may not be as self-evident as we think: that it is not a pure ‘given’ (if
such a thing exists).
For this paper I propose the following definition: ‘Literature is
deliberate and conscious composition, individual, joint, or communal,
that is deemed worthy of preservation by an interest group or
community, with the result that it is preserved or transmitted,
orally or in written or printed form.’ The definition should not be
too restrictive, since so little of the literature under discussion has
been studied or published, or is even easily accessible. It is absurd to
impose strictures and categories at this stage of our ignorance.
Pāli literature has been transmitted in South-East Asia for at least
a millennium and a half. Texts and Tipiṭakas have travelled back and
forth across the Indian ocean, throughout the ‘Southern Seas’, and
along the South-East Asian land routes. The different countries and
cultures of the region have each made their own contributions to the
transmission, preservation, and composition of Pāli literature. The
result is that the Pāli heritage of each culture is different. That of
Siam is especially rich, but it is also little known and little studied.
The Buddhist literature of Siam is transmitted not only in Pāli but
also in vernaculars. Pāli and vernacular are intimately related, and
it is often impossible to assign priority to the one or the other. That
is, Pāli texts were translated into Thai, and Thai texts were rendered
into Pāli. Examples of the latter are chronicles like the Cāmadevīvaṃsa7 and Ratanabimba-vaṃsa,8 the opening verses of which state
that the texts were translated from Thai (deyya-bhāsā and sāmabhāsā, respectively). Thai terms or names appear in Pāli texts, and
Judy Pearsall (ed.), New Oxford Dictionary of English (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2001), p. 1077b.
7
PLCS 2.47 and PVL 3.26, 14.3, 14.4, 25.1.
8
PLCS 2.183 and PVL 3.19, 7.191, 14.19, 14.20, 14.21.
6
6
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Pāli terms permeate Thai texts. It should be evident that the study
of South-East Asian Pāli literature cannot be undertaken in isolation,
without taking vernaculars into account.
Overall, the number of manuscripts waiting to be catalogued is in
the tens of thousands. The number of texts which have not yet been
studied is in the hundreds, more probably thousands. It is therefore
only with some trepidation that I attempt to survey this literature.
Whole classes or genres are scarcely known or recognized, such as
texts on the rewards or benefits (ānisaṅsa) of meritorious deeds, or
texts describing the passing away (nibbāna) of the hearers of Buddha.9
I do not doubt that many surprises lie ahead as we venture slowly to
map this terra incognita. I do not doubt that what I write here will
soon need to be refined and corrected.
I am not certain that we even know the contours of this literature.
Descriptive catalogues of manuscripts – a number are available –
are a first step, which should be followed by analysis, edition, and
translation.
Most surviving manuscripts are late, from late Ayutthaya or, more
commonly, from nineteenth century Ratanakosin. The bulk of the
literature is anonymous, and the majority of the manuscripts bear
no date. What circumstances, what needs, produced this literature?
What do we know about its chronological, geographical, and social
history? When, where, and by whom were the texts written or
compiled? When, where, and by whom were they translated, whether
into Pāli or into Thai and other vernaculars?
At present not many of these questions can be answered, even
approximately. We know the authors of a number of scholarly texts
composed in the North of Thailand in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries – Ñāṇakitti, Ñāṇavilāsa, and Sirimaṅgala, for example.
We have chronicles written in the same period by Ratanapaññā
(Jinakālamālinī10),
Brahmarājapaññā
(Ratanabimba-vaṃsa11),
Bodhiraṅsī (Cāmadevī-vaṃsa,12 Sihiṅga-nidāna13). We know something
about a few individuals who actively collected and copied texts, such
9
See, in this volume, ‘The Place of South-East Asia in Buddhist Studies’, pp.
57–58.
10
PLCS 2.55 and PVL 14.5, 14.6.
11
PLCS 2.183 and PVL 3.19, 7.191, 14.19, 14.20, 14.21.
12
PLCS 2.47 and PVL 3.26, 14.3, 14.4, 25.1.
13
PLCS 2.239 and PVL 3.32, 14.23.
Manuscripts and inscriptions, languages and letters
7
as the nineteenth century monk Khru Ba Kañcana of Wat Sung Men
in Phrae. But on the whole we know very little about the agents who
created, transmitted, and preserved the literary heritage.
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka14
The jātaka is one of the most popular vehicles of literary expression.
It is impossible to state the number of non-classical jātakas composed
in the region, but they number in the hundreds. Some of these are in
Pāli, but many are transmitted only in vernaculars such as Northern,
North-Eastern, Central, and Southern Thai. Some of these have been
collected in anthologies known as ‘Paññāsa-jātaka’,15 which exist as
both Pāli and vernacular collections. At present we know of three
Pāli collections: Central Thai, Khmer, and Burmese. The Paññāsajātaka collections of the National Library, Bangkok, preserved in
Khom-script palm-leaf manuscripts, have not yet been published
in Pāli, but are accessible through an early twentieth-century Thai
translation. A Pāli anthology from Burma has been published in
Burmese and roman script editions,16 and translated into English17
and Thai.18 There are several vernacular collections from Northern
Siam and Laos. One of these, from Wat Sung Men in Phrae province,
has been published.
Outside of these anthologies there are ‘uncollected’ jātakas
– those that do not enter into any collection. The same jātaka
was sometimes transmitted alone, in its own manuscript, and
sometimes in one or the other collection. In addition to the wellknown Paññāsa-jātaka anthologies, there exist lesser known – or
in any case unresearched – collections like Paramatthamaṅgala,19
See, in this volume, ‘Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia’, pp. 161–
217.
15
PLCS 2.102 and PVL 2.253, 2.254.
16
Padmanabh S. Jaini (ed.), Paññāsa-jātaka or Zimmè Paṇṇāsa (in the Burmese
Recension), 2 vols. (London: The Pali Text Society, 1981, 1983).
17
Padmanabh S. Jaini (tr.), Apocryphal Birth-Stories (Paññāsa-jātaka), 2 vols.
(London: The Pali Text Society, 1985, 1986).
18
Fine Arts Department (ed.), Chiang Mai Paṇṇāsajātaka, 2 vols. (Bangkok: 2541
[1998]).
19
PLCS 2.120 and PVL 2.192.
14
8
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Sammohanidāna,20 and Suttajātakanidāna-ānisaṃsakathā.21 The more
popular stories exist in several recensions, in different vernaculars
or genres, from prose embedded with Pāli to verse and recitation
versions.
Comparison of the titles included in the Paññāsa-jātaka collections,
of the order in which the texts are arranged, and, in some cases, of the
contents of the stories, leads me to conclude that there is no single,
‘original’ Paññāsa-jātaka collection, from which the others evolved.
The collections contain different texts, in different sequences.
Comparison of individual texts in the Pāli collections reveals that
even when the title is the same, the phrasing of the text, including
the verses, is often (indeed usually, if not always) different. That is,
there is no single Paññāsa-jātaka collection: there are only Paññāsajātaka collections, among which the relationship is not linear.
In the face of this data, I emphatically reject the widely accepted
Burmese tradition that ‘the’ Paññāsa-jātaka was composed by a
novice in Chiang Mai, since it implies the existence of a single UrPaññāsa-jātaka. This origin myth is late (attested only in the latter
part of the nineteenth century) and vague. It may be true for the
Burmese Pāli collection (but this remains to be demonstrated) but
it cannot be true for the other collections, which were collected
independently at different places, at different times, by different
editors, all unknown. Niyada Lausoonthorn has collected evidence
to show that certain non-classical jātakas were known in Paganperiod Burma and in Sukhothai in Thailand. On the whole the
Burmans transmit very few non-classical jātakas: the composition
of original jātakas seems to have been an expression of the storytelling genius of the T(h)ai. It is possible that the Burmese Zimmè
Paññāsa may be younger than the central Siamese or Northern
collection.
This is a preliminary result. The study of Paññāsa-jātaka requires
the examination of several hundred texts in several languages,
most of them unpublished and preserved only in manuscript
collections. First the evolution of individual texts must be traced –
only then, perhaps, we will be able to understand the evolution of
the collections.
20
21
PLCS 2.225 and PVL 2.245.
PLCS 2.244 and PVL 2.284.
Manuscripts and inscriptions, languages and letters
9
The stream of narrative
The texts discussed so far belong to the category of narrative
literature. Narrative literature is inherently unstable. Stories do not
stand still. As soon as a story enters the imagination of listener or
reader, it transforms. Stories must have social relevance to survive;
public tellings conserve some aspects and transform others. The
transmission of literature is not passive: it involves agents, not
recipients, and creativity. We must therefore be cautious in our
analysis of the sources of stories, or in attributing them to different
schools of Buddhism.
Cosmology
One striking feature of the Siamese Pāli tradition is the number of
texts on cosmology (a term I am not especially happy with, but I leave
that problem aside). The National Library, Bangkok, has published
many of these in Pāli with Thai translation. The texts include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Aruṇavatī-sūtra (PLCS 2.18; PVL 2.209, 18.6)22
Aruṇavatīsūtra-aṭṭhakathā (PLCS 2.4; PVL 2.210)
Okāsaloka-dīpanī (PLCS 2.28; PVL 2.236)
Cakkavāḷa-dīpanī (PLCS 2.43; PVL 2.237)
Pañcagati-dīpanī (PLCS 2.99; PVL 2.203)
Pañcagatidīpanī-ṭīkā (PLCS 2.64; PVL 2.204)
Mahākappalokasaṇṭhānapaññatti (PLCS 2.157; PVL 2.240)
Lokadīpakasāra (PLCS 2.190; PVL 2.238)
Lokasaṇṭhānajotaratanagaṇṭhī (PLCS 2.193; PVL 2.239)
Lokapaññatti (PLCS 2.194; PVL 2.194)
Lokuppatti (PLCS 2.195; PVL 2.195).
In contrast, cosmological texts are relatively rare in modern Burmese
collections. A Pagan inscription dated 1442 does list Lokapaññatti,
Lokuppatti, Aruṇavatī, and Chagati-dīpanī, but these texts do not seem
to have had much impact, or to have entered into the curricula of
study or ritual. Cosmological themes were part of the tapestry of
mural paintings in the Pagan temples, and cosmological diagrams
were both incised on palm-leaf manuscripts and painted in colour on
22
Cf. IPMC1 pp. 174, 243, 363.
10
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
paper folding manuscripts.23 But cosmology does not seem to have
succeeded as an independent genre.
The science of cosmology is essential to many aspects of
Buddhism, including architecture, mythology, mural painting, and
astrology. The Thai penchant for cosmology expressed itself in the
vernacular, from the ‘Traibhūmi phra ruang’ composed at Sukhothai
to the Trailokavinicchaya-kathā composed during the First Reign of the
Bangkok period. Several texts bearing Traibhūmi or Trailoka in their
titles are preserved in paper manuscripts (nangsu but) in the South.
I will tentatively describe them as local texts; since they have not
yet been studied or published I cannot situate them chronologically.
Finally, as at Pagan, the depiction of the ‘Three Worlds’ was part of
the inner world of temples, in Siam most often painted behind the
presiding Buddha.
The fascination with cosmology finds it fullest expression in
illuminated Traibhūmi manuscripts. It is fortunate that a number
of fine examples, from the late Ayutthaya period on, have been
preserved in the National Library and in foreign collections. The
illuminated manuscripts were encyclopædias: the cosmological
charts are supplemented by maps marking holy sites in the Middle
Country, Sri Lanka, and the known Asian world, and they depict
jātakas and the life of the Buddha. In addition to the classical ‘Nipāta’
and ‘Ten Jātakas’ (Daśajāti), non-classical jātakas such as the story of
Sudhana and Manoharā are woven into the representations of the
Himavanta, the Himalayan forests.
There is a common – one might say pervasive – misconception
that all Thai-language cosmological texts are linear descendents
of the Traibhūmi phra ruang. Such is not the case, at all or in any
way. Cosmology is a genre, and the texts we have are independent
compilations on the theme of cosmology. They are not recensions
of a single text, but compilations of texts with a similar purpose, the
explication and representation of the ideology of karma, of merit
and demerit, of heavens, hells, and Nirvana, with its exemplifications
in the career of Samaṇa Gotama, through his past lives in jātakas up
to his final birth and Buddhahood. The Traibhūmi phra ruang is the
first known such text to have been composed in Thai. The numerous
Patricia Herbert, ‘Burmese cosmological manuscripts’, in Alexandra Green
and T. Richard Blurton (ed.), Burma: Art and Archæology (London: The British
Museum Press), pp. 77–97.
23
Manuscripts and inscriptions, languages and letters
11
Pāli sources that it lists in a foreword and an appendix testify to
the author’s erudition. The Trailokavinicchaya-kathā, the Southern
Traibhūmi texts and the illustrated manuscripts are independent
compositions.
Mapping the literature of Siam
The existence of Nepalese Sanskrit literature has been recognized
for well over a century.24 Studies of the ‘Pāli literature of Burma’ and
the ‘Pāli literature of Ceylon’ were published by Bode in 1909 and
Malalasekera in 1928, respectively, and remain classics. There has been
no corresponding recognition of the category ‘The Pāli literature of
Siam’ or comparable survey of the Pāli literature of Siam. This is not to
say that the subject has been entirely neglected. Finot’s ‘Recherches
sur la littérature laotienne’, which appeared in the Bulletin de l’École
française d’Extrême-Orient in 1917, describes the literature of Northern
Laos (Luang Prabang), which is intimately related to that of Northern
Siam. In 1915 Cœdès published a note on Pāli works composed in
Thailand, and in 1925 he published excerpts from several chronicles
in Pāli and translation. In 1923, in the introduction to Saṅgītiya-vaṅśa,
Prince Damrong published the titles of twenty-four works which he
believed to have been composed in Siam.25 Decades later, Supaphan
Na Bangchang (1990) produced a study dealing in detail with thirtythree Pāli works composed in Siam.26
But despite this considerable research, the Pāli literature of Siam
has not been adequately recognized as a significant and independent
body of literature, whether by Thai or foreign scholars. Siam was the
centre of the production, transmission, and elaboration of a large
corpus of Buddhist literature, Pāli and vernacular. Why were so many
In 1828 Brian Houghton Hodgson wrote on the ‘Sanskrit Bauddha Literature
of Nepaul’ in his ‘Notices of the Languages, Literature, and Religion of Nepal
and Tibet’, Asiatic Researches, vol. XVI (1828), reprint in Brian Houghton
Hodgson, Essays on the Languages, Literature, and Religion of Nepal and Tibet
together with further papers on the Geography, Ethnology, and Commerce of those
countries, London: Trübner and Co., 1874. In 1882 Rajendralala Mitra published
his Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal.
25
See Fragile Palm Leaves Newsletter 7 (Bangkok: December 2545/2002), p. 19.
26
Supaphan na Bangchang, Wiwathanakan wanakhadi bali sai phra suttantapidok
ti taeng nai prathet thai (Bangkok: 2533 [1990]).
24
12
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Pāli texts produced? One factor may be ethnic and linguistic diversity.
Texts may have originally been translated from vernaculars into Pāli
in order to make them more accessible; the Pāli version might then
be rendered into other vernaculars, including, in new versions, the
original language. This is precisely the case with the Cāmadevī-vaṃsa
and Ratanabimba-vaṃsa, which were rendered into Pāli and then back
into Thai. The same process occurred in Sri Lanka. For example the
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā was translated from old Sinhala to Pāli and
then again into Sinhala. The translation process does not close.
Such a vast literature can only have diverse origins. In the case
of Thailand, the quest for origins is often presented in terms of
two choices, as either Chiang Mai or Ayutthaya. But there are other
possibilities both within the country – Haribhuñjaya, Nakhon
Si Thammarat, and other centres – and without – Haṃsāvatī,
Arimaddanapura, Luang Prabang, etc. We should not ignore the
possible role of regional centres or the force of autonomous literary
history. Certainly there were centres in which Pāli flourished during
certain periods, supported by an infrastructure of large monasteries
and refined courts – for example Chiang Mai in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries. But the monastic system promoted an
autonomous urbanization that was able to flourish away from the
centre, and was the custodian of regional and oral literatures, as well
as of local sciences and crafts. There is no reason why texts should
not have been produced in such centres.
As seen above, in only a few cases do we know from the colophons
where a text was composed. Not many anonymous texts are
localized, an exception being the Duṅyantinidāna.27 Some stories have
relatives in the avadāna literature of Buddhist India – for example
the Mahākappina-sutta28 and Jambūpati-sutta,29 or three of the four
jātakas belonging to the very beginning of Śākyamuni’s career as
a Bodhisattva, related at the beginning of Sotatthakī-mahānidāna,30
Sampiṇḍita-mahānidāna,31 and Sambhāravipāka,32 as well as of the
Jinakālamālinī and the Northern Thai chronicle Mūlasāsanā. The Pāli
PLCS 2.86 and PVL 3.30.
PLCS 2.158 and PVL 2.279.
29
PLCS 2.52 and PVL 2.211, 18.90.
30
PLCS 2.252 and PVL 2.244.
31
PLCS 2.223 and PVL 2.242.
32
PLCS 2.224 and PVL 2.241.
27
28
Manuscripts and inscriptions, languages and letters
13
Uṇhissavijaya33 is a version of a text that spread through much of
Asia from the seventh century on. Okano34 has shown that the Pāli
Lokapaññatti35 is in part based on the *Lokaprajñapty-abhidharmaśāstra, which is lost in the original Indic but preserved in a Chinese
translation made by Paramārtha in CE 559. He has also shown that
this text belonged to the Sāṃmitīya school. How and where did these
Pāli texts come into being?
There is also a body of secular literature. Texts like the
Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana36 and its commentaries and translation,37
the Lokaneyyapakaraṇa,38 the Vajirasārasaṅgaha,39 and Nīti and didactic
texts show an intimate knowledge of Indian literature. There is
a Northern Thai Kāmandakī Nīti-śāra, and there are references to
Kāmandakī in literature, for example in the Pum Rājatham. Stories
from Pañcatantra find their way not only into vernacular literature40
but also into Pāli, and Thai tellings of Vetāla tales date back to at least
the Thonburi period.41
Some works depend on Sri Lankan texts, for example the massive
compendium Vaṃsamālinī,42 a rewriting of the Mahāvaṃsa to which are
appended versified versions of Milindapañhā and Buddhaghosanidāna.
The so-called extended Mahāvaṃsa has been more or less ignored
PLCS 2.25 and PVL 2.174; below, pp. 32–36.
Kiyoshi Okano, Sarvarakṣitas Mahāsaṃvartanīkathā: Ein Sanskrit-Kāvya über
die Kosmologie der Sāṃmitīya-Schule des Hīnayāna-Buddhismus (Sendai: Seminar
of Indology, Tohoku University, 1998, Tohoku-Indo-Tibetto-KenkyūshoKankokai Monograph Series I), pp. 55–60.
35
See PLCS 2.194 and Eugène Denis, La Lokapaññatti et les idées cosmologiques du
bouddhisme ancien, 2 vols. (Lille/Paris: 1977).
36
PLCS 4.111 and PVL 5.101. For some preliminary remarks see below p. 37
and Nalini Balbir, ‘Three Pāli Works Revisited’, The Journal of the Pali Text
Society XXIX (2007), 331–364.
37
PLCS 4.110, 4.49 (PVL 5.102), 4.72 (PVL 5.104), 4.99 (PVL 5.103).
38
PLCS 2.192 and PVL 2.251.
39
PLCS 4.108 and PVL 5.88.
40
See Kusuma Raksamani, Nandakaprakaraṇa attributed to Vasubhāga: A
Comparative Study of the Sanskrit, Lao, and Thai Texts (PhD thesis, University of
Toronto, 1978).
41
Kusuma Raksamani, ‘The Sanskrit Vetāla Cycle in Thai Tales’, in Sanskrit
in Southeast Asia. The Harmonizing Factor of Cultures. Proceedings of Papers of
International Sanskrit Conference, May 21-23, 2001, Bangkok, Thailand (Bangkok
2003), pp. 140–145.
42
See PLCS 2.205 and PVL 3.22.
33
34
14
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
since its publication by Malalasekera in 1937. It is generally accepted
that it was composed in South-East Asia, most probably Siam, but
exactly when or where cannot be said.
Our literature thus has links with India and Sri Lanka, and covers
several fields. The mechanisms of this complex cultural exchange
remain to be explained. We know from Tibetan records such as the
works of the sixteenth-century historian Tāranātha that during
the later Pāla and Sena periods monks from South-East Asia visited
Magadha and North-Eastern India in large numbers. Tāranātha also
records that monks travelled from India to South-East Asia, in Siam
to ‘Haribhuñjaya with its great golden stūpa’. The peregrinations of
South-East Asian pilgrims to Magadha are confirmed by epigraphic
evidence from Bodh Gaya, by Burmese and Thai chronicles, and by
Northern Thai chronicles, legends, and inscriptions.
Did the South-East Asian monks encounter and study this literature
in India, and bring books and ideas back with them? Is it possible
that some of these Pāli works were composed in Pāli in North India,
for example in the great centres of learning like Nālandā, and then
brought to South-East Asia? Can some of these works be survivals
from the so-called Dvāravatī period, that is, the sixth to seventh
centuries? All of these are possible. Were the Sanskrit texts taught in
monasteries in the region itself? This seems less likely, although it is
quite conceivable that monks brought Sanskrit texts and studied or
translated them on their own.
In any case, it is clear that Siamese Pāli literature is not a
piecemeal collection of discrete texts passively received from
abroad, or mechanically translated into vernaculars. Verses are
shared by the Lokaneyyapakaraṇa and non-classical jātakas, and by
non-classical jātakas and non-classical texts like the Jambūpati-sūtra.
Similarities of phrasing and style run throughout the texts. This web
of intertextuality suggests that the non-classical texts preserved in
Siam are socially and historically related, and that we may speak of
a community of Pāli texts that share many features and express a
similar ideology – of merit, of reward (ānisaṅsa), of the adventures of
the Bodhisattva, and the indescribable power and glory of the Buddha.
They embed similar value systems, extolling dāna and the fashioning
and gilding of Buddha images and the production of Tipiṭakas.
The uses of Pāli are many. It was used for the recording of events,
including historical narratives and histories of Buddha images. It was
used for the writing of letters, from monk to monk or ruler to ruler.
Manuscripts and inscriptions, languages and letters
15
It was used for the exposition of law: incorporated into the legal
code compiled at the behest of King Rāma I are verses from a Pāli
Dhammasattha. The origin of the Pāli text, which is also cited in Mon
and Burmese law codes, is not known, and so far it has not, to my
knowledge, been found as an independent work. Today Pāli remains
an integral part of the monastic education system. There are many
liturgical uses of Pāli; in addition to the daily recitations of monks,
nuns, and lay-followers, to the recitations on special occasion of
merit or at death-rites, Pāli verses are recited in ceremonies of royal
consecration, of homage to teachers, and of classical dance. Here the
formulas are often hybrid Pāli, mixed with Sanskrit and Thai.
Pāli: dead or alive?
Pāli is preserved in inscriptions on stone and other materials, and
in manuscripts of palm-leaf and paper. It is preserved in memory,
ritual, and recitation. Old texts are interpreted, studied, and
translated into Thai and other languages, and new compositions are
made. According to a common definition Pāli is a dead language – ‘a
language which is no longer used as a natural daily means of spoken
communication within a community’.43 But this definition fits Pāli
awkwardly if at all: Pāli is fully alive as a literary and ritual language
within the communities of Buddhists in South-East Asia. It is more
useful to think in terms of the distinction between ‘natural’ and
‘learned’ languages.44 Like Sanskrit, Pāli is ‘a language to be studied
and consciously mastered’. Pāli is not, and never has been, a natural
language; that is, a language ‘acquired and used instinctively’. As a
learned language Pāli has changed and developed over the centuries,
and it continues to do so. It is a learned (and learnèd) language,
and as such it is still alive and (relatively) well, even in this age of
globalization.
David Crystal, The Penguin Dictionary of Language (second edition, London:
Penguin Books, 1999), p. 80.
44
See Michael Coulson, Sanskrit: An Introduction to the Classical Language
(revised by Richard Gombrich and James Benson) (London, Teach Yourself
Books: 2003,), pp. xix–xx, and Steven Collins, Selfless persons: Imagery and
thought in Theravāda Buddhism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
1982), pp. 23–24.
43
16
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Conclusions
It is not possible at this point to reach any grand conclusion and
work remains in progress. We can conclude that in the Pāli records of
Siam, whether inscriptions or manuscripts, we have a vast treasury
that is very imperfectly known. We can conclude that we need to
prepare inventories of inscriptions and manuscripts, and to prepare
annotated editions and translations of inscriptions and texts. We can
conclude that many questions remain. And I believe that we must
keep an open mind and try to see these texts in a broad context,
taking into account their literary, social, and historical implications.
2
Language and writing in South-East Asia and in
Sukhothai
I. Buddhist languages in context
T
HE BUDDHA WAS BORN IN LUMBINI GROVE NEAR KAPILAVASTU,
in present-day Nepal. He spent much of his life and teaching
career in the region of Magadha, the ‘Middle Country’ or Madhyadeśa
of India. It is likely that he taught in more than one dialect, adapting
his language to that of his audience, as suggested by a passage in the
Mahāparinibbāna-sutta.1 For the most part he would have spoken in a
variety of Māgadhī.
After the Buddha’s Parinirvāṇa, his teachings were collected by
his followers at the Councils of Rājagṛha and Vaiśālī. The Saṅgha soon
spread across India, especially during the reign of the great Emperor
Aśoka. Monks and nuns had to teach the Dharma in local languages. A
number of Vinaya schools (nikāya), traditionally counted as eighteen,
developed. Eventually these schools transmitted their own collections
of scriptures in a number of Indian languages and scripts. By the
time these collections were written down, from the first century BCE
DN 16 (PTS II 109), tattha yādisako tesaṃ vaṇṇo hoti tādisako mayhaṃ vaṇṇo
hoti, yādisako tesaṃ saro hoti tādisako mayhaṃ saro hoti, dhammiyā ca kathāya
sandassemi samādapemi samuttejemi sampahaṃsemi.
1
17
18
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
onwards, they were recorded in a number of Prakrits, including Pāli
and North-Western Prakrit or Gāndhārī.
Today most of these scriptures are lost. The only Tripiṭaka to
survive in a complete form – complete at least as described by
Ācārya Buddhaghosa in the fifth century CE – is the ‘Pāli canon’ of
the Mahāvihāravāsin Theravādin school, preserved in Ceylon and
South-East Asia. The Tripiṭakas of other schools survive, if at all, only
in fragments, whether in original Indic languages or in Chinese or
Tibetan translations. Some of the languages used by other schools
are known from surviving manuscripts and inscriptions or from
citations in philosophical literature (see Table 1).
As the Dharma spread across Asia it was transmitted in new
languages. In addition to Sanskrit and Prakrit, Buddhist communities
in Central Asia used Khotanese, Tokharian, Uighur, Sogdian, and
Tibetan. When the Dharma reached China it was translated into
Chinese, by the second century CE or earlier, and over the centuries
the immense Chinese Tripiṭaka came into being. This Tripiṭaka was
eventually propagated in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. Buddhist texts
went on to be translated into Tangut, Mongolian, and Manchu, and
late imperial pentaglot editions were produced in Chinese, Tangut,
Tibetan, Mongolian, and Manchu.
In Nepal texts were preserved in Sanskrit and Buddhist Sanskrit,
and a vibrant narrative-cum-ritual literature in Newari developed. In
Sri Lanka texts were preserved in Pāli and composed in Old Sinhala
in the early period, and in Sinhala in the mediæval period. In SouthEast Asia the earliest Buddhist vernacular inscriptions were in Old
Mon.2 After the eleventh century Buddhist communities continued
to transmit texts in Pāli, including new texts from Ceylon. They soon
began to use vernaculars like Arakanese, Burmese, Javanese, Khmer,
and Thai, including the several dialects of the Tai and Lao language
groups such as Shan.
One notable characteristic of the Mahāvihārin Saṅghas of Sri
Lanka and Suvarṇabhūmi3 is that they cherished and preserved the
classical Pāli tradition, copying, reciting, studying, and writing texts
in Pāli even as vernacular literatures developed and flourished. In
contrast, the Chinese and Tibetan traditions translated and studied
I do not include the Pyu language because the early records are royal rather
than Buddhistic in content.
3
Suvarṇabhūmi refers here to South-East Asia.
2
Language and writing in South-East Asia and in Sukhothai
19
the texts received from India into their own languages. Sanskrit
continued to be studied only by a small elite, if at all, or to be used
when copying or reciting in mantras and dhāraṇī.
What does this tell us? We may conclude that the use of local
language to communicate the teaching of the Buddha was seen as
necessary and important by Buddhist communities from the earliest
period. This, after all, is obvious. As a result the body of the premodern Buddhist literature, taken as a whole, in all its languages, is
vast and diverse. The process has continued into the modern period
with the spread of Buddhism to the West. Buddhist texts are now
translated into or written in probably every European language.
New translations and writings continue to appear in the ‘traditional’
languages such as Thai, Chinese, or Japanese, as well as in modern
Indian languages like Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, and Bengali. Buddhist
literature, naturally, continues to grow and evolve.
II. Buddhism and writing
In India and Central Asia two scripts were used, Kharoṣṭhī and
Brāhmī.4 The use of the former, essentially a regional script, waned
by the third century CE and by the sixth or seventh century it died out
altogether. Brāhmī, in contrast, evolved into Northern and Southern
Brāhmī, and is the parent not only of most of the scripts of India but
also those of Tibet, Lanka, and South-East Asia. The Northern variety
developed into the Kuṣāṇa, Gupta, Siddhamātṛkā and Nāgarī scripts,
and finally into the regional alphabets of modern North Indian
languages. One descendant of Southern Brāhmī, the Pallava script,
was used extensively in South-East Asia from the fourth century or
earlier, and evolved into the scripts used by modern South-East Asian
languages.
For these scripts see K.R. Norman, A Philological Approach to Buddhism,
Lancaster 2006, p. 103; Richard Salomon, ‘Brahmi and Kharoshthi’, in Peter
T. Daniels and William Bright (ed.), The World’s Writing Systems (New York and
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 373–383); Richard Salomon, Indian
Epigraphy (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998); and Peter
Skilling, ‘Redaction, recitation, and writing: transmission of the Buddha’s
teachings in India in the early period’, in Stephen C. Berkwitz, Juliane
Schober, and Claudia Brown (ed.), Buddhist Manuscript Cultures: Knowledge,
ritual, and art (London and New York 2008), pp. 53–75.
4
20
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
There is nothing Buddhist about these scripts, which were used
for different languages for secular purposes or shared by Buddhists,
Jainas, and Brahmans. Buddhism certainly encouraged the practice of
writing, and biographies like the Lalitavistara recount how the Blessed
One himself, as a youth and Bodhisattva, effortlessly mastered sixtyfour alphabets. The earliest written records of India, the Aśokan
inscriptions, in part concern Buddhism, and the greatest early corpus
of Indian dedication inscriptions is engraved on Buddhist monuments –
the great caityas and the numerous rock-cut monasteries that start with
the second or first century BCE.
As Buddhism spread across Asia it inspired the development
of writing and of elegant calligraphy. The Tibetan monk ’Phags-pa
developed a script for the writing of Mongolian, and in Japan Kukai
or Kobo Daishi is associated by tradition or legend with the origins
of the Kana syllabaries. The Mon script first appears in Buddhist
dedications in Central Thailand, as does, centuries later, the Burmese
script at Pagan. In all Buddhist cultures the copying of scriptures was
encouraged by the ideology of merit.
III. Inscriptions
Inscriptions may be classified in several ways. One is by support or
type of material used. The most durable records are on stone and
metal, but some ink inscriptions survive, for example on the walls
of the Ajanta caves or of the temples of Pagan. Inscriptions may be
undated or dated. In some cases they once bore dates which are now
lost or fragmentary. Inscriptions may be monolingual, bilingual, or
multilingual – using one, two, or several languages. Inscriptions may
be classified by the script which is used (see preceding section).
I have noted that much of the older Buddhist literature, composed
in varieties of Prakrits, is lost. This is because it was recorded
on perishable materials such as birch-bark and palm-leaf. Such
records as do survive are inscriptions on more durable materials
such as stone and metal. These too – like all things – are ultimately
perishable, but at least some inscriptions survive, often, regrettably,
in a fragmentary state. These inscriptions are invaluable records of
the spread of Buddhist ideas, texts, and ritual and social practices.
Language and writing in South-East Asia and in Sukhothai
21
IV. The inscription of Pāli
Pāli is not associated with any single script. In the earliest period Pāli
texts, including the primitive forms of the Tripiṭaka, were transmitted
orally. According to later texts of the Mahāvihāra school, the Pāli
texts were first written down in Ceylon in the first Century BCE,
presumably in a script related to the Brāhmī of the early Prakrit (Old
Sinhala) inscriptions of the island.
In the first millennium CE, Pāli was inscribed in South-East Asia
in the Pallava and Post-Pallava scripts. In the second millennium,
Pāli was written in Siam in varieties of the Khom script, including
‘Khom Sukhothai’, ‘Khom Ayutthaya’, and ‘Khom Ratanakosin’. In
Cambodia Pāli was written in the cognate Khmer script. In Siam and
Burma Pāli is written in Mon and Burmese, and in Lanna and the Lao
principalities in varieties of Tham script. In the nineteenth century,
Pāli was written and printed in the Ariyaka, invented by King Rāma
IV when he was a monk, and by the end of the nineteenth century,
with the age of print, in Thai script. Today Pāli is printed in two
forms, one following the orthography of everyday writing, the other
specially adapted for Pāli.
The early Pāli inscriptions, of the first millennium of the
Christian Era, are monolingual. In the second millennium we meet
with bilinguals, and find Pāli used in conjunction with Khmer, Mon,
Lanna Thai, Isan, and Thai. In the old Thai bilinguals the Pāli is in one
script, the vernacular in another. Both Pāli and Sanskrit loan-words
are used. While the early inscriptions are written in very correct
Pāli, the later bilinguals are often in a very hybrid language strongly
influenced by Thai pronunciation and orthography.
The texts given in inscriptions may be divided into two types:
citations and compositions. I use the term ‘citation inscription’ for
lithic or other engraved records that give excerpts from Buddhist
texts. Such inscriptions are not original compositions, although they
may be combined with original material.
In early South-East Asia the greatest concentrations of citation
inscriptions known to date are in Burma (from the Pyu kingdom
of Śrīkṣetra) and Siam (from the Dvāravatī period on).5 Smaller
See in this volume ‘The Advent of Theravāda Buddhism to Mainland SouthEast Asia’, pp. 105–111, for a preliminary and already outdated list. See also
Peter Skilling, ‘New Pāli Inscriptions from South-East Asia,’ Journal of the Pali
5
22
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
numbers, all in Sanskrit, have been found in Java, Borneo, and the
middle Malay peninsula.6 Very few Indic citation inscriptions have
been found in Laos, Cambodia, or Vietnam, in the areas known to
historians as Funan, Chenla, and Champa.
In the early period the northernmost Pāli inscriptions in Siam are
from the ancient city of Si Thep in Petchabun province. Two of them
are on display in Sukhothai in the Ramkhamhaeng National Museum.
One is the ye dhammā verse, engraved on the base of an image of the
seated Buddha, unfortunately fragmentary.7 The other is the formula
of conditioned arising (paṭiccassamuppāda), inscribed on both sides of
a broken circular stone.8 The same formula is inscribed on another
fragment, probably from the same piece, still kept at Si Thep.
It is noteworthy that no significant Pāli inscriptions, citation
or composition, are found in Sri Lanka. The richest heritage of
inscribed Pāli texts is that of old Lower Burma and the Chao Phraya
valley and contiguous areas. In Siam the Pāli tradition continued in
Haribhuñjaya, where bilinguals (Mon and Pāli) were produced. In
Burma Pāli flourished at the great capital of Pagan.
V. Pāli in Sukhothai9
What does what we have discussed so far have to do with Sukhothai?
By sketching the distribution of Buddhist languages, we can determine
which areas used Pāli and which did not; as a result the significance
of the use of Pāli becomes clearer. During the first millennium of
the Christian Era, when Buddhism spread across Asia, the use of
Pāli in inscriptions was essentially limited to two cultures: the one
in Śrīkṣetra, the lower Irrawaddy, the other in Dvāravatī and the
Text Society XXIII (1997), pp. 123–157, and, below, ‘The Place of South-East
Asia in Buddhist Studies’, pp. 61–63.
6
I do not count here the clay sealings inscribed with ye dharmā or dhāraṇīs,
which have been uncovered in the hundreds at numerous sites throughout
the region.
7
See Peter Skilling, ‘Traces of the Dharma: Preliminary reports on some ye
dhammā and ye dharmā inscriptions from Mainland South-East Asia’, BEFEO
(2003/2004), p. 280.
8
Peter Skilling, ‘Some Citation Inscriptions from South-East Asia’, Journal of
the Pali Text Society XXVII (2002), pp. 159–175.
9
In this paper I refer to Sukhothai as a state rather than a period.
Language and writing in South-East Asia and in Sukhothai
23
Chao Phraya valley, including neighbouring areas and sites such as
Muang Phra Rot, Muang Sema, and Chaiyaphum. These inscriptions
date from the sixth to the eighth or ninth centuries. Pāli was used
in Hariphunchai up to the thirteenth century. This demonstrates
clearly that the Pāli of Sukhothai (and of neighbouring Lanna) did
not appear from nowhere, out of a vacuum. Pāli had already enjoyed
a long presence in the region.
In Sukhothai inscriptions Pāli is written in the Khom script. We
find both citation and composition inscriptions. The texts chosen for
citation change, with the exception of paṭiccasamuppāda, a perennial
favourite. The ye dhammā ceases to be inscribed, and is replaced by
the twenty-four conditions (paccaya) of the Abhidhamma system.
Compositions begin to be inscribed. Some are quite long, and are
composed in verse. That is, in Sukhothai we see the emergence of
Pāli composition and metrics.
The Wat Pa Mamuang inscription, dated CE 1361, is written in
several metres and in prose.10 The Buddhapāda inscription now kept
in Wat Bovaranives, Bangkok, dated CE 1426, is in prose and verse.11
Several bilingual inscriptions open with Pāli stanzas of homage.
Citation inscriptions give formulas like the iti pi so or the abbreviated
seven books of the Abhidhamma.
VI. Neighbours
As noted, Pāli citations were inscribed in what is today lower Burma,
and both Pāli citation and composition thrived in the Pagan period,
from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. In the nineteenth century
the entire Tripiṭaka was engraved on marble slabs at Mandalay, in
Burma.
In contrast, Cambodia has few Pāli inscriptions, early or late.
Only one from the early period is known, a citation inscription from
Angkor Borei. (There is also one ye dhammā inscription in Prakrit.)12
Inscription no. 6, in Prasert Na Nagara and A.B. Griswold, Epigraphic and
Historical Studies (Bangkok: The Historical Society, 1992), pp. 514–521.
11
‘The Buddhapāda of Vat Pavaranivesa and Its Inscription’, in Prasert and
Griswold, Epigraphic and Historical Studies, pp. 757–767.
12
Peter Skilling, ‘A Buddhist inscription from Go Xoai, Southern Vietnam and
notes towards a classification of ye dharmā inscriptions’, in 80 pi satsadachan
dr. praḥsert ṇa nagara: ruam bot khwam vichakan dan charuk lae ekasan boran [80
10
24
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
The next inscription, and the earliest known dated Pāli record, bears
the date CS 1230 (CE 1308), and records the religious foundations and
meritorious acts of King Śrīśrīndravarman (Sirisirindavamma). From
Kok Svay Cek, south of the Western Barai near Angkor Wat, the record
is bilingual, inscribed on a stone stele 1.70 metres in height, one side
with twenty lines of Pāli verse in ten ślokas, the other with thirty-one
lines of Khmer prose.13 It is the oldest dated Pāli composition from
Cambodia, since the Angkor Borei inscription is a citation. As an early
epigraph from the period during which the Mahāvihāra Theravādin
Vinaya lineage of Sri Lanka rose to prominence in the region, it bears
witness to the change of classical language from Sanskrit to Pāli.
Khmer inscriptions from the early fourteenth century use Pāli
loan-words and terms used up to the present day in Thai.14 The next
dated inscriptions is from Wat Nokor, dated CS 1488 (CE 1566).15 Later
Khmer inscriptions are rich in reference to Pāli literature.16
Few Pāli inscriptions are known from Laos. There seem to be none
from the early period. There are several composition inscriptions
from the sixteenth century on.17
In sum, Buddhism has a long and rich tradition of exploitation
of language and writing. The contributions of Buddhist writers and
scholars – whether lay or monastic – to the literature of South, Central,
South-East and East Asia is enormous. One of these languages, Pāli,
has been used continuously for over two thousand years. It has been
Years: A collection of articles on epigraphy and ancient documents published
on the occasion of the celebration of the 80th birthday of Prof. Dr. Prasert Na
Nagara] (Bangkok: 21 March 2542 [1999]), pp. 171–187.
13
George Cœdès, ‘La plus ancienne inscription en pāli du Cambodge’, reprinted
in George Cœdès, Articles sur le pays khmer (Paris: École française d’ExtrêmeOrient, 1989), pp. 282–289 (originally: ‘Études cambodgiennes XXXII’, Bulletin
de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient XXXVI [1936], pp. 14–21).
14
K. 754, in George Cœdès, Inscriptions du Cambodge, Vol. VII, pp. 34–36, 37–
39.
15
K. 82, in Jean Filliozat, ‘Une inscription cambodgienne en pāli et en khmer de
1566 (K 82 Vatt Nagar)’, (Paris: Académie des inscriptions and belles-lettres,
1969, Comptes rendus des séances de l’année 1969, janvier-mars), pp. 95–106.
16
See below ‘Some Literary References in the Grande Inscription d’Angkor
(IMA 38)’, pp. 69–79.
17
See Michel Lorrillard, ‘Les inscriptions du That Luang de Vientane : donnée
nouvelles sur l’histoire d’un stūpa lao’, Bulletin de l’École française d’ExtrêmeOrient (2003/2004), pp. 289–348.
Language and writing in South-East Asia and in Sukhothai
25
read in South-East Asia for at least a millennium and half, for study,
composition and ritual, and continues to be used today.
Table 1. Languages used in Buddhist texts
1.1 Indic
Gāndhārī is written in Kharoṣṭhī. All other languages are written in
scripts belonging to the Brāhmī family.
Language
Gāndhārī
Evidence
Inscriptions, birch-bark and palm-leaf MSS
(from first c. CE).
Pāli
Inscriptions, manuscripts (seventh c. CE).
Sanskritized Prakrit
Inscriptions, ‘Patna Dharmapada’.
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya, Mahāvastu.
Buddhist Sanskrit
Inscriptions, Sarvāstivāda texts from Central
Asia and Kashmir.
Sanskrit
Inscriptions, Śāstra literature such as
Abhidharmakośa.
Old Sinhalese
Inscriptions.
1.2 Central Asian
Khotanese
Tokharian
Uighur
Tibetan
Inscriptions, manuscripts.
Manuscripts.
Inscriptions, manuscripts.
Inscriptions, manuscripts. Tibetan Tripiṭaka.
1.3 East Asian
Chinese
Vietnamese
Korea
Japan
Inscriptions, manuscripts. Chinese Tripiṭaka.
Inscriptions, manuscripts.
Inscriptions, manuscripts.
Inscriptions, manuscripts.
1.4 Himalayan
Newari
Bhutanese (Dzongkha)
Inscriptions, manuscripts.
Inscriptions, manuscripts.
26
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
1.5 South-East Asian
Old Mon
Old Khmer
Old Javanese
Cham
Inscriptions.
Inscriptions.
Inscriptions.
Inscriptions.
Table 2. Pāli inscriptions before the eleventh century CE
India
Nepal
Sarnath (1)
—
Sri Lanka
—
Indonesia
—
Vietnam
Laos
Cambodia
—
—
Angkor Borei (1)
Burma
Siam
Śrīkṣetra (many)
Dvāravatī and early states of central and eastern Siam
(many)
(Note: ‘Kathmandu Manuscript’:
earliest surviving Pāli palm-leaf)
(Note: many Sanskrit inscriptions,
including Mahāyāna sūtras such as
Prajñāpāramitā, Ratnakūta, and
Dhāraṇī)
(Note: Ratu Baka injscription from
Central Java attests to presence of
Abhayagiri lineage from Ceylon)
(Note: Prakrit gold plate inscription)
(Note: Prakrit Tuol Phra Theat
inscription)
Table 3. Pāli inscriptions after the eleventh century CE
Sri Lanka
Burma
Siam
few
many
many
Cambodia
Laos
few
few
From early Pagan to present.
From Sukhothai and Ayutthaya to
present.
3
Pieces in the puzzle:
Sanskrit literature in pre-modern Siam
I
I
N THE PRE-MODERN PERIOD SIAMESE AUTHORS DREW ON REGIONAL
and transregional traditions to create a rich and lively literary
corpus.1 The literature is anonymous and undated, and presents
many puzzles. The mechanisms of borrowing and adaptation are
imperfectly understood. How did Sanskrit texts from India, Buddhist
and non-Buddhist, find their way to Siam, to be transformed into Pāli,
Thai, and Lanna Thai (and, in some cases, Mon, Khmer, and Burmese)
versions? The texts examined here belong to ‘Siamese literature’
in the broadest sense of the word, and include not only classical
compositions in Central Thai but also sermons and ritual texts, in
‘Pre-modern’ and its relatives ‘modern’ and ‘post-modern’ are troublesome
and overworked terms. With regard to South-East Asian literature, I define
‘pre-modern’ as the period of manuscript and oral culture, before the age of
print, which in Siam means up to the Fourth, and, more dramatically, the
Fifth, Reigns. I do not use the terms in a purely chronological or sequential
sense, however, but rather as broad indicators for modes (technologies,
ideologies) of production and dissemination, which can – and do – overlap.
1
27
28
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
regional languages and in Pāli. ‘Siamese literature’ is an intertextual
tapestry woven of many threads.
At the outset I would like to point out that I am not entirely happy
with this ‘quest for origins’, which seems to privilege the Indian over
the local, the classical over the vernacular, the old over the new. If we
find that a text has an Indian antecedent, we should reflect carefully
on the relations between the two. Rarely, if ever, is there a case of
straightforward borrowing: the Thai counterparts are creative
adaptations, conscious recastings, of their ‘originals’.2 In addition, we
should note that many works in the Siamese corpus that pose as sūtras
and jātakas are original compositions, and that they are significant
contributions to world Buddhist literature and culture. The Siamese
contribution has not been adequately recognized, despite the fact
that it is prodigious and full of surprises.
II
It has become increasingly clear that many pre-modern Siamese
texts have Indian rather than Sri Lankan antecedents.3 They include
both Buddhist texts and ‘shared’ texts – works in genres like nīti that
are part of a common Indian – or Indic – heritage. Some of these
Consider, for example, the creativity that produced a uniquely Thai Three
Kingdoms in the First Reign. See e.g. Malinee Dilokwanich, ‘A Study of Samkok:
The First Thai Translation of a Chinese Novel’, Journal of the Siam Society 73
(1985), pp. 77–112; Ronald D. Renard, ‘Sam Kok: Thai Versions of the Romance
of the Three Kingdoms’, paper prepared for the Conference on Translation:
East and West, A Cross-Cultural Approach, University of Hawaii and EastWest Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, January, 1991 (I am grateful to Louis Gabaude
[EFEO, Chiang Mai] for the reference); Niyada Laosoonthorn, Thai Literature
Restoration in the Reign of King Rama I (Bangkok: Mae Kham Fang, 2539 [1996]),
pp. 257–268 (in Thai); Kannikar Sartraproong, Rajadhiraja, Samkok, and Saihan:
World Views of the Thai Elites (Bangkok: The Thailand Research Fund/The
Foundation for the Promotion of Social Sciences and Humanities Textbooks
Project, 2541 [1998]) (in Thai).
3
Thai scholarship regularly attributes Lanna origins to texts that are not
known in Lanka – even when there is no evidence – perhaps because there
is, indeed, a definite corpus of Lanna Pāli texts, such as Maṅgala-dīpanī,
Cakkavāḷa-dīpanī, etc. Here I expand the frontiers of possibility to embrace a
wider ‘Buddhist world’.
2
Pieces in the puzzle: Sanskrit literature in pre-modern Siam
29
texts circulated independently, as single texts; others entered into
anthologies like the Paññāsa-jātaka collections. In addition, there
are narrative units within greater textual bodies that do not agree
with the received Lankan versions.4 In some cases the chronological
sequence is different, such as in the attempted seduction of the
Bodhisattva/Buddha by Māra’s daughters. In some cases the events
are not found in Lankan sources at all, such as the story of Upagupta
in the Paṭhamasambodhi.5
It is too easy to speak of ‘influence’: to suggest, for example, that
the Upagupta story shows ‘Sanskrit’ or ‘Sarvāstivādin’ influence.
This does not explain anything. Texts did not float through space
to emanate an influence over Siam and then miraculously appear in
written form.6 The concept of influence must be used sparingly and
carefully: at best it is a convenient shorthand, at worst it carries with it
fundamental distortions. For example, the concept attributes agency
to abstract and non-historical entities (‘Indian influence’, ‘Gupta
influence’, ‘Mahāyāna influence’), rather than to the individuals or
communities who actively adopted and adapted ideas and forms into
their own cultures. In the case of Upagupta, we need to investigate
the possible historical and cultural transactions that brought the
story to South-East Asia. And to ask: How was the text received, how
was it transmitted, and how was it transformed?
The texts in question are not only religious. Secular texts – if that
term is appropriate – were transmitted, transformed, and mined
for narrative and wisdom. Examples include the Pañcatantra, the
Hitopadeśa, and nīti texts.7 The great epics Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa
For an example in the so-called Extended Mahāvaṃsa, see Oskar von Hinüber,
‘The Tittira-Jātaka and the Extended Mahāvaṃsa’, Journal of the Siam Society
70 (1982), pp. 71–75.
5
For Upagupta see John S. Strong, The Legend and Cult of Upagupta: Sanskrit
Buddhism in North India and Southeast Asia (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 1992).
6
The same is true for the migration of iconic forms and styles: we need to
explore the historical contacts that led to the exchange of forms.
7
For Pañcatantra see Kusuma Raksamani, Nandakaprakaraṇa attributed to
Vasubhāga: A Comparative Study of the Sanskrit, Lao, and Thai Texts (PhD thesis,
University of Toronto, 1977). The standard Thai collection remains Prachum
pakaraṇaṃ (Bangkok: 2465 [1922], repr. in one binding 2541 [1998]). See
also J. Crosby (tr.), ‘The Book of the Birds (Paksi Pakaranam)’, Journal of
the Siam Society, Vol. 7–8, pp. (1)–(90); Édouard Lorgeou (tr.), Les entretiens
4
30
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
– perennial sources of story, ideology, and ideals – have been known
in South-East Asia for over a millennium.
In the following section, I present five texts which I presume had,
in varying ways, Sanskrit or Indian origins. All of them were popular
in the pre-modern period. They are only examples: many others
remain.
III
1. Jambūpati-sūtra (PLCS 2.52: 1 bundle; PVL 2.211, 7.147–9, 18.90)8
The Jambūpati-sūtra has a long and complex history that can only be
hinted at here.9 In South-East Asia it circulates in Pāli prose mixed
with verse, and in vernacular versions. A similar story – of a proud and
powerful monarch who is overcome by the majesty of the Buddha when
the latter conjures up a magical city – seems to have circulated widely
in the Buddhist world. It is told in the Kapphiṇa-avadāna, no. 88 in the
Avadānaśataka.10 The earliest version preserved is a translation which
dates to approximately the fourth century, and is wrongly attributed to
Zhīqiān.11 In it the king’s name is transcribed rather than translated. That
the story was well known in mediæval north India is suggested by the fact
that Indian commentaries of the Pāla period invoke the ‘vanquishing of
Kapphiṇa’ to illustrate the Buddha’s quality (guṇa) of ‘supreme leader of
men to be tamed’ (anuttara-puruṣadamya-sārathī).
de Nang Tantrai (Paris: Éditions Bossard, 1924). For Hitopadeśa see Sayam
Patthranuprawat, ‘Hitopadeśavatthupakaraṇam: rong roy khong hitopadeśa
chabap sansakrit nai prathet thai’, Damrong Wichakan (Bangkok: Silpakorn
University, 2545 [2002]), pp. 421–437.
8
The number of ‘bundles’ (phūk) is given as in the catalogues. PLCS and PVL
give details of published editions and translations.
9
An edition of the Pāli with English and Thai translations is under preparation
by Prapod Assavavirulhakarn, Peter Skilling, and Santi Pakdeekham.
10
Note that the story bears little relation to the story related in the
Mahākappina-vatthu of the Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā and other Pāli sources.
11
Taishō Vol. 4, pp. 247c18–248c13. I am grateful to Jan Nattier for information
about the Chinese version. See also Demoto Mitsuyo, ‘Senjyū hyaku innen
gyō no yakushutsu nendai ni tsuite’ [The Date of the Chinese Avadānaśataka],
Pārigaku bukkyō bunkagaku [Journal of Pāli and Buddhist Studies], Vol. 8 (1995),
pp. 99–108.
Pieces in the puzzle: Sanskrit literature in pre-modern Siam
31
The story was transmitted to Central Asia at an early date, and
included in the collection of narratives known as the Sūtra of the Wise
and the Foolish, based on a Khotanese version which was received
aurally and recorded in Chinese. The Chinese version was later
translated into Tibetan and Mongolian. In Tibet, a version of the
Kapphiṇa story is related in a life of the Buddha composed by Tse
Chokling Yeshe Gyaltsen (1713–1793), one of the great scholars of
his time, holder of the Ganden throne and tutor of the Eighth Dalai
Lama.12
In Pāli the story of Kapphiṇa is told in the non-classical
Mahākapphiṇadhaja-sūtra, a one-bundle manuscript found in temple
collections in Thailand (PLCS 2.158; PVL 2.279, 3.27) but not, so far
as I know, in Burma or Ceylon. The story resembles the Kapphiṇaavadāna, with which it even shares verses:13
ārabbhatha nikkhamatha yuñjatha buddhasāsane
dhunātha maccuno senaṃ naḍāgāram iva kuñjaraḥ
yo imasmim dhammavinaye appamatto vihessati
pahāya jātisaṃsāraṃ dukkhass’ antaṃ karissati.
Arise, go forth, devote yourselves to the teaching of the Awakened
Ones:
Crush the army of death, as an elephant crushes a hut made of
reeds.
One who dwells heedful in this teaching and training
Leaves behind the cycle of birth, and reaches the end of suffering.
The similarity between the Mahākapphiṇadhaja-sūtra and the
Jambūpati-sūtra was noted in the old catalogue of Pāli texts in the
National Library, Bangkok, published in 1921 (BE 2464). But in terms
of circulation, the story of Mahākapphina was totally eclipsed by that
Robert A.F. Thurman, Essential Tibetan Buddhism (San Francisco: Harper,
1996), pp. 91–92, 299.
13
I have used a draft romanized transliteration prepared by Santi Pakdeekham
on the basis of a single Khom-script manuscript from Wat Bovaranives,
Bangkok, entitled Mahākappinarāja-jātaka. For a comparative study of
the two verses in a variety of sources, see Peter Skilling, ‘“Arise, go forth,
devote yourselves…”: A verse summary of the teaching of the Buddhas’, in
Socially Engaged Buddhism for the New Millennium: Essays in honor of the Ven. Phra
Dhammapitaka (Bhikkhu P.A. Payutto) on his 60th birthday anniversary (Bangkok:
Sathirakoses–Nagapradipa Foundation, 1999), pp. 440–444.
12
32
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
of Jambūpati, which was told and retold in verse and sermon versions
and was depicted in painting in the early Bangkok period. The story
was also known in Lan Chang – as shown by the murals at Wat Pa
Ruak in Luang Prabang – and in Arakan and Burma. One important
function of the narrative is to explain the origin of the image of the
Buddha in royal attire. But it also shares in several genres, including
sermon (deśanā), ānisaṅsa, and jātaka.
2. Uṇhissavijaya-sūtra (PLCS 2.25: 1 bundle; PVL 2.174, 7.26, 18.36)
Another text with apparent north Indian origins is Uṇhissavijaya, a
narrative text composed in Pāli prose and verse. The title is variously
spelt: Uṇhisa-vijaya, Uṇhissa-vijaya, Uṇhassa-vijjaya, Uṇhisa-vaijaya, and
so on. It is composed of two Pāli words, which in standard spelling are
uṇhīsa and vijaya.14 The Indian counterpart of the Pāli Uṇhissavijaya
is the Sanskrit Uṣṇīṣavijayā-dhāraṇī, a text – or more accurately a
ritual ideology – which swept across Asia with attendant ceremony
and iconography from, approximately, the seventh century CE.15 The
Uṣṇīṣavijayā-dhāraṇī was translated into Chinese several times, and
was inscribed in Chinese characters on stone pillars in China and
northern Vietnam, and in Sanskrit in Kunming in Yunnan. It was also
inscribed on bells, for example at Yŏnboksa in Korea.16
The Peking edition of the Tibetan Tripiṭaka contains five Uṣṇīṣavijaya
texts in the Tantra division (see Appendix 1).17 The narrative of one
of these, the Ārya-sarvadurgati-pariśodhani-uṣṇīṣavijaya-nāma-dhāraṇī,
features a Devaputra Supratiṣṭha, Indra, and Śākyamuni, and is
similar to the South-East Asian version. The story is summarized by
the Tibetan savant mKhas grub rje (1385–1438):18
In the present article I regularize the title as Uṇhissa-vijaya.
For the date see p. 166 in Akira Yuyama, ‘An Uṣṇīṣa-Vijayā Dhāraṇī Text
from Nepal’, Annual Report of the International Research Institute for Advanced
Buddhology at Soka University for the Academic Year 1999 (Tokyo: The
International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University,
2000), pp. 165–175.
16
See Yang Han-Sung, Seo Kyung-Bo, and Charles Goodwin, Yŏnboksa Bell in
Kaesŏng, Korea (Seoul: Po Chin Chai Ltd., 1992).
17
I exclude another group of texts with Uṣṇīṣavijaya prefixed by Sītātapatra
in their titles.
18
Ferdinand D. Lessing and Alex Wayman (ed., tr.), Mkhas Grub Rje’s
Fundamentals of the Buddhist Tantras, rgyud sde spyiḥi rnam par gźag pa rgyas
14
15
Pieces in the puzzle: Sanskrit literature in pre-modern Siam
33
[The Uṣṇīṣavijayā-dhāraṇī] was promulgated by the Blessed One in the
Heaven of the Thirty-three (trayastriṃśa). When the omens of death
appeared to the Devaputra Supratiṣṭha, he saw that he would die in
one week to be reborn successively through seven lives as a dog, a
pig, and other beings, and then would be reborn in the Avīci Hell. He
sought succour from Śakra, Lord of the Gods, who replied, ‘I cannot
rescue you’ and led him before the Blessed One to ask [for help]. Rays
of light streamed forth from the Blessed One’s uṣṇīṣa, accompanied
by the syllables of a dhāraṇī. The Devaputra recited the dhāraṇī for
six days and purified the hindrances of karma which would cause
rebirth in a miserable destiny (durgati).
In the four other versions the story is different. It opens with the
‘thus I have heard’ (evam mayā śrutam) formula: the Buddha Amitāyus,
dwelling in the Dharmasaṃgīti Guhyaprasāda19 in Sukhāvatī, tells the
bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara of the dhāraṇī and, at the latter’s request,
recites it. The dhāraṇī is similar in all four versions.20
par brjod (The Hague and Paris: Mouton, 1968, Indo-Iranian Monographs Vol.
VIII) pp. 114–117. The translation is my own. Note that the narrative of the
Vimaloṣṇīṣa-dhāraṇī is similar, and that the theme – a deva learns that he will
be reborn in a miserable realm, and seeks out a remedy, usually from the
Buddha – is found in others texts as well.
19
The Sanskrit is from Rājendralāla Mitra, The Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of
Nepal ([Calcutta, 1882] Calcutta: Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar, 1971) p. 263.
20
For the dhāraṇī see F. Max Müller and Bunyiu Nanjio, ‘The Ancient PalmLeaves containing the Pragñâ-pâramitâ-hridaya-sûtra and the Ushnîshavigaya-dhâranî’, Anecdota Oxoniensia, Texts, Documents, and Extracts chiefly from
Manuscripts in the Bodleian and other Oxford Libraries, Aryan Series Vol. I, Part
III ([Oxford 1884] Amsterdam: Oriental Press, 1972). Valuable studies on the
dhāraṇī have been published by Akira Yuyama: see e.g. ‘The Uṣṇīṣa-vijayā
Dhāraṇī Transliterated by Tz’ŭ-hsien’, in Petra Kieffer-Pülz and Jens-Uwe
Hartmann (ed.), Bauddhavidyāsudhākaraḥ: Studies in Honour of Heinz Bechert
on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday (Swisttal-Odendorf: Indica et Tibetica
Verlag, 1997, Indica et Tibetica 30), pp. 729–742; ‘An Uṣṇīṣa-Vijayā Dhāraṇī
Text from Nepal’, Annual Report of the International Research Institute for
Advanced Buddhology at Soka University for the Academic Year 1999 (Tokyo: The
International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University,
2000), pp. 165–175. See also Paul W. Kroll, Dharma Bell and Dhāraṇī Pillar
(Kyoto: Scuola Italiana di Studi sull’Asia Orientale, 2001, Italian School of East
Asian Studies, Epigraphical Series 3). Peking no. 199 also features Indra and
Supratiṣṭha; nos. 197, 200, and 201 do not.
34
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
The extant Pāli version exists in printed verse editions, which I
describe as long, middling, and short (Appendix 2). The long version
gives the full narrative. None of the versions consulted give the
dhāraṇī – a key verse states simply that ‘there exists the Uṇhissa-vijaya
Dhamma’, but does not say what it is:
atthi uṇhisavijayo dhammo loke anuttaro
sabbasattahitatthāya taṃ tvaṃ gaṇhāhi devate …
The narrative was summarized and discussed by Finot ninety years
ago.21 The story – of the Devaputra Supatiṭṭhita who has come to the
end of his pleasant sojourn in the Tāvatiṃsa Heaven and is about to
fall into hell – agrees in most details with the North Indian version
outlined above, and with Yijing’s Chinese translation (as summarized
by Finot). South-East Asian versions – always without the dhāraṇī
– are available in Thai, Mon, Lao, Lanna, Tai Khün, and Khmer –
but not Burmese or Sri Lankan – recensions.22 Keyes lists fourteen
Uṇhissavijaya texts inscribed in the Lanna script from a manuscript
trove in the Red Cliff Cave near the Salween River in lower Mae
Hong Son province.23 Five are undated; the dated manuscripts fall
between CS 1039 and 1141: that is, between CE 1677 and 1779 (see
Appendix 3).24
The Pāli Uṇhissavijaya verses are recited in long-life ceremonies
(sup chada) in the region, just as the Uṣṇīṣavijayā-dhāraṇī is recited
21
Louis Finot, ‘Recherches sur la littérature laotienne’, Bulletin de l’École
française d’Extrême-Orient XVII (1917), pp. 74–76.
22
The manuscript collection of Wat Bovoranives Vihāra in Bangkok includes
a Phra Uṇhisavijayya in Khom script in one bundle (Bhūmibalo no. 1022)
and a Thai version in Khom script in one bundle (Bhūmibalo no. 265). Mon
manuscripts are kept in Siamese temple collections, for example: Uṇhissavija,
Wat Tan, Tambol Bang Tanai, Pakkret distrect, Nonthaburi province; Sla pat
prakuih uṇhissa vijjaya ron au, Wat Paramayikavas, Pakkret.
For a printed Lao version, in Lao translation mixed with Pāli, see Nangsu
sut chaiyamungkun lae botthetsanamumgkumriap, kana phutthaparatchapa sun
kang pho so lo (Vientiane: 1990), pp. 57–65; for Tai Khün versions see e.g.
Anatole-Roger Peltier, Wannakam tai khün/La littérature tai khoeun/Tai Khoeun
Literature (Chiang Mai: 1987), § 211, pp. 190–191.
23
Charles F. Keyes, ‘New Evidence on Northern Thai Frontier History’, in
Tej Bunnag and Michael Smithies (ed.), In Memoriam Phya Anuman Rajadhon
(Bangkok: The Siam Society, 1970), §§ 83–96.
24
The undated manuscripts are numbers Nos. 83, 84, 89, 92, and 95.
Pieces in the puzzle: Sanskrit literature in pre-modern Siam
35
in Nepalese and Tibeto-Himalayan rituals. In central Siam
the Uṇhissavijaya is often incorporated into the Dibbamanta or
Mahādibbamanta, a compendium of five texts, in the following
order:25
Phra Mahādibamantra26
Phra Jaiyamaṅgala-sūtra
Phra Mahājaiya-sūtra
Uṇhisavaijaya-sūtra
Mahāsāvaṃ.
In his introduction to the 1928 edition of Mahādibamanta, Prince
Damrong Rajanubhab does not describe the manuscript, except to
say that it is old, and written in the Ayutthaya period. He describes
Mahādibamanta as ‘a collection of chants (manta) to be recited for
well-being and auspiciousness (svastimaṅgala)’.27 The Mahājaya
and Uṇhissavijaya were chanted on the birthdays of rulers, and the
Mahādibamanta was recited before battle. The introduction to the
1973 edition also notes the military use of the Mahādibamanta.28 It
states that during the reign of King Rāma V, when Krommaluang
Pracakṣaśilpāgam led troops to suppress the Hó, the Thai troops
recited the Mahādibamanta.29
In one manuscript in the National Library, Bangkok, Uṇhissavijaya
is kept together with Mahāsānti, another protective text, and the
above-mentioned Mahājaya.30 The story of Supatiṭṭhita Devaputra
from the Uṇhissavijaya is cited in the Extensive Abhidhamma: 7 Books
I follow the spelling of the printed edition. For references see PLCS 2.161,
to which add Prapod Assavavirulhakarn, ‘Mahādibbamanta – A Reflection on
Thai Chanting Tradition’, in Olle Qvarnström (ed.), Jainism and Early Buddhism:
Essays in Honor of Prof. Padmanabh S. Jaini Part II (Fremont, California: Asian
Humanities Press, 2003), pp. 379–406.
26
I retain the degeminated diba for dibba (Sanskrit divya) of the original.
For a romanized edition of a Pāli Mahādibamanta see Padmanabh S. Jaini,
‘Mahādibbamanta: A Paritta Manuscript from Cambodia’, Bulletin of the School
of Oriental and African Studies 28 (1965), pp. 61–80.
27
Mahādibamant: for details see Appendix, 2.1.1.
28
Phra Mahādibamantr: for details see Appendix, 2.1.2.
29
In the late nineteenth century, bands of ‘Chinese Hó’ raided areas of
northern Laos and northern Vietnam, which were then under the sovereignty
of Bangkok.
30
See remarks at PLCS 2.25.
25
36
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
to repay the virtues of parents, mother and father.31 In the pre-modern
period, the Uṇhissavijaya was required curricular reading.32 There are
texts that extoll the benefits (ānisaṅsa) of the Uṇhissavijaya (Appendix
4), which in the Paramatthamaṅgala is presented as a jātaka (Appendix
5.1). There is a literary verse (kham lilit) version, probably composed
in the nineteenth century (Appendix 5.2).33 In sum, like the Jambūpatisūtra, the Uṇhissavijaya appears in many genres.
3. Lokaneyyapakaraṇa (PLCS 2.192: 12 bundles; PVL 2.251, 13.48, 13.49,
19.67)
The Lokaneyyapakaraṇa or Dhanañjayapaṇḍita-jātaka exists in Pāli, Thai,
Lanna, and Khmer versions.34 An exceptionally long non-classical
jātaka, it contains forty-one sub-plots in addition to numerous nīti
verses from both Pāli and Sanskrit sources.35 Jaini, who edited the text
in romanized Pāli, describes it as possibly ‘the sole Pāli work to have
attempted to present a narrative in which the prose merely serves as
a convenient foil for presenting the nīti verses deemed appropriate,
however tenuously, to the occasion.’ Jaini traces eighty-nine verses to
the Pāli nīti collections transmitted in Burma, and twenty-two verses
to Sanskrit sources.36 As many as thirty nīti verses remain untraced.
Phra Tham Mahawiranuwat (Braḥ Dharmmamahāvīrānuvatra) (ed.), Phra
Abhitham phitsadan chet khamphi taen khun phra chonok chonani manda bida (braḥ
abhidhrrm bistār 7 gambhīr taen guṇa braḥ janakajananī mārtā pitā) (Bangkok:
So. Thamphakdi Fils, 2530 [1987]), pp. 51–53. (A preface by the editor gives
the date 2502 [1959], which seems to be the date of compilation or original
publication.)
32
See Luang Prasert Aksoranit, Boranasaksa lae vidhi son nangsu thai (Bangkok:
Royally sponsored cremation of Nāng Phuangphet Iamsakul at Wat Makut
Kasatiyārām, 19 November, 2502 [1959]) p. 32, phra pālī khu phra abhidhamma
1 phra uṇhisavijaiya 1; see also p. 69.
33
For the religious or ideological context of the Uṇhisavijaya in twentiethcentury Siam, see Louis Gabaude, Une Herméneutique bouddhique contemporaine
de Thaïlande: Buddhadasa Bhikkhu (Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient,
1988, Publications de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient CL), pp. 246 foll.
34
For allusions to the text in a post-Angkorean inscription, see below ‘Some
Literary References in the ‘Grande Inscription d’Angkor (IMA 38)’, pp. 69–79.
35
See Peter Skilling, review of Niyada Lausoonthorn, ‘Thananchaibanditachadok:
phap saton phumipanya khong chau ayutthaya’, Aséanie 4 (1999), pp. 206–208.
36
Padmanabh S. Jaini, Lokaneyyappakaraṇaṃ (London: The Pali Text Society,
1986), p. xiii.
31
Pieces in the puzzle: Sanskrit literature in pre-modern Siam
37
The Lokaneyyapakaraṇa is a complex and learned work that certainly
merits translation.
4. Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana of Sirivipulabuddhi (PLCS 4.111: 1 bundle;
PVL 5.101–4)
The Indian Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana is a celebrated collection of riddles
composed by Dharmadāsa in four chapters containing a total of 220
Sanskrit and Prakrit verses.37 In the colophon of the Pāli version, the
compiler mentions his indebtedness to Dharmadāsa. In addition to
the root-text, the following related texts are available:
Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana-upadesa
by Brahmasāgara Thera
Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana-ṭīkā
Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana-phadet-nissaya
Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana-yojanā
(PLCS 4.110: 1 bundle)
(PLCS 4.49: 7 bundles)
(PLCS 4.72: 3 bundles)
(PLCS 4.99: 4 bundles).
The Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana was also known in Pagan: a copy
was donated to a temple in 1442, and the ṭīkā was composed by
Dhammakitti Thera Lokarājamolī at Pagan at an unknown date.
Lanna and Khmer versions are also known. It is clear that the text
enjoyed an enduring regional status.
5. Paññāpāramī (1 bundle)
A short text entitled Paññāpāramī is widely represented in Lanna
and Lao manuscript catalogues.38 It is not clear whether the text
existed in central Siam or in Cambodia, although the basic formula
of thirty perfections (pāramī) certainly did. These are presented in
the beginning in Pāli in an iti pi so formulation.39 Then comes the PāliSee now Nalini Balbir, ‘Three Pāli Work Revisited’, Journal of the Pali Text
Society XXIX (2007), pp. 331–364.
38
I use here the printed palm-leaf edition published by S. Thammaphakdi
Fils: Paññāpāramī-deśanā, sadaeng anisong haeng kan charoen pāramī 30 that,
edited by Mahāśilā Vīravaṅś, Wat Pathumwanārām (Bangkok: 2504 [1961]). A
Lanna or Thai Khün version in one bundle is kept in the Fragile Palm Leaves
Collection, Bangkok. The opening Pāli section on the thirty pāramī is given in
several modern printed Lao chanting books, without the narrative.
39
Folio 1 recto to folio 2 verso 1.
37
38
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Thai introduction: ‘At one time, it is said (ekasmiṃ kira samaye), the
Teacher was seated on Indra’s throne, the Paṇḍukambalasilāsana’. It
is not clear whether there existed or exists a Pāli version. None has
come to light.40
In the passage that interests me here, the Buddha explains to
Śakra that one who possesses the paññāpāramī is like a cetiya:
Reflect, Mahārāja: A person who safeguards the verses of the Perfection
of Wisdom (gāthā-paññā-pāramī) is one to be revered and worshipped
(sakkāra-pūjā) by all humans and gods, just like a relic in a shrine
(phra dhātu-cetiya) …
It is hard not to draw a comparison between this and similar passages
in Sanskrit Prajñāpāramitā literature (and in other Mahāyāna sūtras).
In the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, for example, the Blessed One says
to Indra:41
anayaiva hi kauśika prajñāpāramitayā pṛthivī-pradeśaḥ sattvānāṃ
caityabhūtaḥ kṛto vandanīyo mānanīyaḥ pūjanīyo ‘rcanīyo ‘pacāyaniyaḥ
satkaraṇīyo gurukaraṇīyaḥ, trāṇaṃ śaraṇaṃ layanaṃ parāyaṇaṃ kṛto
bhaviṣyati tatropagatānāṃ sattvānām.
Therefore, Kauśika,42 through this Perfection of Wisdom that spot on
the earth has become a shrine for beings, worthy of homage, honour,
worship, devotion, respect, and adoration; it has become a sanctuary,
a refuge, a shelter, and a retreat for the beings who go there.
In the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā a similar thought is addressed to
Subhūti:43
40
This is a question that concerns a large number of Thai texts, largely
narrative. Do the embedded Pāli phrases come from an ‘orginal Pāli version’?
Or are they stylistic devices, invocations of the authority of the Mūlabhāsā?
Probably there are instances of both.
41
P.L. Vaidya (ed.), Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā with Haribhadra’s Commentary
Called Āloka (Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and
Research in Sanskrit Learning, 1960, Buddhist Sanskrit Texts no. 4), p. 28.25.
42
The gotra-name ‘Kauśika’ (Pāli ‘Kosiya’) is an epithet of Indra.
43
Edward Conze, Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā (Roma: IsMEO, 1974, Serie
Orientale Roma, Vol. XIII), p. 37.11. The trope is found in other sūtras, as, for
example, the Aparimitāyuḥ-sūtra: yasmin pṛthivīpradeśe idaṃ aparimitāyuḥsūtraṃ
likhiṣyati likhāpayiṣyanti, sa pṛthivīpradeśaḥ caityabhūto vandanīyaś ca bhaviṣyati.
Pieces in the puzzle: Sanskrit literature in pre-modern Siam
39
api tu khalu punaḥ subhūte yasmin pṛthivī-pradeśa ito dharma-paryāyād
antaśaś catuṣpādikām api gāthām udgṛhya bhāṣyeta vā samprakāśyeta
vā, sa pṛthivī-pradeśaś caitya-bhūto bhavet sa-deva-mānuṣa-asurasya
lokasya.
Furthermore, Subhūti, a place where someone extracts as little as a
four-line verse from this text and reads it out or proclaims it, that
place is equal to a shrine (caitya-bhūta) for the world with its gods,
humans, and asuras.
The comparison of one who knows a text or is otherwise accomplished
to a cetiya is rare in Pāli or vernacular texts (see Addendum, p.
45). Given that in the Paññāpāramī the statement is made in the
context of the Perfection of Wisdom and that it is spoken to Indra, one
wonders whether it can be a trace of Prajñāpāramitā thought. That
Prajñāpāramitā was known in the region up to the eleventh or twelfth
centuries is established by epigraphic and iconographic evidence.
The Paññāpāramī seems to be a ritual text, a recitation text; so also
was (and is) the Prajñāpāramitā itself, which is recited to this day in
Nepalese and Himalayan Buddhism.
IV
How and when did these texts, and others like them, enter the
Siamese corpus? Each text has a different history, which remains
to be written. On the whole, it is hard to imagine a late date, given
that the Buddhism of India had already waned by the mid-Ayutthaya
period, and the exchange of Buddhist texts and ideas with South-East
Asia would have practically ceased.
Let us envisage five possibilities. I stress that they are possibilities
– lines for future investigation – that have not yet reached the status
of hypotheses:
(a) A Pāli text was brought to or composed in Siam at an early
date, before or during the ‘Dvāravatī period’, and has been copied
and recopied up to the present.
See A.F. Rudolf Hoernle, Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in
Eastern Turkestan ([Oxford, 1916] Amsterdam: Philo Press, 1970), pp. 315–316,
and David Drewes, ‘Revisiting the phrase sa pṛthivīpradeśaś caityabhūto bhavet
and the Mahāyāna cult of the book’, Indo-Iranian Journal 50 (2007), pp. 101–143.
40
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
(b) A text was written in Pāli in India, and carried to Siam.
(c) A text, originally in Prakrit or Sanskrit, was translated into Pāli
in India and then brought to Siam.
(d) A text was brought from India and translated into Pāli in
Siam.
(e) A text, originally in Mon or another vernacular, was translated
into Pāli in Siam.
By text I mean a manuscript or an orally transmitted, remembered
text.
For (a) we have no evidence. The inscriptions of the Chao Phraya
valley show that Pāli was the preferred scriptural language by the
seventh or eighth centuries – something which was not to change
up to the present day. All the inscriptions found to date are citations
from the Pāli Tipiṭaka or, in a few cases, ancillary works; there are
no independent compositions. Nonetheless, given that Dvāravatī and
other early states must have had a literature, we can entertain the
possibility that some of this survived, perhaps in the form of the nonclassical jātakas or sūtras of Siam.
In (b) and (c) I envisage the production or translation of literature
in Pāli in India itself. This is possible for any of the texts discussed
here. We do not know enough about the use of Pāli in India, or
about the identity of the Indian branches of the Sthāvira school
and their relation to the South Indian and Sri Lankan Theravaṃsa
or Theravāda.44 It is clear from Tibetan sources that some sort of
Sthāvira-nikāya did exist in north India, and that the nikāya was
represented in the great monastic universities like Nālandā. It is
possible that the monks and nuns of this tradition produced texts in
Pāli, or produced Pāli versions of popular texts like the Uṣṇīṣavijayā.
In (b), (c), and (d) I suggest that texts were brought from India
to Siam. There is a great deal of evidence for interregional travel,
both by traders and by religieux, and texts could have been imported
at any time by any number of routes. In his History of the Dharma in
India, composed in 1608, the Tibetan historian Tāranātha describes
the situation in north India as follows:45
I have grappled with this problem in ‘Theravādin Literature in Tibetan
Translation’, Journal of the Pali Text Society XIX (1993), pp. 69–201.
45
Antonius Schiefner, Târanâthae de Doctrinae Buddhicae in India Propagatione
(St. Petersburg, 1868; Suzuki Research Foundation Reprint Series 2), p.
44
Pieces in the puzzle: Sanskrit literature in pre-modern Siam
41
From the time of Dharmapāla on, students from [South-East
Asia] were especially numerous in the Middle Country (Yul dbu =
Madhyadeśa). Their numbers increased so that during the time of the
four Senas half the saṅgha gathered in Magadha originated from the
Ko-ki region.46 Therefore, the Mahāyāna spread widely, and, as in the
kingdom of Tibet, Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna ceased to be distinguished
from each other.
It is possible that during the Pāla-Sena period – the post-Dvāravatī
and pre-Ayutthaya periods – some of the texts came to Siam. During
this period artistic and ritual prototypes spread across Asia, from
Ladakh to Dunhuang to Kharakhoto, from Pagan to Java.
If northern India is a likely source for texts like the narratives of
Kapphiṇa and Jambūpati, or for the Uṇhissavijaya or Paññāpāramī, we
should not neglect south India. Monks like Śrīśraddhā-rājacūḷāmuni
of Sukhothai travelled to Andhra and other sites in India. As Kusuma
has shown, some of the non-Buddhist texts transmitted in Thai and
Lao may come from south India.47
What was the status of the texts? As far as I can tell – and here
much more research is needed – the Jambūpati-sūtra, Uṇhissa-vijaya,
and Paññāpāramī had de facto status as Buddhavacana. In the Ayutthaya
and early Bangkok periods, the Jambūpati-sūtra belonged to the grand
story of the life of the Master, and was integrated into mural paintings
on the life in, for example, the Phutthaisawan Chapel in Bangkok. The
Uṇhissa-vijaya and Paññāpāramī were powerful ritual texts, and their
power derived from that of the Buddha himself. Even the nīti and
linguistic texts were transmitted within a Buddhist setting, insofar
as manuscript production and storage was a monastic concern. To
sponsor or copy a grammatical or historical text contributed equally
to the ‘preservation of the śāsanā’ for five thousand years.
I have not touched upon the possible school-affiliation of the
antecedents of the texts discussed here. This is deliberate. The
199.15. The translation is my own: for another rendering, see Debiprasad
Chattopadhyaya (ed.), Tāranātha’s History of Buddhism in India ([1970] Calcutta:
KP Bagchi and Company, 1980), p. 330.
46
‘Ko-ki’ is the word used by Tāranātha for South-East Asia, from – roughly –
Arakan to Cambodia.
47
Kusuma, Nandakaprakaraṇa attributed to Vasubhāga: a comparative study of
Sanskrit, Lao and Thai texts (Ann Arbor: Dissertation Abstracts International
1979).
42
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
texts are narrative or didactic: a good story is a good story, and a
good aphorism is a good aphorism. Narrative literature need not be
confined within the narrow bounds of constructions of canonicity.
Narrative texts were transmitted by Vinaya lineages, but did not
necessarily belong to them. In the case of Siam, the tradition of the
pre-modern period seems to have been more tolerant that that of the
modern period, in that it preserved and transmitted numerous nonnormative texts and a rich narrative literature. Today these texts
have fallen into oblivion, and no comprehensive attempt to study or
publish them has been made.
The findings presented here show that pre-modern Siam
participated in a much wider world of cultural interchange than is
usually assumed. The nature and extent of the intellectual world
of Buddhism during the periods in question remain a puzzle. I
question whether ‘India’ should always be the ‘centre’, Siam the
periphery – a passive recipient of ‘influence’.48 Some of our stories
are retellings of Indian stories, and some of our subhāṣita are
recastings of Indian subhāṣita. This is normal: we must not forget
that the Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese versions are also retellings,
and that original recycling is the breath of art. The ‘original’
cannot be retrieved, although the prototype may – in certain
cases – be reinvented.
Appendices
1. Tibetan versions of Uṣṇīṣāvijaya-dhāraṇī in Volume pha of the
Tantra division of the Peking Tripiṭaka:49
§ 197. Sarvatathāgata-uṣṇīṣavijaya-nāma-dhāraṇī-kalpa-sahita, folios
221b7–226b5 (10 folios): no translator’s colophon.
§ 198. Ārya-sarvadurgati-pariśodhani-uṣṇīṣavijaya-nāma-dhāraṇī, folios
226b5–231b3 translated by Jinamitra, Surendrabodhi, Ye śes sde
(ca. 800).
48
‘India’ readily collapses, geographically and chronologically. That
‘India’ abides as a centre ideologically – as the Middle Country or as the
indeconstructible Vajrāsana – is plausibly incontestable. This India belongs
to a shared imaginaire, eminently portable and infinitely multipliable: but
this is another topic.
49
D.T. Suzuki (ed.), The Tibetan Tripitaka, Peking Edition, Kept in the Library of
the Otani University, Kyoto, Vol. 7 (Tokyo–Kyoto: Tibetan Tripitaka Research
Institute, 1956).
Pieces in the puzzle: Sanskrit literature in pre-modern Siam
43
§ 199. Sarvatathāgata-uṣṇīṣavijaya-nāma-dhāraṇī-kalpa-sahita, folios
231b3–239b4 (16 folios): translated by Paṇḍita Chos kyi sde and
Bhikṣu Ba ri, the translator from Khams (eleventh century).
§ 200. Sarvatathāgata-uṣṇīṣavijaya-nāma-dhāraṇī-kalpa, folios 239b4–
241b7 (4 1/2 folios): translated single-handedly by the learned
(bahuśruta) translator, the senior monk (sthavira) Śrī Ñi ma
rgyal dpal bzaṅ po at Śrī Thar pa gliṅ monastery (vihāra) (early
fourteenth century).50
§ 201. Sarvatathāgata-uṣṇīṣavijaya-nāma-dhāraṇī-kalpa-sahita, folios
241b7–243a2 (2 folios): no translator’s colophon.
2. Printed Pāli verse versions of Uṇhissavijaya51
2.1. Long Pāli verse version of Uṇhissavijaya
2.1.1. Uṇhisavijaiya:52 Mahādibamant, printed for the royally sponsored
cremation of Amat To Phraya Akkhanitniyom (Samui ābharaṇaśiri)
(Bangkok: 2471 [1928]), pp. 28–35;
2.1.2. Uṇhisavijaiya-sūtra:53 Braḥ Mahādibamantr, printed for the
royally sponsored cremation of Mrs. Chavivan Prakobsantisukh,
at the crematorium of Wat Makuṭakṣatriyārāmarājavaravihār
(Bangkok: 2516 [1973]), pp. 24–30.
2.2. Middling Pāli verse version of Uṇhissavijaya
2.2.1. Uṇhassavijaya:54 Bunkhit Wachrasat (ed.), Suat mant muang nua
(Chiang Mai: n.d.), pp. 217–219;
For this translator see Peter Skilling ‘Theravādin Literature in Tibetan
Translation’, Journal of the Pali Text Society XIX (1993), pp. 90–98.
51
The bibliographic notes that follow are woefully inadequate. Bibliography
of Thai printed materials presents a number of challenges: titles are not
always consistent, a different title being given on the spine, front cover, and
title page(s); the date of publication is not always given; sometimes the only
date is at the end of the foreword (or in small print of the last page). Few if any
give the sources of their contents. I apologize for inevitable inconsistencies
in my hybrid Pāli-cum-phonetic transliterations.
52
The title is so given at the head of the text: the colophon reads iti
uṇhisavijayasammataṃ niṭṭhitaṃ.
53
So given at head of text: the colophon reads iti uṇhisavijayasammataṃ
niṭṭhitaṃ.
54
So given at head of text: the colophon reads atthi uṇhassavijjayo niṭṭhito.
50
44
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
2.2.2. Uṇhissavijaya:55 Insom Chaiyachomphu (ed.), Suat mant muang
nua (Bangkok: n.d.), pp. 109–111;
2.2.3. Uṇhassavijaya:56 Khong di chak pap sa (Lamphun: n.d.), pp. 52–
53;
2.2.4. Gāthā Uṇhisavijaya: Phra Mahathawee Khuenkaew (Ṭhānavaro
Bhikkhu) (ed.), Suat mant chabap phra buat mai (third printing,
Bangkok: 2533 [1990]), pp. 235–237;
2.2.5. Uṇhisavijaya Gāthā: Phra Visuddhisambodhi (ed.), Chumnum
suat mant chabap luang (Bangkok: 2535 [1992]), pp. 504–506;
2.2.6. Uṇhisavijaya: Phan To Fun Saengrak (ed.), Dibamant prachum
pad suat mant (Bangkok: 2518 [1975]), pp. 140–142.
2.3. Short Pāli verse version of Uṇhissavijaya
2.3.1. Atthi Uṇhissavijaya Gāthā: Matcharoen Thiraphatrasakul (ed.),
Nangsu suat mant mahā phra buddhamant (Bangkok: 2532 [1989]),
p. 113;
2.3.2. Uṇhissavijaya Gāthā: Tho Thammasi (ed.), Buddhamant bidhī
(chabap somboon) (Bangkok: n.d.), p. 36;
2.3.3. Gāthā Uṇhissavijayo: Nangsu suat mant chabap bodhiñāṇ
(Bangkok: 2533 [1990]), p. 60;
2.3.4. Uṇhissavijaya Gāthā: Phra khru Samuh Iam Sirivaṇṇo (ed.),
Mant bidhī samrap phra bhikṣu sāmaṇera lae buddhaśāsanikajana tua
pai (Bangkok: n.d.), p. 39;
2.3.5. Uṇhissavijaya Gāthā: Phan Tho Tongkhaw Phuangrotphan
and Nava Tri Tongbai Hongviangchan (ed.), Maṅgalabidhī (chabap
mahācuḷābarrṇāgār) (Bangkok: 2532 [1989]), pp. 143–144.
3. Dated Lanna Thai versions of Uṇhissavijaya57
88: CS 1039
87: CS 1063
93: CS 1067
86: CS 1070
94: CS 1074
90: CS 1078
85: CS 1086
The colophon reads atthi uṇhissavijayo niṭṭhito.
The colophon reads atthi uṇhassavijjayo niṭṭhito.
57
Information from Keyes, op. cit.
55
56
Pieces in the puzzle: Sanskrit literature in pre-modern Siam
45
96: CS 1098
91: CS 1141
4. Uṇhissavijaya in Thai Ānisaṅsa Literature
4.1. Ānisaṅs Uṇhissavijaya: J. Parian (ed.), Ānisaṅs 108 kaṇḍ chabap
perm term mai (Bangkok: 2510 [1967]), pp. 863–869;
4.2. Ānisaṅs Uṇhissavijaya: Phra Mahāpaiśāl (ed.), Chumnum ānisaṅs
65 ruang (Bangkok: 2499 [1956]), pp. 337–343.
5. Other versions of Uṇhissavijaya
5.1. Uṇhisavijayajātaka:58 Paramatthamaṅgala (Bangkok: The Fine Arts
Department, 2536 [1993]), pp. 22–26.
5.2. Nangsu Unahit-wichai (Uṇhitavijaiy) kham lilit (Bangkok: 2467
[1924]).
Addendum to p. 39, third paragraph, first sentence
I have modified the original sentence, ‘I have not seen any other Pāli or
vernacular text that compares one who knows a text ...to a cetiya.’ The
Visuddhimagga (VII 67) states that the body of a bhikkhu who is devoted to the
recollection of the Buddha (buddhānussati) merits homage like a shrine-house
(cetiya-ghara). (I owe the reference to Paul Harrison, ‘Commemoration and
Identification in Buddhānusmṛti’, in Janet Gyatso (ed.), In the Mirror of Memory:
Reflections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism,
Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992, p. 219.)
So given at the head of the section; the colophon reads uṇhisavijayavarrṇanā
chop (‘is completed’). Varrṇanā, or Pāli vaṇṇanā, is frequent in
titles of extracanonical suttas from Siam. See e.g. Padmanabh S.
Jaini, ‘Ākāravattārasutta’, Indo-Iranian Journal 35 (1992), p. 209,
ākāravattārasuttavaṇṇaṇā nitthitā; E. Denis (ed.), ‘Braḥ Māleyyadevattheravatthuṃ’, Journal of the Pali Text Society XVIII (1993), p. 60, iti
mālayyadevatherassa vaṇṇanā niṭṭhitā; Charles Hallisey, ‘Nibbānasutta:
an allegedly non-canonical sutta on Nibbāna as a Great City’, ib., p. 124,
nibbānasuttavaṇṇanā niṭṭhitā.
58
4
The place of South-East Asia in Buddhist studies
I
S
OUTH-EAST ASIA IS A NEGLECTED AREA IN INTERNATIONAL
Buddhist studies. This may easily be seen in the bookstores
of Europe and North America. The shelves devoted to Buddhism
will be well-stocked with books on all aspects of Tibetan, Chinese,
Japanese, and even ‘American’ Buddhism, but one will be lucky to
find a single book on South-East Asian Buddhism. Furthermore,
surveys of Buddhism usually devote only a few pages to the region,
using sources that for the most part are outdated and inaccurate.
In general, ‘Buddhist studies’ is a very imperfect field. Outside
of Japan it receives little institutional support and scarcely
stands as an academic discipline. In reality ‘Buddhist studies’ is
a catch-all for studies conducted in individual departments by
philologists, philosophers, historians of religion, anthropologists,
archæologists, art historians, and translators, by Indologists,
South Asianists, South-East Asianists, Sinologists, Tibetanists,
Mongolists, Koreanists, Japanologists, and so on. Some of these
scholars might relate their work to ‘Buddhist studies’, but others
may not.
46
The place of South-East Asia in Buddhist studies
47
It is time to recognize and assess the imperfections that
bedevil Buddhist studies. One of the most ruinous is the heritage
of assumptions and pre-conceptions built up over the last century.
Our conceptual tools are outdated and inadequate, and need to
be scrutinized, revised, and invigorated. In this paper I address
another problem: that of unmapped territories, of the blanks in
the historical geography of Buddhism. One of the biggest blanks
is South-East Asia. Our understanding of the historical and social
development of Buddhism will remain incomplete and lopsided
until South-East Asia takes its proper place in Buddhist Studies.
South-East Asia is a huge region. In terms of modern states it
comprises Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia,
Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, and East Timor. But
the modern states are not especially relevant to our studies, which
relate to a radically different pre-modern map. The list I have just
given is relatively new, and describes (so far excluding East Timor)
the political-economic group ASEAN, the Association of South-East
Asian Nations, founded in 1967.
The boundaries of the ‘South-East Asia of Buddhist studies’ are
less certain. Should we include Bangladesh, not only because of the
Buddhist populations of Chittagong, but also because of important
historical sites like Mainamati and Paharpur? In that case should we
include other parts of Bengal? Should we include Indian states like
Tripura, or Assam with its Tai populations (or perhaps, at least for
protohistory, Meghalaya with its Mon-Khmer culture)? Surely we
must take Yunnan into account, and some scholars even include Sri
Lanka in South-East Asia, mainly because of its religious intercourse
with the South-East Asian mainland.
That there is no single answer to the question of where SouthEast Asia begins or where it ends is not surprising, since the
boundaries are dictated by the nature of the research or the whims
of the researcher. Geographically ‘South-East Asia’ is often divided
into ‘mainland’ (Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, plus
the Malay peninsula) and ‘insular’ (the Malayan and Indonesian
archipelago).1 These terms are conventions and do not correspond
The mainland may also be called ‘peninsular’ South-East Asia or Indo-China
(Indochina, Indo China), the latter in the sense given by the Concise Oxford
Dictionary of Current English (Fifth Edition, Oxford: University Press, 1964),
p. 620b, ‘Indo-Chinese: of the region between India and China’, or in sense
1
48
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
to any historical, geopolitical, or cultural boundaries. In this paper I
limit my discussion to the mainland, to peninsular South-East Asia,
for the most part to Siam or Thailand.2
Here we face a conceptual problem. Most studies present Buddhism
in terms of modern nation-states, giving us ‘Thai Buddhism’,
‘Burmese Buddhism’, ‘Khmer Buddhism’, and ‘Lao Buddhism’. But
these labels mask complex and continually evolving realities and
overlapping boundaries. ‘Thai Buddhism’, for example, expresses
itself differently in the several regions of the modern nation-state
of ‘Thailand’, regions which traditionally used different scripts for
Pāli and transmitted literature in their own vernaculars, as well as
in Mon, Lao, and Khmer. Art and architecture, custom, ritual, and
liturgy all vary from region to region, province to province, district
to district. Furthermore, to frame the history of Buddhism in terms
of modern nation-states excludes one of the most important cultural
groups, the Mon, today a nation without a state. It also excludes
smaller states like Haribhuñjaya, Chiang Tung, or Chiang Rung.
1 of the Second College Edition of Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American
Language (New York and Cleveland: 1972), p. 717b, ‘a large peninsula south of
China including Burma, Thailand, Indochina (sense 2), & Malaya’. Webster’s
sense 2 is the ‘E[astern] part of this peninsula, formerly under Fr[ench] control,
consisting of Laos, Cambodia, & Vietnam’. I use the term sparingly because
of possible confusion between the two senses. Further, at the surface level
the term Indo-China denies the region any identity, rather like ‘Further’ or
‘Greater India’. Insular South-East Asia has been called ‘the Archipelago’ and
‘Insulinde’. The traditional Chinese name for the region as a whole has been
Nanyang, ‘Southern Ocean’.
To add to the confusion, Burma, once a part of the British Indian Empire,
is not always included in South-East Asia, and the Philippines is sometimes
excluded on the grounds of history (as a former Spanish and then American
colony) and of religion (Catholicism introduced across the Pacific, rather
than the Indian religions of the Mainland). Anthony Reid has shown that
the region shares some common cultural features, one of which is the use
of betel-nut as a social lubricant (Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of
Commerce, Vol. 1, The Lands below the Winds, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books,
1988, I. Introduction, pp. 1–10). For the evolution of South-East Asia as a
political entity see Nicholas Tarling (ed.), The Cambridge History of Southeast
Asia, Volume Two, Part Two, From World War II to the present, (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 258 foll.
2
The boundary is defined by my own limitations, since I am able to use Thai
sources but not Burmese or Khmer.
The place of South-East Asia in Buddhist studies
49
Although I will refer to modern political states when appropriate,
I prefer to think in terms of cultures, and refer to Mon, Lanna, Lao,
Thai, Khmer, Arakanese, Shan, Khün, or Burmese Buddhism (or
Buddhisms). But these cultures do not float in ahistorical vacuums:
each has its own history, and we must therefore also relate these
cultures to historical polities, and examine the evolution of Buddhism
in the states of Śrīkṣetra, Dvāravatī, Kambuja, Arakan, Ayutthaya,
Rāmaññadesa, Pagan, Ava, Mandalay, Lanna, Lanchang (Laos), and
Bangkok – to name only the better known.
This procedure is not entirely satisfactory: like any methodology
it raises its own problems. I use the cultures and states as descriptive
conventions, and do not want to suggest that they are water-tight or
uniform entities. They are not: each impinges on the other, and each
is internally diverse. Above all, I do not want to suggest that ethnicity
is constant or self-sufficient, that it has any svabhāva. Rather, it is
one of the determining factors of a culture, in many respects
interchangeable with language. ‘Mon Buddhism’, for example, is
transmitted in the Mon language within Mon society, which both
comprises and interacts with other ethnic groups.
Another conceptual problem lies in the fact that the Buddhism
of South-East Asia is seen through the frame – or forced into the
Procrustean bed – of a ‘Theravādin Buddhism’ inevitably described as
‘early’, ‘conservative’, ‘unworldly’. No one can deny that Theravādin
Vinaya lineages were introduced during the Śrīkṣetra and Dvāravatī
periods, and that starting with the eleventh century this lineage
gradually became the main and then the only lineage. No one can
deny that the textual lineage of the Tipiṭaka is the Pāli canon of the
Mahāvihāra school of Sri Lankan Theravāda. But to lump all of SouthEast Asia under ‘Theravāda’ oversimplifies and obscures the historical
development of monasticism, ritual, and literature. Furthermore, if
the monks (there have been no nuns for at least a thousand years)
ordain within lineages that trace their origins to the Sri Lankan Thera
school, it does not follow that the laity were or are ‘Theravādins’ by
‘faith’, ‘creed’, or ‘profession’, and indeed both monastic and lay (the
boundary is at any rate fluid) practices entail many specifically local
or regional elements. By the same token, rituals, sacred images, art,
and architecture are not ‘Theravādin’. I prefer to use specific terms
and to try to understand these phenomena as part of socio-historical
evolution.
50
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
If South-East Asia is a blank spot on the map of Buddhist studies,
we must recognize that there are many gaps in our knowledge of
South-East Asia itself, and that this is part of the problem. The history
of Buddhism in Sri Lanka can be framed in the perspective of the
Mahāvaṃsa, a continuous chronicle from before the introduction of
Buddhism to the island up to the last century. (The Mahāvaṃsa is a
partisan document of the Mahāvihāra, of course, and presents one
version of narrative history, as does the earlier Dīpavaṃsa, which goes
up to the fourth century CE.) Similarly, China possesses a wealth of
secular and religious records, the latter including biographies, essays,
and even letters going back almost two thousand years. For Japan
we have ancient chronicles like the Kojiki and the Nihon-shoki, and
poetry, temple chronicles, biographies, sermons, and textbooks from
the Nara period (eighth century) on. For Tibet we have inscriptions
and Dunhuang documents dating to before the tenth century, and
after that an abundance of historical materials, including histories of
Buddhism composed by Bu-ston, Tāranātha, and others.
But for South-East Asia we have no ancient, indigenous, continuous
histories whatsoever. We do not even know the names or boundaries
of many of the states that existed before the eleventh century, or
understand much about their trade and international relations.3
We know the name of Śrīvijaya, an important state that controlled
the international trade through the Straits of Malacca, but we do
not know with certainty where its ‘capital’ was located (assuming
it had one). That historical documents once existed I do not doubt,
but they have not survived. The few fragmentary inscriptions from
Śrīkṣetra, Dvāravatī, and Śrīvijaya give us only the names of a few
rulers and their relations, but the information is inadequate for the
reconstruction of genealogies or of a continuous narrative history.4
From Chinese sources we know the names of early states like Funan and
Chenla, but we do not know, with certainty, where or what they were. For
Funan see most recently Michael Vichery, ‘Funan reviewed: deconstructing
the Ancients’, in Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 90–91 (2003/2004),
pp. 101–143.
4
The exception here is Cambodia, where it has been possible to construct
genealogies of kings, brahmans, and leading families – albeit with many
question marks – and to extract social structure from the rich epigraphical
record.
3
The place of South-East Asia in Buddhist studies
51
II
Inscriptions, archæological remains, and Chinese historical records
leave no doubt that Buddhism (in tandem with Brahmanism)
flourished in the region in the first millennium of the Christian Era.
In what way, then, is the study of Buddhism in South-East Asia a
neglected area? Where does the problem lie? It is not that no work
has been done – indeed, our research is indebted to a long line of
predecessors.
Let me phrase my answer in terms of two aspects of the intellectual
endeavour: the specific and the general. The first refers to the study
of specific data: to the transcription and translation of inscriptions or
manuscripts, the study of archæological and iconographic remains, the
recording of rites and rituals. These specific studies engage primary
sources directly. The second, ‘the general’, refers to the compilation
of analytic or synthetic studies, the integration of specific data into
greater narratives. The two aspects are interdependent (pratītya, as
are all things): specific data are needed for general studies, and it is
the general studies that place specific data in context.
A great deal of specific research has been done, some of it
monumental, such as the work of Gordon H. Luce or of Pierre Pichard
in Burma, or that of George Cœdès and the members of the École
française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) in Indo-China. Louis Finot’s
‘Recherches sur la littérature laotienne’, published in the Bulletin de
l’École française d’Extrême-Orient in 1917, remains unsurpassed after
ninety years. Much of the research up to the end of the first half of
the last century was carried out under colonial auspices of the British,
Dutch, and French and published in their respective languages.
Independent Siam developed its own research program, influenced
by and sometimes in collaboration with the EFEO, and overseen by
the remarkable scholar-statesman Prince Damrong Rajanubhab.
Unlike its colonized neighbours, Siam remained in control of its own
history, and published historical materials in its own language, Thai.
In the post-colonial period, from the beginning of the second
half of the last century, the newly independent nations regained
possession of their past. But the tragic wars in Indo-China and the
civil wars in Burma disrupted archæological research, and in an
atmosphere of national struggle history became an ideological tool,
the exclusive domain of the single-party state. Research was now
published mainly in the national languages, and contact even with
52
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
neighbouring countries – let alone with a wider scholarly community
– was restricted if not prohibited. Thailand steered its way through
this difficult period with considerable success, and research continued
to be carried out and published under the auspices of the Department
of Archæology and the Fine Arts Department, mainly in Thai as
before. Today we can benefit from several collections of inscriptions,
and, most recently, an Encyclopedia of Thai Culture (Saranukrom
watthanatham thai) in 63 volumes. Exciting new developments in the
archæology of southern Vietnam have been published, if at all, in
Vietnamese, and thus remain inaccessible to those who do not know
the language.5 New materials have begun to be published in English
in Burma, and archæology is being revived in Cambodia.6
It is obvious that to benefit from these materials scholars must
know and read at least several of the modern languages of South-East
Asia, and that to conduct serious research one must study the older
forms of the languages and their evolution. A background in Sanskrit
and Pāli is indispensable. But internationally, regionally, and even
nationally, the study of South-East Asian languages can hardly be
described as flourishing. One effect of globalization is that, despite the
good efforts of ASEAN, South-East Asians show little interest in their
own history and culture, not to speak of those of their neighbours.
Few Thais learn Khmer or Burmese; few Burmese study Thai or Malay.
Internationally, the national languages of South-East Asia are taught
at only a few universities, and academic study of Old Khmer and
Mon (Old or New) – two languages vital to regional historiography
5
See for example Le Xuan Diem, Dao Linh Con, Vo Si Khai, Van Hoa Oc Eo:
nhung kham pha moi/Oc Eo: Recent Discoveries (Hanoi: Social Sciences Publishing
House, 1995), in Vietnamese, and more recently James C.M. Khoo, Art and
Archaeology of Fu Nan (Bangkok: 2003). For one of the inscriptions see Peter
Skilling, ‘A Buddhist inscription from Go Xoai, southern Vietnam, and notes
towards a classification of ye dharmā inscriptions’, in 80 pi sasadachan dr. prasert
na nakhon ruam botkhwam wichakan dan charuk lae ekasan boran (Bangkok: 2542
[1999]), pp. 171–187.
6
I should note here the exemplary work of French scholars, again not directly
on Buddhism, but essential to our research: for example the recent book
of Michel Jacq-Hergoual’ch (Michel Jacq-Hergoual’ch, The Malay Peninsula.
Crossroads of the Maritime Silk Road [Translated by Victoria Hobson] [Leiden:
Brill, 2002, Handbook of Oriental Studies (Handbuch der Orientalistik),
Section three, South-East Asia, ed. by B. Arps, M.C. Ricklefs, D.K. Wyatt,
Volume thirteen]) or some of the Études thématiques published by the EFEO.
The place of South-East Asia in Buddhist studies
53
– barely survives. The rich vernacular materials remain inaccessible,
and international scholars must rely on the same old textbooks and
recycle the same old facts. Predictably, this has led to stagnation.
The main problem lies not, however, with the accumulation of
specific data, but rather in the realm of the general, of the greater
narrative history of Buddhism in South-East Asia. The scholars who
produced data in the earliest period worked within the frame of their
own disciplines – archæology, history, lingustics, anthropology.
They did not locate their work in ‘Buddhist studies’, and there is no
reason to expect them to have done so, since at that time the idea of
‘Buddhist studies’ scarcely existed. Today it may be fashionable to
assert that the data were gathered as part of the colonial taxonomic
enterprise, and this is certainly true. But we should not let ideology
obscure the fact that the colonial scholars were human. They were
talented individuals with their own vision and imagination, and they
have left us an inestimably precious legacy. Of course they worked
within the colonial framework of the age: any research is inevitably
framed by time and circumstance – as is this article.
It has been left to those in the field of religious studies or of
‘Buddhism’ as a (relatively new) academic field to analyse the
data, to construct a narrative history of Buddhism, and to place
this in the context of international Buddhist studies. But this has
been inadequately or poorly done, for several reasons: lack of the
necessary languages, lack of background in Buddhist studies, lack of
vision, lack of institutional support. As a result the academic study
of Buddhism in South-East Asia remains a backwater. There are, of
course, exceptions, such as Kenneth Wells’ classic Thai Buddhism: Its
Rites and Activities, Yoneo Ishii’s Sangha, State, and Society: Thai Buddhism
in History, and Prapod Assavavirulhakarn’s thesis on the ascendency
of Theravāda in South-East Asia.7
Wells’ Thai Buddhism (originally published in Bangkok in 1939, and reprinted
in 1960 and 1975) has aged well, and in many regards has not been replaced.
Unfortunately the English translation of Ishii’s work (translated by Peter
Hawkes, published as English-language Series no. 15 of the Monographs of
the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, by The University
of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1986) ‘condenses’ two of the original chapters.
Prapod Assavavirulhakarn’s historical study, The Ascendency of Theravāda
Buddhism in Southeast Asia, remains to be published.
7
54
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
III
Having outlined the problems as I see them, I will describe the
sources available for the study of Buddhism in South-East Asia before
going on to assess their significance to Buddhist studies. I will deal
with literature, manuscripts, inscriptions, images of the Buddha, and
ritual.
Literature
I have noted above that we have no early literature from SouthEast Asia, and, especially, no chronicle or local or regional history
(discounting the Sāsanavaṃsa of the nineteenth century and other
late texts). 8 The first millenium of the Christian Era is something of a
blank, and only by exploiting archæological data and Chinese records
can we produce a patchy and speculative history. But with the second
millennium, documentation increases, and we can explore a broad
range of traditional historical materials, including royal records
and the chronicles of states, images, relics, and temples – as well as
inscriptions, to be discussed below. 9
The ‘reliability’ of these documents in terms of ‘solid facts’ has
long been contested. But as valid productions of the pre-modern
imaginaire they cannot be ignored. Furthermore, the traditional
historiographical practices of South-East Asia merit comparison with
those of other Buddhist cultures, such as those of Tibet or Japan.
8
One of the earliest surviving texts of South-East Asia as a whole is the
Durbodhāloka, a commentary on the Abhisamayālaṃkāra composed by
Dharmakīrti in the city of Śrīvijaya at the beginning of the eleventh
century. The work – probably the sole surviving example of the presumably
extensive literature of Śrīvijaya – is preserved in a Tibetan translation by
Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna or Atiśa, a direct disciple of Dharmakīrti. But this is a
technical work of abstruse philosophy and, apart from the precious colophon,
contains no historical information. See Peter Skilling, ‘Dharmakīrti’s
Durbodhāloka and the Literature of Śrīvijaya’, Journal of the Siam Society 85
(1997), pp. 187–194.
9
For later periods we can also use Chinese, Arabic, and European records. The
classic study of Chinese and Arabic accounts of the Malay peninsula remains
Paul Wheatley’s The Golden Khersonese: Studies in the Historical Geography of
the Malay Peninsula before A.D. 1500 (repr. Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit University
Malaya, 1980).
The place of South-East Asia in Buddhist studies
55
What are the common points, what are the differences? How do the
different traditions situate themselves in ‘Buddhist time’? SouthEast Asian chronicles often open with an account, however brief, of
the bodhisatta’s (that is, the future Sakyamuni’s) career and of the
‘Auspicious Æon’ (bhaddakappa) in which he appears. Needless to say,
South-East Asian chronicles model themselves to a degree on the
well-known chronicles of Sri Lanka. One of them, the Vaṃsamālinī
(composed in Pāli, most probably in Northern Thailand) is a recasting
of the Mahāvaṃsa, as indeed is the ‘Extended’ Mahāvaṃsa.10 Many of
the vernacular texts are unique. One example is Phra chao liap lok,
a work in Northern Thai language which gives an account of the
Buddha’s travels throughout Lanna (Northern Thailand), relating
how he distributed relics, left imprints of his feet, and predicted the
future glory of local sites. The text maps out a Buddhist geography
of the North.
In all pre-modern Buddhist polities kings and emperors lavished
their attention on the classical scriptures, sponsoring editions of
Tipiṭakas, commentaries, and treatises. In South-East Asia the rulers
of Pagan, Ayutthaya, Lanna, Lanchang, and Cambodia all engaged
in the meritorious act of having the Pāli canon inscribed on palm
leaves. In Thailand, the Chakri kings of the present dynasty, which
was founded in 1782, have been great patrons of the Tipiṭaka. A
council (saṃgīti) convened by King Rāma I was reckoned as the ninth
Theravādin council in contemporary royal records (in Thai) and
in the Saṅgītiyavaṃsa (in Pāli). In the nineteenth century, during
the first five reigns, a total of nineteen royal Tipiṭakas were made.
In 1895 King Rāma V (Chulalongkorn) sponsored the world’s first
printed Tipiṭaka, which he distributed to temples in Thailand and to
institutions abroad. Since then several other printed CD rom editions
have appeared, along with Thai translations.
In Ayutthaya and in the early Ratanakosin period the connotation
of the term Tipiṭaka was wide and probably flexible, comprising not
only the texts traditionally listed in the Mahāvihāra tradition, such
as in the works of Ācariya Buddhaghosa, but also the commentaries
10
The ‘Extended’ Mahāvaṃsa was most probably compiled in Ayutthaya. It has
been mistakenly described as ‘Cambodian’ simply because the manuscripts
are in the Khmer script, as were most Pāli manuscripts in Ayutthaya and in
Bangkok up to the early twentieth century. In Thai the script used for Pāli is
called ‘Khom’.
56
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
(aṭṭhakathā), sub-commentaries (ṭīkā), grammatical literature,
paracanonical and non-canonical works (such as Rasavāhinī and
its ṭīkā), image chronicles (Ratanabimbavaṃsa, Sihiṅganidāna) and
apocryphal suttas like the Jambūpati-sutta. That is, the term Tipiṭaka
embraced the whole of the Pāli literature available at the time.
From about the eleventh century scholars delighted in cosmology,
and composed works in Pāli like the Pañcagatidīpanī, Chagatidīpanī (and its ṭīkā), Lokapaññatti, Lokadīpakasāra, Cakkavāḷa-dīpanī,
Lokuppatti, Mahākappalokasaṇṭhāna, Lokasaṇṭhānajotaratanagaṇṭhī, and
Okāsaloka. A range of Traibhūmi-s, treatises describing the ‘Three
Worlds’ (kāma-, rūpa, arūpa-bhūmi), were redacted in Thai (including
Northern and Southern Thai) and Khmer.11 The earliest surviving
vernacular cosmological text is the ‘Traibhūmi Phra Ruang’, composed
in Sukhothai in the fourteenth century. Only the Lokapaññatti and
the ‘Traibhūmi Phra Ruang’ have been objects of modern studies.
The former was edited and translated into French by Eugène Denis;12
Kiyoshi Okano has recently shown that one of its main sources, a
Lokaprajñapti now preserved only in Chinese translation, belonged
to a Pudgalavādin tradition.13 The ‘Traibhūmi Phra Ruang’ has been
translated into French by Cœdès and Archaimbault, and into English by
Frank and Mani Reynolds.14 Recently the National Library of Thailand
has published, in two splendid volumes, complete colour facsimiles
See my reviews of published editions of some of these works in Buddhist
Studies Review 7 (1990), pp. 115–121. It is important to keep in mind that
Traibhūmi is a genre (which comprises much more than cosmology) rather
than a single text.
12
Eugène Denis, La Lokapaññatti et les idées cosmologiques du bouddhisme ancien,
2 vols. (Lille/Paris: 1977).
13
Kiyoshi Okano, Sarvarakṣitas Mahāsaṃvartanīkathā: Ein Sanskrit-Kāvya über
die Kosmologie der Sāṃmitīya-Schule des Hīnayāna-Buddhismus (Sendai: Seminar
of Indology, Tohoku University, 1998, Tohoku-Indo-Tibetto-KenkyūshoKankokai, Monograph Series I).
14
G. Cœdès and C. Archaimbault, Les Trois Mondes (Paris: EFEO, 1973); Frank
E. and Mani B. Reynolds, Three Worlds According to King Ruang: A Thai Buddhist
Cosmology (Berkeley: University of California,1982, Berkeley Buddhist Studies
Series 4). There is also a bilingual (Thai/English) edition: Traibhumikatha,
the Story of the Three Planes of Existence by King Lithai, translated by the Thai
National Team for Anthology of ASEAN Literatures, Volume 1a, published
under the Sponsorship of the ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information,
Bangkok, 1987.
11
The place of South-East Asia in Buddhist studies
57
of illustrated Traibhūmi manuscripts in the National Library, from
the Ayutthaya and Thonburi periods. There are also astrological and
astronomical texts in Pāli and Thai, such as the Candasuriyagatīdīpanī
(and the Indian Sūryasiddhānta, transmitted in Burma).
South-East Asia has made exuberant and distinctive contributions
to Buddhist narrative literature, the pride of place belonging to what
are often called ‘apocryphal’ or ‘local’ jātakas (described by some
modern scholars as novels, romans). Some are in Pāli, such as the fifty
stories of the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa collection from Burma (edited by I.B.
Horner and P.S. Jaini and translated by Jaini), or the long Lokaneyyappakaraṇa from Thailand (edited by Jaini), a complex narrative
containing numerous nīti verses. Vernacular jātakas number in the
hundreds. Some are known throughout Thailand and beyond, in
numerous recensions, often in verse. Others seem to be unique to a
specific region, culture, or language.15 Anatole-Roger Peltier of the
EFEO has published vernacular narratives from the Northern Tai
cultures,16 and Niyada Lausunthorn has written extensively on the
Paññāsajātaka tales and their adaptations in Thai literature.17
Another popular genre is biography. There are extensive
biographies of the Buddha like the Sampiṇḍitamahānidāna, Sambhāravipāka, Sotatthakīmahānidāna, Jinamahānidāna, and Paṭhamasambodhi,
For narrative literature in India and Tibet see David Seyfort Ruegg’s
comprehensive ‘Remarks on the place of narrative in the Buddhist literatures
of India and Tibet’, in Alfredo Cadonna (ed.), India, Tibet, China: Genesis and
Aspects of Traditional Narrative (Florence: 1999, Orientalia Venetiana VII), pp.
193–227. It is perhaps indicative of the state of the field that neither the title
nor the collection makes any mention of the narrative literature of SouthEast Asia.
16
Anatole-Roger Peltier, La littérature Tai Khoeun/Tai Khoeun Literature
(Bangkok: EFEO and Social Research Institute Chiang Mai University, 1987);
ibid., Chao Bun Hlong (Chiang Mai: 1992); ibid, Sujavaṇṇa (Chiang Mai: 1993);
ibid., L’Engoulevent Blanc (Chiang Mai: Institute de Recherche sur la Culture,
Ministère de l’Information et de la Culture, 1995); ibid., Nang Phom Hom, ‘La
femme aux cheveux parfumés’ (Chiang Mai: 1995); ibid., The White Nightjar:
a Lao tale (Chiang Mai: Rombaiboon Sangha Bhandha, 1999); ibid., Kalè Ok
Hno: Tai Khün Classical Tale (Bangkok: SAC Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn
Anthropology Centre, July 1999), ibid., Nithan Sin ha/Le Conte des Cinq precepts.
A Tale of the Five Precepts, Bangkok 2001, ibid., Maghavā: Tai Khün Classic Tale
(Phitsanulok Naresuan University, 2006).
17
Niyada (Sarikabhuti) Lausunthorn, Paññāsa Jātaka: Its Genesis and Significance
to Thai Poetical Works [in Thai] (Bangkok: 2538 [1995]).
15
58
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
all in Pāli (but some, like Sotatthakīmahānidāna and Paṭhamasambodhi,
with important vernacular recensions). There are texts on Metteyya
(Maitreya), the next Buddha, alone, or as the first of the next ten
Buddhas. Narratives on future Awakened Ones constitute a family
called Anāgatavaṃsa or Dasabodhisatta-vyākaraṇa (or -uddesa). The ten
bodhisattas or future Buddhas share the apotropaic functions of the
present or past Buddhas:18
Any human beings (narajāti), women or men, who offer homage and
bow in respect to the ten Somdet Lord Buddhas along with the ten
Glorious Great Awakening Trees in the way which has been described,
those human beings, women or men, will gain fruit and benefit
(phalānisaṅs), to wit: they will not be born in hell for as long a period as
one hundred thousand æons (kapp), as a result of the positive attitude
(kuśalacetanā) of the person who recollects the ten Lord Buddhas.
Other biographies relate the ‘lives of the disciples’, whether
anthologized as in the Sāvakanibbāna or individually as in the
Sāriputtanibbāna or Moggallānanibbāna. Texts with titles ending
in -nibbāna – narratives built around Mahāvihāran canonical and
commentarial materials, as well as materials from non-Mahāvihāran
sources – constitute an important genre which has only begun to be
explored.19 Some, like the Bimbānibbāna – an account of the passing
away of the Buddha’s wife Yasodharā – are long and complex,
bracketing many jātakas and other narratives.
Finally, there is a rich and diverse collection of liturgical texts,
many still in use. These extol the power and virtues of Sakyamuni as
bodhisatta and as Buddha, as well as of the Buddhas of the past, the ten
future Buddhas, and the great disciples. They include the Sambuddhegāthā, Uppātasanti, Uṇhissavijaya, Mahādibbamanta and Dibbamanta,
and many variations upon the theme of itipi so bhagavā.20
Ānisaṅsa from the end of a Thai Anāgatavaṃsa (Bampen Rawin [ed.], Phra
Anakhotawong [Bangkok: Amaric Wichakan, 2542 (1999)], p. 77).
19
See François Lagirarde, ‘The Nibbāna of Mahākassapa the Elder: Notes
on a Buddhist Narrative Transmitted in Thai and Lao Literature’, in François
Lagirarde and Paritta Chalermpow Koanantakool (ed.), Buddhist Legacies in
Mainland Southeast Asia. Mentalities, Interpretations and Practices (Bangkok: EFEO
and Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, 2006), pp. 79–112.
20
See below, ‘The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology’, pp.
128–154. For Mahādibbamanta and Dibbamanta see Prapod Assavavirulhakarn,
18
The place of South-East Asia in Buddhist studies
59
Manuscripts
Literature is written down and transmitted through manuscripts
(and kept alive through recitation, sermon, and performance). The
number of manuscripts produced in South-East Asia is immense.
While the bulk of the surviving manuscripts date to the nineteenth
century, many older manuscripts have survived the ravages of time
and neglect. Oskar von Hinüber has demonstrated that certain Lanna
manuscripts are among the oldest available, such as the (sections of)
the Jātaka dated 1471, a Milindapañha dated 1495, and a Yamaka dated
1497, all kept at Wat Lai Hin in Lampang province.21
Up to the beginning of the last century, manuscripts were
produced throughout the region in two main palm-leaf formats,
which I shall provisionally call the ‘Burmese format’ and the ‘Central
format’.
The Burmese inscribe the leaves with small letters, from eight to
twelve lines to the page, and pile the leaves in a single stack held
together by two bamboo sticks placed in a pair of holes made in each
leaf for the purpose. The stack is placed between protective boards
and protected by a cloth wrapper. In the Central South-East Asian
tradition, the Mon, Tai (Thai, Lanna Thai, Tai Khün, Tai Lüe), Lao,
and Khmer inscribe the leaves in larger letters, on average five lines
per page. Twenty-four leaves make up one bundle (phūk), which
is tied by a string (sai sanong in Thai) looped through one (usually
the left-hand) of the two holes punched into the leaf.22 The bundles
are stacked together, placed between boards (Thai: mai prakap),
‘Mahādibbamanta – A Reflection on Thai Chanting Tradition’, in Olle
Qvarnström (ed.), Jainism and Early Buddhism: Essays in Honor of Padmanabh S.
Jaini, Part II (Fremont, California: Asian Humanities Press, 2002), pp. 379–406.
21
See Oskar von Hinüber, ‘On some colophons of old Lanna Pali manuscripts’,
in Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Thai Studies, 11–13 May, 1990,
Vol. IV (Kunming: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, n.d.), pp. 56–77.
22
The most common pagination system employs a series of twelve vowels
for each consonant, successively, starting with ka kā ki kī ku kū ke kai ko kau
kaṃ kaḥ, then kha khā, etc. One phūk consists of two twelve-vowel series (ka
and kha, ga and gha, etc.) and thus totals twenty-four leaves. The bundle may
also have opening and closing leaves bearing the title and blank unpaginated
leaves. A short work may have fewer than twenty-four leaves, but still will
be called a phūk. The page numbers (aṅkā) are inscribed in the middle of the
left margin of the verso.
60
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
protected by a cloth wrapper (Thai: pha ho khamphi), and wound with
a ribbon or cord. Long manuscripts like the Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā
or the Visuddhimagga may take up two or more such stacks. The
title, number of bundles, and number of pages may be inscribed on a
chalak, a title marker, made of metal, ivory, wood, cloth, or leather,
and inserted into the ribbon.23
What is the significance of the two different formats? In many
respects the Burmese format resembles that of Sri Lanka, but it also
resembles some North Indian Sanskrit manuscripts from the late Pāla
period. Does the Central format reflect historical exchanges between
the cultures that use it?24 In what ways does the Mon manuscript
tradition of Burma differ from that of the Mon in Thailand? What is
the format of Arakanese manuscripts? Can we develop a scientific
codicology that will distinguish the different methods of preparation
and inscription of the leaves, the different manuscript formats,
boards and decorations, cloth wrappers and ribbons? What about the
methods of storage, or the processes of gilding and lacquering?25 The
principles of page-numbering, of division into sections and parts, of
forming sets and collections, and ultimately libraries? The work that
has been published on the subject is scattered in different journals in
various languages, and much more remains to be done. We also need
to learn more about the paper manuscript traditions, the evolution
and variation of the folding books used throughout the region.
See Kongkaew Weeraprachak, Khamphi bai lan chabab luang nai samai
ratanakosin (Bangkok: The National Library-Fine Arts Department, 2527
[1984]).
24
This seems obvious. But the phūk format is not the only one used in central
South-East Asia: palm leaf manuscripts from the Mekong valley in the Thai
Noi script and Lao language use single stacks rather than phūks. Stacks are
also used in Indonesia, but with quite different formatting: see e.g. Annabel
Teh Gallop with Bernard Arps, Golden Letters: Writing Traditions of Indonesia/
Surat Emas: Budaya Tulis di Indonesia (London: The British Library/Jakarta:
Yayasan Lontar, 1991), Cat. nos. 47, 48. The format of South Indian copperplate grants presumably derives from the palm-leaf format. Note that the
binding ring runs through a hole in the left middle. Cf. also the format of the
‘oldest Pāli manuscript’ in South-East Asia, the silver plates from the Khin Ba
mound in Śrīkṣetra, in modern Burma.
25
The leaves of some Mon manuscripts in Thailand were gilt by Chinese
craftsmen.
23
The place of South-East Asia in Buddhist studies
61
Manuscripts were made to be used: to be read aloud in public
ceremonies and to be studied, sometimes as part of a curriculum of
monastic study. To produce a manuscript gained merit for the donor,
as did the production of a Buddha image. Manuscript colophons often
end with the Pāli phrase nibbānapaccayo hotu, ‘May [the production
of this manuscript] be a support [for the realization of] Nibbāna!’.
Colophons give historical, social and economic information, very
much like image dedication inscriptions.26
In Nepal and Tibet the ye dharmā hetuprabhavā verse is regularly
placed at the end of manuscripts. This is not done in South-East Asia,
where we often find a Pāli verse that reads:
akkharam ekam ekaṃ ca, buddharūpasamaṃ siyā
tasmā hi paṇḍito poso likheyya piṭakattayaṃ.
caturāsīti sahassāni, sambuddhā parimāṇakā
ṭhitā nāma bhavissanti, tiṭṭhante piṭakattaye.
Each and every letter
May equal a Buddha image
Therefore an intelligent person
Should write down the Three Baskets.
When the Three Baskets exist
There will exist indeed
Fully Awakened Ones
Eighty-four thousand in number.
This brings to mind the belief in Japan that one character of the Lotus
Sūtra is equal to an image of the Buddha.
Inscriptions
One of our most important sources, from the earliest period up to
the present, is inscriptions: records engraved primarily on stone, but
also on metal and in clay. The oldest known Pāli inscriptions come
not from India or Sri Lanka, but from South-East Asia, from two main
regions: the lower Irrawaddy valley in present-day Burma, site of the
kingdom of Śrīkṣetra, and the lower and middle Chao Phraya valley
See e.g. von Hinüber, ‘On some colophons of old Lanna Pali manuscripts’
(see n. 21).
26
62
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
in present-day Thailand, site of the kingdom of Dvāravatī.27 In both
cases the Pāli appears in association with the vernaculars Pyu (for
Śrīkṣetra) and Mon (for Dvāravatī), in a similar script, usually called
‘Pallava’ because of its resemblance to the script used by the Pallavas
in South India.
The Pāli inscriptions are excerpts from Sutta, Vinaya, and
Abhidhamma, as well as from non-canonical and even unknown works.
Several describe dependent arising (paṭicca-samuppāda) and the four
truths of the noble (ariya-sacca). The ye dhammā verse is widespread.
The inscriptions attest to the transmission of Theravādin versions
of Pāli texts and, presumably, the presence of Theravādin monastic
lineages in the region from the sixth century CE at the latest.
Other materials for the study of the evolution of the use of Pāli
include the Pāli inscriptions from Sukhothai up to the Ratanakosin
or Bangkok period: for example, the complete Dhammapada inscribed
with other texts in Khom script around the circumambulatory at
Phra Pathom Chedi (Braḥ Paṭhamacetiya) in the late nineteenth
century, or the Tipiṭaka and other texts etched in marble at Phuttha
Monthon (Buddhamaṇḍala) in the late twentieth century. Even the
later inscriptions are interesting from the standpoint of philology
and as examples of the public use of Pāli texts.
Vernacular inscriptions record the foundation and dedication
of religious images and structures and announce the aspirations of
the donors. Mon inscriptions on so-called ‘votive tablets’ from the
Khorat plateau or the Chi-Mun valley culture show that the tablets
were created as acts of merit (puṇya) and that in some cases the
donors wished to meet the future Buddha Metteyya (Maitreya). Stone
See below, ‘The Advent of Theravāda Buddhism to Mainland South-East
Asia’, pp. 105–111; Peter Skilling, ‘New Pāli Inscriptions from South-East Asia’,
Journal of the Pali Text Society XXIII (1997), pp. 123–157. The earliest inscribed
objects in the region come from sites like Khuan Luk Pat and Chansen in
Thailand and Óc Eo in southern Vietnam. These are seals inscribed with
personal names in Gupta and other scripts. There is also at least one Tamil
Brāhmī inscription. But it is likely that at least some of the seals are imports,
and only some of them pertain – possibly – to Buddhism. For Dvāravatī
see now Peter Skilling, ‘Dvāravatī: Recent Revelations and Research’, in
Dedications to Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas
Rajanagarindra on her 80th Birthday (Bangkok: The Siam Society, 2003). For the
early archaeology of Burma see now Elisabeth H. Moore, Early Landscapes of
Myanmar (Bangkok: 2007).
27
The place of South-East Asia in Buddhist studies
63
inscriptions from the region of Haribhuñjaya in the North, also in Mon,
take us up to about the twelfth century. They are rich in information
about religious practices. From the thirteenth century onwards we
begin to have inscriptions in Thai. I cite here an example of the latter,
from a set of five Buddha images cast in BE 1970 (CE 1426):28
Somdet Chao Phraya Ngua Phasum, reigning in Nandapūra, set up
(sthāpaka) five Holy Lords (sadet phra pen chao ha ong), that the Teaching
of the Buddha (sāsaṇā) might last five thousand years … in the Horse
Year, full moon, in the Lesser Saka Era (culasakarāja) 788, the Greater
Saka Era (mahāsakarāja) 1970, in the sixth month, a Wednesday (wan
budha), seventh watch (yāma), with the aspiration (prāthaṇā) to see
the Holy Lord Glorious Āriya Maitrī (phra śrīyāriyamaitrī chao).
There are many other inscriptions in Thai from which we can learn a
great deal about the religious, economic, and social life of the times.
Similarly, there is a corpus of Mon and Burmese inscriptions from
Burma, starting from the Pagan period (eleventh century on); there
are Khmer inscriptions from all periods, with those of the ‘postAngkor period’ being especially interesting for our studies; and there
are Lao inscriptions from the fourteenth century on.
Images
South-East Asia is a land of Buddha images. Production began by
the fifth century and has continued without stop ever since. The
Dvāravatī images are masterpieces in stone, stucco, and metal.
Unfortunately, modern art history has tended to explain the images
from a materialistic standpoint, without taking social or ritual
contexts into account. The artistic record is too often defined in
terms of ‘style’ and ‘influences’: South Indian (Amarāvatī), Deccan
(Ajanta caves), Sri Lankan, Gupta (Sarnath), and (later) Pāla. The
region is regarded as a passive recipient of mechanical transfers of
‘influence’, splashing the shores of South-East Asia in ‘waves’ from
century to century. But the medium and mechanism of influence
is rarely addressed. Some images may indeed be copies of famous
A.B. Griswold, ‘What are the dates of Sukhodaya art?’, in Kham banyai
samana boranakhadi samai sukhothai po.so. 2503 [Proceedings of the Seminar
on Archæology of the Sukhothai Period BE 2503] (Bangkok: The Fine Arts
Department, 2507 [1964]), p. 76.
28
64
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
‘Indian’ images, whether through the import of actual images (and
we know this happened) or through paintings and sketches (and
we can assume this happened), but the images of Dvāravatī and
Śrīvijaya are unique. Placed in an Indian museum or beside Indian
images, a Dvāravatī Buddha or Śrīvijayan bodhisattva would stand
out immediately and equal or surpass its fellows. Similarly, the baked
and unbaked clay ‘votive tablets’ of Dvāravatī and the Korat plateau
are thoroughly distinctive. They are contemporary to the tablets
of India but follow their own designs and iconographic programs.
Other noteworthy features of Dvāravatī culture are the large freestanding dhammacakkas and the so-called Banaspati image.
Although the Pāli inscriptions reveal a strong Theravādin
presence, other inscriptions and records make it clear that religious
society was pluralistic. Other Śrāvaka schools were certainly
active, along with practitioners of Mahāyāna and Tantra. Thus
we find images of Avalokiteśvara in both Śrīkṣetra and Dvāravatī.
Mahāyānist and Tantric iconography had an independent
development in Khmer culture (as also in insular South-East Asia),
which produced numerous images of Bhaiṣajyaguru, Avalokiteśvara,
Prajñāpāramitā, and Hevajra.29 Brahmanism flourished throughout
the region, and was often dominant in the courts, especially in
Cambodia. Numerous liṅgas of all sizes attest to the cult of Śiva
not only in Cambodia and Champa, but also at many central and
eastern Siamese sites. Images of deities like Sūrya and Viṣṇu
were set up at sites that circle the Gulf of Siam. These images are
also distinctive, the products of confident and mature craft and
iconographic traditions. The production of ‘brahmanical’ images
continued in the states of Sukhothai, Ayutthaya, and Bangkok,
where the appropriate cults were (and still are) carried out by
court brahmans.30
29
Although the transmission of Tantra in South-East Asia, in Siam, Champa,
the Malay peninsula, Cambodia, and well as in Insulinde, is well-attested, the
recent anthology Tantra in Practice contains only a few passing references to
South-East Asia, for example, ‘Cambodian inscriptions indicate the presence
of Hindu tāntrikas … there in the medieval period’: David Gordon White (ed.),
Tantra in Practice (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2000,
Princeton Readings in Religions), p. 8.
30
Brahmans are active today in the courts of Bangkok and Phnom Penh, and
brahman families, dwindling in number and influence, live in Phattalung and
Nakhon Si Thammarat in southern Thailand.
The place of South-East Asia in Buddhist studies
65
The production of images and the construction of shrines and
assembly halls all attest to a developed technology.31 The study of
technology in South-East Asia takes us back to the pre- and protohistoric periods, during which the exploitation of natural resources,
the casting of metal, and the fabrication of tools, pottery, and
ornaments reached a high level of competence, as seen, for example
in the artefacts from the ‘Ban Chiang’ culture. The Dvāravatī period
saw the further development of irrigation, agriculture, trade, and
architecture. From then on material culture maintained the highest
quality: the stucco work of Dvāravatī and the bronze casting of
Sukhothai, Lanna, and Ayutthaya are second to none. Complex
calendrical systems were developed, as seen in the datings given in
chronicles and inscriptions.32
Ritual
Images require rituals, as does the monastic life, and South-East Asia
is alive with ritual: the consecration of Buddha images, the burying
of large stone balls known as luk nimit to demarcate and validate
a monastic boundary (sīmā), the raising of the cho fa or finial of an
assembly hall. One of the chants used in long-life rituals, from Chiang
Mai to Phnom Penh, is a Pāli verse version of the Uṇhissavijaya. At
the traditional new year sand cetiyas are built and decorated with
paper banners and umbrellas. The transmission of ritual was very
much oral and communal. Even today in Cambodia the consecration
of a Buddha image involves the whole village, and the ceremony lasts
throughout the night.
Chronicles, inscriptions, and present practice attest to the
performance (mainly, but not exclusively, by monks) of rituals for
the benefit of the state accompanied by the recitation of Pāli texts,
from the Maṅgala-sutta to the Buddhavaṃsa to the Mahādibbamanta
(a collection both in Pāli, Thai, and combinations of the two).33 Can
the Buddhism of South-East Asia be described as a type of ‘stateAn interesting question that merits investigation is the origin and evolution
of the practice of gilding manuscripts and images, since it involves natural
resources, trade, and technology.
32
It is perhaps symptomatic that the descriptions of both the ‘Buddhist’ and
Dai calendars in Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A Manual (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard Unoperiversity Asia Center, 1998), p. 194) are inaccurate.
33
See n. 19.
31
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
protection Buddhism’? This is but one of the aspects of ritual that
merits serious investigation.
IV
So far I have given a survey, a general inventory, of some of the
materials available for the study of Buddhism in South-East Asia. This
is only a sampling, and we urgently need something much better:
a comprehensive and up-to-date review in English, a handbook
or even an encyclopædia, that will put the information before an
international audience. This will be a step towards bringing SouthEast Asia into the mainstream of Buddhist studies.
Another step that must be taken is to liberate South-East Asia
from the ‘Theravādin box’ – in fact to liberate Buddhist studies from
the inappropriate imposition of terms like ‘Theravādin’, ‘Hīnayāna’,
‘Mahāyāna’, ‘Vajrayāna’. There is no denying that Buddhism evolved
in relation to the nikāyas and yānas, but this must not obscure the
fact that nikāyas and yānas are peripheral or even irrelevant to many
aspects of this evolution. That is, the nikāya and yāna brushes should
be used sparingly, only when appropriate: in relation to monasticism,
interest groups and patronage, or philosophy and tenets.34
An alternative to studying international Buddhism by nikāya
and yāna is to examine broader themes, or what I call ‘mainstream
practices’: shared elements (practices, developments, mechanisms,
ideologies) within Buddhism as an organism (not monolith).
Homage to the Three Gems is a mainstream practice. Practice of
dāna, śīla, bhāvanā, of śīla, samādhi, and prajñā – however they may
be defined – are mainstream practices. Aspiration (praṇidhāna,
praṇidhi, patthāna), whether individual or group, whether recited or
inscribed, is a mainstream practice. Worship of relics and erection
of caityas are mainstream practices (rejected or at least contested
by some dissidents at an early date, with little evident success).
The production and worship of images is a mainstream practice.
The construction of buildings, mainly but not exclusively monastic
(residences, libraries, assembly-halls, worship halls), is a mainstream
One author who carefully defines his field of investigation as a set of ideas
within Theravāda and then remains within it is Steven Collins, in his Nirvana
and other Buddhist Felicities (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
34
The place of South-East Asia in Buddhist studies
67
practice. The (largely) monastic study of grammar and writing skills
is a mainstream practice. The quest for puṇya, the mobilization of
the faithful through the promise of rewards or blessings (ānuśaṃsā,
ānisaṃsā), and the offering of protection (rakṣā) are mainstream
mechanisms or ideologies.35
We need to recognize that Buddhism in South-East Asia was
produced by people, individuals and societies, who made choices,
who made decisions, and shaped their own societies. Buddhism did
not float in on a merchant ship as part of a cargo of ‘Indian influence’.
As pointed out by Prapod, Buddhism did not reach South-East Asia at
one single place or one single time, or enjoy a straightforward linear
development as a transplanted branch of Sri Lankan Theravāda.36
Rather, Buddhism is a complex of interest groups, always fluid,
constantly interacting with the natural, social, and economic
environment.
What are these interest groups? One of the most important is
the laity: women and men eager for merit, eager for blessings and
protection, eager for education, guidance, and instruction to help
them negotiate the present life with a view to the next, eager for
success, eager for status amongst their peers. Monastic interest
groups are a constant but diverse factor: with some monastics devoted
to the spiritual life, some to education, liturgy, ritual, careers, some
living apart in the forest, some jockeying for power and patronage.
Other groups to consider are crafts-people, merchants, members of
the court, local and regional power elites, in search of blessings and
benefit, of solutions to their problems or to the human condition.
Our aim, then, should be to learn more about these groups and
their practices, through study of the records they or others have left.
Topics to explore include education and the media of instruction
and propagation of Buddhist practices and ideals, which lead us to
the investigation of orality/aurality, of narration and performance,
of relations between text and manuscripts. Inscriptions, colophons,
and other records encode economic information, but we have
not yet found our Gernet. The study of South-East Asia’s literary
heritage, whether in Pāli and or in the vernaculars, can amplify
Not a few of these ideologies are shared, or at least have structural
counterparts, in other Indian religions, and indeed in religions in general.
36
See Prapod Assavavirulhakarn, The Ascendency of Theravāda Buddhism in
Southeast Asia, PhD Thesis, University of California at Berkeley, 1990.
35
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
our understanding of the definition of Buddhavacana and Tipiṭaka,
of standards of authenticity and validity. The ‘lives’ of images and
relics, their legends and ‘miracle tales’ and the practices associated
with them should be compared with the culture of images in Khotan,
Tibet, China, and Japan.
Many more questions can be asked. Our knowledge is always
incomplete, our conclusions are always in need of reformulation, our
methodology is always in need of revision. I hope in this essay to have
pointed out some of the gaps in the study of Buddhism, to have given
at least a hint of the rich resources available for the study of SouthEast Asian Buddhism, and to have made some suggestions about
how to look at not only South-East Asian Buddhism but Buddhism
in general.
5
Some literary references in ‘La Grande Inscription
d’Angkor’ (IMA 38)
T
HE LONGEST OF THE GROUP OF INSCRIPTIONS KNOWN TO
scholars as ‘Inscriptions modernes d’Angkor’ has been dubbed
‘la Grande Inscription d’Angkor Vat’, and assigned the number IMA
38. Dating to Mahāsakkarāj 1623 (CE 1701), it is an extraordinary
document. It has been translated and edited several times.1 Fiftythree lines long and composed in 152 verses using three different
metres, it is indeed a poem, a very human document, rich in metaphor
I have consulted the following:
A. Bastian, ‘Translation of an Inscription copied in the temple of Nakhon
Vat or the City of Monasteries, near the capital of ancient Kambodia’, Journal
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. XXXVI, Part I, nos. I to III (1867: published
Calcutta, 1868), pp. 76–83.
Étienne Aymonier, ‘Les inscriptions modernes d’Angkor Vat, Preah Peân
Bakkan et la Grande Inscription’, extrait du Journal Asiatique (Paris: 1900), pp.
52–70.
Mahā Bidūr Krassem, Silacārik nagar vatt/Inscriptions modernes d’Angkor
(originally published Phnom Penh, 1938; repr. with a new preface by Saveros
Pou, Paris: Centre de Documentation et de Recherche sur la Civilisation
Khmère, 1984).
Saveros Pou, ‘Inscriptions modernes d’Angkor 34 et 38’, Bulletin de l’École
française d’Extrême-Orient LVII (1985), pp. 283–353.
1
69
70
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
and literary allusion. The author – ‘grand dignitaire du rang de uk ñā
jouissant de la faveur royale, et upāsak remarquablement pieux’ –2 is
also responsible for an earlier inscription, dated Mahāsakkarāj 1618
(CE 1696).3
The first section of IMA 38 (vv. 1–45) is in the Brahmagīti metre,
as announced in verse 3. The author pays homage to the Buddha and
other deities, and requests a panoply of blessings. He identifies himself
as one Jaiya Nan gives a brief account of his career – his rise in the court
from Senāpati to Yamarāj (vv. 23–26). He describes his meritorious
deeds (vv. 32–44), and deeply laments the recent loss of his wife (for
whom he built a caitya) and the earlier loss of his children (for which
see IMA 34). The second part (vv. 46–104), in the Bhujaṅgalīlā metre, as
announced in verse 46, lists the negative conditions the author wishes
to avoid. The third part (vv. 105–152) is in Kākagati metre, as stated
in verse 105. The second and third parts are an effusion of aspiration
directed towards future lives, a verse inventory of the dangers and
ills that the author wants to avoid and the felicities that he wants to
obtain, with the ultimate aim of meeting Maitreya and receiving from
him the prediction of his own future Buddhahood.
Some of the literary references in IMA 38 are to well-known texts
or traditions: to Nāgasena and King Milinda of the Milindapañha (v.
116), to figures from the Jātakas of the ‘Great Chapter’ (Mahānipāta)
or ‘Ten Jātakas’ (Dasajāti) such as Temiya (v. 124), Mahosadha (v. 125),
and Vessantara with Maddī, Jālī, and Kaṇhā (vv. 126–127).4 There are
references to Rāma (Rāmadeba, vv. 133, 137), to Śrīvikrama (v. 134),
to Hanumān (v. 137), and to Phra Ketumālā, son of Indra, legendary
founder of Angkor Wat (vv. 138–139).
In this paper I will deal briefly with three references, the first to
the Lokaneyya-ppakaraṇa, the second to the story of Nāṅ Bhogavatī,
and the third to Jotika-seṭṭhī.
Uraisi Warasarin, Charuk nakhon wat samai lang phra nakhon kh.s. 1566–kh.s.
1747 (Bangkok: 2542 [1999]), romanized text pp. 117–138, Thai translation pp.
170–180.
2
Pou, ‘Inscriptions modernes d’Angkor 34 et 38’, p. 283
3
This is IMA 34. It seems impossible to determine whether or not Jaiya
Nan composed the inscriptions himself or had them composed by another,
perhaps a court poet. Given the unique and personal style of the texts, it
seems sufficient to treat Jaiya Nan as the author, whether direct or indirect.
4
The inscription gives Khmer spellings of such names, throughout. I give
standardized Pāli or Sanskrit spellings.
Some literary references in the ‘Grande Inscription d’Angkor’
71
1. A sequence of events from the Lokaneyya-ppakaraṇa5
120.
(37) mūy sūm prāthnā
thmeñjai parass
nandīyakkh nirabhyas
toy pārmmī thlai
tūc braḥ kāl jā
chloey prisnā phoṅ
prajñā srec srass
121.
hey biy noḥ sraec
rvouc jā prabai
saṃṇaks nū jrai
kruoñ krā[p] khlăp khlāc
kằr āyūss staec
nāṃ nundiyăgg
jā paribār naiy
122.
(38) rīeṅ mok bī noḥ
abhaṃṅgirāj
jhmoḥ virojarāj
hov mnāj yaksā
cằp staec mūy jhmoḥ
hey jhnaḥ staec mūy
braḥ nik eṅ āc
123.
naeḥ sratiy kằt
bi toem mak n”ā
croen hnāss sabv grā
ūpparāj (39) eṅ e
bvuṃ pān rīep rằp
poe srati iss
paṅhey pān jā
120.
May I make this wish: to have decisive wisdom as a precious
pāramī
As did the Lord [braḥ, the Bodhisatta] when as the man
Dhanañjaya He fully solved the riddle of Nandīyakkha
without fear.
121.
When this was accomplished, the King’s life was saved
And he escaped to flourish. [Dhanañjaya] led Nandīyakkha,
Who dwelt under the fig tree, to join the [royal] retinue,
And [the latter] bowed down deeply in awe.
122.
After that, [Dhanañjaya] captured a king named Abhaṅgī
And then defeated a king named Virocanarāja, confident
that he was able
To call the mighty Yakṣa [Nandīyakkha] [to assist him].
The text is from Uraisi, Charuk nakhon wat. Figures in parentheses refer to
line numbers of the inscription. I am grateful to Santi Pakdeekham for help
with the translation. The text poses many problems and a new reading is a
desideratum.
5
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
123.
This is an abbreviated account, it cannot be an orderly
narration
From the beginning on: if recounted in full it is extremely
long, every time.
In the end [Dhanañjaya] became Uparāja.
The references are to a sequence of events in the Dhanañjayapaṇḍitajātaka or Lokaneyya-ppakaraṇa, a fascinating South-East Asian Pāli text
that has been edited in Pāli by Jaini and published in a Thai version
by Niyada,6 but otherwise has not received the attention it deserves.7
In this apocryphal jātaka, which is 202 pages long in Jaini’s edition
and is richly ornamented with gnomic verses drawn from both Pāli
and Sanskrit nīti traditions, the Bodhisatta is reborn as Dhanañjaya.
Through various vicissitudes he displays moral rectitude, intelligence,
and resourcefulness.
‘Solving the riddles of Nandīyakkha’ refers to the events related
in Chapter 2 of the Pāli: only the seven-year-old Dhanañjaya is able
to solve a riddle put to the king of Korabya by Nandīyakkha at the
foot of the fig tree (nigrodha = Khmer jrai, Thai sai) where he dwells.8
If the riddle were not answered, the king would have forfeited his
life. Nandīyakkha receives the five precepts from Dhanañjaya under
the fig tree, and follows him back to the city, where Dhanañjaya
establishes him in a great sālā tree. The victory over Abhaṅgirāja is
related in Chapters 29 and 31 to 32 of the Pāli, while the defeat of
Virojarāja – with the aid of Nandīyakkha – occurs in Chapters 33 to 35.9
Padmanabh S. Jaini (ed.), Lokaneyyappakaraṇaṃ (London: The Pali Text
Society, 1986, Pali Text Society Text Series No. 175); Niyada Lausoonthorn,
Thananchaibanditchadok: phap sathon phumpanya khong chau ayutthaya
(Bangkok: 2542 [1999]) (see review by Peter Skilling, Aséanie 4 [Dec. 1999],
pp. 206–208).
7
Aymonier (‘Les inscriptions modernes’, p. 65, n. 2) noted that the reference
is to ‘un Jātaka qui est évidemment traduit en langue cambodgienne’, and
that Thmeñjai ‘paraît être la corruption du sanscrit Dhanañjaya’. But he
confused Dhanañjaya with a roguish character of similar name, popular in
both Cambodia and Siam, in the latter country known as Si Thanonchai (for
whom see Kanyarat Vechasat, Srithanonchai nai usakhaney/Srithanonchai in
Southeast Asia, Bangkok, 2541 [1998]). The confusion carries over into Pou,
‘Inscriptions modernes d’Angkor 34 et 38’, p. 322, n. (88).
8
The Thai version presented by Niyada does not have chapter divisions. The
corresponding narrative starts on p. 114.
9
Niyada pp. 377 foll. and 436 foll., respectively.
6
Some literary references in the ‘Grande Inscription d’Angkor’
73
The Pāli and Thai versions give the name of the king as Virodharāja,
but given the sequence of events and the fact that j and dh can be
easily confused in the Khmer/Khom script, there is no doubt that the
two are the same. At one point in the story the Bodhisatta is appointed
Uparāja or viceroy, as mentioned in verse 123.
The sequence of events in Jaiya Nan’s verses agrees perfectly with
the Pāli and Thai versions of the Lokaneyya-ppakaraṇa. We do not,
however, know what source Jaiya Nan used or what versions, written
or oral, were available to him. Today the Lokaneyya-ppakaraṇa is known
in Cambodia in both Pāli and Khmer versions, as may be seen from the
titles listed by Jacob under Dhmeñ Jāy and Lokanay.10 At the end of the
eighteenth century, in 1794, a verse version was composed by Nong
(Ukñā Braḥ Ghlaṃṅ Naṅ, also known by several other titles including
Ukñā Vaṅs Sārabejñ Naṅ), an outstanding poet and scholar of Khmer,
Thai, and Pāli.11 Nong was an important intellectual during three
reigns, and was responsible for the education of several princes; it is
interesting that he chose to render this particular work into verse.12
The Lokaneyya-ppakaraṇa is well represented in Thai manuscript
collections, both in Pāli and in Thai. There do not seem to be any
literary or poetic versions, and I do not know of any inscriptional
references. There is also a Thai Khün version.13
2. The story of Nāṅ Bhogavatī
132.
10
khñuṃ sūm mān mnāj
anubhābbh toy caṅ
ṛddhi aṃmnā(43)j
khñuṃ sūm soel jup
Judith M. Jacob, The Traditional Literature of Cambodia: A Preliminary Guide
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, London Oriental Series Volume 40)
pp. 105, 112–113. It seems as if all the Lokanaya-° titles on pp. 112–113 refer to
the same work, that by Nong. See also PLCS 2.192 and IPMC 1 pp. 344–345.
11
Jacob, Traditional Literature of Cambodia, pp. 78–79. Naṅ’s date of birth
does not seem to be known. Jacob gives 1858 for his death, but in the same
paragraph states that he was sent to Bangkok in 1860. See also, in Thai, Santi
Pakdeekham, Kawi si kamphuchathet: khwam riang wa duay prawat kawi khmen
(Bangkok: 2543 [2000]), pp. 49–61.
12
With the caveat that more than one person may have borne the title, as
proposed by Michael Vickery, ‘Qui était Naṅ/Nong, savant(s) cambodgien(s)
des XVIIIe/XIXe siècles?’, Asie du Sud-est et Monde Insulinde 13.1–4 (1982), pp.
81–87 (not seen).
13
Jaini, Lokaneyyappakaraṇaṃ, p. xi, n. 2.
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
chut tūj braḥ aṅg
jup nāṅ bhaggavatiy
braḥ isūr staec draṅ
May I have power, magical potency, might, and authority as I wish.
May I have the ability to create, as effectively as the Holy One, the
Holy Īśvara, [when] he created Lady Bhagavatī.
The reference here is to the story of Nāṅ Bhogavatī. Īśvara wants
a beautiful woman, intending to use her skin to create the earth.
Nārāyaṇa tells him not to worry, slaps his thigh, and a gloriously
beautiful maiden appears, Lady (nāṅ) Bhogavatī by name. Seven days
later, with great faith and delight, with the wish to perform charity
(dāna) and fulfill the perfections (pāramī), she offers her entire body,
flesh, and blood. Īśvara accepts her offer with pleasure, and as a result
the earth, plants, and all creatures come into being, all through the
dāna of Nāṅ Bhogavatī. Her skin becomes the surface of the earth, her
bones become the mountains, her blood becomes the waters of the
oceans and rivers, and so on.
The story of Nāṅ Bhogavatī is widespread in the south of Thailand,
that is to say the central Malay peninsula, both in manuscripts and
in ritual texts. Wannakam thong thin phak tai lists the following five
manuscripts; all are white accordion books (but khao) with the text in
kap verse, inscribed in Thai letters:14
Nāṅ bogaḥvaḥ, from Kanchanadit, Surat Thani province
Nāṅ bogaḥvaḥti, from Ko Samui, Surat Thani province
Nāṅ bhogavatī, from Songkhla province
Nāṅ bhogavatī, from Songkhla province
Nāṅ Bhogaḥvaḥtī, source unknown.
Chaiwut Phiyakun has published a further manuscript from Patthalung province.15 He gives a brief introduction, a modern Thai rendition,
a transcription of the original, and a glossary. This recension, written
Sathaban rachapat phak tai, Wannakam thong thin phak tai: sathanaphab kan
suksa lae laeng sup khon (Nakhon Si Thammarat: September 2540 [1997]), pp.
230–231.
15
Chaiwut Phiyakun, Kan pariwat wannakam thong thin phak tai praphet nangsu
but ruang nang phokhawadi chabap tambon na tom, amphoe muang phattalung,
changwat phattalung ([Songkhla]: Sathaban Taksinkhadisuksa Mahawitthayalai
Thaksin, 2542 [1999]) (82 pp.).
14
Some literary references in the ‘Grande Inscription d’Angkor’
75
in black ink in a white accordion book, was copied down by Mr. Khlai
Nuanchim at the age of eighty-one, from Thursday, the eighth day of
the bright half of the ninth month to Thursday of the tenth month,
dragon year, BE 2504 [CE 1961].16 The text is composed in verse, in the
metres kap surankhanang 28 and kap chabang 16.
The ‘Khlai Nuanchim’ text falls naturally into two main parts,
followed by several short passages. The first part, described in
brief above, tells the story of Nāṅ Bhogavatī and the creation of the
world. It is interspersed with Buddhistic references, for example to
the ‘Seven Books of the Abhidhamma’ (Phra aphitham chet khamphi)
and to the five Buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa. Indeed, Nāṅ Bhogavatī’s
sacrifice is couched in Buddhistic terms: it is a requisite (sambhāra), a
perfection (pāramī), a gift (dāna). At the end of this section there is a
simple line-drawn cross-section of the universe.
The next section is a new text, opening with an exhortation to
listen and words of homage to the Buddha (Somdet phra chao). It makes
no mention of our noble goddess, but rather describes the universe,
from the levels of fire, air, and water with their measurements in
yojana, to the seven great fish (I cannot find the fourth, however,
unless Ubpānnardo [sic] is to be counted as two), the Nāga Kings,
Phraya Yama and the four Lokapāla. Narrative elements are woven
into the cosmology: accounts of the floating of the golden tray after
Sujātā’s offering of madhupāyāsa, and of how the Lokapāla keep
records of good and bad deeds. Here and there the text will assert
that this or that statement is drawn from or according to ‘the Pāli’.
After this come three short ritual texts: ‘Ritual verses [for
recitation when] floating [offerings] in a kratong [banana-leaf boat]
in a canal or river’ (khatha loi thong nai khlong mae nam), ritual verses
for the harvest (ruab khao), and ritual verses for calling the female
spirit of the rice plants (tham khwan khao).
Thus the manuscript contains five independent texts. Whether or
not these texts are normally associated in manuscript traditions can
only be determined when other manuscripts have been made available
and studied. At any rate, because Nāṅ Bhogavatī sacrificed herself
to create the world, she is invoked in rituals related to the earth.
The ‘Encyclopædia of Thai Culture, Southern Region’ cites verses
paying homage to the earth deity (wai phra phum) or Nāṅ Bhogavatī
As noted by the editor (p. 3), the year is incorrect, and should be 2508
[1965].
16
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
obtained from Mr. Phet Kankaew of Tambon Khlong Chanak, Muang
district, Surat Thani province and a pleng bok of Mr. Noi Fongmani of
Tambon Laem, Hua Sai district, Nakhon Si Thammarat province. Lady
Bhogavatī also receives homage in tham khwan khao ceremonies. When
performers set up a stage for a shadow play or Manora dance, they
must first pay homage to Nāṅ Bhogavatī.17 In addition, the goddess is
invoked in trance-healing ceremonies known as to khreum.18
Bhogavatī’s presence in southern Thailand is thus not negligible.
According to the information collected here – which can only be
preliminary – she is known in ritual or manuscript in Songkhla,
Patthalung, Nakhon Si Thammarat, and Surat Thani provinces. There
is evidence for Lady Bhogavatī in other parts of Thailand; we know
too little about ritual or about old narrative traditions, and further
traces of may be found.19 A recent thesis (Rawipim 2544) presents
a manuscript from Trat province in the East, and Trisin (2547) has
studied several central Thai manuscripts. So far I have not been able
to locate the story of Nang Bhogavatī in Khmer manuscript collections
or ritual tradition, but here again, how much do we really know?
What is the origin of the story? There can be little doubt that
the original name of the goddess is Bhagavatī. Should we seek her
origins in India, perhaps in local legends, perhaps in the South,
rather than in the classical traditions of the North? Or should we
allow that legends can originate and develop outside of India, and
propose a Thai pedigree? Or could the goddess be Khmer? The only
hint for this lies in her name. The Khmer pronunciation of Bhagavatī
is Bhokhawadei, which might explain the Thai form Bhogavatī
(pronounced Phokhawadee).
The second part of the ‘Khlai Nuanchim’ manuscript assures
the reader (rather, listeners) that the text has been translated into
Thai from the ‘Pāli of Burma’ and, as noted above, refers several
times to ‘Pāli’ sources. A very cursory enquiry has not uncovered
17
Udom Nuthong, in Saranukrom watthanatham thai phak tai, Vol. 12 (Bangkok:
5 December, 2542 [1999]), pp. 5847–5848.
18
Phinyo Chittham and Sutthiwong Phongpaibun, in Saranukrom watthanatham
thai phak tai, Vol. 6 (Bangkok: 5 December, 2542 [1999]), pp. 2828–2842.
19
In the original version of this article, published in 2001, I stated that ‘In
contrast the story does not seem to be known, and Nāṅ Bhogavatī does not
seem to have any ritual role, in other parts of Thailand. But since we know
so little about ritual or about old narrative traditions, it is quite possible that
evidence to the contrary may be brought forth.’
Some literary references in the ‘Grande Inscription d’Angkor’
77
any references to the Bhogavatī story in Burma but, once again, we
know very little about such traditions, and the story might be Mon
(which might explain the pronunciation). But I do not believe this
to be relevant to Bhogavatī, since the second part is an independent
text. The cosmology of this text could perhaps be traced to a Burmese
tradition, but on the whole it seems to be a recitative presentation
of cosmological materials shared by Theravādin tradition in general.
When the author refers his ideas to the ‘Pāli’ this does not mean that
he has translated his text from a Pāli original. Here ‘Pāli’ does not
mean ‘canon’ or ‘language’: rather, it reaches beyond these meanings
to signify ‘authoritative’ or ‘traditional’ text, or even authoritative
and traditional lore. Cosmology pervades the Buddhist literature of
Siam, not only in the ‘Traibhūmi genre’ – which is well-represented in
Southern manuscripts20 – but also in chronicles (tamnan) and legends.
It is also the very basis of everyday ideology and the psychology of
daily practice.
3. Jotika-seṭṭhī
141. khñuṃ sūm drābv dhan
kaew mni jot jraḥ
caem braṃh beñ phdaḥ
tūc jotikasesṭhi.
mās prāk ratn tan
khīen brae kāsā
būk phtān manaḥ
May I have property and wealth, gold, silver, and valuable
gems;
Luminous, pure jewels, along with silken cloths and
weaves,
Carpets, filling the house, soft beddings, magnificent
canopies, like Jotika Seṭṭhī.21
Jotika Seṭṭhī was a gentleman of fabulous wealth in the time of the
Buddha; he lived in Rājagaha and was associated with King Bimbisāra.
See Sathaban rachapat phak tai, Wannakam thong thin phak tai, pp. 218–219.
Like Pou (‘Inscriptions modernes d’Angkor 34 et 38’, p. 323, n. 115), I am
unable to understand manaḥ, which Uraisi interprets as from Sanskrit manas
but omits in her translation: see Uraisi Warasarin, Phochananukrom sap charuk
nakhon wat samai lang phra nakhon (Bangkok, 2542 [1999], p. 152). Olivier de
Bernon (personal communication, October 2001) states that ‘manaḥ n’est
sans doute qu’un mot euphonique sans signification précise’, and derives it
not from Sanskrit but from m + naḥ = m + nass.
20
21
78
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
He was a devotee of the Buddha and eventually abandoned the world
and became an arhat. He is not mentioned in the Pāli Tipiṭaka; his
story is handed down in the Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā.22 The Traiphum
phra ruang devotes a long passage to Jotika,23 whose name became
the epitome of wealth and opulence. The aspiration to be as rich as
Jotika is expressed in another ‘Inscription moderne d’Angkor’, dated
Mahāsakkarāj 1669 (CE 1747).24 An inscription from Kyaikmaraw,
eleven miles south-east of Moulmein in modern Burma, records a
dedication by the ruling queen of Pegu, Bañā Thau in CE 1455. At
the end the donor expresses the wish that those who uphold the
dedication, whether men or women, should know great bliss in
the physical worlds and beyond. ‘In the physical worlds, may they
be born as the four rich men Jotika, Meṇḍaka, Dhanañjaya, and
Puṇṇa.’25 In Ayutthaya the trope was carried into administrative
ranks, in the form of the title Luang Choteuk Ratchasetthi, head of
the left harbour department (krom ta sai), with a sakdina (court rank)
of 1400.26 The position was responsible for trade with the Far East
from the Ayutthaya to the Bangkok periods, up to the nineteenth
century.
The wish to be reborn with qualities personified by the great
listeners (sāvaka, sāvikā) of the Buddha or other literary figures
is common. At the end of a Thai-language Anāgatavaṃsa the wish
is expressed to have the intelligence of Nāgasena and the ability
PTS IV 199–221. See G.P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names (New
Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1983 [1937] ), Vol. I, pp. 968–970.
23
Phochananukrom sap wannakhadi thai samai sukhothai traiphumikatha, chabap
ratchabanditayasathan (Bangkok: 2544 [2001]), pp. 142–153, with appendix on
Jotika, pp. 677–678; Frank E. Reynolds and Mani B. Reynolds (tr.), Three Worlds
According to King Ruang: A Thai Buddhist Cosmology (Berkeley: Asian Humanities
Press, 1982, Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series Volume IV), pp. 189–200.
24
IMA 39: see Aymonier, p. 34; Mahā Bidūr Krassem, Silacārik, p. 117 (line 75);
Uraisi Warasarin, Charuk nakhon wat, text p. 144, Thai translation p. 182.
25
H.L. Shorto, ‘The Kyaikmaraw Inscriptions’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental
and African Studies XXI, part 2, (1958), pp. 361–367. The other three were also
rich merchants (seṭṭhī, Mon saṭhī) of Rājagaha.
26
See e.g. Robert Lingat (ed.), Pramuankotmai ratchakan thi 1 chulasakarat
1166 phim tam chabap luang tra 3 duang, Vol. 1 (repr. Bangkok: Ongkankha
khong Khuru Sapha, 2537 [1994]), p. 234, and Bampen Rawin (ed.), Phra
Anakhotawong (Bangkok: Amarin Press, 2542 [1999], Prachum phongsawadan
chabap rat) p. 87.
22
Some literary references in the ‘Grande Inscription d’Angkor’
79
to practice charity like Vessantara. Other examples occur in the
colophons of Burmese manuscripts, expressed in Pāli verse.27
Aspiration (patthanā, paṇidhāna, paṇidhi) is a vital feature of
everyday Buddhist psychology. On the evidence of literature and
early Indian inscriptions this has always been the case. In Mahāyāna
ritual and rhetoric it is absolutely central, for example in the form
of the famous Bhadracāripraṇidhāna. Yet the concept seems to receive
little if any mention in Buddhist studies. A study of the historical and
social function of aspiration, in conjunction with another essential
but generally ignored concept, from which it is inseparable, that of
ānisaṅsa or reward, is certainly a desideratum.
27
Burmese Manuscripts Part 2, compiled by Heinz Braun and Daw Tin Tin Myint
with an introduction by Heinz Bechert (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1985,
VOHD Band XXIII), Cat. no. 359, p. 193, colophon to Madhurasavāhinīvatthu
dated Sakkarāj 1230 (CE 1869); Burmese Manuscripts Part 3, Catalogue Numbers
432–735, compiled by Heinz Braun assisted by Anne Peters, edited by Heinz
Bechert (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1996, VOHD Band XXIII, 3), Cat. no.
432, pp. 3–4, colophon to Dhammapadaṭṭhakathā nissaya dated to Sakkarāj 1150
CE 1789); Burmese Manuscripts Part 4, Catalogue Numbers 736–900, compiled by
Anne Peters, edited by Heinz Bechert (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000,
VOHD Band XXIII, 4), colophon to Bhikkhunīpātimokkha, Cat. no. 755, p. 24,
dated Sakkarāj 1186 (CE 1824).
6
Ārādhanā Tham: ‘Invitation to teach the Dhamma’
I
I
N SIAM TODAY, BEFORE A MONK PREACHES THE DHAMMA, A LAY
follower recites a verse inviting him to do so. The verse and the
ritual act are called ārādhanā tham: ‘invitation [to teach] the Dhamma’.1
In Suat mon plae chabap ho phra samut wachirayan, a collection of Pāli
chants with Thai translations dating to the first or second reign of
the Ratanakosin Era (that is, the late eighteenth or early nineteenth
century) which was published in book form in RE 128 (CE 1910), it
appears as follows:2
brahmā ca lokādhipatī sahampati katañjalī adhivaraṃ ayācatha
santīdha sattā apparajakkhajātikā desetu dhammaṃ anukamp’ imaṃ
pajaṃ.
This practice does not seem to be followed in Sri Lanka or Burma.
Suat mon plae chabap ho phra samut wachirayan, reprinted for the royally
sponsored cremation of Phra Mahārajamaṅgalatilaka (Bunruan Puṇṇako) and
Phra Debavisuddhiñāṇa (Ubon Nandako) at Wat Thepsirin (Debaśirindrāvāsa),
25 December 2542 [CE 1999], pp. 336–337.
1
2
80
Ārādhanā Tham: ‘Invitation to teach the Dhamma’
81
Brahmā Sahampati, Lord of the Universe
Palms pressed in homage, beseeched the pre-eminent one:
‘Here there are beings with little dust in their eyes:
May the Dhamma be taught: take pity on these beings.’
The classical source of the verse is the Buddhavaṃsa, where it is the
first stanza.3 The Buddhavaṃsa version differs in two places: in line b
it has anadhivaraṃ in place of adhivaraṃ, and in line d it has desehi in
place of desetu.4 Both versions of the verse are unmetrical: line b, with
twelve syllables in Suat mon plae and thirteen in Buddhavaṃsa and line
c with thirteen syllables. Line c can easily be improved by eliding the
final long ‘a’ in sattā and the following initial ‘a’ in appa-° to make sant’
īdha sattā ’pparajakkhajātikā. This gives us three Indravaṃśa lines (a,
c, d).
The variant form of the verb in line d – desehi/desetu – need not
detain us, since it does not affect the metre. It is the variant in line
b that poses a problem. Which is more appropriate, adhi-vara, ‘preeminent’ or an-adhi-vara, ‘unexcelled’, ‘without superior’?
Either form is possible semantically. One might argue that
anadhivara is excessive, but our literature delights in superlatives,
especially as epithets for the Exalted One, the one beyond epithets.
Neither adhi-vara or its negative an-adhi-vara seem to be attested in
classical or Buddhist Sanskrit (the latter in the sense of the various
Sanskrit[s] used by Buddhists, rather than the Middle Indic dialect
alone), so no help is forthcoming from these sources. (An)adhivara
may be unique to Pāli, but given the fact that so many Buddhist
Sanskrit works remain unindexed, and the possibility that Jaina or
other Prakrits may have the word, this remains to be proven.
I am grateful to Lance Cousins for identifying the canonical model of the
brahmā ca lokādhipatī verse, to Steven Collins for identifying the problem, and
to Prapod Assavavirulhakarn for pointing to the solution.
The editions consulted do not show any significant variants: Pali Text
Society (London: 1974) p. 1.4; Syāmaraṭṭhassa Tepiṭakaṃ (Bangkok: 2523
[1980]) Vol. 33, p. 403.5; Mahācuḷātepiṭakaṃ (Bangkok: 2500 [1957]) Vol. 33,
p. 435; Dhammagiri-Pāli-Ganthamālā Vol. 58 (Igatpuri: 1998), p. 287. The
verse also occurs in the Brahmajjhesanaparivatta of the Paṭhamasambodhi, with
anadhivaraṃ and desetu: this may be a more immediate source.
4
Syāmaraṭṭhassa Tepiṭakaṃ, loc. cit. The PTS edition has long ‘i’ in sahampati.
For a commentary on the words of the verse see Buddhavaṃsa-aṭṭhakathā
(Madhuratthavilāsinī) (PTS 11.2–13.27).
3
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
In classical Pāli texts adhivara seems to occur only with the
negative prefix: that is, adhivara alone may be a ghost word.5 The
negative anadhivara occurs only a few times, in works belonging to
the Khuddaka-nikāya. In verse nine of Buddhavaṃsa it is an epithet of
Gotama: satt’ uttamo anadhivaro vināyako.6 The commentary on the first
stanza of Buddhavaṃsa explains: adhivaro n’ assa atthī ti anadhivaro.7 In
the Kaliṅgabodhi-jātaka, it is an epithet of all Buddhas:
idha anadhivarā buddhā abhisambuddhā virocanti.
(Idha refers to the Bodhimaṇḍa, the site of the ‘seat of victory’, where
all Buddhas awaken).8 In Vimānavatthu the word is used seven times
in the Sirimāvimāna (16: 2d, 3d, 4c, 8b, 9b, 11b, 12a).9 In all cases but
one it is an epithet of the Tathāgata.10 The exception is verse 4c,
where anadhivarā describes the iddhi of Sirimā.11
But the question of which term is appropriate is beside the point,
because adhivara is attested only in Suat mon plae. Since Suat mon
plae itself states that the verse is in indravaṃśa, it is easy to conclude
that the prefix was dropped in an (unsuccessful) attempt to solve
the metrical problem. Other chanting books, however, resolve the
problem differently, by indicating in print how the line should be
pronounced in order to fit the metre. Different chanting books and
ritual manuals do this differently, according to prevailing printing
conventions.
Margaret Cone places anadhivara under the entry for adhivara, for which
she does not, however, record any examples: A Dictionary of Pāli, Part I, a–kh
(Oxford: The Pali Text Society, 2001) p. 94a.
6
Note that the reference in the Pāli Tipiṭakaṃ Concordance (I 116b) is to be
corrected from ‘Bv 2’ to ‘Bv 9’.
7
Madhuratthavilāsinī (PTS 12).
8
Jātaka 479 v. 69cd (PTS IV 233.15).
9
See Vimānavatthu (PTS 16–18).
10
The term is given as an epithet of Buddhas at Abhidhānappadīpikā (registered
also in Childers’ Dictionary of the Pali Language, p. 30a). Following a different
hermeneutical trail, an old Pāli-Thai dictionary gives two meanings for
anadhivara: space (ākāśa) and nibbāna: Gambhīr phra abhidhānaśabd (Bangkok:
2517 [1974]), p. 13.
11
Superlative adjectives are essential to the poetic fabric of the Sirimāvimāna:
nearly every verse has one or more, for example para (1a, 6c, 8c, 9d, 13d), and
vara, anoma, anuttara.
5
Ārādhanā Tham: ‘Invitation to teach the Dhamma’
83
The conventions in question are the use of the graphic symbols
daṇḍaghāta and bindu, both equivalent in function to the Sanskrit
virāma. The Suat mon plae of 1910 (fig. 1) and the Royal Chanting Book
dated RE 130 (CE 1912, p. 284: fig. 2) use the vañjhakāra or daṇḍaghāta
above consonants which are to be read as medials with the inherent ‘a’
suppressed. Later editions, such as the Royal Chanting Book published
in BE 2468 (CE 1925, p. 338: see fig. 3) or the current edition of BE 2538
(CE 1995, p. 373) use the dot or bindu below the consonant to indicate
the same thing. Chanting books that use ‘popular Pāli orthography’
use the mai han akat and wisanchani with the same result (fig. 4).
In line b of our verse, the first syllable is lengthened by placing
the daṇḍaghāta above or bindu below the ‘t’ of ‘kata’. This indicates
that the first syllable is to be read as if it were long: kat instead of
ka. Next, the first three syllables of ‘anadhivaraṃ’ are elided to make
‘andhivaraṃ’. With these ingenious changes, the line may be recited
as a twelve-syllable Indravaṃśa, and the verse is now metrical:
ˉbrahmā
ˉ ca
˘ lokādhipatī
ˉˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ sahampatī
˘ˉ ˘ˉ
ˉ ˉañ-ja-lī
˘ ˉ an-dhi-va-raṃ
ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ a-yā-ca-tha
˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ˉ
kat/
(
)
ˉsant’ˉīdha
˘ ˉsattā
ˉ ’pparajakkhajātikā
˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ˉ
ˉdesetu
ˉ ˘ dhammaṃ
ˉ ˉ anukamp’
˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ imaṃ
ˉ pajaṃ
˘ˉ
This we may translate as:
Brahmā Sahampati, Lord of the Universe
Palms pressed in homage, beseeched the unexcelled one:
‘Here there are beings with little dust in their eyes:
May the Dhamma be taught: take pity on these beings.’
II
The verse refers to an event in the life of the Buddha, related in
the Pāsarāsi-sutta (or Ariyapariyesana-sutta) of the Majjhima-nikāya,12
12
Majjhima Nikāya 26 (PTS I 167-179).
84
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
the Brahmasaṃyutta of the Saṃyutta-nikāya,13 and the Mahāvagga of
the Vinaya.14 Seated beneath the Bodhi-tree, the newly Awakened
One reflected that he had reached awakening with difficulty, that
the Dhamma he had realized was profound and difficult to see, and
that it would be wearisome if he taught the Dhamma and no-one
understood him: ‘When the Blessed One reflected in this manner, his
mind inclined towards inactivity, not towards teaching.’
This was a disaster. Buddhas do not appear in the world every
other day: they are as rare as the rare udumbura flower. Luckily
Brahmā Sahampati was quick to grasp the gravity of the crisis: ‘Alas,
the world is lost, the world is ruined’, he thought, and he instantly
vanished from his heaven and appeared before the Tathāgata. Raising
his hands, palms pressed together, he implored the Ten-powered One
to teach the Dhamma:
Sir, may the Blessed One teach the Dhamma! May the Sugata teach
the Dhamma! There are beings with little dust in their eyes; they
will fall away if they do not hear the Dhamma. There will be those
who understand [if taught]’ (desetu bhante bhagavā dhammaṃ, desetu
sugato dhammaṃ, santi sattā apparajakkhajātikā assavanatā dhammassa
parihāyanti, bhavissanti dhammassa aññātaro).
The Sugata realized that this was so, and decided to teach.
This was a defining event in the history of Buddhism: without it,
there would be no Buddhism. Indeed, a similar event must occur
in the career of any Buddha, past or future, as seen for example
in the Mahāpadāna-sutta, in which Mahābrahmā requests the
Buddha Vipassī to teach,15 or in the careers of other past Buddhas
Saṃyutta Nikāya (Brahmāyācana-sutta) (PTS I 136–138).
Vinaya (Brahmayācanakathā) (PTS I 4–7). The turn of events is common
to most or all biographies of the Buddha, for example the Sarvāstivādin
Catuṣpariṣat-sūtra from Central Asia, the (Mūla-)Sarvāstivādin Vinaya in
Tibetan translation, the Lokottaravādin Mahāvastu, and the Lalitavistara
(Chapter 25, Adhyeṣaṇāparivarta). Cf. also Buddhacarita 14.96–103 and Raniero
Gnoli, The Gilgit Manuscript of the Saṅghabhedavastu, Vol. I (Roma: IsMEO, 1978,
Serie Orientale Roma XLIX), pp. 127–130.
15
Dīgha Nikāya 14 (PTS II 37).
13
14
Ārādhanā Tham: ‘Invitation to teach the Dhamma’
85
related in the Buddhavaṃsa Commentary.16 The request is variously
termed ajjhesana, dhammajjhesana, dhammāyācana, brahmāyācana,
etc. According to the Buddhavaṃsa Commentary, Mahābrahmā’s
request to teach the Dhamma is one of the thirty things common
to all Buddhas.17 Commentaries also aver that all Buddhas hesitate
to preach;18 this is not included in the thirty dhammatā, but it goes
without saying that the hesitation is a prerequisite for Brahmā’s
request.19
The Buddha’s hesitation to teach and Brahmā’s request give
narrative expression to a key point: the teaching will be fruitful because
there exist beings ‘with little dust in their eyes’ (apparajakkhajātika) –
beings with the potential to awaken, like lotus buds ready to blossom.
Later, after the passing of the first rainy season, it is because these
beings exist that the Buddha sends the first group of monks out to
teach the Dhamma ‘for the good of the multitudes, for the happiness
of the multitudes, out of compassion for the world, for the good,
the benefit, and happiness of gods and humans.’20 On his deathbed
the devoted lay-follower Anāthapiṇḍika requests Sāriputta to teach
profound teachings to white-clad householders, because ‘there exist
sons of good family with little dust in their eyes’.21
16
See e.g. I.B. Horner (ed.), Madhuratthavilāsinī nāma Buddhavaṃsaṭṭhakathā
of Bhadantācariya Buddhadatta Mahāthera (London: The Pali Text Society,
1978), pp. 124.19 (Dīpaṅkara); 133.34 (Kondañña); 145.8 (Maṅgala); 154.10
(Sumana); 161.25 (Revata), 167.29 (Sobhita), etc. The rule is stated explicitly
in Milindapañha (PTS 234.11) api ca mahārāja sabbesaṃ tathāgatānaṃ dhammatā
esā yaṃ brahmunā āyācitā dhammaṃ desenti.
17
Madhuratthavilāsinī (PTS 298–299), mahābrahmuno dhammadesanatthāya
āyacanaṃ;
Syāmaraṭṭhassa Tepiṭakaṭṭhakathā
Vol.
44
(Bangkok:
Mahāmakuṭarājavidyālaya 2535 [1992]) p. 544.
18
See e.g. Buddhavaṃsa-aṭṭhakathā (PTS 9.34; Syāmaraṭṭha, pp. 17–18);
Jātakanidāna in Jātaka (PTS I 81).
19
For interesting excursuses on the subject see Milindapañha 232–234 and the
Most Venerable Mingun Sayadaw Bhaddanta Vicittasārābhivaṃsa, The Great
Chronicle of Buddhas, The State Buddha Sāsana Council’s Version, Vol. Two,
Part Two, translated by U Ko Lay and U Tin Lwin, ([Yangon]: Ti=Ni Publishing
Center, 1994) pp. 1–6. The reasoning of these texts does not much differ
from that of the Upāyakauśalya-sūtra: see Mark Tatz (tr.), The Skill in Means
(Upāyakauśalya) Sūtra (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1994) § 125, p. 70.
20
Vinaya (PTS I 20–21).
21
Anāthapiṇḍikovāda-sutta, Majjhima Nikāya 143 (PTS III 261), tena hi bhante
sāriputta gihīnaṃ odātavasanānaṃ evarūpī dhammī kathā paṭibhātu. santi hi
86
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Today, every time the verse is recited Brahmā’s request is reenacted, and Buddhism begins again, recharged. A common event
that regularly takes place in temples throughout the country partakes
of the life of the Master; the specific becomes archetypal. Dare
one suggest that the inviter becomes Brahmā, the monk becomes
Buddha?
III
Requesting the Buddhas to teach the Dharma is one of the limbs of
the Unsurpassed Offering (anuttara-pūjā), a liturgy that is an essential
component of Mahāyāna practice to this day.22 An early version is
given in verse ten of the Bhadracarī:
ye ca daśadiśi lokapradīpā, bodhivibuddha asaṅgataprāptāḥ
tān ahu sarvi adhyeṣami nāthāṃ cakru anuttara vartanatāyai
And those beacons for the world, in the ten directions – those who
have realised enlightenment and non-attachment – I beseech those
protectors to turn the peerless wheel [of the Dharma].23
The entreaty is given by Śāntideva in his Bodhicaryāvatāra:
Holding my hands together in reverence, I beseech the perfect
Buddhas in every direction, ‘Set up the light of the Dharma for those
falling into suffering in the darkness of delusion’.24
The Thai ārādhanā is part of a public ritual, an interaction between
laity and monastics. The anuttara-pūjā may be public or private, and
is often a component of daily personal recitation. A fundamental
ideological difference is that the entreaty in the anuttara-pūjā is
bhante sāriputta kulaputtā apparajakkhajātikā assavanatā dhammassa parihāyanti,
bhavissanti dhammassa aññātaro
22
The Bodhicaryāvatāra, translated by Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 9–13.
23
Nepalese Buddhist Sanskrit and translation from Gregory Sharkey, Buddhist
Daily Ritual: The Nitya Puja in Kathmandu Valley Shrines (Bangkok: Orchid Press,
2001), pp. 314–315.
24
Śāntideva, The Bodhicaryāvatāra, Chap. 3 verse 4.
Ārādhanā Tham: ‘Invitation to teach the Dhamma’
87
spoken by an individual in the first person, and is addressed not to a
member of the saṅgha but to the Buddhas of the ten directions. That
is, it presupposes the present, simultaneous, and pervasive existence
of multiple Buddhas, a concept rejected by Theravādins (and certain
other schools) from an early date.
IV
To return to Theravādin tradition: the Buddhavaṃsa Commentary
recognizes that the first verse of its text poses an historical (or
hagiographical) problem.25 Tradition reports that Buddhavaṃsa was
spoken by the Buddha in the Nigrodhārāma at Kapilavatthu at the
request of Sāriputta. Why bring in Brahmā Sahampati and the events
under the bodhi-tree?
ettha ekaṃ samayaṃ bhagavā rājagahe viharati veḷuvane kalandakanivāpe
ti ādisuttantesu viya ekaṃ samayaṃ bhagavā sakkesu viharati
kapilavatthusmiṃ nigrodhārāme. atha kho āyasmā sāriputto yena bhagavā
ten’ upasaṅkami upasaṅkamitvā bhagavantaṃ buddhavaṃsaṃ apucchī
ti. evam ādinā nayena nidānam avatvā kasmā brahmā ca lokādhipatī
sahampatī katañjalī anadhivaraṃ ayācathā ti ādinā nayena nidānaṃ vuttan
ti. vuccate. bhagavato sabbadhammadesanākāraṇabhūtāya brahmuno
dhammadesanāyācanāya sandassanatthaṃ vuttan ti.26
Herein [an objection is raised:] ‘Why do you not give a prose
introduction (nidāna) of the type which begins “At one time the
Blessed One dwelt at Rājagaha in the Veḷuvana, the Kalandakanivāpa”,
as in the Suttantas, [in this case] “At one time the Blessed One was
The Buddhavaṃsa is a uniquely Mahāvihārin text, unknown to other
Buddhist schools; the list of Buddhas and other specific features of the text are
also unique. Other schools had their own traditions, which share a common
ideology but differ in many details. Hence the specific problem addressed
in this section applies only to Theravādin, perhaps even more specifically
Mahāvihāravāsin, textual tradition. See Peter Skilling ‘A Citation from the
*Buddhavaṃsa of the Abhayagiri School’, Journal of the Pali Text Society XVIII
(1993), pp. 165–175.
26
Madhuratthavilāsinī (PTS) 5.22–30; (Bhūmibalo ed., Bangkok: 1979), pp.
10.12–11.12; (Syāmaraṭṭhassa Tepiṭakaṭṭhakathā, Bangkok: 2534 [1991]), pp.
9.14–10.4; (Dhammagiri-Pāli-Ganthamālā, Igatpuri: 1998), Vol. 66, p. 7.7–12.
PTS reads tattha for ettha and āpucchi for apucchi against all other editions.
25
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
dwelling among the Sakkas in the Nigrodhārāma at Kapilavatthu.
Then Venerable Sāriputta went to where the Blessed One was.
Arriving before the Blessed One, he asked about the lineage of
Buddhas”? Why do you state instead that “Brahmā Sahampati, Lord
of the Universe/Palms pressed in homage, beseeched the unexcelled
one”, etc.?’ [The commentator] replies: ‘The verse was spoken [by
Ānanda at the first Saṃgīti27] in order to demonstrate that Brahmā’s
request for the teaching of the Dhamma is the cause of all of the
Blessed One’s teachings of the Dhamma.’28
V
The commentator’s statement that ‘Brahmā’s request for the
teaching of the Dhamma is the cause of all of the Blessed One’s
teachings of the Dhamma’ adequately explains the adaptation of
the Buddhavaṃsa verse to request sermons up to the present. The
recitation version (that is, the verse with desetu rather than desehi)
is recited throughout Siam when monks are invited to preach. It is
given (with variants, as we have seen) under the title ‘Invitation
to preach the Dhamma’ (ārādhanā dhamma) in the Royal Chanting
Book dated RE 130, and in all subsequent chanting books and ritual
manuals that I have seen.
All of these texts give the one verse only.29 But the oldest
collection of chants available at present, the Suat mon plae from the
first or second reign, gives a second stanza:30
saddhammabheriṃ vinayañ ca kāyaṃ suttañ ca bandhaṃ abhidhammacammaṃ
ākoṭayanto catusaccadaṇḍaṃ pabodha neyye parisāya majjhe.
The body of the drum of the Saddhamma is the Vinaya,
The thongs are the Sutta, the drum-head is the Abhidhamma:
See Madhuratthavilāsinī (PTS 11.2–12).
For another translation see I.B. Horner, The Clarifier of the Sweet Meaning
(London: The Pali Text Society, 1978), p. 8.
29
This statement applies to the old text entitled simply Ārādhanādharrma. A
longer version, Ārādhanādharrma yang bistāra, included in the Royal Chanting
Book (2538 [1995] ed. pp. 399–401), gives the brahmā ca lokādhipatī verses
followed by 26 lines composed by King Rāma IV.
30
The first three pādas are Indravajrā, the last Upendravajrā.
27
28
Ārādhanā Tham: ‘Invitation to teach the Dhamma’
89
Striking it with the drum-stick of the Four Truths
Amidst the assembly, awaken those ripe for realization.31
The verse plays on a metaphor found in a succeeding event in the
Pāsarāsi-sutta and Mahāvagga. En route to Vārāṇasī, where he will
teach his former five companions in asceticism, the All-knowing One
meets an Ājīvaka, Upaka by name. When Upaka asks what he is about,
the Kinsman of the Sun answers with verses that end with:32
dhammacakkaṃ pavattetuṃ gacchāmi kāsinaṃ puraṃ
andhabhūtasmi lokasmiṃ āhañhi ’matadundubhiṃ.
I am going to the city of the Kāsis, to turn the Dhamma wheel:
In a world become blind, I will strike the drum of the undying.
The commentary explains the phrase ‘I will strike the drum’ as ‘I will
beat the drum of the undying to cause [those blinded by folly] to gain
the eye of Dhamma’.33 It is this drum that the monk beats when he
gives a sermon.
The thongs are cords wrapped around the body of the drum, used for
tuning.
32
The stanza is in Śloka metre.
33
Papañcasūdanī, Part 2, Mūlapaṇṇāsavaṇṇanā (Mahāmakuṭarājavidyālaya
ed., 255.2) āhaññiṃ amatadundubhin ti dhammacakkhupaṭilābhāya amatabheriṃ
paharissāmī ti gacchāmi. For the form āhañhi see William Geiger, A Pāli
Grammar, translated into English by Batakrishna Ghosh, revised and edited
by K.R. Norman (Oxford: The Pali Text Society, 1994) § 153.2. The PTS
edition of the Mahāvagga has āhañhi amatadudr(!)ubhiṃ, of the Pāsarāsisutta/Ariyapariyesana-sutta, āhañchaṃ amatadundubhiṃ. The Syāmaraṭṭha
editions have ahaññiṃ amatadundubhiṃ and āhaññiṃ amatadundubhiṃ
respectively. The Syamaraṭṭha edition of the Pāsarāsi-sutta and the PTS edition
of Mahāvagga have andhabhūtrasmi; other editions have andhabhūtasmiṃ.
31
7
Three types of Bodhisatta in Theravādin tradition:
A bibliographical excursion
I
A
KEY FEATURE OF THE THERAVĀDIN BODHISATTVA IDEOLOGY
is the delineation of three bodhisatta careers. The Sotatthakīmahānidāna devotes some verses to the subject.1 The text bears no
date, but is mentioned in a Pagan inscription dated 1442, which we
may take as its terminus post quem.2
[551]
na hete ettakāyeva
aparaṃ lakkhaṇaṃ pi vā
bodhisattassa lakkhaṇā
kathessāmi suṇātha me.
Sotatthakīmahānidāna, published on the occasion of the funeral of Somdet
Phra Phutthachan (Sangiam Candasirimahathera), Wat Suthatthepwararam,
17 December 2526 [1983], pp. 88–89.
2
Mabel Bode, The Pali Literature of Burma (London: The Royal Asiatic Society
of Great Britain and Ireland, [1909] 1966), p. 104, no. 95. For a description
of the text see Oskar von Hinüber, A Handbook of Pāli Literature (Berlin and
New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1996 [Albrecht Wezler and Michael Witzel, ed.,
Indian Philology and South Asian Studies, Vol. 2]), § 432.
1
90
Three types of Bodhisatta in Theravādin tradition:
[552]
[553]
[554]
[555]
[556]
ugghāṭitañña3 nām’ eko
tatiyo neyyo ti nāmena
ugghāṭiṭaññū bodhisatto
vipañcitaññū bodhisatto
neyyo vīriyādhiko nāma
kappe satasahasse ca
pūretvā bodhisambhāre
ugghāṭitaññū bodhisatto
aṭṭha c’ eva asaṅkhyeyye
pūretvā bodhisambhāre
vipañcitaññū bodhisatto
soḷasa ca asaṅkhyeyye
pūretvā bodhisambhāre
neyyo nāma bodhisatto
vipañcitaññū paro mato
bodhisattā tidhā matā.
paññādhiko ti nāmako
vutto saddhādhiko mato
bodhisattā ime tayo.
caturo ca asaṅkhyeyye
laddhā byākaraṇato pare
patto sambodhim uttamaṃ.
kappe satasahasse ca
laddhā byākaraṇato pare
patto sambodhim uttamaṃ.
kappe satasahasse ca
laddhā byākaraṇato pare
patto sambodhim uttamaṃ.
551. The features of the bodhisatta are not limited to just those
[discussed so far]. I will proclaim another feature: listen to me.
552. One is called ‘one who understands through a condensed
instruction’ (ugghaṭitaññū), another is deemed to be ‘one who
understands through an elaborated instruction’ (vipañcitaññū),
and the third is ‘to be guided’ (neyya) by name. These are deemed
the three types of bodhisatta.
553. The bodhisatta who understands through a condensed
instruction is ‘strong in wisdom’ by name; the aforementioned
bodhisatta who understands through an elaborated instruction
is deemed to be ‘strong in faith’; the one to be guided is ‘strong in
energy’ by name: the three are bodhisattas.
554. One hundred thousand kappas and four incalculables after
receiving the prediction, having fulfilled the requisites of
awakening, the bodhisatta who understands through a condensed
instruction realizes ultimate awakening.
555. One hundred thousand kappas and eight incalculables after
receiving the prediction, having fulfilled the requisites of
awakening, the bodhisatta who understands through an
elaborated instruction realizes ultimate awakening.
556. One hundred thousand kappas and sixteen incalculables
after receiving the prediction, having fulfilled the requisites
of awakening, the bodhisatta to be guided realizes ultimate
awakening.
3
Sic: text has long a, ugghāṭita-, throughout.
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
The verses at the end of the Dasabodhisatta-uddesa are close enough to
verse 553 of the Sotatthakī to be a citation:4
ugghaṭitaññū bodhisatto
vipañcitaññū bodhisatto
neyyo viriyādhiko nāma
paññādhiko ti nāma so |
vutto saddhādhiko nāma |
bodhisattā ime tayo ti | la |
As a final example I cite from the eighth and last chapter,
Pakiṇṇakanayasāra-niddesa, of the Lokadīpakasāra, a work composed
by Medhaṃkara at Muttama (Martaban) in about the middle of the
fourteenth century:5
bodhisattā tayo vuttā
ugghaṭitaññu nām’ eko
neyyo ca bodhisatto ti
saṅkhittā desitaṃ dhammaṃ
ugghaṭitaññu nām’ eso
kappasatasahassañ ca
pūritvā pāramī sabbā
īdiso bodhisatto va
buddhen’ ādiccabandhunā
tathā vipaccitaññu6 ca
[1] tesu ugghaṭitaññuko
sīgham eva vibujjhati
bodhisatto ti vuccati
cattāro ca asaṅkhaye
patto sambodhim uttamaṃ7
paññādhiko ti vuccati.
[2] vipaccitaññū bodhisatto
sīgham eva ajānetvā
aññāsi sabbaso tena
kappasatasahassañ ca
pūritvā pāramī sabbā
īdiso bodhisatto tu
saṅkhittā desitam pana
kiñci vitthārite pana
vipaccitaññū nāma so
aṭṭha vā pi asaṅkhaye
patto sambodhim uttamaṃ
saddhādhiko ti vuccati.
[3] neyyo nāma bodhisatto
vijāni sabbaso tena
sammā vitthārite pana
neyyo iti pavuccati
François Martini (ed., tr.), ‘Dasa-Bodhisatta-Uddesa’, Bulletin de l’École
française d’Extrême-Orient 36 (1936), p. 335; Praphat Surasen (ed., tr.), Phra
khamphi anakhotawong (Bangkok: 26 March 2540 [1997]), p. 71.
5
Lokadīpakasāra (Bangkok: The National Library–Fine Arts Department, 2529
[1986]), pp. 553.20–554.11 (translation into Thai pp. 201–202). The verses are
not numbered. For the date see von Hinüber, Handbook, § 397.
6
The spelling vipaccitaññu or vipacitaññu is common in Siamese texts.
7
pūretvā pāramī sabbā, patto sambodhim uttamaṃ, is a stock verse found, with
variants, in many chants. Note that here in the first two instances the spelling
is pūritvā, in the third pūretvā.
4
Three types of Bodhisatta in Theravādin tradition:
kappasatasahassañ ca
pūretvā pāramī sabbā
īdiso bodhisatto tu
93
soḷasa ca asaṅkhaye
patto sambodhim uttamaṃ
vuccati viriyādhiko ti.
The Buddha, Kinsman of the Sun, has mentioned three bodhisattas:
The one who understands through a condensed instruction, the one
who understands through an elaborated instruction, and the one to
be guided.
[1] Among them, the one who understands through a condensed
instruction immediately comprehends the Dhamma when it
is taught in brief, and is called ‘a bodhisatta who understands
through a condensed instruction’. Fulfilling all perfections
through four incalculables and one hundred thousand æons, he
reaches ultimate full awakening. Such a bodhisatta is also called
‘strong in wisdom’.
[2] The bodhisatta who understands through an elaborated
instruction does not immediately understand what is taught in
brief, but when it is expanded a bit, he understands it entirely,
and therefore he is named one who understands through an
elaborated instruction. Fulfilling all perfections through eight
incalculables and one hundred thousand æons, he reaches
ultimate full awakening. Such a bodhisatta is rightly called
‘strong in faith’.
[3] The bodhisatta named ‘to be guided’ understands all when it has
been completely explained, and therefore is called ‘to be guided’.
Fullfilling all perfections through sixteen incalculables and one
hundred thousand æons, he reaches ultimate full awakening.
Such a bodhisatta is rightly called ‘strong in energy’.
II
The delineation of the three types of bodhisatta combines two
concepts. One is that of individuals with graded capacities for
learning, or, more specifically, as the commentaries make it clear, for
realizing the truth. The second is that of three types of bodhisattas,
each predominant in one of the qualities of wisdom (paññā), faith
(saddhā), and energy (viriya). The locus classicus for the first concept
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
is the Aṅguttara-nikāya, which lists four kinds of individuals without
defining them:8
cattāro ’me bhikkhave puggalā santo saṃvijjamānā lokasmiṃ. katame
cattāro? ugghaṭitaññū, vipacitaññū,9 neyyo, padaparamo. ime kho
bhikkhave cattāro puggalā santo saṃvijjamānā lokasmin ti.
There are, O monks, four individuals in the world. What are the four?
The one who understands through a condensed instruction, the one
who understands through an elaborated instruction, the one to be
guided, and the one who does not go beyond words. These, O monks,
are four individuals found in the world.
For definitions we may turn to the Puggalapaññatti:10
[1] katamo ca puggalo ugghaṭitaññū? yassa puggalassa saha udāhaṭavelāya
dhammābhisamayo hoti – ayaṃ vuccati puggalo ugghaṭitaññū.
[2] katamo ca puggalo vipañcitaññū? yassa puggalassa saṅkhittena
bhāsitassa vitthārena atthe vibhajiyamāne dhammābhisamayo hoti –
ayaṃ vuccati puggalo vipañcitaññū.
[3] katamo ca puggalo neyyo? yassa puggalassa uddesato paripucchito
yoniso manasikaroto kalyāṇamitte sevato bhajato payirupāsato evaṃ
anupubbena dhammābhisamayo hoti – ayaṃ vuccati puggalo neyyo.
[4] katamo ca puggalo padaparamo? yassa puggalassa bahuṃ pi suṇato
bahuṃ pi bhaṇato bahuṃ pi dhārayato bahuṃ pi vācayato na tāya
jātiyā dhammābhisamayo hoti – ayaṃ vuccati puggalo padaparamo.
[1] What is a person who understands through a condensed
instruction? The person for whom realization of the truth occurs
at the very time it is being expounded – this is called a person
who understands through a condensed instruction.
[2] What is a person who understands through an elaborated
instruction? The person for whom realization of the truth occurs
while the meaning of a concise utterance is being analysed
in detail – this is called a person who understands through an
elaborated instruction.
Aṅguttara-nikāya (PTS II 135.9).
The PTS edition records the variant vipañcitaññū.
10
Puggalapaññatti (Nālandā ed. 64.4; PTS 41.23).
8
9
Three types of Bodhisatta in Theravādin tradition:
95
[3] What is a person to be guided? The person for whom realization
of the truth occurs progressively, through (listening to) a
summary, through questioning, through careful reflection,
and through relying on, serving, and staying near to a spiritual
friend – this is called a person to be guided.
[4] What is a person who does not go beyond words? The person for
whom realization will not occur in that rebirth, no matter how
much he hears, no matter how much he speaks, no matter how
much he retains, no matter how much he recites – this is called
a person who does not go beyond words.
The terms are elaborated upon in the commentary:11
[1] ugghaṭitaññū-ādīsu ugghaṭitaññū ti ettha ugghāṭanaṃ nāma
ñāṇugghāṭanaṃ, ñāṇena ugghaṭitamatteyeva jānātī ti attho. saha
udāhaṭavelāyā ti udāhāre udāhaṭamatteyeva. dhammābhisamayo
ti catusaccadhammassa ñāṇena saddhiṃ abhisamayo. ayaṃ vuccatī
ti ayaṃ cattāro satipaṭṭhānā ti ādinā nayena saṅkhittena mātikāya
ṭhapiyamānāya desanānusārena ñāṇaṃ pesetvā arahattaṃ gaṇhituṃ
samattho puggalo ugghaṭitaññū ti vuccati.
[2] vipañcitaṃ vitthāritam eva atthaṃ jānātī ti vipañcitaññū. ayaṃ vuccatī
ayaṃ saṅkhittena mātikaṃ ṭhapetvā vitthārena atthe bhājiyamāne
arahattaṃ pāpuṇituṃ samattho puggalo vipañcitaññū ti vuccati.
[3] uddesādīhi netabbo ti neyyo. anupubbena dhammābhisamayo hotī ti
anukkammena arahattapatti.
[4] vyañjanapadam eva paramaṃ assā ti padaparamo. na tāya jātiyā
dhammābhisamayo hotī ti na tena attabhāvena jhānaṃ vā vipassanaṃ
vā maggaṃ vā phalaṃ vā nibbattetuṃ sakkotī ti attho.
III
This terminology is by no means unique to the Theravādin tradition
– it is common to the texts of other schools (and I suspect the terms
were colloquial expressions which were later assigned technical
values within a hierarchical scheme). All four terms occur together
in the Mahāvastu of the Lokottaravādins. The newly awakened
11
Puggalapaññatti-aṭṭhakathā, in Mahesh Tiwari (ed.), Pañcappakaraṇaaṭṭhakathā, Part 1 (Nalanda, Patna: Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, 1968), p. 92.8–
20.
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Buddha wonders whether or not to teach the Dharma he has
discovered:12
atha khalu bhagavāṃ mahābrahmaṇo yācanāṃ viditvā sāmaṃ
ca pratyātmaṃ bodhiye jñānena sarvāvantaṃ lokam anuttareṇa
buddhacakṣuṣābhivilokayanto adrākṣīt sattvā uccāvācāṃ hīnapraṇītāṃ
adrākṣīt sattvā durākārā durvineyā durviśodheyā adrākṣīt sattvā svākārāṃ
suvineyāṃ suviśodheyāṃ, adrākṣīt sattvāṃ udghaṭitājñā vipaṃcitājñā
neyā padaparamāṃ, adrākṣīt sattvāṃ tīkṣṇendriyāṃ mṛvīdriyāṃ (text
ṛddhīndriyāṃ). sattvānāṃ trayo rāśiyaḥ samyaktvaniyataṃ rāśiṃ
mithyātvaniyataṃ rāśiṃ aniyataṃ rāśiṃ.
We find three of the terms in a rather similar passage in the
Lalitavistara:13
atha khalu bhikṣavas tathāgataḥ sarvāvantaṃ lokaṃ buddhacakṣuṣā
vyavalokayan sattvān paśyati sma hīnamadhyapraṇītān uccanīcamadhyamān svākārān suviśodhakān durākārān durviśodhakān
Radhagovinda Basak (ed.), Mahāvastu Avadāna Vol. III (Calcutta: Sanskrit
College, 1968), p. 421.5 [Senart pp. 317–318]; English translation in J.J. Jones,
The Mahāvastu, Vol. III (London: The Pali Text Society, [1956] 1978), p. 307 (I
owe this and the Lalitavistara reference to Edgerton’s BHSD). The text bristles
with problems, especially in case endings. The terms do not occur in other
accounts of the events that follow the awakening, such as the Ariyapariyesanasutta (Majjhima-nikāya 26, PTS I 169.5) or the Saṅghabhedavastu (Raniero Gnoli,
The Gilgit Manuscript of the Saṅghabhedavastu, Part I [Rome: IsMEO, 1977, Serie
Orientale Roma XLIX], pp. 129–130), or in the Chinese texts translated by
André Bareau, Recherches sur la biographie du Buddha dans les Sūtrapiṭaka et
les Vinayapiṭaka anciens: de la quête de l’éveil à la conversion de Śāriputra et de
Maudgalyāyana, Tome I (Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1963), pp.
135–139. The similarity of the two passages is one of the several pieces of
evidence for the close relationship between Lalitavistara and Mahāvastu, or
the Mahāsāṃghika textual lineage, which undermine the received opinion,
not, it seems, subjected to any serious scrutiny for over a century, that
Lalitavistara was a Sarvāstivādin text ‘converted’ to Mahāyāna. (There are at
least two further occurences of udghaṭitajña in Mahāvastu: Basak III 357.14
[Senart 270.9, Jones 259], where young Rāhula describes himself as such, and
510.5 [Senart 382.15, Jones 379], where Nālaka is described as such.)
13
P.L. Vaidya (ed.), Lalita-vistara (Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1958, Buddhist
Sanskrit Texts no. 1), p. 292.19.
12
Three types of Bodhisatta in Theravādin tradition:
97
udghaṭitajñān14 vipañci[ta]jñān padaparamāṃs trīn sattvarāśīn ekaṃ
mithyatvaniyatam ekaṃ samyaktvaniyatam ekam aniyatam.
All four terms come together in the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā
Prajñāpāramitā:15
punar aparaṃ Subhūte dharma-bhāṇakaś côdghaṭitajño bhaviṣyati,
dharma-śravaṇikaś ca neyo bhaviṣyati vipañcitajño vā pada-paramo vā.
iyam api Subhūte visāmagrī bhaviṣyati, imāṃ gambhīrāṃ prajñāpāramitāṃ
likhatām uddiśatāṃ svādhyāyatāṃ. idam api Subhūte bodhisattvānāṃ
mahāsattvānāṃ Māra-karma veditavyam.
punar aparaṃ Subhūte dharma-śravaṇikaś côdghaṭitajño bhaviṣyati,
dharma-bhāṇakaś ca neyo bhaviṣyati vipañcitajño vā pada-paramo vā.
iyam api Subhūte visāmagrī bhaviṣyati, imāṃ gambhīrāṃ prajñāpāramitāṃ
likhatām uddiśatāṃ svādhyāyatāṃ manasikurvatāṃ. idam api Subhūte
bodhisattvānāṃ mahāsattvānāṃ Māra-karma veditavyam.
Two of the terms, udghaṭitajña and vipañcitajña, occur in the
Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā.16 There is a single instance of
udghaṭitajña in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra: ‘Son of good family,
Text has long a, udghāṭita-; I follow variant noted by Edgerton, BHSD.
Takayasu Kimura (ed.), Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā IV (Tokyo:
Sankibo Busshorin Publishing Co., 1990), p. 46.14. I was able to trace the
passage thanks to the references to neya and pada-parama in Edward Conze’s
Materials for a Dictionary of the Prajñāpāramitā Literature (Tokyo: Suzuki
Research Foundation, 1973), pp. 236 and 239 respectively, in conjunction with
Kimura’s ‘Comparative Table of all Versions of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā
Prajñāpāramitā’, p. 208.
16
U. Wogihara, Abhisamayālaṃkār’ālokā Prajñāpāramitāvyākhyā, the Work of
Haribhadra, together with the text commented on (Tokyo: The Toyo Bunko, 1932,
repr. Sankibo Buddhist Bookstore, Tokyo, 1973), p. 515.6; P.L.Vaidya (ed.),
Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1960, Buddhist
Sanskrit Texts no. 4), p. 120.13. The Tibetan as given in Conze’s Materials, pp.
126, 356, is that of the Mahāvyutpatti: udghaṭita-jña, mgo smos pas go ba (ma yin
pa), ‘understands as soon as the main points are mentioned’; vipañcita-jña,
rnam par spros te go ba (ma yin pa) ‘cannot understand unless all the details are
explained’. For an English translation see Edward Conze, The Large Sutra on
Perfect Wisdom with the Divisions of the Abhisamayālaṅkāra (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1975), p. 339.
14
15
98
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
these bodhisattvas, mahāsattvas, are ones who understand through a
condensed instruction’.17
Commenting on the Aṣṭasāhasrikā, the eighth-century North Indian
ācārya Haribhadra explains udghaṭita-jña as ‘fully understanding the
aggregate of matter when the word “matter” is spoken’, and vipañcitajña as ‘comprehending the meaning when it is explained that “it is called
‘matter’ because it is disturbed”’.18 In describing the component parts
of a sūtra, specifically the Arthaviniścaya, Haribhadra’s contemporary
from Nālandā, Vīryaśrīmitra, notes that the detailed exposition
(nirdeśa) is for the benefit of one who understands through an
elaborated instruction (vipañcitajña), while the summary (uddeśa) is for
the benefit of one who understands through a condensed instruction
(udghaṭitajña).19 (Here uddeśa and nirdeśa are technical terms in sūtra
exegesis. The former is the brief statement that opens a sūtra, setting
forth its main points; the latter is the detailed exposition.)
In his Pañcaskandha-bhāṣya – a commentary on Vasubandhu’s
Pañcaskandhaprakaraṇa preserved only in Tibetan translation –
Pṛthivībandhu (Sa’i rtsa lag) states that there are two types of
student (slob ma = śiṣya): gleṅs pas śes pa = udghaṭita-jña and spros pas
śes pa = vipañcita-jña. He defines vipañcita-jña as one who understands
when a treatise is expounded in detail, and udghaṭita-jña as one who
H. Kern and Bunyiu Nanjio (ed.), Saddharmapuṇḍarīka (repr. Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass, 1992, Bibliotheca Buddhica X), 473.7 udghaṭita-jñā (v.l.
udghaṭṭitajñā) hi kulaputraite bodhisattvā mahāsattvāḥ (rigs kyi bu byaṅ chub
sems dpa’ sems dpa’ chen po ’di dag ni mgo smos pa tsam gyis khoṅ du chud pa
śa stag go): reference and Tibetan from Yasunori Ejima et al., Index to the
Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra – Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese (Tokyo: The Reiyukai,
1985), p. 198. Vipañcita-jña, neya, and padaparama are not listed.
18
Wogihara, Āloka, p. 515.16, Vaidya, Aṣṭasāhasrikā, p. 432.9: Haribhadra’s
explanation is in the negative, following the sūtra, which gives the terms
in the negative: rūpam ity-ādy-ukte rūp’ādi-skandhāparijñānān nôdghaṭitajñaḥ,
rūpaṇā-lakṣaṇaṃ rūpam ity-ādi-abhidhāne tad-arthānavabodhān na vipañcitajñaḥ.
Haribhadra invokes the classical derivation of rūpa (ruppatīti rūpaṃ [SN
III 86]; rūpyate rūpyata iti bhikṣuvas tasmād rūpopādānaskandha ity ucyate
[Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣya 1.13, ed. p. 9]). It seems to be a nirukti, a play on
words, which is impossible to carry over into English.
19
N.H. Samtani (ed.), The Arthaviniścaya-sūtra and its Commentary (Nibandhana)
(Patna: K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1971, Tibetan Sanskrit Works Series
Vol. XIII), p. 74.5 vipañcitodghaṭitajñapudgalāpekṣayā vā nirdeśoddeśavacanam iti.
17
Three types of Bodhisatta in Theravādin tradition:
99
understands many aspects when only a summary is taught.20 The
two terms also occur in the Bodhisattvabhūmi.21 The Mahāvyutpatti, a
Sanskrit-Tibetan lexicon compiled in Central Tibet at about the end
of the eight century, lists udghaṭita-jña and vipañcita-jña together in
a section on virtues, and padaparama separately in a section on faults
(skyon). It does not record neya.22
IV
None of the references so far, with the exception of that of the
Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, concern bodhisattas. For the systematic
application of the typology to bodhisattas – a development unique to
the Theravādins – we may turn to the Cariyāpiṭaka-aṭṭhakathā:23
Tibetan Tripiṭaka, Peking Edition (Otani reprint), Cat. no. 5569, Pañcaskandhabhāṣya /Phuṅ po lṅa’i bśad pa, Vol. 114, sems tsam, hi, 102a2, slob ma rnam pa gñis
te, spros pas śes pa daṅ, gleṅs pas śes pa’o. de la spros pas śes pa ni gźuṅ źib du bśad
na don rtogs par ’gyur ba ste, de dag gi don du mṅon pa’i chos mdzod la sogs pa yaṅ
dgos par ’gyur ro. gleṅs pas śes pa ni mdo tsam du bstan na don maṅ du khoṅ du
chud par ’gyur ba ste, de’i phyir gtsug lag ’di brtsam pas brtsams pa don med pa ma
yin te.
21
Nalinaksha Dutt (ed.), Bodhisattvabhūmiḥ [Being the XVth Section of
Asaṅgapāda’s Yogācārabhūmiḥ] (Patna: K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1978,
Tibetan Sanskrit Works Series, Vol. VII), p. 200.16.
22
R. Sakaki (ed.), Mahāvyutpatti (Kyoto: Suzuki Research Foundation Reprint
ed., 1926), in Section CXXVI, Nānāguṇanāmāni, Yon tan sna tshogs kyi miṅ
la § 2384 udghaṭita-jñaḥ, m(ḥ)go smos pas go pa; § 2385 vipañcita-jñaḥ, rnam par
spros pas (nas) go ba ’am źi ba tu (sic, for źib tu) bśad na go ba. Better readings
may be found in Yumiko Ishihama and Yoichi Fukuda, A New Critical Edition of
the Mahāvyutpatti, Sanskrit-Tibetan-Mongolian Dictionary of Buddhist Terminology
(Tokyo: The Toyo Bunko, 1989), Section 2360, § 2395, mgo smos pas go ba, §
2396, rnam par spros pas go ba ’am źib tu bśad na go ba (omitting variants). Padaparama is given at Mahāvyutpatti Section CXXVII, on defects (sKyon du brsti
ba’i miṅ la). (Sakaki) § 2477 = tshigs la ’chol ba, (Ishihama and Fukuda) Section
2452, § 2488 tshig la ’chel ba.
23
Cariyāpiṭaka-aṭṭhakathā (PTS 320.18–321.11); English translation from
Bhikkhu Bodhi (tr.), The Discourse on the All-Embracing Net of Views: The
Brahmajāla Sutta and its Commentaries (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society,
1978), pp. 325–326. See also Primoz Pecenko (ed.), Aṅguttaranikāyaṭīkā Catutthā
Sāratthamañjusā, Vol. II (Oxford: The Pali Text Society, 1997), p. 139.13, with
20
100
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
How much time is required to accomplish [the perfections]? – As a
minimum, four incalculables (asaṅkheyya) and a hundred thousand
great æons (mahākappa); as a middle figure, eight incalculables and a
hundred thousand great æons; as a maximum, sixteen incalculables
and a hundred thousand great æons. This threefold division obtains
by way of those in whom wisdom is predominant, those in whom
faith is predominant, and those in whom energy is predominant,
respectively. For those in whom wisdom is predominant, faith is
weakest and wisdom keenest; for those in whom faith is predominant,
wisdom is middling [and energy weakest]; and for those in whom
energy is predominant, wisdom is weakest [and faith middling]. But
supreme enlightenment must be achieved by the power of wisdom; so
it is said in the commentary.
[…] Bodhisattvas also become threefold at the moment they form
the aspiration, according to their division into those who comprehend
through a condensed teaching (ugghaṭitaññū), those who comprehend
through an elaborated teaching (vipañcitaññū), and those who are
capable of training (neyya). Among these, he who comprehends
through a condensed teaching has such supporting conditions
that, if he were disposed towards the enlightenment of a disciple,
he could attain arahatship together with the four discriminations
(paṭisambhidā) and the six abhiññās while listening to a four-line stanza
from the lips of a perfectly enlightened Buddha, even while the third
line is as yet unconcluded. The second has such supporting conditions
that, if he were disposed towards the enlightenment of a disciple, he
could attain arahatship together with the six abhiññās while listening
to a four-line stanza from the lips of the Exalted One, even while the
fourth line is as yet unconcluded. And the third has the supporting
conditions to attain arahatship together with the six abhiññās when
the four-line stanza he hears from the Exalted One is concluded.
These three types, who form their aspirations without any allotted
division of time, receive predictions (of their future Buddhahood)
directly from the Buddhas. Then they fulfil the pāramīs in order and
reach the supreme enlightenment according to the aforementioned
time allotted to each type. But that these Great Beings … should
become perfectly enlightened Buddhas before the time allotted to
their respective type is fulfilled, this is not possible. Why? Because
their knowledge is not yet mature enough and their accumulations of
the factors issuing in Buddhahood not yet complete. For just as grain
ripens only after the lapse of the time are required (for its growth), so
too the supreme enlightenment is perfected only after the lapse of the
further references. Most of the ideas are also presented in the Suttanipātaaṭṭhakathā.
Three types of Bodhisatta in Theravādin tradition:
101
aforementioned periods of time. Before then, even though striving
with all his might, the bodhisattva cannot attain enlightenment. The
pāramīs are fulfilled according to the aforementioned distinction of
time. Thus it should be understood.
This passage became the key source for the typology in South-East
Asia. It is reproduced nearly verbatim, for example, by Mingun
Sayadaw in his Mahābuddhavaṃsa, translated into English as The
Great Chronicle of Buddhas.24 By applying a theory of three stages of
aspiration the number of æons for each type increased to twenty,
forty, and eighty, respectively.25
V
The typology was applied to past Buddhas and future bodhisattvas.
I have not seen any text that gives a systematic enumeration.
Information is available for the following:26
Predominant in wisdom (paññādhika)
Predominant in faith (saddhādhika)
Predominant in energy (viriyādhika)
Sakyamuni
Sikhī
Kakusandha
Konāgamana
Kassapa
Dīpaṃkara
Purāṇasakyamuni
Metteyya
The Most Venerable Mingun Sayadaw, The Great Chronicle of Buddhas, The
State Buddha Sāsana Council’s Version, Vol. One, Part Two, tr. by U Ko Lay
and U Tin Lwin (Yangon: Ti = Ni Publishing Center, CE 1992), pp. 118–120.
For a succinct modern account of the theory, see Toshiichi Endo, Buddha in
Theravada Buddhism: A Study of the Concept of Buddha in the Pali Commentaries
(Dehiwela [Sri Lanka], 1997), pp. 251–252.
25
See below, ‘The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology’, pp.
128–154.
26
See below, ‘The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology’, pp.
128–154. The textual tradition is not unanimous about Metteyya.
24
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
VI
The typology of the three bodhisattas pervaded religious thought in
South-East Asia. The three terms alone – paññādhika, saddhādhika, and
viriyādhika – were used as nouns for the three types of bodhisattas
or Buddhas. They occur in Pāli and vernacular literature throughout
the region, such as the Lanna Sotatthikī, the Sambhāravipāka, the
Saṅgītiyavaṅśa, and various tellings of Māleyyadeva-sutta or Phra Malai,
as well as in Thai poetic works.
Colophons and inscriptions show that the three types were ideals,
very much a part of living Buddhism. For example, in some Burmese
manuscript colophons the writer aspires to become a bodhisatta
predominant in wisdom:27
etena puññakammena, paññādhikaṃ bhavām’ ahaṃ
buddhatthaṃ pāramī tiṃsa pūretvāna anāgate.
By this act of merit, may I be a [bodhisatta] strong in wisdom
fullfilling the thirty pāramī for sake of becoming a Buddha in future.
In another colophon the writer wishes to receive a prediction from
Metteyya:28
iminā puññak[a]mmena Metteyya jinasāsane
byākaraṇaṃ patilabhitvā p[a]ññādhikaṃ bhavām’ ahaṃ.
By this act of merit, may I obtain the prediction
in the religion of the Conqueror Metteya and become a paññādhika.
27
Burmese Manuscripts Part 3, Catalogue Numbers 432–735, compiled by Heinz
Braun assisted by Anne Peters, ed. by Heinz Bechert (Stuttgart: Franz
Steiner Verlag, 1996, VOHD Band XXIII, 3), Cat. no. 534, p. 142, colophon
to Samantapāsādikā, Cūḷavagga-vaṇṇanā, dated Sakkarāj 1255 (CE 1894); Cat.
no. 535, colophon to Samantapāsādikā, Parivāra-vaṇṇanā, same date; Burmese
Manuscripts Part 4, Catalogue Numbers 736–900, compiled by Anne Peters, ed.
by Heinz Bechert (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000, VOHD Band XXIII,
4), colophon to Bhikkhunīpātimokkha nissaya, Cat. no. 863, dated Sakkarāj 1230
(CE 1868), p. 184.
28
Burmese Manuscripts Part 3, colophon to Cittayamaka in manuscript dated to
Sakkarāj 1246 (CE 1885), Cat. no. 502, p. 96. I have corrected the text in two
places, indicated by square brackets. Line a has puññakā(sic)mmena. Line d
has puññādhikaṃ.
Three types of Bodhisatta in Theravādin tradition:
103
Other examples can be quoted from Burmese colophons29 and from
Burmese, Khmer,30 and Thai inscriptions.31
29
Burmese Manuscripts Part 2, compiled by Heinz Braun and Daw Tin Tin Myint
with an introduction by Heinz Bechert (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag,
1985, VOHD Band XXIII, 2), Cat. no. 253, p. 78, colophon to Saṅgruih akok
dated Sakkarāj 1237 (CE 1876); Cat. no. 375, colophon to Vīthi lak rui dated
Sakkarāj1198 (CE 1836). Another verse in a stock colophon is found in varying
degrees of corruption at Burmese Manuscripts Part 3 pp. 27, 30, 225, 305, 389,
390, 392; Part 4, pp. 61, 95. One case in which paññādhika does not refer to a
type of bodhisatta may be cited: Cat. no. 339, colophon to Khuddasikkhā dated
Sakkarāj 1253 (CE 1891), in the phrase tikkhapaññādhiko bhave.
30
IMA 38, v. 112, in Saveros Pou, ‘Inscriptions modernes d’Angkor 34 et 38’,
Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient LXII (1995). Unaware of viriyādhika’s
ancient pedigree, Pou describes it as ‘un composé attributif formé selon la
syntaxe khmère avec des éléments sanskrits’ and misses the point of the
verse, which is that the author aspires to be a Buddha like Metteyya.
31
Inscription no. 236, on the border of a footprint of the Buddha at Phra Taen
Sila-at, Uttaradit Province, dated BE 2448 = CE 1905 (Prachum Silacharuk 6.2,
p. 115).
8
The advent of Theravāda Buddhism to mainland
South-East Asia
I
N THE PRESENT PAPER I EXAMINE EVIDENCE FOR THE SCHOOLaffiliation of the early Buddhism of mainland South-East Asia, in
the first millenium of the Christian Era.1 Is the evidence sufficient
to establish that this school was the Theravāda, and, if so, when and
from where did it arrive in the region?
For the Theravāda of Ceylon – or more precisely, for the Mahāvihāra
school of the Theravāda – we have the history as presented in the
two famous chronicles, the Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa. Information
may also be gleaned from references to historical events embedded
in the commentaries of Buddhaghosa and others, from inscriptions
in Old Sinhala and Sanskrit, from archæological and iconographical
evidence, and from Chinese sources – in some cases first hand, such
as that supplied by the redoubtable pilgrim Fǎxiǎn. Altogether, we
have at least in broad outline a continuous history of Theravāda/
Mahāvihāra in Ceylon from its inception up to the present day.
That is, I do not discuss the Buddhism of peninsular and insular SouthEast Asia, or that of Campā (the coastal regions of present-day central and
southern Vietnam). In none of these areas is there any early evidence for
Theravāda Buddhism.
1
104
The advent of Theravāda Buddhism to mainland South-East Asia
105
Outside of Ceylon, the history of Theravāda is obscure. For
mainland India we have almost no information at all. There are some
– but not many – references to Theravādin doctrines in the works of
other schools,2 but the historical information – such as that provided
by inscriptions or by the Chinese pilgrims Xuánzàng and Yìjìng – is
at best sketchy.
For the South-East Asia of the early period we do not have any
historical records comparable to those of Ceylon: no indigenous
chronicles, whether in Pāli, Sanskrit, or in vernaculars survive. The
few extant historical inscriptions do not give us any continuous
history, and Chinese reports tell us little about the type of Buddhism
practised on the mainland.
Pāli inscriptions from Burma and Siam
The main evidence for the school-affiliation of early Buddhism in
South-East Asia comes from Pāli inscriptions. These are known from
two main areas: the Pyu kingdom of Śrīkṣetra in the vicinity of Prome
in the lower Irrawaddy valley of Burma, and the Mon kingdom of
Dvāravatī in the Chao Phraya basin of Siam.3 The inscriptions from
Burma are engraved on gold plates (fashioned in imitation of palmleaf manuscripts), a silver reliquary (stūpa), terracotta tablets, and
stone slabs. The inscriptions from Siam are engraved on stone
dhammacakkas, octagonal pillars, stone slabs, and clay tablets
See the following works by Peter Skilling: ‘The Saṃskṛtāsaṃskṛta-viniścaya
of Daśabalaśrīmitra’, Buddhist Studies Review 4.1 (1987), pp. 3–23; ‘A Citation
from the *Buddhavaṃsa of the Abhayagiri School’, Journal of the Pali Text Society
XVIII (1993), pp. 165–175; ‘Theravādin Literature in Tibetan Translation’,
Journal of the Pali Text Society XIX (1993), pp. 69–201; for some examples from
Tibetan sources see also ‘Vimuttimagga and Abhayagiri: the form-aggregate
according to the Saṃskṛtāsaṃkṛtaviniścaya’, Journal of the Pali Text Society XX
(1994), pp. 171–210.
3
In this paper I set aside the historical questions (of, for example, chronology
and geographical extent) attached to the names of these two kingdoms, and
(with not a little reluctance) use the names as a conventional shorthand. For
Dvāravatī see Peter Skilling, ‘Dvāravatī: Recent Revelations and Research’,
in Dedications to Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang
Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra on her 80th birthday (Bangkok: The Siam Society,
2003), pp. 87–112.
2
106
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
and reliquaries. The script used in both cases is similar, and may
be described as a variety of the South Indian Pallava script.4 The
Śrīkṣetra inscriptions are dated to the fifth to seventh centuries CE,
the Siamese inscriptions to the sixth to eighth centuries: that is, they
are broadly contemporary.5
(1) Inscriptions from the region of Śrīkṣetra:6
• the ye dhammā hetuppabhavā verse;7
• the iti pi so bhagavā formula;8
• the svākkhāto bhagavatā dhammo formula;9
• the formula of dependent arising (paṭiccasamuppāda);10
The script of the Pyu inscriptions has in the past been variously described
as Kadamba, Telegu-Canara, or Grantha: for a welcome reappraisal see Janice
Stargardt, ‘The Oldest Known Pali Texts, 5th–6th century: Results of the
Cambridge Symposium on the Pyu Golden Pali Text from Śrī Kṣetra, 18–19
April 1995’, Journal of the Pali Text Society XXI (1995), p. 204.
5
For the dating of the former see Stargardt, ‘The Oldest Known Pali Texts’,
pp. 199–213, for the latter e.g. Christian Bauer, ‘Notes on Mon Epigraphy’, JSS
79.1 (1991), pp. 31–83, and Peter Skilling, ‘New Pāli Inscriptions from Southeast Asia’, Journal of the Pali Text Society XXIII (1997), pp. 123–157, section II
(‘Pāli Inscriptions on a Stone Dhammacakka and an Octagonal Pillar from Chai
Nat’), pp. 133–151. It should be stressed that the inscriptions do not bear
any dates, and that those assigned to them are tentative and approximate. A
comprehensive comparative palæographical analysis of the ‘Śrīkṣetra’ with
the ‘Dvāravatī’ corpus remains a desideratum.
6
For details see Nihar-Ranjan Ray, ‘Early Traces of Buddhism in Burma’,
Journal of the Greater India Society VI.1 (Jan., 1939), pp. 41–52; G.H. Luce, ‘The
Advent of Buddhism to Burma’, in L. Cousins et al. (ed.), Buddhist Studies in
Honour of I.B. Horner (Dordrecht and Boston: 1974), pp. 125–127; and Stargardt,
‘The Oldest Known Pali Texts’, pp. 199–213. Most of the texts are brought
together in U Tha Myat, Pyu Reader (Rangoon: 1963). Note that several of the
passages are known from more than one inscription.
7
Mahāvagga, Vinaya, PTS I 40.28–29.
8
Cf. Dhajagga-sutta, Saṃyutta Nikāya, PTS I 219.31–33.
9
Cf. Dhajagga-sutta, Saṃyutta Nikāya, PTS I 220.1–2.
10
Cf. Mahāvagga, Vinaya, PTS I 1.10–2.1. In addition to the paṭiccasamuppāda
inscribed on gold plates from Śrīkṣetra, the Vinaya Mahāvagga version is
known from a stone slab from Kunzeik, Shwegyin township, Pegu: see Aung
Thaw, Historical Sites in Burma (Rangoon: 1972), pp. 110–111. As far as I know
this handsome and well-preserved inscription has not been published, but
4
The advent of Theravāda Buddhism to mainland South-East Asia
107
• stanzas sung by Sakka, Lord of the Gods, in praise of the Buddha
entering Rājagaha;11
• the maggān’ aṭṭhaṅgiko seṭṭho verse;12
• verses from three popular parittas: the Maṅgala-, Ratana-, and
Mora-suttas;13
• the four confidences (vesārajja) of a Buddha;14
• the thirty-seven factors conducive to awakening (bodhipakkhiyadhammā);
• a list of miscellaneous numerically grouped items, in ascending
order;
• a list of the fourteen ñāṇas of a Buddha;15
• a fragment of a commentary on dependent arising;16
fortunately most of it can be descried from the photograph. It opens (the
readings here are preliminary) with the introductory [1] t(e)na samayena
buddho bhaga(vā) uruvelāyaṃ viharati na(j)j(ā) (nerañjarāya? unclear) [2]
tīre (or tire?) bodhirukkhamūle pathamābhisambuddho atha kho bhagavā…,
followed by the full paṭiccasamuppāda formula, both anuloma (lines 5–9)
and paṭiloma (lines 9–14). The latter opens with the phrase avijjāya tv eva
asesavirāganirodhā, characteristic of the Mahāvihārin (Pāli) version only, and
not known in versions of other schools, such as the (Mūla-)Sarvāstivādins
or Lokottaravādins, or from the Prakrit inscriptions from Devnīmorī and
Ratnagiri, all of which open with equivalents of avijjā-nirodhā. The paṭiloma
is followed by the yadā have pātubhavanti dhammā verse (lines 15–18), known
also from inscriptions from Siam. The last two lines continue with the
prose text of the Mahāvagga – atha kho (bhaga)vā r(attiyā) maj(jh)imaṃ (yā)
maṃ paṭicca – suggesting that the slab is part of a longer inscription. For the
Devnīmorī and Ratnagiri inscriptions see Oskar von Hinüber, ‘Epigraphical
Varieties of Continental Pāli from Devnimori and Ratnagiri’, in Buddhism and
its Relation to Other Religions: Essays in Honour of Dr. Shozen Kumoi on his Seventieth
Birthday (Kyoto: 1985), pp. 185–200; for a suggestion that the former might be
Vātsīputrīya or Sāmmatīya, see P. Skilling, ‘On the School-affiliation of the
“Patna Dhammapada”’, Journal of the Pali Text Society XXIII (1997), pp. 83–122.
11
Mahāvagga, Vinaya, PTS I 38.15–23, 29–30.
12
Dhammapada 273.
13
For these see Peter Skilling, ‘New Pāli Inscriptions from South-east Asia’,
Journal of the Pali Text Society XXIII (1997), pp. 123–157, section III (‘A Paritta
Inscription from Śrīkṣetra in Burma’), pp. 152–157.
14
Majjhima Nikāya 12, PTS I 71.32; Aṅguttara Nikāya, PTS II 8, penult.
15
Cf. Paṭisambhidāmagga, PTS I 133.19–30.
16
Cf. Vibhaṅga, PTS 144–45.
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
• the opening of the mātikā: kusalā [dhammā aku]salā dhammā
abyāka[tā] dhammā;17
• a fragment giving two of the twenty-four conditions: [adhi]
patipaccayo anantarapaccayo;
• a list of seven of the eight vipassanā ñāṇas.18
(2) Inscriptions from the Chao Phraya basin:19
• the ye dhammā hetuppabhavā verse;
• the formula of dependent arising (paṭiccasamuppāda);
• an enumeration of the four truths of the noble (ariya-sacca), the
twelve links of dependent arising (paṭiccasamuppāda), and the
thirty-seven factors conducive to awakening (bodhipakkhiyadhamma), inscribed together on a rectangular stone bar from
Nakhon Pathom;20
• extracts from the prose Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta, the ‘first
sermon’ spoken by the Buddha in the Deer Park at Sarnath,
found on stone dhammacakkas;21
• the three yadā have pātubhavanti dhammā verses;22
• the anekajātisaṃsāraṃ verses;23
• the dukkhaṃ dukkhasamuppādaṃ verse;24
• the abhiññeyyaṃ abhiññātaṃ verse;25
Cf. Dhammasaṅgaṇī, PTS 1.4.
Cf. Visuddhimagga XXI.1.
19
Most of the inscriptions may be found in Supaphan na Bangchang,
Wiwathanakan ngan khian phasa bali nai prathet thai: charuk tamnan
phongsawadan san prakat (Bangkok: 2529 [1986], pp. 15–40). As in the case of
the Śrīkṣetra inscriptions, several of the passages are known from more than
one inscription.
20
See Peter Skilling, ‘New Pāli Inscriptions from South-east Asia’, Journal of
the Pali Text Society XXIII (1997), pp. 123–157, section I (‘A Recently Discovered
Pāli Inscription From Nakhon Pathom’), pp. 123–133.
21
See above, n. 5.
22
Mahāvagga, Vinaya, PTS I 2.3–26.
23
Dhammapada 153–54.
24
Dhammapada 191. See Peter Skilling, ‘A Buddhist Verse Inscription from
Andhra Pradesh’, Indo-Iranian Journal 34 (1991), pp. 239–246, and Skilling,
‘New Pāli Inscriptions from South-east Asia’, section I, pp. 123–133.
25
Suttanipāta 558.
17
18
The advent of Theravāda Buddhism to mainland South-East Asia
109
• fragments of the sixteen senses (aṭṭha) of the four truths;26
• nābādhakaṃ yato dukkhaṃ…, non-canonical verses on the four
truths;27
• sacca-kicca-kata-ñāṇaṃ…, a non-canonical verse on the twelve
aspects (dvādasākāra) of the four truths;28
• three verses from the Telakaṭāha-gātha.29
The evidence of the inscriptions may be examined from two
aspects: language and contents. The language of both the Śrīkṣetra
and Dvāravatī palæographs is Pāli. Is the use of Pāli sufficient to
establish the presence of the Theravāda? Or could another Buddhist
school have also transmitted its sacred writ in Pāli, and have been
responsible for the inscriptions? From an early date, Buddhist
tradition recognized dialect as one of the key distinguishing
features of the different schools (nikāya). In the second half of the
first millenium of the Christian Era, tradition spoke of four main
schools, each transmitting its canon in a different Indic dialect:
(Mūla)Sarvāstivādins, who used Sanskrit; Mahāsāṃghikas, who
used an intermediate language; Sāmmatīyas, who used Apabhraṃśa;
and Sthāviras (that is, Theras), who used Paiśācī.30 The tradition is
confirmed by the distinctive and consistent linguistic features of
available texts of the schools. On this evidence I conclude that it
is unlikely that another school would have used Pāli, and that the
use of that language in the inscriptions is a strong indication of
Theravādin activity in the region.
Cf. Paṭisambhidāmagga, PTS I 19.31–20.6. See Skilling, ‘New Pāli Inscriptions
from South-east Asia’, section II, for this and the two following passages.
27
Cited at Visuddhimagga XVI.25.
28
Cited in Paṭhamasambodhi (phasa bali) chabap khatlok chak khamphi bailan
aksonkhom (Bangkok: Wat Phra Chetuphon [Wat Pho]/Borisat Sahathammik
Chamkat, 2537 [1994], p. 127.6), and Sāratthasamuccaya (Sāratthasamuccaya
atthakathā bhāṇavāra, vol. 4 [Bangkok: Rongphim Krung Thep, 2532 (1989)]).
29
See references below. The inscription is from Prachin Buri, and thus outside
of the Chao Phraya valley proper.
30
See Skilling, ‘On the School-affiliation of the “Patna Dhammapada”’, Journal
of the Pali Text Society XXIII (1997), pp. 83–122, for references. The Theravādins
traditionally describe the language of their texts as Māgadhī, ‘the language
of Magadha’: see Oskar von Hinüber, ‘On the History of the Name of the Pāli
Language’, in Selected Papers on Pāli Studies (Oxford: The Pali Text Society,
1994), pp. 76–90.
26
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
What about the contents of the inscriptions? It is true that
the canonical extracts – such as the various formulas, the
Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta, and the verses – belong to the
common heritage of Buddhism: but our epigraphs give them in their
Theravādin recensions, and they agree very closely indeed with the
received transmission that we know today.31 The ‘extracts’ from the
Abhidhamma and Paṭisambhidāmagga are rather more indicative. As
far as is known, the seven books of the Theravādin Abhidhamma Piṭaka
are unique to that school, and employ a unique system and technical
vocabulary. The Śrīkṣetra inscriptions preserve fragments with
counterparts in the Mātikā, the Vibhaṅga, and the list of twenty-four
conditions (paccaya), all of which may be described as specifically
Theravādin. Inscriptions from both Śrīkṣetra and Siam employ
technical categories known from the Paṭisambhidāmagga (whether
or not they are actual extracts is not clear), an ancient commentary
transmitted in the Khuddaka-nikāya of the Pāli Canon, and unique to
the Theravādin school.
The non-canonical inscriptions provide further convincing
evidence for a Theravādin presence. The Śrīkṣetra list of seven
vipassanā ñāṇas has a parallel in the Visuddhimagga, and an inscribed
octagonal pillar from U Tapao gives a set of verses on the four truths
that is cited in the Visuddhimagga and in other works of the school.32
The Visuddhimagga is, of course, one of the most representative and
most authoritative texts of the Mahāvihāra Theravāda. An inscription
found in association with a giant pair of Buddhapāda at Si Maha Phot
district in Prachin Buri province gives three Pāli stanzas in homage
to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha. The stanzas, in the vasantatilaka
metre, are from the Telakaṭāha-gāthā, a work of unknown authorship
believed to have been composed in Ceylon. According to the opening
Khmer portion, the epigraph was set up by one Buddhasiri in CE 761.33
There are a very few orthographic variants, for which see e.g. Skilling,
‘New Pāli Inscriptions from South-east Asia’, section I, pp. 128–129 – with
reference to the work of von Hinüber – and section II, pp. 133–151.
32
See for references Skilling, ‘New Pāli Inscriptions from South-east Asia’,
section II, pp. 133–151.
33
See Charuk nai prathet thai (Bangkok: The Fine Arts Department 2529 [1986])
Vol. I, pp. 179–186 and Mendis Rohanadeera, ‘The Noen Sa Bua Inscription
of Dong Si Maha Bo, Prachinburi’, Journal of Siam Society 76 (1988), pp. 89–99.
The Telakaṭāha-gāthā was edited by Edmund R. Goonaratne in Journal of the
Pali Text Society (1884), pp. 49–68.
31
The advent of Theravāda Buddhism to mainland South-East Asia
111
The sacca-kicca-kata-ñāṇaṃ verse is known only from late Mahāvihāra
texts: it is noteworthy that the Siamese inscriptions (the verse occurs
several times) are much earlier than the known texts that give the
verse.34
From the point of view of both language and contents, I conclude
that the Pāli inscriptions of Burma and Siam give firm evidence for a
Theravādin presence in the Irrawaddy and Chao Phraya basins, from
about the fifth century CE onwards.35 From the extent and richness
of the evidence it seems that the Theravāda was the predominant
school, and that it enjoyed the patronage of ruling and economic
elites.36 But I do not mean to suggest that religious society was
monolithic: other schools may well have been present, or have come
and gone, and there is ample evidence for the practice of Mahāyāna
and Brahmanism in the region.37
See Skilling ‘New Pāli Inscriptions from South-east Asia’, section II, pp.
133–151 for references.
35
We must wait for a comprehensive study of Indic loan-words in early Mon
inscriptions from Siam before we can determine the degree to which they
use Sanskrit or Pāli. An example of the former is the word puṇya, ubiquitous
in the epigraphs. A possible example of the latter is the term upājhāy, derived
more probably from Pāli upajjhāya (also upajjha and upajjhā) than Sanskrit
upādhyāya, in an inscription from Lopburi: see George Cœdès, Recueil des
Inscriptions du Siam, Deuxième Partie: Inscriptions de Dvāravatī, de Çrīvijaya et de
Lavo (Bangkok: 1961), p. 8, II (1). Another form, from two circa ninth century
‘votive tablets’ is pajhāy: Charuk nai prathet thai, Vol. II, pp. 85–89, 90–94 (note
that the word occurs side by side with ācāryya).
36
Regarding the ‘Khin Ba mound’ relic chamber, from which a twenty-leaf
golden Pāli text was unearthed, Janice Stargardt remarks that ‘although
many other relic chambers were discovered at Śrī Kṣetra, this was the only
one to survive intact, and its contents exceeded – in number, quality of
workmanship, and concentration of precious metals and stones – even the
relic chamber of the Bhaṭṭiprolu stūpa in Andhra’ (Stargardt, ‘The Oldest
Known Pali Texts’, p. 200).
37
The practice of Mahāyāna is compatible with any of the Vinaya schools,
including the Theravāda, and brahmans played (and continue to play)
an active role in South-East Asian ‘Buddhist’ societies, both court and
common. The schools or religious groups should be regarded as interactive
and complementary rather than mutually exclusive. For Avalokiteśvara in
South-East Asia see Nandana Chutiwongs, The Iconography of Avalokiteśvara
in Mainland South East Asia (Leiden: 1984) (especially Chap. 3 on Burma and
Chap. 4 on Central Thailand) and Nandana Chutiwongs and Denise Patry
34
112
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
The question of origins
The Theravādin saṅgha of Ceylon was divided into two main rival
branches, the Mahāvihāravāsins and Abhayagirivāsins.38 After more
than a thousand years of contention for legitimacy and patronage,
the former won out, and absorbed the monks and monasteries of
the latter. Most regrettably for our purposes, the literature of the
Abhayagiri, which included at least one chronicle of the school, was
allowed (or perhaps encouraged) to disappear, with the result that
no undisputed Pāli text of the school survives.39 The Theravāda that
we know today is the Mahāvihāra tradition, as settled by the time
of the prolific commentator Buddhaghosa in the fifth century. The
later Pāli literature of the sub-commentaries (ṭīkās) and manuals,
although subject to further development and a variety of influences,
also belongs to the Mahāvihāravāsin lineage.
Both the Abhayagiri and Mahāvihāra schools maintained
contacts with India: with Kāñcīpuram, Andhradeśa, and Magadha. Is
there any evidence for the presence of either school in early SouthEast Asia? The canonical inscriptions – including the Abhidhamma
‘extracts’ – could belong to either the Abhayagirivāsins or the
Mahāvihāravāsins, since both are believed to have transmitted
a similar canon in Pāli, and both held broadly similar tenets and
used a similar technical vocabulary.40 It seems that the Abhayagiri
also transmitted the Paṭisambhidāmagga, or at least a similar text,
since passages cited in the Vimuttimagga (for which see below) have
parallels in that work. The nābādhakaṃ yato dukkhaṃ verses, known
Leidy, Buddha of the Future (New York and Singapore: 1994); for brahmanism
in the region see Daweewarn Dawee, Brāhmaṇism in South-East Asia (From the
earliest time to 1445 A.D.) (New Delhi: 1982)
38
Other branches, such as the Sāgaliyas, Dhammarucikas, or Jetavanīyas also
existed, but seem to have been less enduring or influential.
39
See Skilling ‘A Citation from the *Buddhavaṃsa of the Abhayagiri School’,
pp. 165–175.
40
The canons of the two schools were not identical – and is it not historically
and humanly improbable (or even impossible) that two collections
transmitted at separate monastic centres for centuries from an early date –
the Abhayagiri was founded in the first century BCE – should be so? See the
important references in Oskar von Hinüber, ‘Buddhist Law According to the
Theravāda-Vinaya: A Survey of Theory and Practice’, JIABS 18.1 (1995), pp.
36–38.
The advent of Theravāda Buddhism to mainland South-East Asia
113
at present only from Mahāvihāra texts such as the Visuddhimagga, are
given in citation, and are not original to the works in question: that
is, they originate from an earlier text that may have been accepted
by both schools.
The Vimuttimagga, a treatise associated with the Abhayagiri,
was well-known outside of Ceylon (whether it was composed in
that country or in India remains under debate). A comprehensive
manual of practice and theory, composed by Upatissa (Skt. Upatiṣya)
perhaps by the second century CE, it was translated into Chinese
in 515. Interestingly, the translator, *Saṃghabhara, was a bhikṣu of
Funan (an early South-East Asian polity known from Chinese sources,
and located by the savants in the deltaic regions of Cambodia).41 The
manuscript of the Vimuttimagga, along with the other texts translated
by *Saṃghabhara, was brought to China in 503 by another monk of
Funan, *Mandrasena.42 Since none of the other texts brought from
Funan are Theravādin, and some belong to the Mahāyāna,43 the fact
that the Vimuttimagga was among them attests only to the availability
of that text in Funan: it cannot be interpreted as evidence for a (nonMahāvihāra) Theravādin presence.44 Since *Saṃghabhara did some
For the school-affiliation (and name of the translator and date of translation,
about which there has been some confusion) see Skilling, ‘Vimuttimagga and
Abhayagiri’, pp. 171–210.
42
Lidai sanbao ji, Taishō 2034, Vol. 49, 98c, 6–7; Kaiyuan shijiao lu, Taishō 2154,
Vol. 55, 537c, 18–19. The Annals of the Liang Dynasty confirm that Funan was
one of the countries that sent tribute in 503. I am grateful to Dr. Bhikṣuṇī
Vinīta Tseng for checking the Chinese sources.
43
The works are listed in Bunyiu Nanjio, A Catalogue of the Chinese Translation
of the Buddhist Tripiṭaka, the Sacred Canon of the Buddhists in China and Japan
([Oxford: 1883] San Francisco: 1975), II §§ 101, 102; Prabodh Chandra Bagchi,
Le canon bouddhique en Chine: Les traducteurs et les traductions, Tome I (Paris:
1927), pp. 414–418; Répertoire du canon bouddhique sino-japonais (Fascicule
annexe du Hōbōgirin) (Paris-Tōkyō: 1978), pp. 267 (s.v. Mandarasen), 281 (s.v.
Sōgyabara).
44
The Vimuttimagga was also known in North India: the chapter on the
dhutaṅgas was translated into Tibetan under the title Dhutaguṇanirdeśa
around CE 800, and long sections were cited by Daśabalaśrīmitra, a North
Indian scholar, probably in the twelfth century, in a work preserved only
in Tibetan translation: see Skilling, ‘The Saṃskṛtāsaṃskṛta-viniścaya of
Daśabalaśrīmitra’, pp. 3–23, Skilling, ‘Theravādin Literature in Tibetan
Translation’, pp. 69–201, and Skilling, ‘Vimuttimagga and Abhayagiri’, pp.
171–210 for references.
41
114
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
of his translation work in the ‘Funanese Pavilion’,45 and enjoyed the
patronage of the Emperor, it seems that Funanese Buddhism was
accorded some esteem.
(For insular South-East Asia, we have one clear piece of evidence:
the inscription from Ratu Baka in central Java, dated CE 792, which
refers to an ‘Abhayagiri-vihāra built for the Sinhalese saṅgha’. On
the mainland, but outside of our period, there is mention of an
‘Abhayagiri’ in the concluding Khmer portion of a Vajrayānist Sanskrit
palæograph, dated CE 1066, from the vicinity of Nakhon Ratchasima
(Korat) in Central Siam.46 The precise location of this Abhayagiri is
unknown, and it is by no means certain that the toponym should
be related to the Abhayagiri school: the inscription names only an
‘Abhaya Mountain’ [giri: without the word vihāra], where images of
‘Buddhalokeśvara’ and others were installed and later renovated.)
All told, there is no conclusive local evidence that the early
Theravāda of South-East Asia was affiliated with either the Mahāvihāra
or the Abhayagiri. We may also note the absence of references
to South-East Asia of the period in the chronicles of Ceylon,47 and
reflect that in the great period of reform that swept the region in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the new ordination lineage was
distinguished by the name Sīhala-sāsana. Might this not suggest that
the old tradition did not associate itself with Ceylon?
It is therefore probably futile to try to trace the Theravāda of
the period to either of the Ceylon schools. It is likely that Buddhism
arrived in the area at an early date – perhaps even from the time of
Soṇa and Uttara’s mission to Suvaṇṇabhūmi during the reign of King
Aśoka, as traditionally held. Whether this Buddhism belonged to the
Theravādin lineage from the start, or whether that lineage asserted
itself later, cannot be said (and what did the term Theravādin mean
Bagchi, Le canon bouddhique en Chine, Tome I, p. 416.
See Chirapat Prapandvidya, ‘The Sab Bāk Inscription: Evidence of an Early
Vajrayāna Buddhist Presence in Thailand’, JSS 78.2 (1990), p. 12 (text line 32),
p. 13 (tr.).
47
See here Ray, ‘Early Traces of Buddhism in Burma’, p. 52. Sirisena remarks
that ‘Sri Lanka’s close religious contacts with Burma started only from
the eleventh century’: W.M. Sirisena, Sri Lanka and South-east Asia: Political,
Religious and Cultural Relations from A.D. c. 1000 to c. 1500 (Leiden: 1978), p. 58.
His work offers a wealth of information – from chronicles, inscriptions – on
the relations between Ceylon and South-East Asia but, as the title indicates,
all from the later period.
45
46
The advent of Theravāda Buddhism to mainland South-East Asia
115
in the pre-Buddhaghosa period, and outside of Ceylon?) – but there
is no doubt that it evolved independently of the Ceylon schools. Over
the centuries it would have undergone multiple influences, as monks
(and perhaps nuns) from different regions of India criss-crossed the
region, and as local monks travelled throughout the region and to
different parts of India.48 There is evidence suggestive of connections
with Andhradeśa and the South, for example in the style of Buddha
images and, possibly, layout of early Pyu stūpas and vihāras, such as
those from Beikthano.49 There is also evidence for contacts with North
India: the use of Gupta idioms in Dvāravatī Buddha images, and the practice
of enshrining the ye dhammā verse or the paṭiccasamuppāda formula in stūpas,
which was widespread throughout the North, but rare in the South50 and
48
If anything is clear from the time of our earliest records – the Tripiṭaka
itself (e.g. the Puṇṇovāda-sutta, Majjhima Nikāya 145) – up to the present, it
is that monks travelled, even in the face of adversity or danger. The subject
is addressed by Vasubandhu, who in his Vyākhyāyukti gives in verse seven
reasons why the Buddha travelled (note the technical term, known from the
canon, cārikāṃ carati) and fifteen reasons why auditors (śrāvaka) did so: see
Prapod Assavavirulhakarn and Peter Skilling, ‘Vasubandhu on Travel and
Seclusion’, Manusya Journal of Humanities 2/1 (1999), pp. 13–24.
49
It is intriguing that the dukkhaṃ dukkhasamuppādaṃ verse, inscribed at
least twice in Siam, is also known (but in a lightly Sanskritic form) from an
inscription from Andhra: see, for details, Skilling, ‘A Buddhist Verse Inscription
from Andhra Pradesh’, pp. 239–46, and Skilling, ‘New Pāli Inscriptions from
South-east Asia’, section I, pp. 123–133. The use of the Pallava script cannot in
itself be cited as evidence, since that script was employed from an early date
throughout insular, peninsular, and mainland South-East Asia, for secular
and religious (both Brahmanical and Buddhistic) records.
50
For some southern examples in the Pallava script see A. Rea, ‘A Buddhist
Monastery on the Śaṅkaram Hills, Vizagapatam District’, Archæological Survey
of India, Annual Report, 1907–8 (repr. Delhi: 1990), pp. 149–180 and Pls. LI–LXIV
(and also Debala Mitra, Buddhist Monuments [Calcutta: 1980, first published
December 1971], pp. 218–220). The inscriptions that I am able to decipher from
the Stygian reproduction of the plates give the ye dharmā verse in Sanskrit. Rea
describes the site as ‘one of the most remarkable groups of Buddhist remains
in the Presidency’ (then in Madras, the site is now in District Visakhapatnam
of Andhra Pradesh). Further south, at Gummadidurru (District Krishna) were
found ‘127 clay tablets of the size of an eight-anna piece and bearing the
Buddhist creed in Nagari characters of the late mediæval period’ (Archæological
Survey of India, Annual Report, 1926–27 [repr. Delhi: 1990], pp. 155–156: see also
Mitra, Buddhist Monuments, p. 212).
116
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Ceylon.51 The Telakaṭāha verses suggest contacts with the latter country,
as does, perhaps, a short and enigmatic Old Mon inscription from the
Narai or Khao Wong cave in Saraburi province, dated to circa twelfth
century BE (CE 550–650), which refers to an Anurādhapura.52 Whether
the reference is to the ancient capital of Ceylon or to a local site cannot
be said, although the latter seems more likely: the important point is that
the toponym seems to be otherwise known only from Ceylon.53
We should not regard the establishment and development of Buddhism
in the region as a mere mechanical process. Rather, it was a human, and
hence unpredictable, progress in which decisions were made and acted upon
by individuals and communities. A single charismatic monk could attract
followers and sponsors of status to his school; a single ruler could, whether for
political, economic, or purely religious reasons, decide to favour a particular
That the practice was not unknown to the late Ceylon Theravāda may
be seen from the Sāratthadīpanī (a text some centuries younger than our
examples from the field), which defines a dhamma-cetiya as ‘[a cetiya] built
after depositing a book inscribed with conditioned arising, etc.’: Mahāmakuṭa
edition, Vol. I (Bangkok: 2511 [1968]), p. 263,ult paṭiccasamuppādādilikhita
potthakaṃ nidahitvā kataṃ pana dhammacetiyaṃ nāma. (I am grateful to the
late U Bo Kay of Pagan for the reference.) We may compare the definition
with Candragomin (sixth–seventh century CE?) as cited by Haribhadra (late
eighth century) in his Āloka (U. Wogihara [ed.], Abhisamayālaṃkār’ālokā
prajñāpāramitāvyākhyā [Tokyo: The Toyo Bunko, 1933], fascicle 2, p. 207, ll.
20–22): yatra hi nāma pudgalanairātmya-dyotikayā ye dharmā hetuprabhavā ity
ādigāthayā adhiṣṭhito bhūbhāgaḥ stūpo mataḥ. For some of the few ye dharmā
inscriptions known from Ceylon, see Nandasena Mudiyanse, Mahayana
Monuments in Ceylon (Colombo: 1967) pp. 29–30 (in Nāgarī, on images
that Mudiyanse, with good reason, deems imported), 92–95 (in Sinhalese
characters, possibly in Pāli), and 97. Ceylon is rich in deposited texts, but
mostly in Sanskrit, and of mantra, dhāraṇī, or Prajñāpāramitā, rather than
extracts from the Pāli canon: see Mudiyanse, Mahayana Monuments in Ceylon,
Gregory Schopen, ‘The Text on the “Dhāraṇī Stones from Abhayagiriya”: A
Minor Contribution to the Study of Mahāyāna Literature in Ceylon’, JIABS
5.1 (1982), pp. 100–108, and Oskar von Hinüber, Sieben Goldblätter einer
Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā aus Anurādhapura (Göttingen: 1984).
52
Charuk nai prathet thai (Bangkok: 2529 [1986]) Vol. II, pp. 42–47.
53
That is, no other references are given in Monier Monier-Williams, A SanskritEnglish Dictionary, ([Oxford: 1899] Delhi: 1976), p. 37c or in G.P. Malalasekera,
Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names, Vol. I, ([1937] New Delhi: 1983), pp. 83–85.
51
The advent of Theravāda Buddhism to mainland South-East Asia
117
saṅgha.54 Changing trade routes or political alliances could bring new patterns
of patronage.
Perhaps because of the absence of indigenous information – of
contemporary chronicles or histories – the Buddhism of early SouthEast Asia is all too often portrayed as an inanimate cultural package that
was passively received from abroad. All the evidence, however, is against
this. The Buddhism of the Chao Phraya plain was not a simple copy from
Ceylon or India. From the time of the very first evidence, it already has a
unique face, implying an earlier evolution for which no records remain.
The surviving artefacts are expressions of a mature and refined culture,
with special features like the large and ornate stone dhammacakkas; the
plan of the stūpas or caityas, and the style of their stucco art; the style of the
Buddha images; the rich terracotta art (the so-called votive tablets); and
motifs that remain to be explained, such as the so-called Banaspati image.
From this evidence we can only deduce that the Buddhism of the Chao
Phraya valley is the flowering of a ‘local genius’. The same may be said of
the Buddhism of the Pyu, which had its own architecture and terracotta
art, and local practices such as the urn-burial of people of status. The two
realms were flourishing centres of Buddhist culture in their own right, on
an equal footing with contemporary centres like Anurādhapura.55
To conclude, we may turn to Laos and Cambodia. Is there any evidence
of early Theravādin activity in these countries? Very little information
is available for Laos. In 1968 a standing stone Buddha in Dvāravatī style,
190 centimetres in height, was found at Ban Thalat in Vientiane province.
The image and the accompanying Mon inscription have been dated
to the seventh–eighth centuries.56 The finds suggest that the Mon
Buddhism of the right bank of the Mekhong River (the Mun and Chi
That a single monastic could make enormous and enduring contributions to a
culture – in manifold aspects – may be seen from countries for which we have records.
Atiśa and Bu ston spring to mind for Tibet, and Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi) for Japan.
55
The situation was perhaps not much different from that of today, when
the Buddhisms of the Mon, Burmese, Central Thai, Shan, Lanna Tai, Lao, and
Khmer are each quite distinctive. We might also bear in mind that – from
the point of view of Madhyadeśa – Ceylon, Andhra, and South-East Asia were
equally foreign cultures, and that there is no valid reason to relegate the lastnamed to a lower rank. In a sense ‘local’ and ‘foreign’ are modern constructs:
the South-East Asian cultures that adopted Indian cosmology did not hesitate
to place themselves within Jambudīpa.
56
Thao Boun Souk, L’image du Buddha dans l’art lao (Vientiane: 1971) p. 14 (with
photograph); Vothu Tinh, Les origines du Laos (Paris: 1983), pp. 42–43.
54
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
valleys) also spread to the left bank, but much more research needs
to be done into the nature of the Buddhism of the middle Mekhong
valley before anything more can be said.
In Cambodia – which is rich in structural remains and lithographs – no
ancient Pāli inscriptions have been found, and scriptural extracts of the type
discussed above are unknown, with one exception. This is an epigraph of
two lines, engraved in small ‘pre-Angkorian’ letters on the back of a standing
Buddha image (90 cm. in height) from Tuol Preah Theat in Kompong Speu
province (now in the Musée Guimet).57 The text reads:58
ye dhammā hetuprabhavā tesaṃ hetuṃ tathāgato avaca
tesañ ca yo nirodho evaṃvādī mahāsamano.
The verse differs from the Pāli of the Mahāvagga (Vinaya I 40) in giving
hetuprabhavā for hetuppabhavā and avaca for āha, and cannot be cited
as evidence for a Theravādin presence.59 Otherwise, the earliest Pāli
inscription dates from CE 1308 – and thus belongs to the heyday of
It is not without interest that the ye dhammā verse is also inscribed (in Pāli)
on the back of a standing Dvāravatī-style Buddha image (196 centimetres
in height) from Ratchaburi, dated to circa twelfth century BE (CE 550–650):
see Charuk nai prathet thai (Bangkok: 2529 [1986]) I 72–74. Another Dvāravatī
Buddha image with a Pāli ye dhammā inscription ‘en caractères préangkoriens
peu soignés’ is in the Korat Museum: ‘Inscription sur une statue de Buddha
du Musée de Korat’, in George Cœdès, Inscriptions du Cambodge, Vol. VII (Paris:
1964), p. 162. See also Peter Skilling, ‘Traces of the Dharma: Preliminary
reports on some ye dhammā and ye dharmā inscriptions from Mainland SouthEast Asia’, Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 90–91 (2003/2004), pp.
273–287.
58
George Cœdès, Inscriptions du Cambodge, Vol. VII (Paris: 1964), p. 108. The
image is illustrated in Pierre Dupont, La statuaire préangkorienne (Ascona: 1955),
Pls. XLV B and XLVI C. See also Peter Skilling, ‘Some citation inscriptions
from South-East Asia’, JPTS XXVII (2002), pp. 159–175.
59
Note that there are many examples of the ye dharmā verse in a mixed
or Sanskritic Pāli from India, and that they have yet to be subjected to
sustained linguistic and palæographic analysis. See Peter Skilling, ‘A
Buddhist inscription from Go Xoai, Southern Vietnam and notes towards
a classification of ye dharmā inscriptions’, in 80 pi śāstrācāry dr. praḥsert ṇa
nagara: ruam pada khwam vijākāra dan charük lae ekasāraporāṇa (Bangkok: 21
March 2542 [1999]), pp. 171–187.
57
The advent of Theravāda Buddhism to mainland South-East Asia
119
the ‘Theravādin renaissance’ in Rāmaññadesa, Burma, Central Siam,
the Lanna Kingdom, and other northern principalities.60
There is certainly evidence of the presence of Buddhism in the early
period: stone, metal, and wooden images of the Buddha,61 of Maitreya,62
and of Avalokiteśvara,63 as well as occasional mention in Sanskrit or Khmer
dedicatory inscriptions. Chinese sources record that monks travelled
back and forth between Funan and the Middle Kingdom, but say nothing
about their school-affiliation. The Vimuttimagga and other Buddhist texts,
including some of the Mahāyāna, were sent to China from Funan in the
early sixth century. The opening verses of the Telakaṭāha-gāthā are known
from an eighth century inscription from Prachin Buri, which may be
said to belong to the Khmer cultural sphere. Furthermore, some of the
early Buddha images of Cambodia are stylistically affiliated to those of
Dvāravatī. On the other hand, it is remarkable that in Cambodia there are
no ruins of monumental brick stūpas, so common in Pyu and Mon areas, or
even of smaller complexes of votive stūpas. Boisselier has noted that none
of the ancient epigraphs refer to stūpas, and that none of the known stūpa
remains are earlier than the twelfth century.64 Nor is there any evidence
of a practice shared by Pyu and Mon Buddhists: the mass-production from
moulds of clay ‘votive tablets’. Here too Boisselier remarks that these praḥ
patima are not well-attested until the twelfth century.65 In sum, while
Buddhists were certainly active in Cambodia during the early period, it
seems that the dominant ideology remained that of the brahmans, and
that Buddhism or Buddhistic culture did not flourish among the Khmer to
the degree that it did among the Pyu and the Mon.
George Cœdès, ‘La plus ancienne inscription en pāli du Cambodge’, in Articles
sur le pays khmer (Paris: 1989), pp. 282–289 (= Études cambodgiennes XXXII,
originally published in BEFEO XXXVI). The inscription is a royal record of a
religious foundation, and not a scriptural extract.
61
See Dupont, La statuaire préangkorienne, pp. 189–210.
62
See the examples in Chutiwongs and Leidy, Buddha of the Future, pls. XXIX
A and XXX A.
63
For examples see Chutiwongs, The Iconography of Avalokiteśvara in Mainland
South East Asia, Chap. 5, Chutiwongs and Leidy, Buddha of the Future, and
Dupont, La statuaire préangkorienne, pls. XII B, XXII AB, XXVIII A, XXIX B, XXX
B, and XXXI A.
64
J. Boisselier, Le Cambodge (Paris: 1966, Manuel d’archéologie d’ExtrêmeOrient, Première Partie, Asie du Sud-Est, Tome I), p. 97.
65
Boisselier, Le Cambodge, p. 300. For ‘Saintes Empreintes’ in Cambodia, see
Boisselier, Le Cambodge, §§ 219, 256–57, 303, and Fig. 70.
60
9
Tripiṭaka in practice in the Fourth and Fifth Reigns:
Relics and images according to Somdet Phra
Saṅgharāja Pussadeva’s Paṭhamasambodhi Sermon
with Prapod Assavavirulhakarn
Introduction
T
HE TRIPIṭAKA ALONG WITH ITS COMMENTARIES AND SUBcommentaries and related works such as handbooks and
grammatical treatises was kept in the important monasteries of
Bangkok from the beginning of the Ratanakosin period. Starting
from the First Reign many sets were produced and distributed under
the sponsorship of kings or of members of the nobility. The formal
study of the Tripiṭaka was largely the province of monks and those
associated with the court. But the Tripiṭaka was not simply an inert
collection of manuscripts, known only to the elite. It was a living
thing, and as a treasury of ideas it left its mark on many aspects of
social life, from ritual to ethics to meditation practice, to literature,
art, and education. The ideas and ideologies of the Tripiṭaka pervaded
society and the lives of the faithful.
One of the main ways through which the Tripiṭaka left the
library and entered society was through the sermon. The Tripiṭaka
was mediated through the sermon, which adapted its ideas to suit
circumstances and audiences. Sermons (described in Thai by forms
of the Pāli word desanā, Sanskrit deśanā) were held regularly on
120
Tripiṭaka in practice
121
certain days of the lunar calendar, as well as on special occasions.
Sermons were often lively social events, and good preachers were
much in demand. It was not necessary to know Pāli, or to read the
Tripiṭaka: people encountered the Tripiṭaka, and absorbed its ideas and
narratives through the sermon as well as through other media such
as mural paintings or verse versions of jātakas.
As an example of the sermon genre (or of one of the several sermon
genres, the ‘royally authorized sermon’), we give here an excerpt
from Supreme Patriarch Pussadeva’s Paṭhamasambodhi Sermon. The
Paṭhamasambodhi Sermon is based on classical sources, such as the
account of the division of the relics in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta of
the Dīgha Nikāya, amplified by later material from the commentaries
and sub-commentaries, and, of course, the Pāli and Thai tellings of
the Paṭhamasambodhi itself.1
Somdet Phra Saṅgharāja Pussadeva (Sa, BE 2346–2442 = CE 1803–
1899) was one of the most significant figures of nineteenth century
Siamese Buddhism. He was the first abbot of Wat Ratchapradit
(Rājapraḥtiṣṭha) in central Bangkok, a Dhammayutika temple
founded by King Rāma IV. During the Fifth Reign, in 2436 (1893) he
was appointed Supreme Patriarch (Saṅgharāja). Two of his works, the
Royal Chanting Book (Suat mon chabap luang) and a longer Thai-language
Paṭhamasambodhi are still in use today, and have been published
in staggering numbers. The latter – a version in ten parts (kaṇḍa),
originally published in the journal Thammachaksu (Dharrmacakṣu) –
was edited by Prince Vajirañāṇavarorasa as the first section (muat) of
Thammasombat (Dharrmasampati) in Bangkok era 124.2
During the Fourth Reign, when he held the rank of Phra
Sāsanasobhana, Somdet Phra Saṅgharāja Pussadeva composed
another work based on the Paṭhamasambodhi. This was the
Paṭhamasambodhi Sermon, written to present to His Majesty King Rāma
IV during the Royal Ceremony of Visākha Pūjā, which at that time
was held throughout the month of Visākha. The sermon is divided
into four parts, each part opening with introductory verses in Pāli
(ārambhakathā). The four parts were delivered in the sixth lunar
month as follows:
1
Like the Anāgatavaṃsa and Māleyyasutta, the Paṭhamasambodhi is a genre or
family of texts rather than a single text.
2
See PVL 9.1–9.10
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Part 1: The account of the Birth (Jātikathā), on the fourteenth day of
the waxing moon;
Part 2: The account of the Full Awakening (Abhisambodhikathā), on
the fifteenth day of the waxing moon;
Part 3: The account of the Final Nibbāna (Parinibbānakathā), on the
seventh day of the waning moon;3
Part 4: The account of the Distribution of the Relics
(Dhātuvibhajjanakathā), on the eighth day of the waning moon.
Somdet Phra Saṅgharāja Pussadeva presented the sermon in four
parts every year from the Fourth Reign into the Fifth Reign, until the
procedure of the Royal Ceremony of Visākha Pūjā was revised and held
on only one day, the fifteenth day of the waxing moon, which up to
today is an official holiday. From then on a different version was used,
since it was necessary to abridge the story of the Paṭhamasambodhi into
a sermon in one part.
In his capacity of Head (Sabhānayaka) of the National Library (Ho
Phra Samut Watchirayan), HRH Prince Damrong wrote an introduction
to the second printed edition, sponsored by Mme Witsadanwinichay
(Chan) and Mr. Kimchua for the funeral of their father, Mr. Ngiab, in the
Snake Year 2460 (1917):4
The Paṭhamasambodhi Sermon counts as a royally authorized sermon
(phra thammathetsana chabap luang) since it was composed to present
to the king (thaway thet) and is a literary work of a Supreme Patriarch
who is universally esteemed as a great scholar of this land of Siam. It
is a praiseworthy work which should be preserved by being printed.
I therefore had the first three parts published on the occasion of the
funeral of my wife, Mom Cheuay (2404–2446 = CE 1861–1903), in the
Rabbit Year BE 2446 (1903). The book was popular with those who
received it, and monks used the sermon in Visākha Pūjā ceremonies,
but there were complaints that it was incomplete, an unavoidable
situation which I regretted. Fourteen years have gone by, and the
original edition is now scarce. Since I have heard that there is a
demand for the text it seems appropriate to print it again, but this
time complete in all four parts. I therefore asked Phra Thepkawi of
Wat Ratchapradit for the fourth part, Dhātuvibhajanā. Phra Thepkawi
was a disciple of Somdet Phra Saṅgharāja, and had received it
3
4
Note that the edition consulted misprints ‘7’ as ‘8’.
We give a somewhat abridged translation.
Tripiṭaka in practice
123
directly from him. The present edition is an improvement over the
first edition because it is complete.
The excerpt that follows is from Part 4 of the Paṭhamasambodhi
Sermon, ‘The Account of the Distribution of the Relics’ (pp. 121–125).
The translation of a Siamese sermon is no easy task, and it is hardly
possible to do justice to the skilled composition of Somdet Phra
Saṅgharāja Pussadeva with its elaborate phrasing, so sonorous in the
Thai language. Hence our translation can only be an approximation.
We pick up the narrative from the point at which the brahman
Doṇa has averted a war over the relics of the Buddha.
Translation
[121] When the kṣatriyas and brahmans of the eight cities listened
to the sweet speech (madhurabhāṣita) they agreed to act in harmony,
and unanimously delegated the brahman Doṇa to preside over the
division of the holy physical relics (phra sārīrikadhātu). When the Great
Brahman Doṇa received the royal command, he took a measuring
cup (tumba) and measured the holy physical relics, dividing them
into eight equal portions for the kṣatriyas and brahmans of the eight
cities. He then asked for the cup with which he had measured out the
relics as an article of worship (cetiya). The kṣatriyas and brahmans
agreed and presented it to him.
At that time the Moriya kṣatriyas from the country of Pipphalivana
learned that the Buddha had entered Nibbāna, so they sent a royal
envoy to the Malla kṣatriyas to request a portion of the holy physical
relics. The Malla kṣatriyas told the royal envoy from the country
of Pipphalivana, ‘There remains no portion of the holy body at this
time, since we have already shared it out. You should take the holy
ashes (phra aṅgāra) and enshrine them within a stūpa and pay respect
and make offerings.’ The [distribution of the relics to the] kṣatriyas of
the six cities and to the one Great Brahman made seven sites. When
they had received a share of the holy physical relics they each invited
[their share] back to their own lands where they built stūpas and
enshrined [the relics] with a great festival and celebration. The Malla
kṣatriyas of the city of Kusinārā also built a stūpa, enshrined the holy
physical relics, and held a festival. Altogether there were eight sites
with Holy [Physical] Relic stūpas, as has been described.
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
The Great Brahman Doṇa invited the measuring cup and enshrined
it in a stūpa which he had erected for the purpose called the Tumba
Stūpa. When it was completed he held a festival and celebration.
The Moriya kṣatriyas from the country of Pipphalivana invited the
ashes to their city and enshrined them in a stūpa built for the purpose
called the Aṅgāra Stūpa. When it was completed they held a festival
and celebration with many kinds of worship.
[122] In that the Brahman Doṇa asked for and obtained the
measuring cup and then installed it in a stūpa to be honoured and
venerated, and the Moriya kṣatriyas from the country of Pipphalivana
invited the holy ashes and installed them in a holy stūpa which they
built as a shrine, these two are models to show intelligent people
(paṇḍitajana) what sort of objects make suitable paribhoga-cetiya,
comparable to the four Inspiring Sites. At the beginning of the first
period there were holy stūpas at the ten shrine sites in this fashion.
At the time of the Parinibbāna, Somdet the Holy One, possessor
of Blessings, revealed the four Inspiring Sites, that is, the place of
birth from the womb, the place where the Lord Tathāgata realized
unsurpassed true and full awakening, the place where the Lord
Tathāgata set in motion the unsurpassed wheel of the Dharma, and
the place where the Lord Tathāgata attained Parinibbāna without
any remainder (anupādisesanibbānadhātu). These four sites are worth
seeing and gazing at, that they may inspire a faithful son of family
(kulaputra).
According to this principle we arrive at two kinds of shrine: the
‘physical relic-shrine’ (dhātucetiya) and the ‘shrine by association’
(paribhoga-cetiya). The eight portions of holy physical relics which
the Brahman Doṇa distributed and which were then invited and
established within stūpas as objects of homage and veneration,
honour and offerings, are relic-shrines, while the Tumba Stūpa, the
Aṅgāra Stūpa and the four Inspiring Sites are shrines by association.
The Buddha’s mention of the four Inspiring Sites and the
reference to the Tumba Stūpa and the Aṅgāra Stūpa lead intelligent
people (viññūjana) to conclude that the bowl (pātra), robe (cīvara), and
special requisites like the water-strainer (dhamakaraka), etc., used by
the holy truly and fully Awakened Lord [123], and the lodgings, seats,
bed, hut, and residence, used by the holy Buddha Lord when sitting
or lying down, etc., are all shrines by association as well.
After long ages had passed by, knowledgeable Buddhists
(buddhasāsanikapaṇḍita) considered the strong benefits of reminders
Tripiṭaka in practice
125
which could produce bliss from taking the Buddha as an object of
contemplation (buddhāramaṇapīti), etc., and therefore they created
images in the form of the Buddha (buddharūpapaṭimākara) with
durable and precious materials like silver, gold, and precious stones,
etc., and set them up as focal points for worship (pūjanīyasthāna), in
order to produce the lofty virtues of the unsurpassed recollection
(anussatānuttariyādhiguṇa). The term for this is ‘shrine by designation’
(uddesikacetiya).
Herein, some knowledgeable people (viññūjana) are not able
to make images of the Buddha, or have no liking for or inclination
towards (chandaruci-adhyāśraya) images of the Buddha. They wish
only to build stūpas, but are unable to find any physical relics, and
therefore enshrine palm leaves inscribed with the word of the
Buddha, the Dhamma of instruction (buddhavacanapariyattidharrma),
such as [the formula of] dependent arising (paṭiccasamuppāda) etc.,
and install them in place of relics, establishing a stūpa as an object of
worship. This is called a ‘dhamma-shrine’ (dhamma-cetiya).
When we take all of the shrines into account, including those
explained in the holy Pāḷī and in the commentaries and subcommentaries, we get four types: the relic-shrine, the shrine by
association, the dhamma-shrine, and the shrine by designation.
The holy footprints (roy phra pāda) which the Lord Buddha revealed
himself are shrines by association, while those which are made as
replicas are shrines by designation.
The objects of worship (pūjaniyavatthucetiyasthāna) – whether
new ones which knowledgeable Buddhists are motivated to build or
old shrines which have fallen into ruin which they restore [124] to
their original state or improve and embellish – accomplish benefit
for the gods and humans who see them, in that they give rise to
inspiration and faith through the recollection of the virtues of the
three gems as object of thought (āramaṇa). They are then able to
accumulate the wholesome deeds of giving, keeping precepts, and
mental cultivation (dāna, sīla, bhāvanā) to perfection in their mental
streams for sake of exquisite and vast bliss in the favourable situation
as a human and in the heavens in the future, to the end that they may
increase and perfect wholesome conduct (puñacariyā) with regard to
the wholesome path which turns away [from Saṃsāra: vivaṭṭagāmīkuśala] and leads to Nibbāna. The [results of constructing the objects
of worship] are entirely beneficial.
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
The Buddha originally permitted the installation of holy physical
relics in a stūpa constructed at the intersection of four great roads,
a central location which would enable large numbers of people to
see and to venerate the stūpa enshrining the holy physical relics.The
crowds of people who see it would believe in it and their minds would
become settled and clear. It would act as a reminder to the throngs
who see it to recollect the virtues of the Buddha. In the same fashion,
the four Inspiring Sites are reminders to those who see them.
After the lapse of a long time, holy physical relics became scarce.
People built many holy stūpas, some enshrining relics, some not.
[Some people] inscribed the holy Dhamma of instruction (phra
pariyattidharrma) – conditioned arising (paṭiccasamuppāda), the
four truths of the noble (ariyasacca), the factors of enlightenment
(bodhipakkhiya), and so on, which they held to be the true word of
the Buddha – on silver plates, gold plates, stone slabs, or palm leaves,
etc., and installed them within.
As for holy stūpas which do not enshrine genuine relics, it is
simply that people desiring merit built them here and there out of
their liking and inclination. If a person who sees it is convinced that
there is a genuine relic inside and prostrates and venerates it with
a clear and settled mind, this can give rise to merit because of the
settled and clear state of mind that arises. When a person who sees a
stūpa knows for certain [125] that it does not contain any holy relics,
or, even if there are relics, doubts whether or not they are genuine,
his mind does not become settled and clear. As for people who bring
this or that, things like pebbles or stones, and pass them off as holy
relics – there are numerous instances in different places throughout
the land, to the point that people do not known what genuine relics
are like.
Genuine relics are rare. We must investigate and examine them
carefully in order to determine [whether or not they are genuine]. The
stūpas erected here and there are already too numerous, and those
who see them become indifferent and their minds do not become
settled and clear. Holy physical relics can be transported wherever
one wants, but the Inspiring Sites are immoveable (asaṅharima) and
cannot be taken away. The bowl, robe, and requisites used by the
Buddha are few. This is why the faithful resorted to erecting Buddha
images (buddharūpapaṭimākara) as shrines by designation. The people
who saw these examples and then built the image only think about
building and accumulating merit so they built images – some small,
Tripiṭaka in practice
127
some large, with features and shape varying according to the skill of
the artisans – which have become so widespread and numerous that
they become indifferent, with the result that they do not achieve
their purpose. Therefore the wise conceived of a Buddha image
having exactly the same dimensions as the Sugata, or with reduced
size but maintaining the proper proportions, so that it would be
beautiful, intending it to function as a reminder which could cause
the mind of the viewer to become settled and calm, so they would
prostrate and venerate it with full trust. Shrines of the truly and fully
awakened one (sammāsambuddhacetiya) have developed in various
ways according to time and place and the goals and needs of the
faithful, as has been explained.
This is the explanation of history of relics and shrines (dhātucetiyavaṅsakathā).
10
The Sambuddhe verses
and later Theravādin Buddhology
1. The Sambuddhe verses in Siam
A
SHORT VERSE TEXT, ENTITLED SIMPLY SAMBUDDHE OR
Sambuddhe-gāthā, is well known in Siam. In the Royal Chanting
Book, it is one of the ancillary texts placed at the beginning of the
Seven Paritta (Sattaparitta) – also known as the Lesser Royal Paritta
(Cularājaparitra) or, in Thai, Seven Protections (Jet Tamnan) – and
the Twelve Paritta (Dvādasaparitta), also known as the Greater Royal
Paritta (Mahārājaparitra) or Twelve Protections (Sipsong Tamnan).1 It is
included in the various books of chants that are widely available, and
in a Khom script palm-leaf manuscript in the collection of the Siam
Society.2 Since the Seven and Twelve Paritta belong to the liturgy of the
Suat manta chabap luang (Bangkok: 13th ed., 2526 [1983]), pp. 3–4 and 32–33,
respectively (the second occurrence is abbreviated). For the interpretation
of tamnan as “protection” I follow Dhanit Yupho, who derives the word from
the Pāli tāṇa, changed to taṃnāṇ and then to taṃnān: see his Anuphap phra
parit [The Power of Paritta, in Thai] (Bangkok: n.d.), p. 12.
2
Oskar von Hinüber, ‘The Pāli Manuscripts Kept at the Siam Society,
Bangkok: A Short Catalogue’, Journal of the Siam Society 75 (1987), § 52a, p. 46.
The text given by von Hinüber, which might date to the latter part of the
1
128
The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology
129
Siamese order of monks (saṅgha), the Sambuddhe verses are familiar
to or known by heart by many monks and novices. Here I give the Pāli
of the Royal Chanting Book, followed by an English translation.
1.1. Pāli text
[1] sambuddhe aṭṭhavīsañ ca dvādasañ ca sahassake
pañcasatasahassāni namāmi sirasā ahaṃ
tesaṃ dhammañ ca saṅghañ ca ādarena namāmi ’haṃ
namakārānubhāvena hantvā sabbe upaddave
anekā antarāyā pi vinassantu asesato
[2] sambuddhe pañcapaññāsañ ca catuvīsatisahassake
dasasatasahassāni namāmi sirasā ahaṃ
tesaṃ dhammañ ca saṅghañ ca ādarena namāmi ’haṃ
namakārānubhāvena hantvā sabbe upaddave
anekā antarāyā pi vinassantu asesato
[3] sambuddhe navuttarasate aṭṭhacattāḷīsasahassake
vīsatisatasahassāni namāmi sirasā ahaṃ
tesaṃ dhammañ ca saṅghañ ca ādarena namāmi ’haṃ
namakārānubhāvena hantvā sabbe upaddave
anekā antarāyā pi vinassantu asesato
1.2. Translation
[1] With my head I pay homage
To the 500 thousand, 12 thousand, and 28 Sambuddhas;
To their Dhamma and their Saṅgha I respectfully pay homage.
By power of [this] act of homage
All misfortune is destroyed.
May all variety of danger be allayed, without exception.
[2] With my head I pay homage
To the 1 million, 24 thousand, and 55 Sambuddhas;
To their Dhamma and their Saṅgha I respectfully pay homage.
By power of [this] act of homage
All misfortune is destroyed.
May all variety of danger be allayed, without exception.
nineteenth century, agrees with that of the Royal Chanting Book, with a few
minor orthographical variants and misprints.
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
[3] With my head I pay homage
To the 2 million, 48 thousand, and 109 Sambuddhas;
To their Dhamma and their Saṅgha I respectfully pay homage.
By power of [this] act of homage
All misfortune is destroyed.
May all variety of danger be allayed, without exception.
2. The Sambuddhe verses in Burma
A number of recensions of the Sambuddhe-gāthā are said to exist in
Burma. The “standard” recension consists of only the first verse of
the Siamese version, with one extra line. Whether the remaining two
verses are given in other recensions remains to be seen.3 I transcribe
here the sole printed version available to me, without any changes.4
2.1. Pāli text
[1] sambuddhe aṭṭhavīsañ ca | dvādasañ ca sahassake ||
pañcasata sahassāni | namāmi sirasāmahaṃ ||
[2] appakā vāḷukā gaṅgā | anantā nibbutā jinā ||
tesaṃ dhammañ ca saṅghañ ca | ādarena namām’ ahaṃ ||
[3] namakkārānubhāvena | haṃtvā sabbe upaddave ||
anekā antarāyā pi | vinassantu asesato ||
2.2. Translation
[1] With my head I pay homage
To the 500 thousand, 12 thousand, and 28 Sambuddhas.
The Sambuddhe verses are included in several manuscripts in German
collections: see Burmese Manuscripts, Part 2, compiled by Heinz Braun and
Daw Tin Tin Myint with an introduction by Heinz Bechert (Stuttgart: Franz
Steiner Verlag, 1985, VOHD Band XXIII, 2), §§ 194, 227, 358.
4
My transcription is from a xerox-copy of a small book of gāthās for which I do
not have any bibliographical data; the division of the verses into three sections
follows this text (ka, kha, and ga). Ven. Dhammānanda Mahāthera of Burma,
long resident at Wat Tamao, Lampang province, has confirmed orally that the
version known to him consists of only the first verse of the Siamese version,
and that it contains the extra line, which he describes as a “later addition”.
3
The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology
131
[2] The sands of the Ganges are few,
The Conquerors [Buddhas] who have attained nibbāna are limitless:
To their Dhamma and their Saṅgha I respectfully pay homage.
[3] By power of [this] act of homage
All misfortune is destroyed.
May all variety of danger be allayed, without exception.
The phrase nibbutā jinā indicates that the Buddhas belong to the
past. The verses are very popular in Burma, where lay-followers
often know them by heart. They are held to be highly efficacious
in averting calamity, eliminating obstacles, and promoting welfare,
and many stories are circulated about their miraculous power. The
Sambuddhe Cetiya at Monywa on the Chindwin River, in Sagaing
Division to the northwest of Mandalay, represents 512,028 Buddhas.
It was apparently built less than one hundred years ago.
The Siamese verses pay homage to three groups of Buddhas,
numbering 512,028; 1,024,055; and 2,048,109, respectively. As pointed
out by von Hinüber, if the first group is x, the second is 2x-1, and the
third 2(2x-1)-1. A question naturally arises: what is the significance of
these rather large numbers of Buddhas, and from what text or texts
are the numbers derived? The figures cannot refer to present Buddhas,
since it is a firm tenet of the Theravādins that only one Buddha, in
the present age Sakyamuni, can exist at one time.5 The figures should
therefore refer to past or future Buddhas. In order to suggest a possible
explanation, and to put the question in proper context, we must
first look briefly at the development of the theory of past and future
Buddhas according to the Theravādin and other Buddhist schools.6
See, however, Heinz Bechert, ‘Buddha-field and Transfer of Merit in a
Theravāda Source’, Indo-Iranian Journal 35 (1992), pp. 95–108.
6
For this subject, see J.Ph. Vogel, ‘The Past Buddhas and Kāśyapa in Indian
Art and Epigraphy’, in Asiatica, Festschrift Friedrich Weller (Leipzig: 1954),
pp. 808–816; I.B. Horner (tr.), The Minor Anthologies of the Pāli Canon, Part III
(London: 1975), Preface to Chronicle of the Buddhas (Buddhavaṃsa), pp. ix–xvii;
Richard Gombrich, ‘The Significance of Former Buddhas in the Theravādin
Tradition’, in Somaratna Balasooriya et al. (ed.), Buddhist Studies in Honour of
Walpola Rahula (London: 1980), pp. 62–72; Isshi Yamada (ed.), Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka:
The White Lotus of Compassion, Vol. I (London: SOAS, University of London,
1968), pp. 121–126.
5
132
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
3. The development of the theory of past Buddhas
3.1. The common heritage
Through his own effort Sakyamuni achieved awakening beneath the
bodhi-tree near Gayā, and thus became an awakened one, a Buddha.
Not long afterwards, en route to Vārāṇasī, he met an ascetic (ājīvaka)
named Upaka. Impressed by the Buddha’s appearance, the latter
asked, “Who is your teacher (satthā)?” The Buddha replied:
I have no teacher. There is no one like me:
In this world with its gods I have no counterpart.
I am the arhat in this world; I am the unsurpassed teacher;
Alone I have become fully awakened;
I have become cool and realized nibbāna.7
The Buddha claimed to have achieved awakening by himself,
and to be the only Buddha in the world in his time. He did not,
however, claim to have been the only person to have ever become
a Buddha. A phrase referring to “those who were arhats, fully
awakened Buddhas in the past … those who will become arhats,
fully awakened Buddhas in the future” occurs in several places in
the Tipiṭaka.8 In the Gārava-sutta, Brahmā Sahampati speaks the
following verses:
The Buddhas of the past, the Buddhas of the future,
and the Buddha of the present, destroyer of much sorrow,
dwelt, will dwell, and dwell paying respect to the Good Dhamma:
this is a natural rule for Buddhas.9
Ariyapariyesana-sutta, Majjhima-nikāya 26 (PTS I 171.7).
See Saṃyutta-nikāya (PTS I 140.1–5) (spoken by Brahmā Sahampati), ye
pi te bhante ahesuṃ atītaṃ addhānaṃ arahanto sammāsambuddhā … ye pi te
bhante bhavissanti anāgataṃ addhānam arahanto sammāsambuddhā, and
Sampasādanīya-sutta, Dīgha-nikāya 28 (PTS III 99.17–100.5) (spoken by the
Buddha).
9
Gārava-sutta, Saṃyutta-nikāya (PTS I 138–140); a (Mūla-)Sarvāstivādin
version of the sūtra is found in Śamathadeva, Abhidharmakośa-upāyikā-ṭīkā,
P 5598 (Vol. 118), thu 130b1–132a6; for Sanskrit of the verses only, see Franz
Bernhard (ed.), Udānavarga, Vol. I (Göttingen: 1965, Sanskrittexte aus den
Turfanfunden X), XXI, 11–12. Other parallels exist in Chinese.
7
8
The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology
133
In the Nagara-sutta, the Buddha gives the following simile: a man
travelling in the jungle discovers an ancient road travelled by the
people of the past; he follows it, and comes to an ancient city, a royal
capital. The Buddha explains that similarly he has discovered an
ancient path travelled by the Buddhas of the past, that is, the noble
eightfold path.10
It is thus clear that the concept of a plurality of past and future
Buddhas is implicit to the early strata of the Tipiṭaka, not only of the
Theravādins but also of other schools.
The earliest lists of past Buddhas give the names of six
predecessors of Sakyamuni, making a total of seven Buddhas. Such
lists occur in the Dīgha-nikāya: in verse in the Āṭānāṭiya-sutta11 and in
prose in the Mahāpadāna-sutta,12 as well as in a (Mūla-)Sarvāstivādin
equivalent of the latter, the Mahāvadāna-sūtra.13 The list also occurs
in the Vinaya literature: in the Theravādin Bhikkhu-vibhaṅga;14
in the Mūlasarvāstivādin Prātimokṣa,15 Śayanāsana-vastu,16 and
10
Nagara-sutta, Saṃyutta-nikāya (PTS II 104–107). A Sanskrit version of a
Sarvāstivādin lineage is found in the Central Asian Nidānasaṃyukta: see
Chandrabhāl Tripāṭhī (ed. tr.), Fünfundzwanzig Sūtras des Nidānasaṃyukta
(Berlin: 1962, Sanskrittexte aus den Turfanfunden VIII), pp. 94–106; the Vinaya
version of the Mūlasarvāstivādin school is lost in Sanskrit but preserved
in Tibetan translation in the Pravrajyāvastu: see Helmut Eimer (ed.), Rab
tu ’byuṅ ba’i gźi: Die tibetische Übersetzung des Pravrajyāvastu im Vinaya der
Mūlasarvāstivādins, Vol. II (Wiesbaden: 1983), pp. 281.4–289.
11
Dīgha-nikāya 32 (PTS III 195.27–196.8).
12
Dīgha-nikāya 14 (PTS II 2.15 foll.).
13
The Sanskrit edition of this text is not available to me, but the relevant
passage is cited in Tibetan translation by Śamathadeva, thu 102a8–103a3,
from the rtogs pa brjod pa chen po’i mdo. Cf. also Étienne Lamotte, La Traité de la
Grande Vertu de Sagesse, Vol. I (Louvain: 1965), p. 535 and n. 2.
14
Vinaya (PTS III 7–9).
15
Anukul Chandra Banerjee (ed.), Two Buddhist Vinaya Texts in Sanskrit
(Calcutta: 1977), p. 55.16.
16
Raniero Gnoli (ed.), The Gilgit Manuscript of the Śayanāsanavastu and the
Adhikaraṇavastu, (Roma: IsMEO, 1978, Serie Orientale Roma L), pp. 27–30.
134
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Pravrajyāvastu;17 in the Lokottaravādin Mahāvastu18 and Prātimokṣa;19
and in other texts of all periods and schools, too numerous to
mention.
The seven Buddhas are named in inscriptions and represented
aniconically on the monuments of Bhārhut and Sāñchī (circa
second to first century BCE).20 From the early centuries of the
Christian Era they are depicted (sometimes along with Metteyya)
in human form in the sculpture of Mathurā and Gandhāra,21 and,
during the Gupta period, in the murals of Ajanta.22 Although
tradition placed these Buddhas æons before Sakyamuni, it also
held that certain sites in India were associated with three of his
predecessors: the Nigali Sagar pillar of Aśoka (reigned ca. 272–
236 BCE) records that the Emperor enlarged the thūpa (thuba) of
Konakamana (Koṇāgamana) in the fourteenth year of his reign,
and that he visited and worshipped it again at a later date,23
while the Chinese pilgrims Fǎxiǎn and Xuánzàng describe various
sites in India connected with all three of Gotama’s immediate
predecessors.24 Similar traditions developed in South-East Asia,
for example in Burma, where the Shwedagon Pagoda is believed
to enshrine relics of Sakyamuni and his three predecessors.25
Nalinaksha Dutt (ed.), Gilgit Manuscripts, Vol. III pt. 4 ([Calcutta: 1950] Delhi:
1984), p. 32.6. The same passage occurs in the Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna: P.L.
Vaidya (ed.), Divyāvadāna (Darbhanga: 1959), p. 206.8.
18
Radhagovinda Basak (ed.), Mahāvastu Avadāna, Vol. III (Calcutta: 1968), pp.
320 foll; five predecessors (omitting Śikhin) are given in verse at S. Bagchi
(ed.), Mahāvastu Vol. I (Darbhanga: 1970), p. 240.14.
19
Nathmal Tatia (ed.), Prātimokṣasūtram (Patna: 1975), pp. 36–37.
20
Cf. John Marshall, A Guide to Sāñchī (Calcutta: 1955), pp. 57–58 and pl. ii;
Alexander Cunningham, The Stūpa of Bharhut (repr. Varanasi: 1962), pp. 108–
109, 113–116, and pls. xxix–xxx. The representation of the bodhi tree and
inscription of Sikhin have not been found.
21
Cf. Alexander Coburn Soper, Literary Evidence for Early Buddhist Art in China
(Ascona: 1959), pp. 198–199.
22
J.Ph. Vogel, ‘The Past Buddhas and Kāśyapa in Indian Art and Epigraphy’, in
Asiatica, Festschrift Friedrich Weller (Leipzig: 1954), p. 811.
23
Cf. E. Hultzsch, Inscriptions of Asoka (Oxford: 1925), p. 165.
24
Alexander Coburn Soper, Literary Evidence for Early Buddhist Art in China
(Ascona: 1959), p. 198.
25
Aung Thaw, Historical Sites in Burma (Rangoon: 1972), pp. 112–114. Only the
three immediate predecessors who, like Sakyamuni, arose in the Auspicious
17
The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology
135
3.2. The Theravādin theory of past Buddhas
A study of the development of the Theravādin theory of past
Buddhas must take into account two interrelated aspects: the
number of past Buddhas referred to, and the nature and length of the
bodhisatta’s career during the many past lives in which he practised
the perfections (pāramī) and aspired to enlightenment. The career is
measured in two types of æon: the “[ordinary] æon” (kappa) and the
“incalculable [æon]” (asaṅkheyya, asaṅkhiya). The texts give various
definitions of the latter; here it should be seen as an extremely large
number (in American comic book language, “zillions”) of æons, which
are themselves long enough to stretch the human imagination. It
should also be noted that, except in the earliest phase, all of the past
Buddhas were either associated with Sakyamuni himself when he
was a bodhisatta, or are associated with certain types of bodhisattas
in general. That is, the number of past Buddhas is never closed: a
given figure always refers to the number of Buddhas honoured by
Sakyamuni or a representative bodhisatta during a specific period of
his bodhisatta career. The implications of this will be discussed in the
concluding section.
(1) The earliest phase, which is the common heritage of all Buddhist
schools, has been described above. It allows a plurality of past
Buddhas, and names seven – Sakyamuni and his six predecessors – as
in the Dīgha-nikāya and Vinaya.
(2) In the next phase, the Buddhavaṃsa names twenty-seven (24
+ 3) past Buddhas; when Gotama is counted, there are twenty-five
or twenty-eight. The same text,26 along with the Cariyāpiṭaka,27 the
Milindapañha,28 and the Visuddhimagga,29 states that the bodhisatta’s
career lasts four incalculable æons plus one hundred thousand lesser
æons. Both the number of Buddhas and the description of the career
are unique to the Theravādins. The first two texts are canonical,
Æon (bhaddakappa) could leave traces or relics; the earlier predecessors could
not, since they arose in earlier æons.
26
Buddhavaṃsa II, 1 (PTS 9).
27
Cariyāpiṭaka I, 1 (PTS 1).
28
Milindapañha (PTS 232–234, 289; Mm pp. 247.7 foll., p. 365 penult).
29
Visuddhimagga (Mm II 100).
136
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
although modern scholarship holds them to be later additions; the
Milindapañha dates over a number of centuries, from the second
century BCE to the early centuries CE.30 The Visuddhimagga was
composed by Buddhaghosa in the fifth century. The theories most
probably date to the beginning of the Christian Era, if not earlier.
(3) The Suttanipāta-aṭṭhakathā and Cariyāpiṭaka-aṭṭhakathā describe
three types of bodhisatta, distinguished by the predominance of one
of the three faculties of wisdom, faith, or energy. The length of the
career of the first type of bodhisatta is as described in the preceding;
that of the second is two times the first; of the third two times the
second, except that the additional figure of one hundred thousand
æons remains constant:
(i) “strong in wisdom” (paññā-adhika), attaining enlightenment in
four incalculable æons plus one hundred thousand æons;
(ii) “strong in faith” (saddhā-adhika), attaining enlightenment in eight
incalculable æons plus one hundred thousand æons;
(iii) “strong in energy” (viriya-adhika), attaining enlightenment in
sixteen incalculable æons plus one hundred thousand æons.31
The Suttanipāta-aṭṭhakathā is traditionally ascribed to Buddhaghosa
(fifth century CE), although doubts have been expressed about his
authorship.32 The Cariyāpiṭaka-aṭṭhakathā is ascribed to Dhammapāla,
who may have worked about the middle of the sixth century.33
Neither text enumerates any Buddhas. In the Dhammapadaaṭṭhakathā, also attributed to Buddhaghosa, the Buddha is presented
as saying that “many thousands of Buddhas have lived by going for
See K.R. Norman, Pāli Literature (Wiesbaden: 1983, Jan Gonda [ed.], A History
of Indian Literature, Vol. VII, fasc. 2), pp. 110–113.
31
Suttanipāta-aṭṭhakathā (PTS I 47; Mm I 58–59); Cariyāpiṭaka-aṭṭhakathā (PTS
329), tr. by Bhikkhu Bodhi in The Discourse on the All-embracing Net of Views
(Kandy: 1978), pp. 325–327. In the latter the three types are equated with the
three individuals (ugghaṭitaññu, vipañcitaññu, neyya); see also François Martini
(ed., tr.), Dasabodhisatta-uddesa, Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 36
(1936), pp. 335 (text), 367–368 (translation); Medhaṅkara, Lokadīpakasāra
(Bangkok: National Library-Fine Arts Department, 2529 [1986]), pp. 553–554.
For this theory see above, pp. 90–103.
32
See Norman, Pāli Literature, p. 129.
33
Norman, Pāli Literature, p. 137.
30
The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology
137
alms”.34 Much later, the theory of the three types of bodhisatta in
the form given above was incorporated into Lanna works such as the
Paṭhamamūlamūlī.35
(4) The next phase is represented by such late Pāli works
as the Sotatthakī-mahānidāna,36 the Sambhāravipāka,37 the
Mahāsampiṇḍanidāna,38 and the Jinakālamālī, and by Sinhalese works
such as the Saddharmālaṅkarāya.39 The theory may have first appeared
in the Ceylon of the Polonnaruva period (eleventh–thirteenth
centuries CE), but the question of its origins needs further study.
Here the career of the first type of bodhisatta is expanded into three
phases, according to the nature of his aspiration to enlightenment.40
His career lasts altogether twenty incalculables plus one hundred
thousand æons.
(i) aspiration by mind only, for seven incalculable æons;
(ii) aspiration by mind and speech, for nine incalculable æons;
(iii) aspiration by mind, speech, and body, for four incalculable æons.
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā (Suddhodana-vatthu) (PTS III 164.19), anekāni hi
buddhasahassāni piṇḍāya caritvā va jīviṃsu.
35
Anatole-Roger Peltier (ed., tr.), Paṭhamamūlamūlī (Chiang Mai: 1991), pp. 8–9,
102–103. Note that both the French (p. 124) and English (p. 192) translations
of the first passage give the wrong figure – 12 instead of 16 – for the last type.
See also PVL 18.72.
36
Sotatthakī-mahānidāna, Bangkok, 2526 [1983], Pāli text pp. 3–4. For this text
see PLCS 2.252 and PVL 2.244.
37
Phra sambhāravipāka (Thai translation), Vol. 1 (Bangkok: Rattanakosin Era
126), pp. 4 foll.; Supaphan na Bangchang, Wiwathanakan wanakhadi bali sai phra
suttantapidok thi taeng nai prathet thai (Bangkok: 2533 [1990]), pp. 135–150. For
this text see PLCS 2.224 and PVL 2.241.
38
Handwritten transcription by Ven. Ñāṇāvāsa, pp. 10–11 (I am grateful
to Waldemar Sailer for supplying a copy); Supaphan na Bangchang,
Wiwathanakan wanakhadi bali, pp. 150–157.
39
See the translation or summary from that work in R. Spence Hardy, A
Manual of Buddhism (repr. Varanasi: 1967), pp. 86–97. Cf. Encyclopædia of
Buddhism, Vol. III, fasc. 3 (Colombo: 1973), pp. 359–360; N.A. Jayawickrama,
Epochs of the Conqueror (London: 1968) p. xix.
40
The three periods are mentioned in the Cariyāpiṭaka-aṭṭhakathā (sixth
century), but not correlated with æons: see Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Discourse on
the All-Embracing Net of Views (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society), p. 313.
34
138
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
The texts give breakdowns of the number of Buddhas served in each
æon, along with other details. In the Jinakālamālī (which does not give
the total figure) the breakdown by chapter is as follows:41
Manopaṇidhānakathā
1
Mahānidānakathā
125,000
Atidūrenidānakathā
387,000
Dūrenidānakathā
27
Total:
512,028
(Pūraṇadīpaṃkara, p. 5.24)
(p. 7.3)
(p. 9.3)
(3 – excluding Dīpaṃkara – p. 9.15,
plus 24, p. 19.32 kassapo
catuvīsatimo)
The North Indian scholar Daśabalaśrīmitra, writing probably in
the twelfth or the thirteenth century, cites an as yet unidentified
Theravādin source that gives an accurate account of the theory:42
The Ārya Sthāviras state that “Sakyamuni realized omniscience
(sabbaññutā) after twenty great incalculable æons plus an additional
one hundred thousand æons. Herein, as a bodhisatta, the Lord served
125,000 Buddhas for [the first] seven incalculable æons, aspiring
for enlightenment by means of mental resolve alone (bsams pa tsam
nyid kyis). For the next nine incalculable æons he served 387,000
Buddhas, engaging in the bodhisatta practices (bodhisatta-cariyā) and
aspiring by means of mind (citta) and speech (vācā). For the next four
incalculable æons he served twelve Buddhas, engaged in practices
devoted to enlightenment, and aspired for enlightenment by means
of body (kāya), speech, and mind (manas). For one hundred thousand
æons the Lord, as a bodhisatta, served fifteen Buddhas, engaged in the
practices of a bodhisatta, and completed all the secondary practices,
by means of body, speech, and mind; at the culmination (agga) of the
one hundred thousand æons the Teacher realized omniscience.”
References are to A.P. Buddhadatta (ed.), Jinakālamālī (London: 1960).
P 5865, Vol. 146, folio ño 38a4 foll. His work, An Analysis of the Conditioned
and the Unconditioned, survives only in an anonymous Tibetan translation of a
lost Sanskrit original: see Peter Skilling, ‘The Saṃskṛtāsaṃskṛtaviniścaya of
Daśabalaśrīmitra’, Buddhist Studies Review 4/1 (1987), pp. 3–23.
41
42
The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology
139
That the theory became popular is shown by the fact that it was
incorporated into vernacular works in Sinhalese,43 Burmese,44 Khün,45
and Lanna Thai.46
(5) The next phase is a logical development of the preceding: the
theory of the three types of aspiration is applied to the remaining two
types of bodhisatta. As before, the length of the career of the second
type is twice that of the first, that of the third is twice that of the
second, and the figure of one hundred thousand remains constant:
(i) “strong in wisdom”, realizing omniscience in twenty incalculable
æons plus one hundred thousand æons;
(ii) “strong in faith”, realizing omniscience in forty incalculable æons
plus one hundred thousand æons;
(iii) “strong in energy”, realizing omniscience in eighty incalculable
æons plus one hundred thousand æons.
I have not found this theory in Pāli sources. It is found in a number of
Central Thai texts,47 and in Lanna texts such as the Paṭhamamūla.48
Cf. the introduction to the Saddharma Ratnāvaliya, composed by Dharmasena
Thera in the thirteenth century: Ranjini Obeyesekere (tr.), Jewels of the
Doctrine (Albany: 1991), p. 2. The concept is worked into the narrative in a
manner that implies that it would be familiar to the readers.
44
Not knowing Burmese, I have only one example to offer: P. Bigandet, The
Life or Legend of Gaudama, Vol. I (repr. Varanasi: 1979), pp. 6–7, 16–17. This is
a translation of a Burmese work entitled Tathāgata-udāna (Vol. I, Preface, p.
xv) which is based on the Mālālaṃkāra-vatthu (see Vol. II, p. 149, n. 11, and p.
151).
45
Sao Sāimöng Mangrāi, The Pādaeng Chronicle and the Jengtung State Chronicle
Translated (Ann Arbor: 1981), pp. 99–100. There is some confusion in the
figures.
46
Traibhūmi chabap lanna (Chiang Mai: Chiang Mai University, 2524 [1981]),
phuk ton, pp. 1–14; Tamnan Mūlaśāsanā (Bangkok: 2518 [1975]), pp. 1–2, 17–18,
etc.
47
Nāgapradīp (ed.), Sambhāravipāka (Bangkok: 2504 [1961]), pp. 246–247; Phra
Śrī āry pistār, kaṇḍ 5, folio 33a; [Somdet Phra Vanarat], Phra Mahāpuruṣalakṣaṇa
(Bangkok: 2504 [1961]), pp. 34–35; Phra Śrīvisuddhisobhaṇa (Vilāśa
Ñāṇavaro, P. Dh. 9), Munināthadīpanī (Bangkok: 2516 [1973]), pp. 37–46; Gaṇa
Sahāydharrm, Phra Śrī-ariyamettraiy (Bangkok: 2535 [1992]), pp. 8–10.
48
Paṭhamamūla, in Lokuppatti Aruṇavatīsūtra Paṭhamamūla Paṭhamakap lae
Mūlatantraiya (Bangkok: National Library-Fine Arts Department, 2533 [1990]),
43
140
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
(6) One final step could be taken, and it was: the number of Buddhas
was described as limitless. In the non-canonical Dasabodhisattuppattikathā, the Buddha tells Sāriputta that “there have been limitless
and countless (anantāparimāṇā) noble people in the world who have
successively fulfilled the perfections and attained Buddhahood”.49 A
similar statement is found in the Dasabodhisatta-uddesa, where the
Buddha tells Sāriputta that “there have been Buddhas without end
(buddhā anantā ahesuṃ): I would reach the end of my life before I
reached the limit of the enumeration of Buddhas”.50 The apocryphal
Ākāravatta-sutta speaks of “Buddhas as many as the sands of many
Ganges rivers”.51
Available archæological or epigraphic evidence for the
development of the Theravādin theory is scanty and late. A Pāli
inscription giving a verse list of the twenty-eight Buddhas and dating
from the middle of the eleventh century was discovered at Thaton
in Lower Burma;52 the verses (known in Ceylon as the Aṭavisi-pirit )
are incorporated without title into the Āṭānāṭiya-paritta of the Twelve
Paritta in the Royal Chanting Book.53 The twenty-eight Buddhas were
in full vogue during the Pagan period (eleventh–twelfth century),
whether in mural or sculptural art or on terracotta tablets.54 In
Lanna art, ornamented carved wooden stands (phaeng) were made to
pp. 115, 152 (the text of the former passage is corrupt, and gives the figures 22,
4, and 80). The Paṭhamamūla is another version of the Paṭhamamūlamūlī cited
above; it is interesting that the two recensions incorporate different versions
of the theory. For the origin myth presented in these and related texts, see
Emmanuel Guillon, ‘The Ultimate Origin of the World, or the Mulā Muh, and
Other Mon Beliefs’, Journal of the Siam Society 79/1 (1991), pp. 22–30.
49
H. Saddhatissa, The Birth-Stories of the Ten Bodhisattas and the
Dasabodhisattuppattikathā (London: PTS, 1975), text p. 119, tr. p. 54. (The long
introduction [pp. 1–53] gives a valuable survey of sources on past and future
Buddhas, although I do not always agree with the Ven. author’s conclusions.)
50
Dasabodhisatta-uddesa, text p. 297, tr. p. 337.
51
Padmanabh S. Jaini, ‘Ākāravattārasutta: An “Apocryphal” Sutta From
Thailand’, Indo-Iranian Journal 35/2–3 (July 1992), § 6, anekāya gaṅgāya
vālukuppamehi buddhehi.
52
G. H. Luce, ‘The Advent of Buddhism to Burma’, in L. Cousins, A. Kunst, and
K.R. Norman (ed.), Buddhist Studies in Honour of I.B. Horner (Dordrecht: 1974), p.
133. Cf. also n. 53 (p. 137), which needs confirmation and clarification.
53
Suat manta chabap luang, p. 39.
54
Thiripyanchi U Mya, Votive Tablets of Burma, Part I, pls. 10, 72, 108, 110;
Gordon H. Luce, Old Burma-Early Pagan, Vol. III (New York: 1970), pls. 65–67.
The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology
141
hold numbers of small Buddhas: twenty-eight, or larger numbers.55
Larger numbers of Buddhas are also found on clay tablets of the
Pagan period, which depict rows of identical Buddhas totalling
fifty or about one hundred figures.56 Tablets with five hundred
Buddhas are known in Siam.57 Such tablets may well be related to
the theories discussed above: one might even speculate that ‘fifty’ or
‘five hundred’ are abbreviated references to the first figure, 512,028,
and the figure ‘one hundred’ to the second figure, 1,024,055. Tablets
with fifty-five Buddhas from Wat Mahādhātu in Sukhothai58 might
represent the fifty-five Buddhas of the 1,024,055 of the second verse;
like the twenty-eight of the 512,028, this would be a significant group
with its own identity. But these interpretations are by no means
certain: texts of about the same period extol the merit gained from
reproducing the image of the Buddha, and may also have influenced
the tablets.59 An Old Burmese ink-gloss from Wetkyi-in Kubyauk-gyi
at Pagan refers to “past or future Buddhas … be they more in number
than the grains in a heap of earth”. The Wetkyi-in Kubyauk-gyi has
been tentatively dated to “not later than 1200 CE”.60
In a Burmese inscription from the Thahte Mokku temple at Pagan,
dated 558 or 59 Sakka Era (1195 or 96 CE), the concept of a bodhisatta
career lasting four incalculables plus one hundred thousand æons is
incorporated into the dedication. The editors note that “after the fall
of Pagan the phrase becomes a cliché, many inscriptions beginning
with [a similar phrase]. Here we have probably its first appearance
Muang Boran Journal 14/2 (April–June 1988), pp. 93, 94; Muang Nan:
Boranakhadi, Prawatisat lae Silpa (Bangkok: Fine Arts Department, 2530 [1987]),
pp. 145, 226.
56
U Mya, pls. 8, 36, and 43, 46, 107, 109, respectively; Luce, Old Burma-Early
Pagan, pl. 68.
57
See The Silpakorn Journal 33/3 (July–August 1989), p. 8, found at Wat
Chamadevi, Lamphun, dated to the tenth–twelfth century A.C.
58
Illustrated in Piriya Krairiksh, ‘A New Dating of Sukhothai Art’, Muang Boran
Journal 12/1 (January–March 1986), p. 42, fig. 14.
59
Cf. verses in Richard F. Gombrich, ‘Kosala-Bimba-Vaṇṇanā’, in Heinz
Bechert (ed.), Buddhism in Ceylon and Studies on Religious Syncretism in Buddhist
Countries (Göttingen: 1978) pp. 299–302.
60
Col. Ba Shin, K.J. Whitbread, Gordon H. Luce, et al., ‘Pagan, Wetkyi-in
Kubyauk-gyi, an Early Burmese Temple with Ink-glosses’, Artibus Asiae
XXXIII/3 (1971), pp. 195, 217 (for dating).
55
142
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
in Burmese.”61 In literature a parallel phenomenon is seen in the Pāli
Jinamahānidāna,62 and in the Sinhalese Saddharma Ratnāvaliya and
Lanna Paṭhamamūla and Mūlaśāsanā referred to above – the mention
of the bodhisatta’s career is a formula and not an integral part of the
text.
The Sotatthakī-mahānidāna is included in a list of books donated
to a monastery at Pagan in 1442;63 a verse from the same text,
summarizing the four rebirths of the bodhisatta that directly
preceded his first encounter with a Buddha is cited (with some
variants) in a Pāli inscription from Bassein, dated to the fifteenth
or sixteenth centuries.64 The same text may also be referred to in a
Sukhothai inscription from the first half of the fourteenth century,
with reference to future Buddhas.65 In the modern period, the theory
is very much alive: in 1986 a temple called Cetiya Vihāra Sambuddhe
enshrining 512,028 Buddhas was constructed in Mae Sot district, Tak,
in imitation of the temple at Monywa in Burma referred to above.66
3.3. The theory of past Buddhas in other Buddhist schools
We have seen above that the concept of a plurality of past and future
Buddhas and the list of seven past Buddhas are part of the common
Buddhist heritage. In order to place the development of the Theravādin
61
Pe Maung Tin and Gordon H. Luce, ‘Inscriptions of Burma, Portfolio I’,
Bulletin of the Burma Historical Commission III (1963), pp. 102–107.
62
Jinamahānidāna (Bangkok: National Library-Fine Arts Department, 2530
[1987], Vol. I, p. 1. See also PLCS 2.58 and PVL 2.243.
63
Mabel Haynes Bode, The Pali Literature of Burma ([London: 1909] Rangoon:
1965), § 95, p. 104; Gordon H. Luce and Tin Htway, ‘A 15th Century Inscription
and Library at Pagan, Burma’, in O.H. de A. Wijesekera (ed.), Malalasekera
Commemoration Volume (Colombo: 1976) § 95, p. 229.
64
Charles Duroiselle, ‘Bassein’, Annual Report of the Archæological Survey of India
1929–30 (repr. Delhi: 1990), pp. 158–160; cf. Sotatthakīmahānidāna verse 23. A
similar verse is found in the Sambhāravipāka (Bangkok: S. Thammaphakdi,
2504), p. 28.
65
Prachumsilacharuk, Vol. I (Bangkok: 2467 [1924]), p. 48, lines 38–39 of
face 2, mahānidāna; Praset Na Nagara and A.B. Griswold, Epigraphic and
Historical Studies (Bangkok: 1992), no. 10, pp. 371–372; introduction to
Sotatthakīmahānidāna, pp. 9–10.
66
Supamat Kasem, ‘A unique temple with half a million Buddha images’,
Bangkok Post, Vol. XLI no. 235, Section Three, Monday, August 25, 1986.
The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology
143
theory in a broader context, I will briefly describe the theories of
some other schools. In contrast to the theory of four (or the later
figure of twenty) incalculables plus one hundred thousand æons of
Theravādins, the basic figure of three incalculables was adhered to by
the Vaibhāṣikas of Kashmir, the Mūlasarvāstivādins, the Sāṃmitīyas,
and some Mahāyānists. (The Vaibhāṣikas and Mūlasarvāstivādins
belong to the lineage of the school known in Pāli as Sabbatthikavāda.
The Sāṃmitīyas are the Samitiyas of the Vajjiputtaka branch, labelled
Puggalavādins by their opponents. The scriptures of most of the
“eighteen Buddhist schools” (aṭṭhārasa nikāyā, aṭṭhārasācariyakulāni)
are lost; therefore our information about the overall development
of Buddhism in India is incomplete. In the present case, we have
access to the texts of the schools mentioned above, plus those of the
Lokottaravādin branch of the Mahāsaṃghikas for some points.)
3.3.1. The Vaibhāṣika and Mūlasarvāstivādin theory of past Buddhas
Daśabalaśrīmitra quotes a text of the Vaibhāṣikas of Kashmir,
which describes Sakyamuni’s service to 75,000 Buddhas in the first
incalculable æon, 76,000 in the second, and 77,000 in the third.
Verses with the same figures are found in the Bhaiṣajyavastu of the
Vinaya of the Mūlasarvāstivādins.67 The three incalculable æons
were followed by a period of ninety-one lesser æons during which
Śākyamuni served a number of other Buddhas.68 The Bhaiṣajyavastu
of the Mūlasarvāstivādin Vinaya gives a verse description of the
bodhisatta’s past lives under various Buddhas, and the acts of worship
or service that he performed for each; this is followed by a prose list
of the names of sixty past Buddhas.
3.3.2. The Sāṃmitīya theory of past Buddhas
Daśabalaśrīmitra reports the theory of the Sāṃmitīya school as
follows:
Sman gyi gźi, P 1030, Vol. 41, ’dul ba, ge 254b6 foll.
Daśabalaśrīmitra 37b3 foll. For these sources, see the discussion in
E. Obermiller (tr.), History of Buddhism (Chos-hbyung) by Bu-ston, Part I
(Heidelberg: 1931), pp. 102–104. The figure ninety-one refers to the fact that
Vipassin arose ninety-one æons before Sakyamuni.
67
68
144
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
According to the Sāṃmitīya school, “The present Sakyamuni served
77,000 Buddhas in the first incalculable, starting with the former
Buddha Sakyamuni; in the second incalculable he served 76,000
Buddhas, and in the third incalculable he served 75,000, ending
with the Buddha Indradhvaja. He then realized true and complete
awakening (samyaksambodhi).”69
The Sāṃmitīya figures agree with those of the Vaibhāṣikas and
Mūlasarvāstivādins, except that the order is reversed. The total is
the same; they thus agree that as a bodhisatta Sakyamuni served
228,000 Buddhas over a period of three incalculable æons, to which
the Vaibhāṣikas and Mūlasarvāstivādins add a period of one hundred
æons (in general, but in the case of Sakyamuni only ninety-one).
3.3.3. The Lokottaravādin theory of past Buddhas
The Buddhology of the Lokottaravādins is given in two sections
of the Mahāvastu.70 Many past Buddhas are listed in succession by
name; various details are given, including the relationship of some
of them to Śākyamuni as a bodhisatta. Several texts or layers of
text seem to be conflated, and it is difficult to reduce the mass of
names and æons into a coherent system. There is, however, a list
of sixteen past Buddhas (including Sakyamuni), similar to those
found in the Mahāśītavana-sūtra, the Mahākaruṇāpuṇḍarīka-sūtra,
and the Chinese *Abhiniṣkramaṇa-sūtra.71 Elsewhere Sakyamuni tells
Mahāmaudgalyāyana that as a bodhisatta he worshipped countless
Buddhas.72
Daśabalaśrīmitra 37b1.
Mahāvastu I 32-44; III 300–331. For an English translation see J.J. Jones (tr.),
The Mahāvastu, Vol. I (London: [1949] 1973), pp. 39–52; Vol. III (London: [1956]
1978), pp. 219–239.
71
Mahāvastu III 318.9–319.3; Mahāśītavana, Derge edition of the Tibetan
Kanjur no. 562, rgyud pha, 138b7 foll.; for the last two texts see Yamada,
Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka, p. 126, n. 2 and Jan Nattier, Once upon a Future Time:
Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline (Berkeley: 1991), p. 83 and n. 70. The
Mahāvastu and Mahāśītavana give sixteen Buddhas, including Sakyamuni.
The *Abhiniṣkramaṇa gives fifteen, the Mahākaruṇāpuṇḍarīka fourteen, both
excluding Sakyamuni, who is, needless to say, implied.
72
Mahāvastu I 32.2; cf. also 39.15.
69
70
The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology
145
3.3.4. The Mahāyāna and past Buddhas
Adherents of the Mahāyāna accepted the literature of the Śrāvaka
schools, subjecting it to new interpretations. They generally agreed
that the bodhisatta’s career lasted three incalculable æons; a second
theory gives the figure thirty-three, while the great Tibetan scholar
Bu ston Rinpoche discusses theories of three, seven, ten, and thirtythree as found in various Indian texts.73 Numbers of past Buddhas are
mentioned in the vast Mahāyāna sūtra literature. As seen above, the
Mahākaruṇāpuṇḍarīka lists fourteen past Buddhas; the Lalitavistara lists
fifty-five (or, in a biography translated into Chinese by Dharmarakṣa,
forty-eight);74 both lists end with the well-known seven past Buddhas
(who always retained their popularity in the Mahāyāna, as in the
Śrāvaka schools). The Bodhisattva-piṭaka describes Sakyamuni’s
meeting with various past Buddhas,75 and mention of individual
Buddhas connected with Śākyamuni in the (often very distant) past
are scattered throughout the Mahāyāna sūtra literature.
There are also lists of past Buddhas associated with Buddhas other
than Śākyamuni. The longer Sukhāvatīvyūha lists eighty (in a Sanskrit
recension) or fifty-three (in a Chinese translation) Buddhas who preceded
Lokeśvararāja, under whom the future Buddha Amitābha made his vows
as the bodhisattva monk Dharmākara.76 Another fifty-three Buddhas
of the far-distant past are named in the Sūtra on the Contemplation of
the Two Bodhisattvas, King of Healing and Supreme Healer, translated into
Chinese in about 424 CE.77 The Bhadrakalpika-sūtra names one thousand
past Buddhas connected with the bodhisattas who will become the one
thousand Buddhas of the “Auspicious æon” (bhadrakalpa).78 The names of
another one thousand past Buddhas are invoked for protection in a sūtra
translated into Chinese during the Liang dynasty (502–557).79
Daśabalaśrīmitra 40b6 foll.; and Obermiller, History of Buddhism, pp. 119–127
respectively.
74
Cf. Yamada, Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka, p. 126, n. 2.
75
Quoted by Bu ston in Obermiller, History of Buddhism, pp. 125–127.
76
Soper, Literary Evidence, pp. 200–201.
77
Foshuo guan yaowang yaoshang erpusa jing (T 1161), tr. in Raoul Birnbaum,
The Healing Buddha (Boulder: 1979), pp. 130–132.
78
Dharma Publishing, The Fortunate Æon: How the Thousand Buddhas Become
Enlightened, Vol. IV (Berkeley: 1986), pp. 1480–1733.
79
Guo qu zhuang yan jie qian fo ming jing (T 447): Soper, Literary Evidence, 201–
202, M.W. de Visser, Ancient Buddhism in Japan (Paris: 1928), pp. 380–381.
73
146
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
But no list or lists were held to be authoritative, and there is
no evidence that the Mahāyāna developed a single theory of past
Buddhas. Even a single text such as the Sūtra on the Contemplation of
the Two Bodhisattvas referred to above mentions in a single breath the
seven Buddhas of the past, the fifty-three Buddhas, the one thousand
Buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa, and the thirty-three Buddhas.80 (Such
anomalies are only to be expected. The Mahāyāna was not a monolithic
movement with a single geographical or historical centre; rather, it is
a general name applied to diverse streams of thought that developed
in far-flung areas of India over many centuries, united only by their
exaltation of the bodhisattva ideal. Furthermore, some of these
streams gave more emphasis to present Buddhas, such as Amitābha
or Akṣobhya, or to “transcendental Buddhas”, such as Vairocana.)
In his commentary on the Abhidharmakośa, dGe ’dun grub, the First
Dalai Lama, states that “according to the Mahāyāna, [the bodhisattva]
worshipped limitless Buddhas in each incalculable”.81 A similar idea
is found repeatedly in Mahāyāna sūtras, which mention innumerable
Buddhas not only of the past but also of the present.
4. The development of the theory of future Buddhas
4.1. Future Buddhas and the Theravāda
We have seen above that, like the Buddhas of the past, the Buddhas
of the future are referred to in the plural in the Pāli canon. Only
one future Buddha, Metteyya, is named, and only in one place, in
the Cakkavattisīhanāda-sutta.82 Later Theravādin texts such as the
Dasabodhisattuppatti-kathā 83 and Dasabodhisatta-uddesa84 give the names
Birnbaum, The Healing Buddha, p. 133.
Mdzod ṭik thar lam gsal byed (Varanasi: 1973), p. 270.1, theg chen pas ni grangs
med pa re re la yang, sangs rgyas dpag tu med pa la bsnyen bkur byas par bzhed do.
82
Cf. Dīgha-nikāya 26 (PTS III 75–76) and Dīghanikāya-aṭṭhakathā (Nālandā ed.
II 97).
83
See H. Saddhatissa, The Birth-Stories of the Ten Bodhisattas. For this, the
following work, and related literature, see Supaphan Na Bangchang,
Wiwathanakan wanakhadi bali, pp. 190–204.
84
See Martini, Dasabodhisatta-uddesa. The (unpublished) thesis of Pharn
Wong-Uan, Anāgatavaṃsa (1980), gives a study, critical edition, and Thai
translation of this work.
80
81
The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology
147
and “biographies” of ten future Buddhas, starting with Metteyya; the
latter text promises that a person who worships the ten Sambuddhas
will not be reborn in hell for one hundred thousand æons.85 The
Sotatthakī-mahānidāna mentions five hundred and ten bodhisattas
who will become future Buddhas.86 In the Dasabodhisattuppatti-kathā,
the Buddha tells Sāriputta that the number of beings who will become
Buddhas in future is limitless and countless (anantāparimāṇā), and
states that he himself cannot count the future Buddhas.87
There is even less archæological evidence for the ten bodhisattas
than for the twenty-eight or more Buddhas. A Sukhothai inscription
from the time of King Līdayya (Mahādharmarāja I) dated 1361 refers
to “Metteyya, etc., the ten bodhisattas”;88 an Ayutthaya period chant
lists their names.89 They are depicted in eighteenth century Ceylonese
painting at the Dambulla caves and at the Malvatta and Kulugammana
Rājamaha Vihāras in Kandy District.90 The wish to become a Buddha
in the future occurs in inscriptions and colophons. A Pagan period
terracotta tablet records the aspiration to become a Buddha of
Thera Ānanda;91 the Sukhothai period monk Śrīsaddhā performs a
successful “act of truth” (saccakiriyā), starting “If it is true that I shall
attain omniscience and become a Buddha …”.92 King Līdayya also was
“fully resolved to become a Buddha”.93 Such aspirations could not be
made if the number of future Buddhas was not held to be open.
85
Dasabodhisatta-uddesa, text p. 334, tr. p. 367, ime dasa ca sambuddhe yo naro pi
namassati, kappasatasahassāni nirayaṃ so na gacchati.
86
Sotatthakī-mahānidāna v. 629 (text p. 96), dasuttarā pañcasatā bodhisattā
samuhatā. I am not certain of the derivation here of samuhata, but the figure
is clear. The phrase is spoken by the Buddha in answer to a question put by
Ānanda, ‘How many [bodhi]sattas have you predicted?’
87
Dasabodhisattuppatti-kathā, tr. p. 54, text p. 119.
88
Prachumsilacharuk, Vol. I, p. 103: lines 12–13 of face 3, ariyametteyyādīnaṃ
dasannam bodhisattānam …. See also Prasert Ṇa Nagara and A.B. Griswold,
Epigraphic and Historical Studies (Bangkok: The Historical Society under the
Royal Patronage of HRH Princes Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, 1992), no. 11, pt. 1,
pp. 425-532 (repr. from The Journal of the Siam Society 61/1).
89
Supaphan Na Bangchang, Wiwathanakan wanakhadi bali, pp. 195–196.
90
H. Saddhatissa, The Birth-Stories of the Ten Bodhisattas, pp. 20–21 and plates
I and II.
91
Luce, Old Burma-Early Pagan III, pl. 68, ānandattherena kataṃ rūpaṃ | tena
buddho homi.
92
Prasert and Griswold, Epigraphic and Historical Studies, p. 392.
93
Prasert and Griswold, Epigraphic and Historical Studies, pp. 496–497.
148
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
4.2. Future Buddhas and other Buddhist schools
The cult of Metteyya (in Sanskrit, Maitreya) was accepted by
all known Buddhist schools. I have not found any lists of future
Buddhas in available works of the Vaibhāṣikas, Mūlasarvāstivādins,
or Sāṃmitīyas. The Bhaiṣajyavastu and Śayanāsanavastu of the
Mūlasarvāstivādin Vinaya name only one future Buddha, Maitreya.94
In the first decade of the Mūlasarvāstivādin Avadānaśataka, the
Buddha predicts the future Buddhahood of ten individuals, but these
are only examples, and are not meant to make up a definitive list. The
number of future Buddhas is open.
Daśabalaśrīmitra reports that “according to some, five Buddhas
arise in this very ‘Auspicious Æon’ (bhadrakalpa); according to
others, five hundred, and according to still others, one thousand”.95
Interlinear notes in the Peking edition attribute the first theory to
the Sthāviras, the second to the Sāṃmitīyas, and the third to the
Mahāyāna.96 While the first and last are amply confirmed by other
sources, the ascription of five hundred Bhadrakalpa Buddhas to the
Sāṃmitīyas cannot be confirmed. Three Sarvāstivādin texts in the
Central Asian language of Uighur refer to five hundred Bhadrakalpa
Buddhas. Two of these are Maitreya texts of the Maitrisimit class,97
while one is a confessional text for laity.98 Two commentaries by two
different authors on two different sections of the Mūlasarvāstivādin
Vinaya give the same figure. The Vinayavastu-ṭīkā, a commentary
on the Vinayavastu by the Sūtra Expert (sūtradhara) Kalyāṇamitra,
states that “Fortunate Æon is a classification of time (kālaviśeṣa):
it is auspicious because in it five hundred Tathāgatas arise”. The
Bhaiṣajyavastu, loc. cit., Śayanāsanavastu, p. 30.
Daśabalaśrīmitra 42b5.
96
The notes are not found in the Derge edition (“Karmapa Reprint”, dbu ma
ha, 139b6–7).
97
Jan Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, n. 30, pp. 23–24, referring to Sinasi
Tekin (ed., tr.), Maitrisimit, Vol. 1 (Berlin: Akademi Verlag, 1980), p. 44.11–16
(not seen); Das Zusammentreffen mit Maitreya: die ersten fünf Kapitel der HamiVersion der Maitrisimit, in Zusammenarbeit mit Helmut Eimer und Jens Peter
Laut herausgegeben, übersetzt und kommentiert von Geng Shimin und
Hans-Joachim Klimkeit, Teil I (Wiesbaden: 1988), p. 75.
98
Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, referring to her unpublished edition and
translation of Ksanti qilmag nom bitig, An Uighur Confession Text for Laity, 1974
(not seen).
94
95
The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology
149
Vinayavibhaṅga-padavyākhyāna, a commentary on the Vinaya-vibhaṅga
by Vinītadeva, states that “a great Fortunate Æon is a beautiful Æon
(sundara-kalpa), because in it 500 Buddhas arise”.99 The Qi fo fumu
xingzi jing, a recension of the Mahāpadāna-sutta of unknown school
which was translated into Chinese between 240–254 CE, states that
“in this bhadrakalpa there will be a full five hundred Buddhas”.100
Since adherents of the five hundred Bhadrakalpa Buddhas would
agree that four Buddhas, including Śākyamuni, have already arisen,
this means that four hundred ninety-six Buddhas are yet to come,
starting with Maitreya.
The Bahubuddha-sūtra of the Mahāvastu of the Mahāsāṃghika
Lokottaravādins names only Maitreya,101 but elsewhere the Mahāvastu
states that one thousand Buddhas arise in the Auspicious Æon.102
The names of one thousand future Buddhas are invoked in a sūtra
translated into Chinese in the first half of the sixth century.103 This
figure was widely disseminated in the literature of the Mahāyāna, for
example in such perennially popular sūtras as the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka
and the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa.104
5. A solution to the Sambuddhe riddle?
Now, after a detour of several æons, we may return to the Sambuddhe
verses. The texts agree that the Buddha Sakyamuni is an example
P 5616, Vol. 122, ’dul ’grel vu, 85b7.
Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time.
101
Mahāvastu III 319.3, 323.4, 327.4, 328.4.
102
Mahāvastu III 437.10. The text here is confused, and contains several lacunae.
While the mention of one thousand Buddhas might be an interpolation, it
is followed by an incomplete description of the extent of the radiance of a
number of Bhadrakalpa Buddhas, past and future; this suggests that the later
Lokottaravādins accepted the figure. The names of the future Buddhas do
not agree with those given in the Bhadrakalpika-sūtra. See Jones’ notes in The
Mahāvastu, Vol. III, p. 322.
103
Wei lai xing su jie qian fo mingjing (T 448): see de Visser p. 381.
104
Cf. Soper, Literary Evidence, pp. 200–202, Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time,
and references and discussion in Skilling, ‘Buddhist Literature: Some Recent
Translations’ (particularly the review of The Fortunate Æon), The Journal of the
Siam Society, Vol. 80.1 (1992), pp. 135–143.
99
100
150
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
of the first type of bodhisatta:105 that is, his career lasted either four
or twenty incalculable æons plus one hundred thousand æons. Since
in traditional Buddhology the career of a bodhisatta or the acts of
a Buddha are stereotyped – what applies to one applies to all – all
bodhisattas of the first type should presumably, like Sakyamuni,
encounter 512,028 Buddhas. That figure in the first verse may
therefore represent either the number of Buddhas honoured by
Sakyamuni, or by the first type of bodhisatta in general.106 It follows
that the figure 1,024,55 of the second verse could refer to the second
type of bodhisatta, and the figure 2,048,109 of the third verse to
the third type of bodhisatta, since the multiples are similar. In the
(apocryphal) Aruṇavatī-sutta, the past Buddha Sikhī is said to have
fulfilled the perfections for eight incalculable æons plus one hundred
thousand æons; this means he was a bodhisatta of the second type.107
In the Jinakālamālī, Dīpaṃkara, Purāṇasakyamuni (plus several other
past Buddhas), and Metteyya, the next Buddha, are described as
bodhisattas of the third type. Thus the three figures of the Sambuddhe
verses might well refer to the number of Buddhas encountered by
the three types of bodhisattas of the past, present, and future. I have
not, however, found a text to confirm this interpretation.
When and where were the Sambuddhe verses composed? At
present I cannot suggest an answer. If the Burmese version, which
refers to only 512,028 Buddhas, is the original, it could have been
composed by the eleventh century, by which time the idea of the
“longer career” lasting twenty incalculable æons seems to have
appeared. Further research into Ceylonese, Burmese, Mon, and Shan
sources, both epigraphic and literary, must be conducted before even
an approximate date for the two higher figures can be suggested.
The tradition reported by such texts as the Sotatthakīmahānidāna is
the final and most developed theory of the Theravādins. The number
of past Buddhas served by Sakyamuni as a bodhisatta surpasses that
given by other Śrāvaka schools, as does the duration of his career,
See, for example, Jinakālamālī 1.26–2.1, amhākaṃ bhagavā
kappasatasahassādhikāni cattāri asaṅkheyyāni pāramiyo pūretvā buddhabhāvaṃ
patto paññādhiko nāma paññindriyassa balavattā.
106
Since the Burmese version gives only the first figure, and since the extra
line places the Buddhas in the past, that version might refer only to the
Buddhas honoured by Sakyamuni.
107
Aruṇavatī-sutta in Lokupatti Aruṇavatī … (see n. 44) p. 43.8, sikkhī bodhisatto
kappasatasahassādhikāni aṭṭha asaṃkheyyāni pāramiyo pūretvā ….
105
The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology
151
even in its shortest and earliest form as four æons.108 Similarly, the
Theravādins adopted a theory of ten perfections (pāramī) against the
six of Śrāvaka schools such as the Vaibhāṣikas, Mūlasarvāstivādins,
Sāṃmitīyas,109 and Lokottaravādins,110 or of some Mahāyāna sūtras
such as the Prajñāpāramitā. By classifying these under three grades
they obtained a total of thirty,111 again surpassing the figures given
by other Śrāvaka schools, and also the Mahāyāna. It seems that on the
matter of Buddhology the Theravādins were far from conservative:
rather they may have been the most innovative of the known Śrāvaka
schools. That this tendency began at an early date is shown by the
fact the theories of four æons and thirty perfections occur in the
canonical Buddhavaṃsa.
The three figures given in the Sambuddhe verses are not final,
and the greatest figure of 2,048,109 is not the maximum number of
Buddhas of either the past or the future. The figures only represent
the number of Buddhas served by the three types of bodhisattas. In
the first case, each of the 512,028 Buddhas would, during his own
career, have served either 512,028, one million plus, or two million
plus Buddhas, and each of those Buddhas would, in the course of
their own quests for awakening, have done the same, in each case
depending on the type of bodhisatta. The same may be said for future
Buddhas. Thus the number of Buddhas implied by the Sambuddhe
Note, however, that Vinītadeva’s Nikāyabhedopadarśana-saṃgraha attributes
to the Mūlasarvāstivādins a theory that “a bodhisatta attains [awakening] in
from ten to thirty incalculable æons” (P 5641, Vol. 127, u 190a4, byang chub
sems dpa’ ni bskal pa grangs med pa bcu phan chad nas sum cu tshun chad kyis
’grubo). If this reference can be confirmed by other sources, it would suggest
a development parallel to that seen in the Theravādin school.
109
See Daśabalaśrīmitra 171a8, “great bodhisattas, after cultivating the six
perfections for three incalculable æons … realize awakening” (byang chub
sems dpa’ chen po rnams ni skal pa grangs med gsum du pha rol tu phyin pa drug
spyad pas … yang dag par rdzogs pa’i sangs rgyas su ’gyur ro).
110
Mahāvastu III 302.3.
111
Cf. Buddhavaṃsa I 76–77 (PTS 6); Apadāna (Buddhāpadāna) (Mm XXXII 2.2).
For a thorough study of the pāramīs, see HRH Princess Mahā Chakri Sirindhorn,
Dasapāramī in Theravāda Buddhism (Daśapāramī nai buddhaśāsanātheravāda, in
Thai) (Bangkok: 2525 [1982]), and ‘Pāramī. A Buddhist Concept in the Thai
Context’, in François Lagirarde and Paritta Chalermpow Koanantakool (ed.),
Buddhist Legacies in Mainland Southeast Asia. Mentalities, Interpretations and
Practices (Bangkok: EFEO and Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology
Centre, 2006), pp. 19–31.
108
152
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
verses stretches towards infinity in both past and future. This late
Theravādin Buddhology is reflected in other chants, such as in
the lines that follow the verses of homage to the seven Buddhas
in the Āṭānāṭiya-paritta: ete c’ aññe ca sambuddhā anekasatakoṭayo,
“these and other Sambuddhas, many thousands of millions”.112 The
Burmese Sambuddhe-gāthā adds a line referring to limitless Buddhas,
compared to whom the number of grains of sand in the Ganges River
is insignificant.
The Theravādin theory seems to describe a full circle, from the
open plurality of past and future Buddhas of the earliest texts to
the open infinity of past and future Buddhas of the latest texts. The
“infinity” of Buddhas is implied but unstated in the earliest, panBuddhist theory: in a saṃsāra that has no beginning or end there
must arise in succession Buddhas without beginning or end. The
“infinity” of Buddhas completes the idea of the earliest texts by
expressing what was left unsaid. It does not contradict the various
numbers of Buddhas, past or future, given by the Theravādin or other
schools: such figures refer in all cases to specific groups of Buddhas
in relation to other Buddhas or to certain periods of time (as, for
example, the 512,028 Buddhas served by Sakyamuni), and are not in
themselves final. The figures only make sense when the number of
Buddhas is seen to be open.
Theravādin scholars are often uncomfortable about the later,
developed Buddhology. Ven. Dhammānanda notes that the “longer
career” of the bodhisatta – and hence the numbers of Buddhas
given in the Sambuddhe-gāthā – need not be accepted, since it is
not found in the Tipiṭaka or the Aṭṭhakathā; he further suggests that
such theories do not conform to the Mahāvihāra, and might derive
from the Abhayagiri. There is, however, no evidence for this. If I
have described these theories as Theravādin in this article, it is
because they are presented in Pāli works transmitted only (as far
as we know) within the Theravādin Vinaya lineage. It is sometimes
suggested that the theories derive from Mahāyāna influence, but the
Suat manta chabap luang, pp. 21.2, 40.1. In the latter, the verse comes at the
end of the Aṭavisi-pirit verses discussed above. Luce’s transcription of the last
line of the Pāli, etesañeva sambuddhā anekasattako … (the text continues in old
Mon) suggests that the inscription included this verse, which is not found
in the Ceylonese versions available to me. This would date the verse to the
eleventh century.
112
The Sambuddhe verses and later Theravādin Buddhology
153
evidence is against this. The Buddhas arise serially, in succession:
only one Buddha arises at a time; never, as in the Mahāyāna, do
multiple Buddhas exist in the present. Only five Buddhas arise in the
Auspicious æons. There is no hint of Mahāyāna doctrines such as the
ten levels (daśabhūmi) of a bodhisatta or the three bodies (trikāya) of
a Buddha, and the description of the career of a bodhisatta – whether
as four incalculables plus one hundred thousand æons or more – or
of the three types of bodhisatta are unique to the Theravādins, as are
the numbers of past Buddhas, from the figure twenty-eight of the
Buddhavaṃsa upwards. Furthermore, the Theravādin theories bear
no formal resemblance to those of the other Śrāvaka schools. Direct
copying or imitation of other Śrāvaka schools or of the Mahāyāna
may therefore be ruled out.
Certainly, however, there would have been mutual inspiration,
since no school existed in isolation. Some of the past Buddhas stand
out as common to several lists. The theories of the different schools
have a common origin in the sense that, during the several centuries
on either side of the beginning of the Christian Era, there seems to
have been a preoccupation with the past lives of the Buddha and the
path to Buddhahood: that is, the bodhisatta career. During this period
the bodhisatta theories of these schools, including the Theravādins,
were formulated; during this period the Mahāyāna began to take
shape – not as the initiator of the theories of the bodhisatta career,
but as a result of the speculation on that subject.
At any rate, the Sambuddhe verses are concerned with power and
protection, and not with philosophy or Buddhological speculation.
Their efficacy derives from the large number of Buddhas invoked,
and, although this is unstated, from the pāramī and tejas of Sakyamuni
or other bodhisattas who honoured or will honour Buddhas of these
numbers during the many æons of their bodhisatta careers. The
concept of protection against calamity derived from the recitation of
the name or epithets of the Buddha is an old one. It is enshrined, for
example, in the ancient and canonical Dhajagga-sutta, a popular paritta
in which the Buddha recommends the recitation of the iti pi so formula
as a protection against fear. Other canonical parittas derive their
power from the recitation of the names of pacceka-buddhas, as in the
Isigili-sutta,113 or of various deities, as in the Mahāsamaya and Āṭānāṭiya
Majjhima-nikāya 116 (PTS III 67–71). Note that at the end the text seems to
recommend that homage be paid “to these and other mighty pacceka-buddhas
113
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Suttas, as do non-canonical parittas such as the Mahādibbamanta and
the Uppātasanti. The power of texts like the Ākāravatta-sutta and the
Yot phrakantraipidok stems from combinations of the iti pi so formula
with the concept of pāramī.114 The invocation of the “power of the
name” occurs in Mahāyāna sūtras such as the sūtras on the one
thousand past and one thousand future Buddhas referred to above
(there is also a parallel sūtra on the one thousand present Buddhas).
The Names of 5,453 Buddhas, a text preserved in Tibetan translation,
names that many Buddhas, who are not placed in time or space;
verses at the end promise protection.115 The Sambuddhe verses may
be unique in invoking the power of the largest number of Buddhas in
the fewest words.
… without limit” (PTS III 71.3, ete ca aññe ca mahānubhāvā paccekabuddhā …
parinibbute vandatha appameyye). I.B. Horner (The Middle Length Sayings
III [London: 1967], p. 113), interprets the passage as “praise all these
immeasurable great seers who have attained final nibbāna”.
114
For these texts, and for paritta in general, see Peter Skilling, ‘The Rakṣā
Literature of the Śrāvakayāna’, Journal of the Pāli Text Society XVI (1992), pp.
116–124.
115
Sangs rgyas kyi mtshan lnga stong bzhi brgya lnga bcu rtsa gsum pa, P 928 (Vol.
36), mdo zu. The text, which has no translators’ colophon or nidāna, consists
entirely of names, often long and awkward, in the formula “homage to …”,
concluding with 12 lines of verse spoken by the Buddha. The colophon to the
Stog Palace edition (§ 95) notes that the transmission of the text was confused.
A Chinese parallel (T 443) was translated in 594 CE. For the invocation of the
names of the Buddha, see Hōbōgirin III 209–10 (Butsumyō).
11
Praises of the Buddha beyond praise
T
HE RECOLLECTION OF THE BUDDHA ACCORDING TO THE ITI PI SO
formula is an ancient practice, recommended by the Sakyan Sage
himself in the Dhajagga-sutta of the Sagāthavagga of the Saṃyuttanikāya.1 The formula lists nine qualities of the Buddha, which came
to be known as the nava-buddha-guṇa. It was recognized early on,
however, that the qualities or virtues of the Buddha were without
limit. The idea that the Buddha is beyond praise (aparimāṇavaṇṇo) is
expressed in a stock passage uttered by several leading brāhmaṇas of
the time, such as Soṇadaṇḍa, Kūṭadanta, and Caṅkī, each of whom is
reported to declare:2 ‘I have mastered only so many of the praises of
Saṃyutta-nikāya, PTS I 218–220.
Soṇadaṇḍa-sutta (Dīgha-nikāya 4, PTS I 117.14): ettake kho ahaṃ bho tassa
bhoto gotamassa vaṇṇe pariyāpuṇāmi, no ca kho so bhavaṃ gotamo ettakavaṇṇo,
aparimāṇavaṇṇo hi so bhavaṃ gotamo; also at Kūṭadanta-sutta (Dīgha-nikāya 5,
PTS I 133.23) and Caṅkī-sutta (Majjhima-nikāya 95, PTS II 168.3). There does not
seem to be any parallel passage in the Chinese version of the Soṇadaṇḍa-sutta:
see Konrad Meisig, ‘Chung Têh King – The Chinese Parallel to the SoṇadaṇḍaSutta’, in V.N. Jha (ed.), Kalyāṇa-mitta: Professor Hajime Nakamura Felicitation
Volume (Delhi: 1991), p. 55.
1
2
155
156
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
the respected Gotama, but this is not the full measure of his praises: the
respected Gotama merits unlimited praise’.3 This natural statement,
which culminates a long eulogy of the Buddha, was later rephrased as
a general principle: ‘The Buddhas, the Blessed Ones, merit unlimited
praise’.4 In the Apadāna, Gatasaññaka Thera refers to the past Buddha
Tissa as ‘an ocean of unlimited virtues’ (anantaguṇasāgara).5 What
had started out as a rather straightforward fact took on a mystical
flavour.
The following passage shows how this concept was presented in
Siam at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It is taken from the
Traibhūmilokavinicchayakathā, also known as the Traibhūmi chabap
luang, which was composed at the behest of Rāma I, the first king
of the Chakri Dynasty, by Phraya Dharrmaprījā (Kaew) in CS 1164
or BE 2345, that is CE 1802.6 The citation is from the beginning of
‘And so far only do I know the excellencies of the Samaṇa Gotama, but
these are not all of them, for his excellence is beyond measure’: T.W. Rhys
Davids, Dialogues of the Buddha, Vol. I (London 1973 [1899]), p. 150; ‘However
much I might praise the ascetic Gotama, that praise is insufficient, he is
beyond all praise’: Maurice Walshe, Thus Have I Heard: The Long Discourses
of the Buddha (London: 1987), p. 128; ‘To this extent I, sirs, know the good
Gotama’s splendour, but this is not the (full) extent of the good Gotama’s
splendour – immeasurable is the splendour of the good Gotama’: I.B. Horner,
The Collection of the Middle Length Sayings (Majjhima-nikāya), Vol. II (London:
1975 [1957]), p. 358; ‘This much is the praise of Master Gotama that I have
learned, but the praise of Master Gotama is not limited to that, for the praise
of Master Gotama is immeasurable’: Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi,
The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (Kandy: 1995), p. 778.
4
Udāna-aṭṭhakathā (Mm 524.1; PTS 415): aparimāṇavaṇṇā hi buddhā
bhagavanto. See also Majjhimapaṇṇāsa-aṭṭhakathā (PTS III 24), Saḷāyatanavaggaaṭṭhakathā (PTS III 49) and Saḷāyatanavagga-ṭīkā (ChS II 336) where we find
appamāṇavaṇṇā.
5
Apadāna (Nālandā ed. I 151; PTS 127).
6
The Fine Arts Department (ed.), Phraya Dharrmaprījā (Kaew),
Traibhūmilokavinicchayakathā chabap thi 2 (Traibhūmi chabap luang) Vol. 1
(Bangkok: 2520 [1977]), pp. 15–16. For a brief note on the textual history of the
Traibhūmi genre, see Peter A. Jackson, ‘Re-interpreting the Traiphuum Phra
Ruang: Political Functions of Buddhist Symbolism in Contemporary Thailand’,
in Trevor Ling (ed.), Buddhist Trends in Southeast Asia (Singapore: Institute of
Southeast Asian Studies, 1993), pp. 69–70. For Phraya Dharrmaprījā see H.H.
Prince Dhani Nivat, ‘The Reconstruction of Rāma I of the Chakri Dynasty’,
in Collected Articles by H.H. Prince Dhani Nivat reprinted from the Journal of the
3
Praises of the Buddha beyond praise
157
the first chapter (paṭhamapariccheda), on homage to the Three Gems
(kham namaskār phra ratanatray). The prose is in Thai; the verses are
in Pāli.7
The Holy (phra) Buddhaguṇa (virtues or qualities of the Buddha) are
endless (ananta), vast (vitthāra), and wide, and their limit cannot be
reached: it is beyond the ability of all of the deities, such as Indra
or Brahma, to enumerate (barrṇanā) the Holy Buddhaguṇa to the
limit or to the end. It is the same even for the Holy Omniscient Lord
Buddha (Phra Sabbaññū Buddha Chao): he can enumerate his own holy
qualities, but even he is unable to enumerate them to the limit and to
the end. Though he may continue to enumerate them, his life-span
(phra janmāyu) will be exhausted before [he can finish]: it is impossible
to know the end or know the limit of the Holy Buddhaguṇa. The
matter is suitably explained by these verses:
sahassasīso8 pi ce poso sīse sīse sataṃ mukhā
mukhe mukhe sataṃ jivhā jivakappo mahiddhiko
na sakkoti ca vaṇṇetuṃ9 nisesaṃ satthuno guṇaṃ.
Even if a person had a thousand heads
Each head with a hundred mouths,
Each mouth with a hundred tongues –
And even if he could live for an æon
And possessed great supernormal power,
He would still be unable to enumerate
The virtues of the Teacher in full.
buddho pi buddhassa bhaṇeyya vaṇṇaṃ
kappam pi ce aññam abhāsamāno
Siam Society (Bangkok: 1969), p. 159 (originally published in Journal of the Siam
Society XLIII-1, [1955]).
7
I give in parentheses selected phrases that derive from Pāli or Sanskrit, in
their Thai orthography. Phra (rendered here as ‘holy’), chao (rendered here
as ‘lord’), and somdet (not translated) are frequently attached to the names or
titles of objects or persons of respect in Thai.
8
-sīse Traibhūmi: I follow here the Khmer citation (see below), to read -sīso.
9
vaṇṇetu Traibhūmi: I follow here the Khmer citation, to read vaṇṇetuṃ.
158
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
khīyetha kappo ciradīgham10 antare
vaṇṇo na khīyetha tathāgatassa.
If a Buddha were to speak in praise of a Buddha,
Speaking nothing else for an æon’s length,
Sooner would the long-standing æon reach its end,
But the praise of the Tathāgata would not reach its end.11
The first verse may be explained as follows: a man possessing
great supernormal power (mahiddhi-ṛddhi) conjures up (nṛmit)
a multitude of heads, one thousand in number. Each of these
heads has one hundred mouths, and each of these mouths has
one hundred tongues – this amounts to one hundred thousand
mouths and to ten million tongues. The man has a long lifespan, as long as one æon (kappa). If he does not engage in any
other activity at all, but devotes himself only to the praise of
the Holy Buddhaguṇa, throughout the day and throughout
the night, until his æon-long life-span is exhausted – he would
nonetheless be unable to enumerate the Holy Buddhaguṇa to
the end or to the limit.
The second verse may be explained thus: Somdet the Holy
Omniscient Lord Buddha has a long life-span of an æon; if
he does not preach on any other subject at all, but, as in the
previous example, preaches only on the Holy Buddhaguṇa of
Somdet the Holy Omniscient Lord Buddha, throughout the
day and throughout the night, and continues preaching until
the end of that long stretch of time, to the limit of his æonlong life-span – the Holy Buddhaguṇa of Somdet the Holy
Tathāgata the Ten-Powered One (daśabala) would not yet be
exhausted.
Traibhūmi only reads cīra-, against the cira- of the aṭṭhakathā (see below).
I take the translation from Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Discourse on the All-embracing
Net of Views: The Brahmajāla Sutta and its Commentarial Exegesis (Kandy: Buddhist
Publication Society, 1978), p. 330; cf. also translations in Peter Masefield, The
Udāna Commentary (Paramatthadīpanī nāma Udānaṭṭhakathā), Vol. II (Oxford:
The Pali Text Society,1995), p. 871; and in I.B. Horner, The Clarifier of the Sweet
Meaning (Madhuratthavilāsinī) (London: The Pali Text Society, 1978), pp. 193–
194. Horner did not understand the verse.
10
11
Praises of the Buddha beyond praise
159
I have not been able to trace the origin of the first verse, which
is also cited in Pāli in a text belonging to the ‘Itipiso’ genre, the
Itipisoratanamālā.12 The second verse, however, is well attested in
classical Pāli commentarial literature, where it is cited without
specific attribution in (at least) the following sources:13
• Dīghanikāya-aṭṭhakathā (Sumaṅgalavilāsinī), commenting on the
Soṇadaṇḍa-sutta (DN 4);14
• Dīghanikāya-aṭṭhakathā (Sumaṅgalavilāsinī), commenting on the
Sampasādanīya-sutta (DN 28);15
• Majjhimanikāya-aṭṭhakathā (Papañcasūdanī), commenting on the
Caṅkī-sutta (MN 95);16
• Udāna-aṭṭhakathā, commenting on the third sutta of the Jaccandhavagga;17
• Cariyāpiṭaka-aṭṭhakathā (twice);18
• Apadāna-aṭṭhakathā;19
• Buddhavaṃsa-aṭṭhakathā;20
• Dīghanikāya-ṭīkā (Līnatthappakāsanā) commenting on the Brahmajālasutta commentary.21
See Francois Bizot and Oskar von Hinüber (ed.), La guirlande de Joyaux (Paris:
École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1994, Textes bouddhiques du Cambodge 2),
(text) p. 135, (translation) pp. 180–181. In the original version of this article I
mistakenly described the text as ‘Khmer’. It is, however, well-known in Siam
(a fact not noted by Bizot and von Hinüber) in both manuscript and printed
editions, and although its history has not been traced, it may well have been
compiled in Siam.
13
I have culled the references from the notes to the Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana
editions. The verse is usually introduced by vuttaṃ h’ etaṃ (vuttaṃ pi c’ etaṃ,
vuttañ c’ etaṃ, etc.).
14
PTS I 288 (not seen); ChS [I] 257.8; Mm I 356.8; Nālandā ed. 315.25 (cf.
comment in ṭīkā, ChS [I] 318.7–10).
15
Mm III 80.8; PTS [III] 877 (not seen); ChS [III] 61 (not seen).
16
Mm III 388.16; PTS III 423 (not seen); ChS III 289 (not seen).
17
ChS 305, bottom; PTS 336; Mm 426.4. A similar statement is made in prose
at Mm 542.1–4.
18
ChS 9.1, 324.12; PTS 8, 332; BhB 13.8, 506.7.
19
ChS II 91.17; PTS 388.
20
PTS 135.9; BhB 250.1; ChS 163 (not seen).
21
PTS I 65; ChS I 51.1.
12
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
The references show that the verse was well-known by the fifth
century, the time of Buddhaghosa, as well as to the commentators
Dhammapāla and Buddhadatta.22
22
The idea of talking for an æon or more is found in the Vimalakīrti-sūtra:
Étienne Lamotte, L’Enseignement de Vimalakīrti (Vimalakīrtinirdeśa) (Louvain:
1962), pp. 257–258. Lamotte (n. 17) refers to a similar hyperbole in the
Aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā. See now Study Group on Buddhist Sanskrit
Literature (ed.), Vimalakīrtinirdeśa and Jñānālokālaṅkāra: Transliterated Sanskrit
Text Collated with Tibetan and Chinese Translations. Part II. Vimalakīrtinirdeśa:
Transliterated Sanskrit Text Collated with Tibetan and Chinese Translations (Tokyo:
The Institute for Comprehensive Studies of Buddhism, Taisho University,
2004).
12
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
The extreme popularity of the Jātakas
is expressed not only by the large
number of manuscripts in which they
are recorded – whether as complete
collections or separately for the most
celebrated – but also by the frequency
of their representation in Buddhist
art.
Jean Filliozat1
Introduction: Reflections on Jātaka literature
T
HE JĀTAKA IS ONE OF THE OLDEST CLASSES OF BUDDHIST
literature.2 As a genre it is unique to Buddhism: it is not found
Louis Renou and Jean Filliozat, L’Inde classique, Manuel des études indiennes
(Hanoi: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1953), § 1967. See also §§ 1972,
1993.
2
For jātaka see M. Winternitz’s entry in James Hastings (ed.), Encyclopædia of
Religion and Ethics, Vol. VII (Edinburgh: 1914), pp. 491–494; M. Winternitz, A
History of Indian Literature (tr. Ketkar and Kahn), Vol. II ([Calcutta: 1933] New
1
161
162
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
in Jaina or Brahmanical literature.3 There are specific jātaka texts
such as the collection of verses included in the Theravādin Khuddakanikāya under the name Jātaka, or the Sanskrit Jātakamālā collections,
but beyond that the jātaka thoroughly pervades Buddhist literature,
whether Śrāvakayāna or Mahāyāna. It does this formally, in the sense
that stories of past births are related or alluded to in Sūtras – whether
Śrāvakayāna or Mahāyāna – and in Vinayas. It does this ideologically,
in the sense that a career spanning many lives in which one is linked
to past and future Buddhas is a presupposition and a precondition of
Buddhist practice.
In the mainstream of Buddhism, the past lives during which
Śākyamuni fulfilled the perfections are taken for granted.4 Accounts
of these past lives, the jātakas, are an essential part of Śākyamuni’s
bodhisattva career. As such they are inseparable from the biography
of the Buddha, as may be seen in the Jātaka-nidāna, in the Mahāvastu, or
in Chapter 13 of the Lalitavistara.5 Narrations of or references to jātakas
abound in Mahāyāna sūtras. The Bhadrakalpika-sūtra alludes to many
jātakas in its exposition of the perfections, and jātakas are an integral
part of the Suvarṇaprabhāsa, an early and important Mahāyāna sūtra.
Fifty jātakas are summarized in verse in the Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchāsūtra.6 The long recension of the Prajñāpāramitā texts contains an
interesting disquisition on the animal births of the bodhisattva from
Delhi: 1991), pp. 113–156; K.R. Norman, Pali Literature (Wiesbaden: 1983), pp.
77–84; Encyclopædia of Buddhism, Vol. VI, Fasc. 1 ([Colombo]: The Government
of Ceylon, 1996), pp. 2–23.
3
There may be exceptions, such as Hemacandra, Jaina Jataka or Lord Rshabha’s
Purvabhavas (translated by Banarsi Das Jain [Lahore: The Punjab Sansk. Bk.
Depot, 1925] – not seen: reference courtesy Kazuko Tanabe through Toshiya
Unebe), but this late work does not constitute a genre. Nonetheless, further
study of the past lives of Tīrthaṃkaras as presented in Jaina literature with
the well-developed Buddhist jātaka literature would certainly be welcome.
4
By mainstream I mean the common tradition, the shared heritage, of all
Buddhist schools, whether the ‘eighteen nikāyas’ of the Śrāvakas or the
traditions that came to be grouped under the term Mahāyāna.
5
See Étienne Lamotte, Histoire du bouddhisme indien des origines à l’ère Śaka
(Louvain-la-Neuve: repr. 1976), p. 725, for further examples.
6
Louis Finot (ed.), Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā, Sūtra du Mahāyāna (repr.
’S-Gravenhage: Mouton and Co., 1957), introduction, pp. vi–viii, text, pp. 21–
27; Jacob Ensink, The Question of Rāṣṭrapāla, translated and annotated (Zwolle:
1952), pp. 21–28.
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
163
the point of view of prajñāpāramitā thought.7 Examples from the texts
of the Śrāvaka schools are given below.
The Commentary on the Discourse on the Ten Stages, preserved only in
Chinese translation and attributed to Nāgārjuna, gives a list of Great
Bodhisattvas to be contemplated. The first twenty-one (preceding
Maitreya, number 22) are names of Śākyamuni during his previous
lives, his bodhisattva career related in the early jātakas.8 It is with
reference to jātakas that a verse of the same text states:
When he was seeking the Path to Buddhahood,
he performed many marvellous practices
As described in various sūtras. So I prostrate myself and worship
him.9
In his Mahāyānasaṃgraha Asaṅga cites the bodhisattva’s ‘displaying
of a diversity of births (jātakas)’ as an aspect of the profound ethics
of a bodhisattva.10 Jātakas are referred to in ‘apocryphal’ Mahāyāna
sūtras like the Prajñāpāramitā for Humane Kings who wish to Protect their
States.11 In sum, it seems more difficult not to find jātakas than to find
them.
Jātakas have been popular from the time of the earliest post-Aśokan
evidence for Buddhism in India: the stone reliefs at the monuments of
Bhārhut, Sāñcī, Bodh Gayā, Amarāvatī, and elsewhere.12 The earliest
surviving Buddhist painting, at Cave X at Ajanta, dated by Schlingloff
to the second century BCE, depicts two jātakas – Ṣaddanta and Śyāma
– along with the life of the Buddha and the legend of Udayana.13
Edward Conze (tr.), The Large Sūtra on Perfect Wisdom with the divisions of the
Abhisamayālaṅkāra (Berkeley: 1975), pp. 621–623.
8
Hisao Inagaki (tr.), Nāgārjuna’s Discourse on the Ten Stages, Daśabhūmikavibhāṣā (Kyoto: 1998, Ryukoku Literature Series V), p. 158.
9
Inagaki, Nāgārjuna’s Discourse, p. 152.
10
Étienne Lamotte (ed., tr.), La somme du Grand Véhicule d’Asaṅga
(Mahāyānasaṃgraha) (repr. Louvain-la-Neuve: Université de Louvain, Institut
Orientaliste, 1973), Tome I (text) p. 70, Tome II (translation) p. 217.
11
Charles D. Orzech, Politics and Transcendent Wisdom: The Scripture for Humane
Kings in the Creation of Chinese Buddhism (University Park [Pennsylvania]: The
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998), pp. 246–247.
12
Lamotte, Histoire du bouddhisme indien, pp. 443–446.
13
Dieter Schlingloff, Studies in the Ajanta Paintings: Identifications and
Interpretations (Delhi: Ajanta Publications, 1988), pp. 1–13, 64–72; Monika Zin,
7
164
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Jātakas continued to be painted at Ajanta in the following centuries,
and no doubt at other monuments that have long succumbed to
the law of impermanence. The earliest inscription from Nepal, the
Cābahila inscription, ‘a fragment dated perhaps to the first half of
the fifth century’, records a woman’s donation of a caitya ‘adorned
with illustrations from the Kinnarī-jātaka’ (kinnarījātakākīrṇannānāci
travirājitam).14
According to the Sri Lankan chronicles Mahāvaṃsa and Thūpavaṃsa,
when King Duṭṭhagāmaṇī built the Mahāthūpa at Anurādhapura in the
first century BCE, he had the relic-chamber decorated with scenes from
the life of the Buddha as well as with jātakas, including the Vessantara,
which was depicted in detail and in extenso (vitthārena).15 Later, in
the early fifth century, Fǎxiǎn recorded that on the occasion of the
Tooth-relic procession in Anurādhapura, the king had a section of the
processional route flanked by ‘the five hundred different bodily forms
in which the Bodhisattva has in the course of his history appeared’.16
The jātaka spread wherever Buddhism travelled. Perhaps we may
say the jātakas immigrated, since they were quickly localized, as sites
of past lives or deeds of the bodhisattva became pilgrimage or cult
centres throughout Gandhāra and the North-West,17 as well as in
Nepal, or as jātaka murals donned the costumes of the local culture.
The cave-temples along the Silk Route, such as those at Dunhuang,
are rich in jātaka murals, especially in the early period. About one
‘The Oldest Painting of the Udayana Legend’, Berliner Indologische Studien,
11/12 (1998), pp. 435–448.
14
Theodore Riccardi, Jr., ‘Buddhism in Ancient and Early Medieval Nepal’,
in A.K. Narain (ed.), Studies in History of Buddhism (Delhi: B.R. Publishing
Corporation, 1980), p. 273, with reference to Dhanavajra Vajrācārya,
Licchavikālkā Abhilekh (Kathmandu: B.S. 2030), Inscription 1.
15
Mahāvaṃsa XXX, 87–88, N.A. Jayawickrama (tr., ed.), The Chronicle of the
Thūpa and the Thūpavaṃsa, being a Translation and Edition of Vācissaratthera’s
Thūpavaṃsa (London: Luzac and Co., 1971, Sacred Books of the Buddhists,
Vol. XXVIII), pp. 116–117 (translation), 234 (text).
16
James Legge (tr.), A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, being an account by the
Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of his travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399–414) in search of the
Buddhist Books of Discipline, ([Oxford: 1886] New York: 1965), p. 106.
17
Léon Feer, ‘Les Jâtakas dans les mémoires de Hiouen-Thsang’, Actes du
Onzième Congrès International des Orientalistes, Paris–1897, Première section,
Langues et archéologie des pays ariens (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1899),
pp. 151–169; Lamotte, Histoire du bouddhisme indien, pp. 365–368.
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
165
hundred jātakas, some still unidentified, are depicted in relief on the
lower galleries of great stūpa of Borobudur in Java, which dates to
circa the ninth century.
Jātakas, originally transmitted in Prakrits, Buddhist Sanskrit,
and Sanskrit, were translated into Central Asian languages like
Khotanese, Tocharian, Uighur, and Sogdian.18 Some of the first
texts to be translated into Chinese were jātakas. One of the early
translators was Kāng Sēnghuì, who was born in Giao Chỉ (the area of
modern Hanoi, in Vietnam) of Sogdian extraction and entered the
monastic order at the age of ten. In 247 he went to Nanking, where
he translated texts into Chinese. Among them is the Scripture of the
Collection of the Six Perfections,19 which Tsukamoto describes as ‘Kāng
Sēnghuì’s principal achievement as a translator’, going on to say:
That scripture is one particularly deserving of note … as an example
of Buddhist narrative literature. It contains stories of Gautama’s
former existences, far antedating the attainment of Buddhahood by
Prince Siddhārtha, whether as a king, as a prince, as a rich man, as
a poor man, or even as an elephant or deer, existences during the
course of which he cultivated the Six Perfections ….20
It was from this text that Chavannes drew the first eighty-eight
stories of his monumental Cinq cents contes et apologues extraits du
Tripiṭaka chinois, which remains the classical collection of jātakas
18
See e.g. Ronald E. Emmerick, A Guide to the Literature of Khotan (second
edition, Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1992, Studia
Philologica Buddhica, Occasional Paper Series III); Johan Elverskog, Uygur
Buddhist Literature (Turnhout: Brepols, 1997, Silk Road Studies I), pp. 32–33,
36–42; E. Benveniste, Vessantara Jātaka: Texte Sogdien édité, traduit et commenté
(Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1946, Mission Pelliot en Asie central série in-quarto
IV).
19
Liu tu chi ching, *Ṣaṭpāramitā-saṅgraha-sūtra (Korean Tripiṭaka 206, Taishō
152, Nanjio 143).
20
Zenryū Tsukamoto, A History of Early Chinese Buddhism from its Introduction to
the Death of Hui-yüan (translated from the Japanese by Leon Hurvitz), Vol. 1
(Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd., 1985), pp. 151–163. For Kāng Sēnghuì
see Robert Shih (tr.), Biographies des moines éminents (Kao seng tchouan) de HoueiKiao (Louvain: 1968), pp. 20–31; Prabodh Chandra Bagchi, Le canon bouddhique
en Chine, tome 1 (Paris: 1927), pp. 304–307; Nguyen Tai Thu (ed.), History of
Buddhism in Vietnam (Hanoi: 1992), pp. 46–51; Minh Chi, Ha Van Tan, Nguyen
Tai Thu, Buddhism in Vietnam (Hanoi: 1993), p. 13.
166
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
translated from Chinese sources into a European language.21 Another
early translation into Chinese was the Avadāna-śataka, a collection of
avadānas – a genre related to the jātaka, which includes some jātakas
properly speaking. The translation, ascribed to Zhīqiān between
223 and 253, but more probably translated in the fifth century,
generally agrees with the Sanskrit text which is represented by much
later manuscripts.22 The Da zhidu lun, a commentary on the longer
Prajñāpāramitā translated by Kumārajīva at Cháng-ān in 404–405, is
rich in allusion to and narration of jātakas. It has been and remains a
reference work for East Asian Buddhists.
In Tibet several classical jātaka works were translated, such as
Ārya Śūra’s Jātakamālā and its commentary, or Haribhaṭṭa’s work of
the same name.23 Numerous jātakas are embedded in other works
translated into Tibetan such as the Vinaya, the Sūtra of the Wise and the
Foolish (mDo mdzaṅs blun), avadāna collections, and Mahāyāna sūtras.24
Édouard Chavannes, Cinq cents contes et apologues extraits du Tripiṭaka
chinois, Tome I (repr. Paris: 1962), pp. 1–346. See Chavannes’ introduction,
pp. i–iv, and Tome IV, pp. 1–16 for summaries of the stories. The second
set of translations in Cinq cents contes (nos. 89–155) is from the Chiu tsa p’i
yü ching (*Saṃyuktāvadāna-sūtra: Korean Tripiṭaka 1005, Taishō 206, Nanjio
1359) which Chavannes believed to have been translated by Zhīqiān. Modern
scholarship has questioned the attribution.
22
Yoshiko K. Dykstra (tr.), Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra from Ancient
Japan: The Dainihonkoku Hokekyōkenki of Priest Chingen (Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 1983), p. 9, n. 65.
23
Ārya Śūra’s work and commentary (= Peking Kanjur, Ōtani Reprint, Vol.
128, nos. 5650, 5651) are conveniently printed in sKyes rabs so bźi ba’i rtsa ’grel
bźugs so, mTsho sṅon mi rigs dpe skrun khaṅ, 1997. The root-texts of Ārya
Śūra (Ōtani no. 5650) and Haribhaṭṭa (Ōtani no. 5652) are published in bsTan
’gyur las byuṅ ba’i skyes rabs daṅ rtogs brjod gces bsdus, Mi rigs dpe skrun khaṅ,
1993. For the jātaka section of the Tanjur, see Tshul khrims rin chen, bsTan
’gyur dkar chag, Bod ljoṅs mi dmaṅs dpe skrun khaṅ, 1985, pp. 816–817. (I
am grateful to Franz-Karl Erhard [Kathmandu] for his indispensable help in
collecting Tibetan materials.) For Haribhaṭṭa see Michael Hahn, Haribhaṭṭa and
Gopadatta, Two Authors in the Succession of Āryaśūra: On the Rediscovery of Parts
of their Jātakamālās (second edition, thoroughly revised and enlarged, Tokyo:
The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1992, Studia Philologica
Buddhica Occasional Paper Series I).
24
See F. Anton von Schiefner, Tibetan Tales Derived from Indian Sources,
translated from the Tibetan Kah Gyur (translated from the German by W.R.S.
Ralston) (repr. Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1988); William Woodville Rockhill, ‘Tibetan
21
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
167
That the genre captured the Tibetan imagination may be seen from
the abridged versions produced by Tibetan writers, such as Karma
Raṅ-byuṅ rdo rje’s Hundred Births,25 Zhe chen ’gyur med Padma rnam
rgyal’s mDo las byuṅ ba’i gtam rgyud sna tshogs,26 or Padma Chos ’phel’s
summary of the Avadānakalpalatā.27 The jātakas were one of the six
basic texts of the bKa’ gdams pas, the forerunners of the dGe lugs
pas.
In the seventh century Yìjìng noted that jātaka plays were
performed ‘throughout the five countries of India’. The culture of
dramatic performances of jātakas spread with (or developed naturally
within) Buddhism. In Tibet, for example, the Viśvāntara-jātaka,
somewhat transformed and under the title Dri med kun ldan, became
a popular play, according to Bacot ‘le plus joué de tous les drames
tibétains’, which could reduce the rough Tibetans to tears.28 Bacot
notes that another play, ’Gro ba bzaṅ mo (Djroazanmo), is related at least
in certain episodes to a play known to the Cambodians as Vorvong
and Saurivong and to the Siamese as Voravong.29 The dramatization of
Buddhist Birth-Stories: Extracts and Translations from the Kandjur’, Journal
of the American Oriental Society XVIII (1897), pp. 1–14; Jampa Losang Panglung,
Die Erzählstoffe des Mūlasarvāstivāda-Vinaya Analysiert auf Grund der Tibetischen
Übersetzung (Tokyo: Reiyukai Libarary, 1981, Studia Philologica Buddhica,
Monograph Series III).
25
Printed in bCom ldan ’das ston pa śākya thub pa’i rnam thar, mTsho sṅon mi
rigs dpe skrun khaṅ, 1997, pp. 205–506.
26
Zhe chen ’gyur med Padma rnam rgyal, mDo las byuṅ ba’i gtam rgyud sna
tshogs, Kruṅ go’i bod kyi śes rig dpe skrun khaṅ, 1992.
27
sKyes rabs dpag bsam ’khri śiṅ, Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khaṅ, 1991; tr.
Deborah Black, Leaves of the Heaven Tree: The Great Compassion of the Buddha
(Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1997). For the history of the Avadānakalpalatā
in Tibet see Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp, ‘Tibetan Belles-Lettres: The Influence
of Daṇḍin and Kṣemendra’, in José Ignacio Cabezón and Roger R. Jackson (ed.),
Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 1996), pp. 401–402.
28
See Jacques Bacot, ‘Drimedkun: Une version tibétaine du Vessantara
jātaka’, Journal Asiatique, Sér. XI, tome IV (Sept.–Oct., 1914), pp. 221–305;
‘Tchrimekundan’, in Jacques Bacot, Trois mystères tibétains (repr. Paris:
l’Asiathèque, 1987), pp. 19–131 (citation from p. 23)., Sept.–Oct.:
29
Ibid, p. 133. For ‘Drowazangmo’ see Marion H. Duncan, Harvest Festival Dramas
of Tibet (Hong Kong: Orient Publishing, 1955). For ‘Vorvong and Sauriwong’
see Vorvong et Sauriwong (Phnom Penh: Institut Bouddhique, 1971, Séries de
Culture et Civilisation Khmères, Tome 5). ‘Voravong’ (Varavaṃsa) is no. 45 in
the Thai National Library printed edition of the Paññāsajātaka. For the place
168
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Nor bzaṅ or Sudhana is well-known both in Tibet and South-East Asia,
and in the Malay peninsula it gave birth to a unique dance-form, the
Nora. Another adaptation of a jātaka – the story of Prince Maṇicūḍa
– is the Lokānanda, composed by the famous Candragomin and
translated into Tibetan.30 New year performances of plays, including
jātakas, have been enacted in Tibet since at least the second half of
the fifteenth century.31
In Japan jātakas were known from the early period, as attested by
the famous Tamamushi Shrine in the Hōryū-ji temple, Nara (where
the stories depicted are drawn from Mahāyāna sūtras).32 Jātakas
arrived, of course, with the Tripiṭaka texts brought from China. The
Chinese translation of the Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, a collection
of sermons from Khotan very much built around jātakas, was copied
and gilt by Emperor Shōmu in his own hand.33 Jātakas were adapted
into Japanese literature, such as in the Sambō ekotoba written in 984
by Minamoto no Tamenori, or later works like the Shishū hyaku-innen
shū of Jūshin, completed in 1257, or the Sangoku denki of Gentō, dating
perhaps to the first part of the fourteenth century or to the fifteenth
century.34 In popular Japanese literature jātakas may be mentioned
of Voravong in Southern Thai literature see the entry by Udom Nuthong in
Saranukrom Wathanatham Phak tai pho so 2529, Vol. 8, pp. 3296–3302.
30
Michael Hahn (tr.), Joy for the World: A Buddhist Play by Candragomin (Berkeley:
Dharma Publishing, 1987).
31
R.A. Stein, Tibetan Civilization (Stanford, California: Stanford University
Press, 1972), p. 278.
32
See Seiichi Mizuno, Asuka Buddhist Art: Horyu-ji (New York and Tokyo:
Weatherhill/Heibonsha, 1974, The Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art, Vol.
4), pp. 40–52.
33
Schlombs, Adele (ed.), Im Licht des Grossen Buddha: Schätze des Tôdaiji-Tempels,
Nara (Köln: Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst Köln, 1999), p. 194.
34
Douglas E. Mills, ‘Récits du genre jātaka dans la littérature japonaise’, in
Jacqueline Pigeot and Hartmut O. Rotermund (ed.), Le Vase de béryl: Études
sur le Japon et la Chine en hommage à Bernard Frank (Paris: Éditions Philippe
Picquier, 1997), pp. 161–172. The best account that I know of in English is
in Edward Kamens, The Three Jewels: A Study and Translation of Minamoto
Tamenori’s Sanbōe (Ann Arbor: 1988 Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese
Studies no. 2), pp. 50 foll. The fourteenth century date for the Sangoku Denki
is suggested by Mills (p. 165). Japanese scholars usually date the work to the
fifteenth century.
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
169
in passing, as, for example, in Soga Monogatari,35 in a manner which
suggests that the readers or audience would understand the reference.
In the modern period, many studies and translations of jātakas and
avadānas have been made by Japanese scholars.36
Jātaka in South-East Asia
When and how were jātakas introduced to South-East Asia? By whom,
and in what language? No answer can be made. No texts, chronicles,
or histories survive from the earliest period of Buddhism in the
region, that is, the first millenium of the Christian Era. All we have
is iconographic and archæological evidence, starting from about the
seventh century, from the so-called Dvāravatī state or culture of
the Mons, a ‘lost civilization’ possessing a vital, original ‘Indicized’
culture that must have had a flourishing literature. The earliest
representations of jātaka from this period are at Chula Pathon Cetiya
in Nakhon Pathom.37 Somewhat later are the so-called sīmā stones in
North-Eastern Siam, which belong to a Mon culture which I call the
‘Chi Valley culture’.38
35
See Thomas J. Cogan (tr.), The Tale of the Soga Brothers (Tokyo: University of
Tokyo Press, 1987), p. 86: reference to Dīpaṃkara, ‘Prince Sattva’, and King
Śivi.
36
See Hajime Nakamura, Indian Buddhism: A Survey with Bibliographical Notes
(Hirakata City: Kansai University of Foreign Studies, 1980), pp. 46–48 for the
former and pp. 137–140 for the latter.
37
Piriya Krairiksh, Buddhist Folk Tales Depicted at Chula Pathon Cedi (Bangkok:
1974); Nandana Chutiwongs, ‘The Relief of Jataka (Buddha’s Life Episodes) at
Chula-Pathon Chedi’, Silpākon 21.4 (November, 1977), pp. 28–56 [review of
preceding, Thai version]; Nandana Chutiwongs, ‘On the Jātaka Reliefs at Cula
Pathon Cetiya’, Journal of the Siam Society 66.1 (January, 1978), pp. 133–151
[review of Piriya, English version].
38
See Piriya Krairiksh, ‘Semas with Scenes from the Mahānipāta-Jātakas in the
National Museum at Khon Kaen’, in Art and Archæology in Thailand, published
by the Fine Arts Department in Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary
of the National Museum, September 19, 1974. For two recently discovered
examples see Arunsak Kingmanee, ‘Suvannakakkata-Jataka on the Bai Sema
of Wat Non Sila-atwararam’, Muang Boran, Vol. 22 no. 2 (April–June 1996),
pp. 133–138; Arunsak Kingmanee, ‘Bhuridatta-Jataka on the Carved Sema in
Kalasin’, Muang Boran, Vol. 23 no. 4 (October–December 1997), pp. 104–109 (I am
grateful to Justin McDaniel for these references); Suganya Nounnard, ‘A Newly
170
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
From Chinese sources we learn that Buddhism was established in
the kingdom of Giao Chỉ in the Red River valley (the vicinity of modern
Hanoi) by the first or second century. In the third century foreign
monks resided in or passed through the area. We have referred above
to Kāng Sēnghuì of Giao Chỉ, translator into Chinese of the Scripture
of the Collection of the Six Perfections, an early and representative
collection of jātakas. It is not clear, however, whether Kāng Sēnghuì
studied the text in Giao Chỉ and carried it with him to Nanking, where
he did his work, or whether he obtained the text in China.
In 484 the King of Funan, Kauṇḍinya Jayavarman, sent the Indian
monk Nāgasena with a petition to the Song court. As was customary,
the monk presented items of tribute, among which were two ivory
stūpas. In addition to Jayavarman’s petition, Nāgasena presented a
written account of Funan to the Emperor. The report contains the
following passage:39
Le bodhisattva pratique la miséricorde. Originairement, il est issu de
la souche ordinaire, mais, dès qu’il a manifesté un cœur (digne de la)
bodhi, (il est arrivé) là où les deux véhicules ne pourraient atteindre.
Pendant des existences successives, il a amassé des mérites; avec les
six pārāmitā, il a pratiqué une grande compassion; ardemment, il a
franchi tout un nombre de kalpas. Ses trésors et sa vie, il les a donnés
jusqu’au bout; il ne s’est pas dégoûté de la vie et de la mort.
Perhaps this passage does not tell us anything about the actual
state of Buddhism in Funan, in that it is entirely normative, giving
a condensed account of the spiritual career of the bodhisattva
according to general Mahāyāna doctrine. But it does suggest that the
‘jātaka ideology’ was current in Funan.
Found Sima Stone in the Ancient Town of Fa Daet Song Yang’, Silpakorn Journal
45.8 (Nov.–Dec. 2000), pp. 52–74. Note that in Thai the stones are regularly
called bai semā, and hence in English ‘sema stones’. The ‘Chi Valley culture’ is
usually classed as part of a monolithic Dvāravatī culture. But I do not see any
basis for such a classification, whether politically (we know nothing about the
state[s] in the Chi or middle Mekhong valleys) or culturally (the artefacts are
distinctive). I therefore provisionally use the description ‘Chi Valley culture’.
39
Paul Pelliot, ‘Le Fou-nan’, Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient III
(1903), pp. 249–303, especially pp. 257–270. The reconstruction of Sanskrit
terms is Pelliot’s.
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
171
It is with the flourishing of Theravādin Buddhist culture in the
states of Pagan from the eleventh century and Sukhothai from the
thirteenth century that we find abundant evidence for jātakas. Here
we limit our discussion to the latter, where we find that jātakas are
referred to in inscriptions, and represented on the famous stone slabs
of Wat Sichum, which are inscribed with the names of the jātakas.
Our discussion of jātaka in Siam may be presented under two
categories: classical jātaka and non-classical jātaka.
1. Classical jātaka
By classical jātaka I refer to the Jātaka of the Khuddaka-nikāya together
with its commentary, the Jātaka-aṭṭhavaṇṇanā. These jātakas are
classical within the Theravādin tradition in that they are transmitted
as part of the Tipiṭaka and that as such they are part of the common
heritage transmitted by the Mahāvihāra school, wherever it spread.
I use ‘classical’ and ‘non-classical’ in place of the more common
‘canonical’ and ‘non-canonical’. The term ‘classical’ has, of course, a
relative value: for example, Vessantara and certain other jātakas are
classical to all Buddhist traditions, not just that of the Mahāvihārin,
and different ‘non-classical’ jātakas are ‘classical’ to vernacular
literatures or cultures: Thai, Lao, Khün, Khmer, etc., all having their
own ‘classics’. Here I restrict the term ‘classical’ to the 547 jātakas,
verse and prose, as transmitted in the Jātaka of the Khuddakanikāya of the Pāli canon together with its commentary, the Jātakaaṭṭhavaṇṇanā. (The Pāli Jātaka collection challenges the concept of
canonicity in that only the verses, and not the prose, belong to the
‘canon’. The Mahāvihārin collection of Jātaka verses without narrative
prose is unique, the only one known among the various schools. The
antiquity of the stories themselves is proven by their representation
in the earliest surviving Buddhist art of India, mentioned above,
which predates any of our surviving literary texts.)40
In his Samantapāsādikā Buddhaghosa defines jātaka, one of the
nine component genres (aṅga) of the Buddha’s teaching (navaṅgabuddhasāsana), as ‘the five hundred fifty birth stories commencing with
Apaṇṇaka’. This is not a definition of the term jātaka as such: rather, it
40
There are, of course, jātakas incorporated within the Sutta-piṭaka itself, or in
other works like the Cariyā-piṭaka or Apadāna and Buddhavaṃsa commentaries.
These are beyond the scope of this paper.
172
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
is simply an equation of the jātaka-aṅga with the classical Pāli jātaka
collection. This deficiency has been pointed out by Jayawickrama:
There is no justification for equating the Aṅga called Jātaka with the
extant Jātaka collection numbering about 550 stories. Firstly, the
stories themselves have no Canonical status, which is reserved for
the Jātakapāli, the stanzas, only. Secondly, there is no reason why
Jātakas of Canonical antiquity such as those incorporated in other
suttantas, e.g. Kūṭadanta and Mahāgovinda Suttas in D[īgha Nikāya],
should be excluded. The definition given here is highly arbitrary.41
A good working definition of jātaka is given by Asaṅga in the first
yogasthāna of his Śrāvakabhūmi:
What is jātaka? That which relates the austere practices and
bodhisattva practices of the Blessed One in various past births: this
is called jātaka.42
The narrative aspect is emphasized in the definition in the Mahāyāna
Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra:43
What is jātaka? This is as in the case in which the World-honoured
One, in the days gone by, becomes a bodhisattva and practises the
Way, as: ‘O bhikṣus! Know that, in the days gone by, I gained life as
a deer, a brown bear, a reindeer, a hare, a king of a small state, a
cakravartin, a nāga, and a garuḍa. Such are all the bodies one receives
when one practises the Way of a bodhisattva.’ This is jātaka.
N.A. Jayawickrama, The Inception of Discipline and the Vinaya Nidāna, being
a Translation and Edition of the Bāhiranidāna of Buddhaghosa’s Samantapāsādikā,
the Vinaya Commentary (London: Luzac and Co., 1962, Sacred Books of the
Buddhists Vol. XXI), p. 102, n. 6.
42
Śrāvakabhūmi Study Group, Śrāvakabhūmi: Revised Sanskrit Text and Japanese
Translation (Tokyo: The Institute for Comprehensive Studies of Buddhism,
Taishō University, The Sankibo Press, 1998, Taishō Univeristy Sōgō Bukkyō
Kenkyūjo Series IV), p. 230: jātakaṃ katamat / yad atītam adhvānam upādāya
tatra tatra bhagavataś cyutyupapādeṣu bodhisattvacaryā duṣkaracaryākhyātā /
idam ucyate jātakam //.
43
Kosho Yamamoto, The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana-sutra: A Complete
Translation from the Classical Chinese Language in 3 volumes, Volume Two (Ube
City: The Karinbunko, 1973–1975), p. 361.
41
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
173
For the later scholastic tradition, the jātakas, as accounts of the past
deeds of the bodhisatta, are illustrations of the perfections, the
pāramī or pāramitā. Adopted by the pāramitā ideology, the jātakas both
exemplify the virtue of Śākyamuni and and provide inspiration for
those who aspire to Buddhahood in future lives, the bodhisattvas.
In Siam the classical Jātaka is often referred to as Aṭṭhakathā-jātaka
or Nipāta-jātaka: that is, the collection of jātakas organized according
to chapters of the canonical Jātaka book of the Khuddaka-nikāya,
from chapters with one verse (Ekanipāta) up to the Great Chapter
(Mahānipāta).44 Another term is Phra chao ha roi chat, which means
‘[stories] about the Lord [bodhisattva] in five hundred births’. The
last ten births are often transmitted separately as Dasajāti, Dasajātijātaka, or Phra chao sip chat, ‘the ten births’ or ‘[stories] about the Lord
[bodhisattva] in [the last] ten births’, or also Mahānipāta-jātaka, ‘the
jātaka of the Great Chapter’.
The perennially popular Vessantara-jātaka is transmitted in its
own right as ‘Phra Wetsandon’, Mahachat (the ‘Great Birth’), or –
when the verses alone are recited – Katha [Gāthā] phan, the ‘Thousand
Stanzas’.45 The recitation of the Mahachat was an important ceremony
in pre-modern times and remains so today.46 Another ceremony,
See Oskar von Hinüber, A Handbook of Pāli Literature (Berlin and New York:
Walter de Gruyter, 1996), §§ 109–115. See also the same author’s Entstehung
und Aufbau der Jātaka-Sammlung (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998, Studien
zur Literatur des Theravāda-Buddhismus I).
45
For the Vessantara-jātaka see Steven Collins, Nirvana and other Buddhist
Felicities: Utopias of the Pali imaginaire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1998). The Thai pronunciation of Mahājāti is ‘Mahachat’, of jāti is chat, of jātaka
is chadok, of deśana is thet. In romanizing the titles I follow the Romanization
Guide for Thai Script (Bangkok: The Royal Institute, July, 1982).
46
The classical study is G.E. Gerini’s A Retrospective View and Account of the
Origin of the Thet Mahâ Ch’at Ceremony (Mahâ Jâti Desanâ) or Exposition of the
Tale of the Great Birth as Performed in Siam ([1892] repr. Bangkok: SathirakosesNagapradipa Foundation, 27th May 1976). See also Phya Anuman Rajadhon,
Thet Mahā Chāt (Bangkok: The Fine Arts Department, BE 2512 [1969], Thai
Culture New Series no. 21), repr. in Phya Anuman Rajadhon, Essays on
Thai Folklore (Bangkok: Editions Duang Kamol, n.d.), pp. 164–177; Lucien
Fournereau, Bangkok in 1892 (Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 1988) (translated
by Walter E.J. Tips from Le Tour du Monde, Vol. 68 [1894], pp. 1–64), pp.
122–125. In Thai see Dhanit Yupho, Tamnan thet mahachat (Bangkok: The
Prime Minister’s Office, 2524 [1981]); Sathirakoses, ‘Prapheni mi ngan thet
mahachat’, in Prapheni tang tang khong thai (Bangkok: 2540 [1997]), pp. 1–41;
44
174
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
the ‘Phra Vessantara Merit-making Festival’ (bun phra wet = puñ[ña]
braḥ ves[antara]) is an intergal part of the annual ritual calendar in
the North-East of Siam and in Laos.47 Recitation and enactment are
threads in the fabric of merit-making.
Many different versions of the Vessantara exist in Thai. These
include the Mahachat kham luang, the ‘Royal Recension’ composed
at the court of King Paramatrailokanātha in BE 2025 (1482), the Kap
mahachat, believed to have been composed during the reign of King
Song Tham (r. 1610–1628), and the Mahachat kham chan composed
by Krommamun Kawiphot Supreecha in the nineteenth century.48
There are numerous ‘sermon’ versions, such as Mahachat klon thet (or
Ray yao mahachat),49 and so on.50 Regional and vernacular versions of
the Vessantara abound, such as the various Lan Na Mahachat-s, the
Phetchaburi Mahachat (Mahāchat muang phet), the North-Eastern
Mahachat (Mahājāti samnuan isan), the Korat Mahachat (Mahājāti
korat), and so on. The prevalence of jātakas is demonstrated by a
manuscript survey conducted in the North, which recorded inter alia:
the Mahachat in 1,424 texts in more than eighty literary styles, and
general jātaka stories in 907 texts, ‘many composed by local monks’.
The next largest group was ‘general Dhamma’, in 472 texts.51 Udom
Chuan Khreuawichayachan, Prapheni mon ti samkhan (Bangkok: SAC Princess
Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, 2543 [2000]), Chap. 11; brief
note at Term Wiphakphotchanakit, Prawatsat isan, (third printing, Bangkok:
Thammasat University Press, 2542 [1999]), p. 567 (reference courtesy Justin
McDaniel).
47
For Laos see Marcel Zago, Rites et cérémonies en milieu bouddhiste lao (Rome:
Università Gregoriana Editrice, 1972, Documenta Missionalia 6), pp. 290–
297, with further bibliography in n. 32, p. 290; Kideng Phonkaseumsouk,
‘Tradition of Bounphravet in Laos’, in Sarup phon kan sammana tang wicchakan
ruang wathanatham asia akhane: khwam khlai khleung nai withi chiwit (Bangkok:
The Fine Arts Department, 2540 [1997]), pp. 150–158.
48
Kap is kāby, Sanskrit kāvya; chan is chand, Sanskrit chandas: the terms refer
to Thai metres.
49
Sinlapawathanatham thai, Vol. 3 (Bangkok: BE 2525 [1982]), pp. 163–165
50
See for example Mahachat 6 thamat reu thet 6 ong, in Chumnum nungseu thet,
Part 1, Bangkok, Rongphim Tai, 2472. Note that the ‘sermon’ (thet = deśana),
performed in a range of lively vocal styles and punctuated or accompanied
by music, was not only the main vehicle for the teaching of Buddhism in premodern times, but also the inspiration for pre-modern narrative literature.
51
Sommai Premchit, ‘Palm Leaf Manuscripts and Traditional Sermon’, in
Buddhism in Northern Thailand, The 13th Conference of the World Fellowship of
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
175
Rungruangsri refers to 130 versions of Vessantara-jātaka composed by
different authors.52
One reason for the popularity of the Vessantara-jātaka was the
pervasive belief, spread through the Māleyya-sutta and related
literature, that by listening to this jātaka one could be assured of
meeting the next Buddha, Metteya, often called Phra Si An (Phra Śrī
Ārya) in Thai.53 The recitation of Māleyya followed by the Vessantara is
mentioned in an inscription from Pagan dated to CE 1201.54 A Northern
Thai text on The Benefits of the Mahāvessantara-jātaka states:55
Whoever … wants to see the glorious Metteyya Bodhisatta, let him bring
the following propitiatory elements, such as one thousand lamps, one
thousand candles and joss-sticks, one thousand lumps of (glutinous)
rice … worship and listen to the Mahāvessantara sermon finishing it in
one day with great respect … his wishes will all be fulfilled … in the
future he will attain nibbāna … in front of that Buddha.
Other reasons include the wish to gain merit by listening to or
sponsoring the sermon, or, in rural practice, to bring rain.56 The
sermons were presented in various ways, with great pomp and ritual,
Buddhists (Chiang Mai: 1980), p. 83.
52
Udom Rungruangsri, Wannakam lanna (second printing, Chiang Mai: Chiang
Mai University, 2528 [1985]), pp. 126–127.
53
For the Māleyya story, see Bonnie Pacala Brereton, Thai Tellings of Phra Malai:
Texts and Rituals concerning a Popular Buddhist Saint (Tempe, Arizona: Arizona
State University, 1995), and Collins, Nirvana and other Buddhist Felicities. A
Pāli version with translation has been published in the Journal of the Pali Text
Society (Denis and Collins 1993). There are many vernacular versions.
54
See Than Thun, ‘History of Buddhism in Burma A.D. 1000–1300’, Journal of
the Burma Research Society LXI (Dec., 1978), pp. 85–86.
55
Ānisaṅsa of the Mahāvessantara-jātaka from Wat Nong Phaek, Tambon Nong
Phaek, Amphoe Saraphee, cited in Premchit, ‘Palm Leaf Manuscripts and
Traditional Sermon’, p. 86 (with some alteration).
56
Did the recitation of the Vessantara have any connection with consecration
of Buddha images? The Jinakālamālinī (A.P. Buddhadatta (ed.), Jinakālamālinī
[London: The Pali Text Society, 1962], p. 120) reports that when the ‘Sinhalese
image’ (sīhala-paṭimā) was installed at Wat Pa Daeng in Chiang Mai in CE 1519,
the Mahāvessantara-nidāna and Mahāvessantara-nāma-dhammapariyāya were
recited in the first stage, and the Buddhavaṃsa at a later stage. Among the
chants recited in consecration ceremonies in Thailand is a verse summary
of the last ten births followed by the life of the Buddha. It seems, then, that
176
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
and many sorts of offerings and musical accompaniment. In the early
Bangkok period it was a court custom for princes, during their period
of ordination, to offer a sermon on the Vessantara-jātaka to their father
the King. In 2360 [1817], during the Second Reign, for example, Prince
Mongkut (the future King Rama IV), ordained as a novice (sāmaṇera),
offered a sermon on the Madri Chapter to King Rama II. In 2409 [1866],
during the Fourth Reign, Prince Chulalongkorn (the future King
Rama V) offered the Sakkapabba Chapter, in a version composed by his
father the King. In the Fifth Reign, Prince Mahavajiraunhis offered the
Sakkapabba Chapter in 2434 [1891] and Prince Krommaluang Nakhon
Rajasima offered the Chakasat Chapter.57
The tradition of rendering of jātakas into Thai verse continues to
this day. Most recently, the Thotsachat kham chan (Ten Jātakas in verse)
was produced in honour of His Majesty the King’s sixth cycle (that is,
seventy-second birthday).58
2. Non-classical jātaka.
The Paññāsa-jātaka as a whole should prove to have a value far beyond
the sphere of comparative philology, particularly with reference to
the Sanskrit Avadāna literature and to various aspects of popular
Southeast Asian Buddhism.59
P.S. Jaini
both the jātakas and the life story empower the image with the tejas of the
bodhisattva.
57
See Chao nai thet mahachat in Dhanit Yupho, Tamnan thet mahachat, pp.
28–30. For the ordination and sermon of Prince Chulalongkorn, see Phra
Ratchaphongsawadan krung ratanakosin ratchakan ti si, tr. Chadin (Kanjanavanit)
Flood, The Dynastic Chronicles, Bangkok Era: The Fourth Reign, B.E. 2394–2411 (A.D.
1851–1868), Volume Two: Text (Tokyo: The Centre for East Asian Cultural
Studies, 1966), pp. 361–364. In the Fourth Reign during the ‘ceremony of the
Sermons with the Great Alms Baskets’ monks from leading temples preached
the thirteen chapters of the Vessantara along with other sermons over a
period of five days: Flood, The Dynastic Chronicles, Bangkok Era, Vol. One (1965),
pp. 73–76.
58
Thotsachat kham chan (Bangkok: 2542 [1999]).
59
Padmanabh S. Jaini (ed.), Paññāsa-jātaka or Zimme Paṇṇāsa (in the Burmese
Recension), Vol. I, Jātakas 1–25 (London: Pali Text Society, 1981, Text Series
no. 172), p. vi.
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
177
Non-classical jātakas are ‘birth-stories’ modelled on the classical
stories but, unlike the latter, transmitted outside of the canon
and only in certain regions. There is a great mass of such texts in
South-East Asia – some known (in diverse recensions) throughout
the region, some specific to one or the other region, culture, or
vernacular. Non-classical jātaka is called bāhiraka-jātaka or chadok nok
nibat, ‘jātaka outside the nipāta’, in Thai. It is not clear when these
terms came into use; the latter was used if not coined by HRH Prince
Damrong Rajanubhab in the early twentieth century. The Northern
Thai Piṭakamālā calls the Paññāsa-jātaka ‘the fifty births outside the
saṅgāyanā’.60 This might approach the concept of ‘non-canonical’, but
the relation between text and saṅgāyanā is, in general, ambiguous
and complex. This ambiguity may be seen in the Sārasaṅgaha, whose
compiler appears to accept texts like the Nandopanandadamana
even though they were not ‘handed down at the three Councils’
(saṅgītittayam anārūḷhaṃ). It is noteworthy that two of these texts
are described as ‘sutta’: Kulumba-sutta, Rājovāda-sutta. In contrast,
the Sārasaṅgaha rejects other texts, incuding Mahāyāna sūtras and
Tantras, as ‘not the word of the Buddha’ (abuddhavacana).61
Non-classical jātakas may be transmitted separately, in their
own right, and remain independent or ‘uncollected’, or they may be
collected with other texts into anthologies. The same story may be
transmitted in several contexts: singly, or as part of collection a, or
as part of collection b, and so on.62 One common type of anthology
contains (ideally) fifty stories, and bears the title Paññāsa-jātaka. The
Paññāsa-jātaka cannot be viewed apart from the body of non-classical
jātaka literature, whether Pāli or vernacular, of South-East Asia, for
reasons that will be seen below. That is, it depends and draws on this
literature, rather than vice-versa.
The independent jātakas include ‘local jātakas’, stories cast in the
jātaka narrative structure and transmitted in regional vernacular
60
A Critical Study of Northern Thai Version of Panyasa Jātaka (Chiang Mai: 2541),
Introduction, p. 19.
61
Genjun H. Sasaki (ed.), Sārasaṅgaha (Oxford: The Pali Text Society, 1992),
pp. 45–46.
62
For example, the Samudaghosa-jātaka is included in most known Paññāsajātaka collections, as well as independently in regional vernacular versions
including verse compositions. It is also a puppet play.
178
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
traditions. There are far too many to enumerate here.63 Moreover,
one jātaka may be transmitted in several recensions in the same
region. Popular stories include Brahmacakra in the North, Sang Sinchai
in the North-East, Nok Krachap in the Centre, and Subin in the South.64
In his Lan Na Literature Udom Rungruangsri lists one hundred titles
of Northern jātakas out of over two hundred registered by Harald
Hundius.65 Some are quite long, in ten or fifteen bundles (phūk). Udom
gives summaries of Horaman (a story of Hanuman), Phrommachak
(Brahmacakra: based on the Rāma story), and Ussabarot, which he
describes as influenced by Brahmanical literature. These texts are
in Lan Na language but mixed with Pāli. Whether they all had Pāli
originals remains to be seen. There is a Lao Rāma-jātaka, related to
the South-East Asian Ramakien.66 This vast literature is outside the
For studies and translations of texts in the Khün and Lao traditions see
Anatole-Roger Peltier, Chao Bun Hlong (Chiang Mai: 1992); Sujavaṇṇa (Chiang
Mai: 1993); Nang Phom Hom, ‘La Femme aux cheveux parfumés’ (Chiang Mai:
1995); L’Engoulevent Blanc (Chiang Mai: 1995); Kalè Ok Hno: Tai Khün Classical
Tale (Bangkok: SAC Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre,
July 1999).
64
Sueppong Thammachat, Wannakhadi Chadok (Jataka Literature) (Bangkok:
Odeon Store, 2542 [1999]), pp. 188–218. Many of these jātakas are described in
Saranukrom Wathanatham Thai (Bangkok: 2542 [1999]), which devotes fifteen
volumes to each of the four regions of modern Thailand (North, North-East,
Centre, and South, with eighteen volumes for the last-named). For Subin
see Subin samnuan kao: wannakam khong kawi chao muang nakhon si thammarat
(Nakhon Si Thammarat: Nakhon Si Thammarat Teachers’ College, 2520
[1977]). For the relation between Southern literature and that of other regions
of Thailand see Udom Nuthong, ‘Wannakam phak tai: khwam samphan kap
wannakam thong thin eun’, in Sukanya Succhaya (ed.), Wannakhadi thong thin
phinit (Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press, 2543 [2000]), pp. 77–95.
65
Udom Rungruangsri, Wannakam lanna, pp.141–143.
66
H.H. Prince Dhani Nivat, ‘The Rama Jataka (A Lao version of the story of
Rama)’, in Collected Articles by H.H. Prince Dhani Nivat Kromamun Bidayalabh
Brdhihyakorn Reprinted from the Journal of the Siam Society on the Occasion of his
Eighty-Fourth Birthday (Bangkok: The Siam Society, 2512 [1969]), pp. 73–90; Vo
Thu Tinh, Phra Lak Phra Lam ou le Ramayana Lao (Vientiane: Éditions Vithagna,
1972, Collection ‘Littérature Lao’, volume premier); Sahai Sachchidanand,
The Rama Jataka in Laos: A Study in the Phra Lak Phra Lam (Delhi: B.R. Pub. Corp.,
1996, 2 vols.). The Rāma story was also presented as a jātaka in Khotan: see
Ronald E. Emmerick, A Guide to the Literature of Khotan, second edition (Tokyo:
The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1992, Studia Philologica
63
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
179
scope of this study – let me simply stress that the number of such
jātakas is in the hundreds and that this jātaka literature was a vital
part of pre-modern culture.67
We should bear in mind that jātaka is not an inflexible category.
The same narrative can fulfill different functions, at one and the same
time or at different times, as a jātaka, a deśanā, an ānisaṅsa, a paritta, or
a sūtra. The Khandhavatta-jātaka belongs to Jātaka (no. 203), to Vinaya
(Cullavagga, II 110), to Sutta (Aṅguttara-nikāya II 72–73), and to Paritta
(Khandha-paritta). Verses from other classical jātakas are recited for
protection and blessing, for example in the Mora-paritta,68 Chaddantaparitta,69 and Vaṭṭaka-paritta.70 The key verse of the latter, the saccakiriyā,
is known from two inscriptions in Sri Lanka. It was found inscribed on a
copper-plate in Nāgarī characters of about the tenth century in the ruins
of the Abhayagiri Vihāra at Anurādhapura,71 and inscribed ‘in shallowly
incised and badly formed Sinhalese characters of the twelfth century’ on
the underside of the covering slab of the third relic chamber of the main
cetiya at the Koṭavehera at Dedigama.72 It has been suggested that the
verse was intended as a protection against fire. The use of verses from
the jātakas as parittas demonstrates the power of the speech of the
bodhisatta – even in his births as a peacock, an elephant, or a quail.
Buddhica, Occasional Paper Series III), § 19.2, and ‘Polyandry in the Khotanese
Rāmāyaṇa’, in Christine Chojnacki, Jens-Uwe Hartmann and Volker M.
Tschannerl (ed.), Vividharatnakaraṇḍaka, Festgabe für Adelheid Mette (SwisttalOdendorf: 2000, Indica et Tibetica 37), p. 233. For the text see H.W. Bailey,
Indo-Scythian Studies, being Khotanese Texts Volume III (Cambridge: 1969), § 26,
pp. 65–76. See also Frank E. Reynolds, ‘Rāmāyaṇa, Rāma Jātaka, and Ramakien:
A Comparative Study of Hindu and Buddhist Traditions’, in Paula Richman
(ed.), Many Rāmāyaṇas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia (New
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 50–63.
67
See Wajuppa Tossa, Phya Khankhaak, The Toad King: A Translation of an Isan
Fertility Myth into English Verse (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1996),
for a North-Eastern ‘folk-jātaka’.
68
Jātaka no. 159, which lies at the heart of the Mahāmāyūrī-vidyārājñī, which
came to be included in the Pañcarakṣā.
69
Jātaka no. 514, Vol. V, v. 121.
70
Jātaka no. 35, Cariyā-piṭaka p. 31, Jātakamālā no. 16.
71
Epigraphia Zeylanica I, no. 3 (and Pl. 11); revised reading by S. Paranavitana
in Epigraphia Zeylanica III, no. 16; Ancient Ceylon I (January 1971), pp. 106–109.
72
C.E. Godakumbura, The Koṭavehera at Dedigama (Colombo: The Department of
Archæology, 1969, Memoirs of the Archæological Survey of Ceylon, Volume
VII), pp. 40–42.
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
The non-canonical texts of South-East Asia are equally
multifunctional. The Pāli Uṇhissa-vijaya – a narrative related to the
North Indian Uṣṇīṣavijaya – occurs in its own right as a protective
chant, a sūtra, an ānisaṅsa, a jātaka, and a Kham lilit (Thai verse version),
and is embedded in longer texts like the Paramattha-maṅgala and the
Mahādibamantra (see p.35, note 26). The Jambūpati-sūtra contains a
jātaka and an ānisaṅsa, and is incorporated in summary in ‘the ānisaṅsa
of offering a needle’.
Paññāsa-jātaka73
There are several collections of jātakas in South-East Asia which bear
the name Paññāsa-jātaka. The title varies, and occurs in vernacular
forms like Phra chao ha sip chat, ‘[stories] of the Lord [bodhisattva] in
fifty births’. For the most part – though not exclusively – the jātakas
in these collections are non-classical. Although the tales are diverse,
many deal with giving or charity (dāna) – not only the relinquishing
of material goods but also the ultimate sacrifice, that of body and
life – and with ethical conduct (sīla) and their benefits (ānisaṅsa). The
truth-vow (saccakiriyā) figures prominently. The hero, the bodhisatta,
is often a prince, and many of the tales may be described as romances.
The sources of the stories are varied, some going back to India, others
being local compositions. The collections are transmitted in a variety
of scripts and languages, from ‘local’ Pāli to nisay style (Pāli mixed
with Tai dialects) to vernaculars.74
Léon Feer was the first European scholar to discuss the Paññāsa-jātaka,
in an article published in Journal Asiatique in 1875.75 He was followed by
Louis Finot, who in his classic Recherches sur le littérature laotien, published
73
I am profoundly indebted in my research to the work of several generations
of Siamese scholars, from Prince Damrong to Niyada, and to Western scholars
from Feer to Finot to Fickle. I regret that I cannot do justice to research done
in Japanese, and can mention only the pioneering work of Tanabe Kazuko
and the project of the ‘Paññāsa-jātaka Study Group’ at Ōtani University
under the leadership of Shingyo Yoshimoto.
74
The word nisay is variously spelt in the T(h)ai languages: nisaya, nissaya,
nisraya, etc. As a narrative genre it differs in many ways from the technical
Burmese nissayas on classical Pāli literature.
75
Léon Feer, ‘Les Jātakas’, Journal Asiatique, 7e Sér., V (1875), pp. 417 foll.
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
181
in 1917, introduced the subject in some detail.76 French scholars such
as Terral[-Martini],77 Deydier,78 Schweisguth,79 and Jacqueline Filliozat80
have continued to make important contributions. In English, Dorothy
Fickle produced a thesis, unfortunately not published, based largely on
the National Library printed edition,81 and Padmanabh S. Jaini published
several articles followed by an edition and translation of the Zimmè
Paṇṇāsa.82 In Thailand pioneering work has been done by Prince Damrong,
Niyada, and others.83
Paññāsa-jātaka collections are known only in mainland SouthEast Asia. They are not known in India or Sri Lanka (although a few
manuscripts found their way to the latter in recent centuries).84 I use
76
Louis Finot, ‘Recherches sur la littérature laotienne’, Bulletin de l’École
française d’Extrême-Orient, Tome XVII, fasc. 5 (1917), pp. 1–219.
77
Ginette Terral, ‘Samuddhaghosajātaka’, Bulletin de l’École française d’ExtrêmeOrient XLVIII.1 (1956), pp. 249–351; Ginette Terral-Martini, ‘Les Jātaka et
la littérature de l’Indochine bouddhique’, in René de Berval, Présence du
bouddhisme (special issue of France-Asie, Revue mensuelle de culture et de synthèse,
tome XVI), pp. 483–492.
78
Henri Deydier, Introduction à la connaissance du Laos (Saigon: 1952), pp. 28–
29. For a necrology of Deydier by Jean Filliozat see Bulletin de l’École française
d’Etrême-Orient 48 (1956), pp. 603–606.
79
P. Schweisguth, Étude sur la littérature siamoise (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale,
1951). Schweisguth does not deal with the Paññāsa-jātaka in general (except
with its translation into Thai, very briefly, pp. 318, 357), but gives summaries
of some of the popular tales that were circulated both independently and in
Paññāsa-jātaka collections.
80
These include both her identification of Paññāsa-jātaka texts in the course
of cataloguing numerous manuscript collections, and her work on Deydier
forthcoming, for which see below.
81
Dorothy M. Fickle, An Historical and Structural Study of the Paññāsa Jātaka
(University Park [Pennsylvania]: 1979) (doctoral dissertation consulted in
the Siam Society Library).
82
Padmanabh S. Jaini, ‘The Story of Sudhana and Manoharā: an analysis of
the texts and the Borobudur reliefs’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies, XXIX, 3 (1966), pp. 533–558; ‘The Apocryphal Jātakas of Southeast
Asian Buddhism’, The Indian Journal of Buddhist Studies, Vol. I, no. 1 (1989), pp.
22–39.
83
For Prince Damrong see below. For Niyada see Niyada (Sarikabhuti)
Lausunthorn, Paññāsa Jātaka: Its Genesis and Significance to Thai Poetical Works
[in Thai] (Bangkok: 2538 [1995]).
84
See for example the stray phūk 17 among the Siamese manuscripts at Asgiriya
in Kandy: Jacqueline Filliozat, ‘Catalogue of the Pāli Manuscript Collection in
182
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
the plural, ‘Paññāsa-jātaka collections’, for a reason, and this is that
none of the available collections (whether in Pāli, or in vernaculars,
whether from Burma, Siam, Laos, Lan Na, or Cambodia) are the
same: they are disparate assemblages of varying numbers of texts
in different sequences. Even when the same text is included in two
collections, the recension may be different, as Terral has shown for
the Samudaghosa-jātaka and Yoshimoto for the Surūpa-jātaka. There is
no evidence at present as to which collection, if any, is standard, and
therefore I avoid referring to ‘the Paññāsa-jātaka’ in the singular.
It may be the norm for tale collections to exist in widely discrepant
recensions. The classical Pāli Jātaka itself is not stable: titles vary in
different recensions and inscriptions, and the order of the last ten
tales is not consistent.85 Tatelman writes the following about the
Divyāvadāna, well-known today in the ‘standard’ edition of thirtyeight tales edited by Cowell and Neil in 1886:
…[T]he several manuscripts entitled Divyāvadāna diverge widely
from each other. Yutaka Iwamoto observed that there are only
seven stories which occur in every manuscript and that, of these,
only two, the Koṭikarṇāvadāna and the Pūrṇāvadāna, always occur in
the same place, as the first and second stories respectively. In fact,
Iwamoto defines Divyāvadāna as a collection of Sanskrit avadānas
the first two stories of which are the Koṭikarṇāvadāna and the
Pūrṇāvadāna.86
The Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish is a collection of narratives known
through translations into Chinese, Tibetan, and Mongolian. The
collection is believed to go back to a single source, in Chinese, but
it exists in two Chinese versions. The Tibetan is said to be have been
translated from ‘the’ Chinese, but its contents do not correspond to
Burmese and Siamese Characters kept in the Library of Vijayasundararamaya
Asgiriya: A historical bibliotheca sacra siamica in Kandy, Sri Lanka’, Journal of
the Pali Text Society XXI (1995), p. 151 (Asgiriya Siamese 4).
85
See Ginette Martini, ‘Les titres des jātaka dans les manuscrits pāli de la
Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris’, Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient
LI, Fasc. 1 (1963), pp. 79–93.
86
Joel Tatelman, The Glorious Deeds of Pūrṇa: A Translation and Study of the
Pūrṇāvadāna (Richmond [Surrey]: Curzon Press, 2000), p. 13. Tatelman is
referring to Yutaka Iwamoto, Bukkyō setsuwa kenkyū josetsu [‘An Introduction
to the Study of Buddhist Legends’] (Tokyo: Kamei Shoi, 1978), pp. 143–148.
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
183
either Chinese version. The Mongolian, said to be translated from the
Tibetan, has fifty-two tales against the fifty-one of the latter. Mair
writes:87
While there is no doubt that the Chinese and the Tibetan versions
are indeed related in some fashion, the number of stories that are
included, the order in which they are given, and the style in which
they are written all differ markedly. Furthermore, three stories that
occur in the Tibetan and Mongolian versions were not even present in
the earliest known integral printed Chinese edition … of the sūtra.
The Ming bao ji, a Buddhist tale collection compiled in the middle
of the seventh century by Táng Lín, survives in a confused state.
Gjertson writes of the Kōzan-ji and Maeda manuscripts:
The order of the tales in the first chüan [roll] is the same in both
manuscripts, but differs in the second and third chüan, with two of
the additional tales [out of four tales found in the Maeda manuscript
but not in the Kōzan-ji manuscript] found in the second and two in
the third. … Since … some tales almost certainly forming part of the
original Ming-pao chi are found in various collectanea but in neither
of these manuscripts, it is also apparent that they do not represent
the original state of the collection.88
The original order of the twenty-seven tales collected in the Kara
Monogatari (‘Tales of China’), a work of either the late Heian or
the early Kamakura period (twelfth to thirteenth century), is not
certain.89 Similar discrepancies occur in the available versions of the
Dainihonkoku Hokekyōkenki, a collection of ‘Miraculous Tales of the
Lotus Sūtra’ compiled by Chingen.90 The Paññāsa-jātaka is not alone in
being a fluid collection.
Victor H. Mair, ‘The Linguistic and Textual Antecedents of The Sūtra of the
Wise and Foolish’, Sino-Platonic Papers, number 38 (April, 1993), p. 15.
88
Donald E. Gjertson, Miraculous Retribution: A Study and Translation of T’ang
Lin’s Ming-pao chi (Berkeley: University of California at Berkeley, 1989,
Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series 8), pp. 101, 103.
89
Ward Geddes, Kara Monogatari: Tales of China (Tempe, Arizona: Arizona State
University, 1984, Center for Asian Studies, Occasional Paper no. 16), p. 27.
90
Yoshiko K. Dykstra (tr.), Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra from Ancient
Japan: The Dainihonkoku Hokekyōkenki of Priest Chingen (Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 1983), p. 9.
87
184
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
The fact that several Paññāsa-jātaka collections are available (and
that others will become available) raises problems of terminology.
‘National’ descriptions – Burmese, Lao, Thai – are misleading, and I
have chosen to refer to available editions as specifically as possible, by
their location or place of publication. Again, because these collections
differ in contents, organization, and language, they cannot be called
recensions, redactions, or editions, and I have chosen to call them
‘collections’, as does Fickle, for similar reasons.91
Like the classical jātakas, the stories of Paññāsa-jātaka collections
contain verses interspersed with prose. Were the verses of the
Paññāsa-jātaka ever transmitted separately from the stories, like the
verses of the Mahāvihārin Jātaka? No such collection of verses has
survived. It is true that each story of the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa (and most
stories of the Thai National Library Paññāsa-jātaka) opens with the
first line of the first verse of the story in question. I cite as an example
Ādittarāja, the first jātaka of the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa.
yadā bhonto supino me ti. idaṃ satthā jetavane viharanto attano
pubbakatadānapāramim ārabbha kathesi.
Yadā bhonto supino me is the first line of the first verse. But in the
absence of any other evidence, it seems more likely that this opening
is simply an imitation of the classical Jātaka opening, which starts
with a citation of the verse followed by the satthā … viharanto …
ārabbha kathesi formula.92
An even more striking point is that the verses of the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa
often differ from those of the Thai National Library collection. That
is, the same idea, or progression of ideas, is expressed, with some of
the same vocabulary, but the composition (phrasing, metre) is quite
different. I cite an example from the Samudaghosa-jātaka:93
Pāli as in the Siamese and Khmer printed editions
Fickle, An Historical and Structural Study, p. 10.
The formula is also used in the Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā, and a text or texts
using a similar formula was known to Prajñāvarman, North-East Indian
commentator on the Udānavarga: see Peter Skilling, ‘Theravādin Literature
in Tibetan translation’, Journal of the Pali Text Society XIX (1993), pp. 143–153.
93
Ginette Terral, ‘Samuddhaghosajātaka’, Bulletin de l’École française d’ExtrêmeOrient XLVIII, 1 (1956), pp. 282–283.
91
92
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
185
Taṃ sutvā bodhisatto anantaraṃ gāthām āha:
Yadā pucchāmi brāhmaṇe taṃ pavuttiṃ suṇomi ’haṃ
Tañ c’eva me cintayato ummatako jāto mano
Tasmā cajeyyaṃ attānaṃ tava saṃgammakātaṇā
Cajetvā mātapitaro āgato tava santike ti.
Pāli as in Zimmè Paṇṇāsa
Taṃ sutvā bodhisatto somanassapatto imaṃ gāthadvayam āha
Bhadde pucchāmi brāhmaṇe tuyhaṃ guṇaṃ suṇāmi ’haṃ
Ahaṃ taṃ cintayanto so ummato jāyate sadā (20)
Tasmā pahāya me raṭṭhaṃ karomidha tayā vāsaṃ
Chaṭṭevā mātapitaro āgatāsmi tavantike ti. (21)
In some cases verses found in one version of a story are not found
in another version.94 We may therefore suggest that an important
distinction between the classical Jātaka and the Paññāsa-jātaka is that
while the former is a fixed collection of verses around which prose
narratives were composed, the latter is a collection of stories, of
narratives, accompanied by and in part expressed in verse. Another
difference is that the Paññāsa-jātaka verses are themselves often
narrative: this is the case for only some of the classical Jātakas, such
as the final stories.
The verses have not been numbered consecutively in any editions
of Paññāsa-jātaka, Pāli or vernacular, so we cannot state how many
there are. An absolute desideratum for further studies of the Paññāsajātaka collections is a pāda index of the verses in published editions,
whether Pāli or vernacular. This will help to determine the relation
between the Paññāsa-jātaka and other Buddhist and indeed nonBuddhist literature. For example, certain verses of the apocryphal
Jambūpati-sutta have parallels in the Paññāsa-jātaka (and there are also
stylistic or phraseological similarities). In the Lokaneyyappakaraṇaṃ,
a long and important Siamese Pāli text, Jaini found twelve verses
See Terral, ‘Samuddhaghosajātaka’, pp. 276–279: Zimmè Paṇṇāsa verse nos.
11–13 have no counterparts in the Khmer/Siamese text, which is in prose.
94
186
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
paralleling the Thai National Library edition of the Paññāsa-jātaka
and two verses paralleling the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa.95
Paññāsa-jātaka collections may be classed under two broad
categories: Pāli and vernacular. At present two main Pāli traditions
are known – one from Burma and one from Siam – but only the
former has been published. No Pāli Paññāsa-jātaka manuscripts have
come to light in Lan Na and Lan Chang so far (although it will be seen
below that the Wat Sung Men Lan Na Thai nisay embeds an almost
complete Pāli text).96 Scholars have traditionally accorded primacy
to the Pāli, but the relationship between the vernacular and Pāli
versions must be examined carefully, story by story. We must bear
in mind that some stories may have been translated from vernacular
to Pāli. Such is, after all, the case with some of the classical narrative
literature of Sri Lankan Theravāda. The Dhammapada stories were
translated into Pāli from Sinhalese Prakrit in the fifth century, and
then back into Sinhalese in an expanded version in the thirteenth
century. The new Sinhalese version took on ‘an identity and life of
its own’.97
Pāli is a literary language used by people who spoke, and speak,
different languages. A significant difference between South-East
Asian Pāli compositions and the classical works is that for the most
part the latter were translated into Pāli from other Prakrits, while
South-East Asian narratives were translated from very different
language families such as Mon or Thai. The fifteenth-century Chiang
Mai monk Bodhiraṃsi states at the beginning of his Cāmadevīvaṃsa
that it was translated from Thai (deyya-bhāsā). It is, therefore, a
Padmanabh S. Jaini (ed.), Lokaneyyappakaraṇaṃ (London: The Pali Text
Society, 1986), p. 203.
96
The status of the Cambodian Pāli collection and its relation to the Siamese
collection remains unclear. In Chapter III of An Historical and Structural
Study Fickle gives romanized texts of two jātakas – Kanakavaṇṇarāja and
Dhammasoṇḍaka – each based on the Institut Bouddhique Khmer-script printed
version compared with a microfilm of a single Khom-script manuscript from
the National Library, Bangkok. The variants recorded in her notes are minor
and scribal. Thus the Institut Bouddhique and National Library versions of
these two jātakas belong to the same textual tradition. If it does turn out that
Cambodia has an independent manuscript tradition this would make a third
Pāli tradition.
97
See Ranjini Obeyesekere (tr.), Jewels of the Doctrine: Stories of the Saddharma
Ratnāvaliya (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), Introduction.
95
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
187
misconception to have a fixed idea of the Pāli as the ‘original text’,
and the history of each text must be carefully examined.98
Jaini and others have traced some of the sources of the stories
in the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa. Here we may again compare the case of the
Japanese tale collection Kara Monogatari. Geddes writes:
All but two of the twenty-seven tales of the Kara Monogatari can readily
be found in early Chinese sources. However, the question of whether
the compiler relied on Chinese works or on Japanese versions of the
tales existent prior to the appearance of the Kara Monogatari seems
impossible to resolve. A number of tales appear in more than one
Chinese work; here too it is impossible to state categorically that one
or another work is the source of the Japanese version of a tale. In
addition … when the possibility is considered that the Kara Monogatari
may be closely related to Chinese or Japanese works now lost, the
task of tracing and sorting out sources must be seen as having no
ultimate resolution.99
This assessment applies equally to the Paññāsa-jātaka collections.
1. Paññāsa-jātaka in Siam
The National Library edition
Kazuko Tanabe has published romanized Pāli editions of several
jātakas from the Paññāsa-jātaka manuscripts in the National Library,
Bangkok, but no study or edition has been made of the Pāli collection
as a whole. The collection consists of Khom script palm-leaf
manuscripts in the National Library, Bangkok, in the Wat Bovoranivet,
Wat Pho, and other temple libraries, and in foreign libraries such as
the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Royal Library in Copenhagen,
and the Otani University Library in Kyoto.100
On the value of vernacular vis-à-vis Pāli literature, see Charles Hallisey,
‘Roads Taken and Not Taken in the Study of Theravāda Buddhism’, in Donald
S. Lopez, Jr. (ed.), Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism under Colonialism
(Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1995), pp. 31–61.
99
Geddes, Kara Monogatari, p. 45 (see also p. 46, where Geddes concludes that
the ‘task of tracing the influences and sources … appears hopeless’).
100
The giant of Buddhist studies Léon Feer prepared a list of the contents
of the jātaka manuscripts, including Paññāsa-jātaka, in the Bibliothèque
Nationale but it remains unpublished, preserved with his papers: see A.
Cabaton, ‘Papiers de Léon Feer’, in Catalogue sommaire des manuscrits sanscrits
98
188
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
In BE 2466 (CE 1923) the National Library published a Thai
translation of the Paññāsa-jātaka in twenty-eight fascicles under the
direction of Prince Damrong. Different translators were responsible
for different jātakas.101 This collection was reprinted in two volumes
in 2499 [1956].102 It contains a total of sixty-one stories, without
any arrangement into vaggas.103 It is divided into a ‘first part’ with
fifty stories (forty-eight in the first volume, two in the second) and
a later part (pacchimabhāga) with another eleven stories followed
by three short supplementary texts, the Pañcabuddha-byākaraṇa,
Pañcabuddhaśakarāja-varrṇanā, and Ānisaṅs pha paṅsukula.104 The Thai
translation retains many verses in Pāli, which show signs of editing
and standardization.
In his introduction to the translation of the Paññāsa-jātaka Prince
Damrong states that for some years it was impossible to find a complete
set in Pāli, and that finally one was put together from several different
temple collections, completed in 2466 (1923) with a manuscript from
Wat Pathumkhonkha. Niyada has done a great service by listing
the contents of thirty-five manuscripts in the National Library,
et pālis, 2e fascicule – manuscrits pālis (Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1908),
p. 175.
101
See Niyada, Paññāsa Jātaka: Its Genesis and Significance to Thai Poetical Works
[1995], Appendix ka, pp. 302–304 for the list.
102
Paññāsajātaka chabap ho samut heng chat (Bangkok: Sinlapabannakan
Press, 2499 [1956]): Part I, ka–ṅa + 1040 pp., stories 1–48; Part II, stories
49–50 plus Pacchimabhāga, stories 1–11, followed by Pañcabuddhabyākaraṇa,
Pañcabuddhaśakarājavarrṇanā, and Ānisaṅs pha paṅsukula, 982 pp., with
alphabetical list of titles at end, pp. ka–kha. I am grateful to Santi Pakdeekham
for obtaining a copy of Part II for me. Both volumes are rare. For a translation
(from Thai to German to English) of no. 29, Bahalagāvī, see Christian Velder
(tr. in German) and Katrin A. Velder (tr. in English), ‘The Striped Tiger Prince
and Pahala, the Portly Cow’, Tai Culture, Vol. V, no. 1 (June 2000), pp. 135–
139.
103
The contents are listed in Fickle, An Historical and Structural Study, Table I,
p. 16.
104
Paññāsajātaka, Part 28 (cf. Supaphan na Bangchang, Wiwatthanakan
vannakhadi sai phra suttantapidok ti taeng nai prathet thai [Bangkok: 2533 (1990)]
pp. 17–18). For the Pāli Pañcabuddhabyākaraṇa with French translation see
G. Martini, in Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 55 (1969), pp. 125–
145; for an English translation from the Thai by Bruce Evans and further
references see Fragile Palm Leaves Newsletter no. 5 (May 2542/1999), pp. 8–12.
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
189
by title and bundle (phūk).105 Her list reveals the complexity of the
transmission of the Paññāsa-jātaka. It is clear that one of the common
sets started with Samudaghosa-jātaka. But while the same texts occur
in the same order in many manuscripts, the distribution of titles into
bundles differs. Furthermore, this same common set is sometimes
described as Paññāsa-jātaka ban ton (beginning) and sometimes as
Paññāsa-jātaka ban plai (end). Other groups of miscellaneous jātakas
are also described as Paññāsa-jātaka. That is, it is not clear at all what
‘complete set’ should mean.
There is a remark on the problem of ban ton and ban plai by
Phra Phinit Wannakan (Braḥ Binic Varrṇakāra) in a footnote to the
introduction in the later volumes of the National Library edition:
This Paññāsa-jātaka, according to the manuscripts that have been
examined, may be divided into two categories: one category is called
Paññāsa-jātaka ban plai [Paññāsa-jātaka, last part], but without, it seems,
any ban ton [first part]. Another category is called Paññāsa-jātakapaṭhamabhāga (that is, the first part), or Paññāsa-jātaka-pacchimabhāga
(that is, the last part). The Paññāsa-jātaka ban plai is widespread, while
manuscripts of the Paññāsa-jātaka-paṭhamabhāga and Pacchimabhāga
are rare. On reading [the titles] for the first time, one assumes that
Paññāsa-jātaka ban plai and Paññāsa-jātaka-pacchimabhāga would be the
same text [since both names mean ‘last part’, the one in Thai, the other
in Pāli], but upon examination the correspondence is the opposite of
what one would expect: Paññāsa-jātaka ban plai corresponds to Paññāsajātaka-paṭhamabhāga, a complete work with just fifty stories. This leads
one to hypothesize that originally the author of Paññāsa-jātaka ban plai
intended it to fit into the Paññāsa-nipāta [in the classical Pāli Jātaka].
Later someone composed an additional fourteen stories; intending [to
make the whole] into an independent work, not included in the Nipāta
[that is, not included in the Paññāsa-nipāta of the classical Jātaka just
mentioned], he [combined the two, the old and the new] changing the
name of the Paññāsa-jātaka ban plai to Paññāsa-jātaka-paṭhamabhāga,
and calling the newly added section Paññāsa-jātaka-pacchimabhāga.
Phra Phinit’s theory starts with an explanation of the name, Paññāsajātaka, suggesting that the collection was meant to be attached to the
Paññāsa-nipāta of the classical collection. This theory is not tenable,
since the ‘fifty’ of the title Paññāsa-nipāta means that the chapter is
See Niyada, Paññāsa Jātaka: Its Genesis and Significance, Appendix kha, pp.
305–319.
105
190
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
made up of jātakas that contain fifty verses. It does not mean that
the chapter contains or ought to contain fifty jātakas, and in fact the
Paññāsa-nipāta contains only three jātakas.
Another problem lies in the fact that Phra Phinit treats the
Paṭhamabhāga and Pacchimabhāga of the Paññāsa-jātaka as if each were
composed by a single author. Given not only the multiple origins of the
stories but also the diversity of contents of the different collections,
this cannot be realistic, even if we stretch the word teng to mean
‘compile’. Further, the terms ban ton and ban plai are commonly used
to describe other long manuscripts (and even printed books), such
as the Visuddhimagga and Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā, and may rather
be book-makers’ conventions than those of the editors. That is, the
large collections were too big to be contained in a single wrapper,
and had to be divided into two.
Whatever the origin of the collection, it is certain that individual
stories included in the Paññāsa-jātaka had an enormous influence on
Siamese literature. This was noted in the introduction (kham nam) to
the Fine Arts Department reprint:
Sinlapabannakhan Printers requested permission to print and
distribute the Paññāsa-jātaka. The Fine Arts Department feels that this
book, even though it is classed as religious literature [dhammagatī], is
different from most religious books in that it contains stories which
are quite readable. Some of the stories have been used as sources for
the composition of khlong, chan, and drama, and many have become
well-known literary works, such as the poem Samuttakhot kham chan,
the plays Phra Sudhana and Lady Manora, Sang Thong, Khawi, and the
story of Phra Rothasen.
In his Nithan wannakhadi, Dhanit Yupho compared the Paññāsa-jātaka
to an artery running through the entire body of Thai literature.
The influence of the Paññāsa-jātaka on Thai poetical literature is the
main subject of Niyada’s work (originally a thesis for Chulalongkorn
University).106 Niyada lists and discusses twenty-one jātakas that
functioned as sources for sixty-three Thai poetic works in the genres
kham kap, kham khlon, kham chan, lilit, drama, bot khap mai and bot
mahori.
Cited in Niyada (Sarikabhuti) Lausunthorn, Paññāsa Jātaka: Its Genesis and
Significance to Thai Poetical Works [in Thai] (Bangkok: 2538 [1995]), p. 133–
134.
106
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
191
Important verse versions include the Samuttakhot kham chan, begun
by Maharatchakhru (Mahārājagarū) in the court of King Narai (1655–
1688), continued by King Narai himself, and completed by Supreme
Patriarch Prince Paramanujit Jinavarorasa (1790–1853).107 This story
is well-known, and depicted in nineteenth century mural paintings
in Wat Dusitaram in Thonburi. There are also kham chan versions
of Sudhanu and Sabbasiddhi. Three stories from Paññāsa-jātaka are
embedded in the Traibhūmilokavinicchayakathā composed by Phraya
Thampreecha (Kaew) at the behest of King Rāma I: Samudaghosa,108
Sumbhamitra (for which Paññāsa-jātaka is specified as source),109 and
Bahalagāvī.110 One of the famous works of King Rāma II, the play Sang
thong, is a dramatic version of the Suvaṇṇasaṅkha-jātaka.111 Adaptations
of Sang thong and other jātakas like of Manoharā and Rathasena continue
to be performed,112 and in 2001 Sudhana-Manoharā run in a popular
television adaptation.
An understanding of jātakas, their interrelation, and their relation
to the Paññāsa-jātaka collections is essential to the understanding
107
See Thomas John Hudak, The Tale of Prince Samuttakote: A Buddhist Epic from
Thailand (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Monographs in International Studies,
Southeast Asia Series Number 90); ‘From Prose to Poetry: The Literary
Development of Samuttakote’, in Juliane Schober (ed.), Sacred Biography in the
Buddhist Traditions of South and Southeast Asia (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i
Press, 1997), pp. 218–231.
108
Traibhūmilokavinicchayakathā chabap ti 2 (Traibhūmi chabap luang), Vol.
1 (Bangkok: The Fine Arts Department, 2520 [1977]), p. 249, samdaeng wai
nai samuttakhot-chadok nan wa …; noted by Dhanit Yupho, Introduction to
Samudraghoṣa kham chan, 2503, repr. in Kham nam lae bot khwam bang ruang
khong Dhanit Yupho (Bangkok: 2510 [1967]), p. 79.
109
Traibhūmilokavinicchayakathā chabap ti 2, Vol. 1, p. 453, phra sangkhitikachan
(saṅgītikācārya) wisatchana wai nai paññāsajātaka wa …. Does the reference to
saṅgītikācārya suggest that for Braḥyā Dharrmaprījā the collection had canonical
status? To start with, this depends on one’s definition of canonicity.
110
Traibhūmilokavinicchayakathā chabap ti 2, Vol. 2, p. 304.
111
See Fern S. Ingersoll (tr.), Sang Thong: A Dance-Drama from Thailand written by
King Rama II and the Poets of His Court (Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo: Charles E.
Tuttle Company, 1973); Prince Chula Chakrabongse (tr.), The Story of Sangha,
published in commemoration of the bi-centenary anniversary of the birth of King
Rama II (Bangkok: 24th February, 1968).
112
Dhanit Yupho, The Khōn and Lakon: Dance Dramas presented by the Department
of Fine Arts (Bangkok: The Department of Fine Arts, 1963), pp. 121–135 (Sang
Thong), 77–83 (Manoh’rā), 85–90 (Rothasen).
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
of Thai literature. It is important to understand that the influence
is that of individual stories of Paññāsa-jātaka, and not of the set as a
whole. That is, classical Siamese literature does not treat the stories
as extracts from the set of fifty: each story exists in its own right.
Indeed, it is remarkable that no old vernacular Central Thai
collection is known or listed in any manuscript collections. That is,
there is no Central Thai counterpart to the several Northern Thai
and Laotian vernacular collections to be discussed below. Individual
jātakas were transmitted, told and retold, and performed in Central
Siam, but there is only one collection, and that is in Pāli, and even its
history, structure, and contents are not clear. Reference in Central
Thai literature to the set of fifty, to Paññāsa-jātaka by title, is rare.
One example is in the verse kolabot (riddle) version of Sirivipulakitti,
composed by Luang Śrī Prījā. Near the beginning the author states
that he is translating from the Jātaka, from the ‘Fifty Births of the
Bodhisattva’ (paññāsa-jāti-bodhisattva).113 There is some debate over
when the work was composed, whether in the late Ayutthaya or early
Bangkok period.
Lan Na and the Wat Sung Men collection
Paññāsa-jātaka collections were widespread in Northern Siam, in Lan
Na and other states like Nan and Phrae. King Anantaworarit of Nan, who
was a generous sponsor of the writing down of scriptures, had a Paññāsajātaka in ten bundles copied in CS 1223 [BE 2404 = CE 1861/62] and again
in CS 1225 [BE 2406 = CE 1863/64], the latter along with a nisay.114 Lan Na
collections drew on the rich local literature, the ‘Lan Na jātakas’, largely
vernacular, referred to above.115
Paññāsa-jātaka manuscripts are kept in the following temples in the
North:
113
Sirivipulakitti, in Wannakam samai ayutthaya, Vol. 3 (Bangkok: The Fine Arts
Department, 2531 [1988]), p. 368.
114
Prachum phongsawadan Vol. 10 (Bangkok: 2507 [1964]), pp. 86, 95, 96; David
K. Wyatt (tr.), The Nan Chronicle (Ithaca, New York: Southeast Asia Program,
Cornell University, 1994), pp. 121–122.
115
See Udom Rungreungsri, ‘Wannakam chadok ti mi laksana pen ‘lanna’’,
in Panphen Khreuthai (ed.), Wannakam phutthasasana nai lanna (Chiang Mai:
Social Research Institute, Chiang Mai University, 2540 [1997]), pp. 51–60, and
for the related Khün culture, Anatole-Roger Peltier, La littérature Tai Khoeun/
Tai Khoeun Literature (Chiang Mai: École française d’Extrême-Orient and
Social Research Institute, 1987).
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
193
Wat Muang Mo, Rong Kwang district, Phrae province
Wat Phra Luang, Sung Men district, Phrae province
Wat Ton Leng, Pua district, Nan province
Wat Klang, Song district, Phrae province
Wat Pa Muet, Pua district, Nan province
Wat Phya Phu, Muang district, Nan province
Wat Chang Kham, Muang district, Nan province.116
But none of these is ‘complete’: the only complete manuscript is from
Wat Sung Men, Sung Men district, Phrae province. The Wat Sung Men
manuscript is complete in nine volumes (mat) written down between
CS 1196 (BE 2377 = CE 1834) and CS 1198 (BE 2379 = CE 1836). It has
recently been published in central Thai script.117 This collection has
fifty jātakas plus six more given as an appendix. The final colophon in
Pāli with Lan Na Thai gloss (p. 987) reads:
Kukkurajātakaṃ the Kukkura-jātaka patamānaṃ which falls
paññāsajātake in the fifty births paññāsajātakaṃ the full fifty births
samattaṃ is completed.
The titles of the fifty are very close in order and contents to the
‘Luang Prabang’ manuscript described by Finot,118 but they are
not quite identical.119 There is good reason for this. The Wat Sung
Men manuscript was copied in Luang Prabang at Wat Wisun at the
behest of Mahākāñcana Thera, an Araññavāsi monk from Phrae who
travelled to the neighbouring state with his disciples to collect copies
of scriptures. The names of two of the monk-copyists are recorded:
Thula (Dhulā) Bhikkhu and Srīvijaiya Bhikkhu.
The Wat Sung Men edition includes, mixed with others, thirteen
stories from the classical collection and one – not named jātaka in
its title at all – from the Dhammapada Commentary, the Tissathera116
List from A Critical Study, Introduction, p. 25, with some additional
information kindly supplied by Dr. Balee Buddharaksa, Chiang Mai.
117
A Critical Study of Northern Thai Version of Panyasa Jātaka (Chiang Mai: 2541
[1998]), 1150 pp.
118
Louis Finot, ‘Recherches sur la littérature laotienne’, Bulletin de l’École
française d’Extrême-Orient, Tome XVII, fasc. 5 (1917), pp. 45–46.
119
The ‘Luang Prabang’ manuscript itself is closer, but not quite identical, to
Niyada’s list of fifty jātakas from the Institute for Buddhist Studies edition
published in Vientiane (see below).
194
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
vatthu.120 Unlike the Zimmè Jātaka (for which see below), the collection
is not divided into vaggas. The colophons of occasional individual
jātakas, however, show traces of an earlier division into kaṇḍas and
vaggas:
No. 7
No. 11
No. 14
App. No. 5
No. 23
Candaghāta
Magha
Sonanda
Duṭṭharāja
Campeyya
Viriyakaṇḍo paṭhamo
Mettāya kaṇḍo … dutiyo
Nekkhammakaṇḍo … dutiyo
Khantikaṇḍo … chaṭṭho
Sīlavaggo … pañcamo.
If we correct Mettāya to Mettā, we see that the four kaṇḍas and one
vagga all bear names of perfections, pāramī. This suggests that there
may once have been a collection that selected the stories to illustrate
the perfections, like classical works such as the Pāli Cariyā-piṭaka or
the Scripture of the Collection of the Six Perfections referred to above.
It may be that the closing Pāli number (paṭhama, dutiya, etc.) is not
that of the section itself but of the text within the section: that, for
example, the Sonanda-jātaka was the second jātaka in the section on
Nekkhamma. However, the order of the perfections is quite different
from that of the traditional list, and the nature of these sections is not
at all clear. It may be that the names were carried over when copying
from different examplars. Perhaps further clues may be found in the
incomplete collections from other temples.
Out of the fifty-six jātakas, twenty-five give their sequential
number at the end of the story. The remaining thirty-one do not.121
Out of those that do give their number, the number is not always the
same as that in the current collection, but is off by one or more. For
example, no. 11 describes itself as dvādasama, 12. Nos. 14, 15, 16, 17,
18, and 21 state at the end that they are nos. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 22,
respectively.122 This suggests that at some stage of copying the order
was changed.
A list of locations of the ‘account of the present’ (paccuppannavatthu)
of the jātakas is given in the introduction to the edition.123 The sites
are traditional: for example forty-seven open in the Jetavana, three
120
See Table II.
For details see Niyada, A Critical Study, Introduction, p. 29 (which gives the
figure ‘twenty-four’ but lists twenty-five).
122
For details see Niyada, A Critical Study, Introduction, p. 29.
123
Niyada, A Critical Study, Introduction, pp. 29–31: romanized here as Table I.
121
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
195
in the Nigrodhārāma, and one in the Veḷuvana. The style is for the
most part nisay – a phrase of Pāli followed by a translation or gloss
in Thai Yuan – or vohāra (which has less Pāli than the nisay, giving
only intermittent phrases).124 Some verses are given in full in Pāli.
The vernacular is Thai Yuan, and in some cases Lao, evidence for the
close links between the two cultures.
Other vernacular collections
Niyada describes the contents of a Paññāsa-jātaka from Chiang
Tung (Kengtung, Shan State, Burma), an old state with close historical
and cultural links to Lan Na. The manuscript, called Paññāsa-jāti,
belongs to Venerable Thip Chutithammo, abbot of Wat Min, Chiang
Tung, who reports that the Paññāsa-jātaka has long been popular
in Chiang Tung and that the stories are related in sermons. The
collection described by Niyada is divided into twenty-six sections
or kaṇḍa.125
It is not clear whether distinctive Paññāsa-jātaka collections were
compiled or transmitted in other regions or vernaculars, such as
the North-East or the South of Thailand. The term Phra chao ha sip
chat was certainly known, and individual jātakas were transmitted
in regional literatures. For example, in the North-East Thau Siton
(Sudhana-jātaka), Thau Suphamit (Subhamita-jātaka), and Thau Sowat
(Suvatra-jātaka) exist in vernacular versions,126 while in the South
there are versions of Rotmeri and other jātakas. The ubiquitous
Suvaṇṇasaṅkha (Sang thong) is known in versions from the North-East
and the South.127 However, no Paññāsa-jātaka collection as such has
come to light.
The same may be said for Mon versions. While individual jātakas
and verse adaptations exist in Mon – of Samudaghosa, Varavarṇa, and
other stories – I have not seen any reference to a Mon collection. All
of this needs further research.
‘Thai Yuan’ is one of the several names for ‘Northern Thai’ (kham muang,
phasa lanna).
125
See Niyada, Paññāsa Jātaka, pp. 57–58. I assume the stories are in the local
vernacular, Tai Khün.
126
Saranukrom wathanatham thai phak isan, Vol. 4 (Bangkok: 2542 [1999]), pp.
1678–1682, 1684–1686, 1687–1694.
127
Saranukrom wathanatham thai phak isan, Vol. 14 (Bangkok: 2542 [1999]), pp.
4762–4771.
124
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
2. Paññāsa-jātaka in Laos
From Laos we have information about two different vernacular
manuscript collections, one from Luang Prabang, the other from
Vientiane. For the study of the Paññāsa-jātaka in Laos, we are indebted
to the pioneering work of Louis Finot and of Henri Deydier, the latter
both for his published works and for an unpublished work to be
prepared for publication by Jacqueline Filliozat and Anatole-Roger
Peltier under the title Un fragment inconnu du Paññāsa-jātaka laotien,
which includes summaries of fifty stories.128
Finot described a collection from the north of Laos, from the
‘royal capital’ of Luang Prabang, which I shall refer to as ‘Finot’s
list’. A printed edition, Phra Chao Sip Chat, published in Vientiane
by the Khana kammakar pracham sathaban kan suksa phutthasasana
(Committee of the Institute for Buddhist Studies) agrees closely
in contents to Finot’s list and to the Wat Sung Men collection.129 I
will call this edition the Institute for Buddhist Studies edition.130
Like Finot’s list and the Wat Sung Men Paññāsa-jātaka, the Institute
for Buddhist Studies collection includes jātakas from the classical
collection (fourteen according to Deydier). Deydier has noted that of
the fifty stories in the Lao collection, twenty-seven are not found in
the other collections: ‘Ces 27 récits sont absolument originaux’.131
I am grateful to Jacqueline Filliozat for giving me a copy of the work.
It is not clear to me how many volumes of the Phra Chao Ha Hip Chat were
published. Niyada (Paññāsa Jātaka, p. 58, n. 1) refers to two volumes published
in 2517 [1974]. Fortunately Vol. 1 gives a list of all fifty. I have not seen
the original, and refer to the list as given by Niyada, pp. 58–63. A precise
concordance cannot be made until all stories are accessible, since some
discrepancies may be apparent rather than real, arising simply from variant
titles. Even if the collections are identical in contents, that does not mean
the recensions of the stories will be identical. The sequence of the stories
common to Wat Sung Men and Phra Chao Ha Sip Chat is identical, and at most
nine titles are different. A list given without naming the source by P.V. Bapat
in ‘Buddhist Studies in Recent Times’, ‘Laos’, pp. 431–432, seems the same as
the Institute for Buddhist Studies edition, when different names (vernacular
vs. Pāli, etc.) are taken into account. Fickle, An Historical and Structural Study,
gives a list of fifty ‘titles in Laotian Collection’ in Table III, p. 18.
130
Note that my translation of the name of the Institute is tentative: I have
been unable to find an official translation.
131
Henri Deydier, Introduction à la connaissance du Laos (Saigon: 1952), p. 29.
This statement must, of course, be revised in the light of the publication of
128
129
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
197
The introduction to the Institute for Buddhist Studies edition
states:
The Phra Chao Ha Sip Chat is [a collection of] outstanding stories. It
is a work that the older generation used to listen to. Professional
entertainers-cum-reciters (mo lam ruang) would perform recitations
which were heard regularly. There were also many palm-leaf
manuscripts to be read at home.132
In his work, Deydier describes an incomplete ‘Ha sip chat’ manuscript
in the library of Wat Phra Kaew, Vientiane. The manuscript has nine
bundles containing eleven stories (the last not complete). On the
basis of internal evidence Deydier concluded that these are nos. 39 to
49 of the collection. Only three correspond to jātakas of the Bangkok
National Library edition, in a quite different order. In contents and
order the collection does not resemble the Finot, the Institute for
Buddhist Studies, the Wat Sung Men, the Institut Bouddhique, or the
Zimmè Paṇṇāsa collections. Indeed some of the eleven stories are not
found in any other collection.
Paññāsa-jātaka manuscripts are kept in the National Library of
Laos in Vientiane,133 but their contents have not, to my knowledge,
been analysed. For the time being we can only say that Laos shares in
the rich tradition of Paññāsa-jātaka collections.134
3. Paññāsa-jātaka in Cambodia
Pāli Paññāsa-jātaka manuscripts exist in Cambodia, but the relation
between the Khmer and the Siamese Pāli collections is not known
since neither has been studied thoroughly. Finot’s list of the contents
of a Khmer-script Pāli manuscript collection differs from the Bangkok
National Library and other collections available.135 Terral’s study
(1956) shows that the Khmer-script Samuddaghosa-jātaka differs
the Wat Sung Men manuscript.
132
Niyada, Paññāsa Jātaka, pp. 58–59
133
Jacqueline Filliozat’s Preface to Deydier forthcoming, p. 3.
134
For one popular story see Thao Nhouy Abhaya, ‘Sin Xay’, in France-Asie:
Revue mensuelle de culture et de synthèse franco-asiatique, 118–119 (Mars-Avril
1956), Numéro spécial, Présence du Royaume Lao, pp. 1028–42.
135
See Fickle, An Historical and Structural Study, Table II, p. 17.
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
radically from the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa version.136 But, while one of her
manuscripts (K3) was copied in Cambodia, it is not clear whether
K5 or any other manuscript originated from Cambodian or Siamese
manuscript traditions. One manuscript (K4) has Siamese writing
on the cover folios. In the National Library in Phnom Penh there
is a Paññāsa-jātaka ‘ban ton’ in seventeen bundles,137 which almost
certainly comes from Siam.
Twenty-five jātakas were published by the Institut bouddhique in
Phnom Penh in five fascicules between 1953 and and 1962 (for the
contents, see Table III).138 Khmer translations of the same twentyfive were published separately between 1944 and 1962 under the title
Paññāsajātak samrāy, also in five fascicules.139 In both cases publication
stopped with twenty-five stories. In 1963 abridged Khmer versions of
a full fifty stories by Nhok Thèm were published by the Faculté des
Lettres et des Sciences Humaines of the University of Phnom Penh
under the title Paññāsajātak saṅkhep (see Table IV for the contents).140
The first twenty titles are the same and in the same order as those
of the Institut Bouddhique edition. The first thirty-five titles are the
She concludes: ‘Notons que les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque national de
Paris, aussi bien que la traduction siamoise présentée par le prince Damrong,
montrent l’identité des versions conservées au Siam et au Cambodge, par
opposition à celle du Jaṅ:may [Chiang Mai] paṇṇāsa que nous ne connaissons,
jusqu’à présent, que par l’exemplaire de Rangoun’ (‘Samuddaghosajātaka’,
p. 254).
137
‘Fonds pour l’édition des manuscrits du Cambodge, Inventaire des
manuscrits khmers, pāli et thai de la Bibliothèque Nationale de Phnom Penh’,
École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1999, p. 6, Cat. no. B 36.
138
Ganthamālā, Publications de l’école supérieure de pāli éditées par les soins
de l’Institut Bouddhique X, Paññāsajātaka, Texte pālī, Phnom-Penh, Éditions
de l’Institut Bouddhique, 1953–62. The set is very rare. I was able to consult
it in the library of the International College for Advanced Buddhist Studies,
Tokyo, in November 2000. (The French title page of Tome 1 describes it as
‘Deuxième Édition’. I have not seen the first edition.)
139
Not seen: see Jacobs’ bibliography (below, note 143), p. 209.
140
Nhok Thèm, Paññāsajātaka saṅkhep (Phnom Penh: 1963), 556 pp. I am
grateful to Olivier de Bernon for informing me of the existence of this work
and providing me with a copy. M. de Bernon notes that ‘cet ouvrage a fait
l’objet d’une réédition, assez fautive, en deux volumes à Phnom Penh en
1999’ (personal communication, December 2000). (The work is included in
Jacobs’ comprehensive bibliography, p. 252, under the orthography NhokThaem.)
136
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
199
same and in the same order as those of the Thai National Library
edition, after which order and titles diverge.141
Non-classical jātakas were recast in popular verse narratives.
Some of the stories are told in Auguste Pavie’s Contes du Cambodge.142
Pavie describes ‘Varavong et Saurivong’, of which he provides a
complete translation, as ‘le roman de mœurs et d’aventures le plus
aimé du Cambodge’. Many of the stories summarized by Judith Jacobs
in her Traditional Literature of Cambodia are non-classical jātakas often
included in Paññāsa-jātaka collections.143
4. Paññāsa-jātaka in Burma
A Pāli Paññāsa-jātaka transmitted in Burma gives a full fifty stories
arranged in five sections (vagga) of ten stories each.144 It is the only
known collection to have exactly fifty stories tidily organized into
vaggas. According to Jaini, in Burma palm-leaf manuscripts of the
Paññāsa-jātaka are rare.145 For his edition he consulted two sources:
a complete manuscript in 324 leaves from the Zetawun (Jetavana)
monastery in Monywe (Monywa district, near Mandalay), and
a Burmese-script printed edition in 685 pages, published by the
Hanthawaddy Press, Rangoon, in 1911. The Hanthawaddy edition
does not give any information about the editor(s) or manuscript(s)
Niyada (Paññāsa Jātaka, pp. 63–69) gives a list from the introduction to
Fascicle 1 of Paññāsajātak samrāy. The first thirty-five agree in the main on
contents and order with Paññāsajātak saṅkhep, after which they diverge.
142
Auguste Pavie, Contes du Cambodge (Paris: Repr. Éditions Sudestasie, 1988).
143
Judith Jacobs, The Traditional Literature of Cambodia: A Preliminary Guide
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). For mention of Paññāsa-jātaka see
pp. 37 foll. and 50–51.
144
A list of titles, without division into sections, is given by Fickle in her Table
IV. Her thesis was written before the publication of the Pāli Zimmè Paṇṇāsa and
English translation by the Pali Text Society. The titles given by Fickle, based
on Finot (‘Recherches’, p. 45), Terral (‘Samuddaghosajātaka’, p. 341), and two
other sources, agree with those of the PTS edition with one exception, No.
13. This is not surprising, since Fickle’s sources all derive from the printed
Hanthawaddy Press 1911 edition. No. 13 has two titles, Suvaṇṇakumāra and
Dasapañhavisajjana.
145
A story recounted by Prince Damrong and repeated by Jaini has it that
a Burmese king considered the work to be apocryphal, and had all copies
burnt. This was strongly denied by U Bo Kay in a letter to Niyada (Paññāsa
Jātaka, p. 36, n. 1).
141
200
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
consulted.146 This was the base-text for Padmanabh S. Jaini’s romanscript edition published in two volumes by the Pali Text Society in
1981 and 1983,147 which is available in English translation by Horner
and Jaini.148 The Hanthawaddy edition has recently been translated
into Thai.149
This collection is known in Burma as the ‘Chiang Mai Jātaka’,
and it was under this title (Zimmè Jātaka) that it was published by
the Hanthawaddy Press. But this is a popular title, as is another
nickname, the ‘Yuan Paṇṇāsa’. Is there any other, more formal title?
The closing colophon gives the titles Paṇṇāsajāt (in the manuscript)
and Paṇṇāsapāḷi (in the printed edition). A colophon at the end of
each vagga as published by Jaini gives the title of the vagga (which
is simply the title of the first story in the section) and a verse table
of contents (uddāna) listing the ten titles, along with the prose
statement:
iti imehi dasajātakehi paṭimaṇḍito paññāsajātakasaṅgahe vijamāno [x]vaggo … niṭṭhito.
146
It is probable that the manuscript was that purchased by Charles Duroiselle
for the Bernard Free Library, Rangoon. A letter from Duroiselle to Louis
Finot, dated Mandalay, 6 June 1917, refers to ‘un volume du Zimmè Paṇṇāsa’
sent by him to the latter. Duroiselle states that ‘ce volume fut imprimé sur
la copie en feuilles de palmier que j’ai réussi à acheter pour la Bernard Free
Library après plusieurs années de recherches. C’est la seule copie qui me soit
connue en Birmanie.’ (Letter cited in n. 4 of Jacqueline Filliozat’s Preface to
Deydier forthcoming).
147
Padmanabh S. Jaini (ed.), Paññāsa-jātaka or Zimmè Paṇṇāsa (in the Burmese
Recension): Vol. I, Jātakas 1–25 (London: Pali Text Society, 1981, Text Series
no. 172); Vol. II, Jātakas 26–50 (London: Pali Text Society, 1983, Text Series
no. 173). Jaini published some preliminary remarks, dated 1978, in Vol. I (pp.
v–vi), and an introduction, dated Vesak 1981, was published in 1983 in Vol.
II of the PTS edition of the Pāli (pp. xi–xliii). Jaini summarized each of the
stories, referring to parallels and possible sources, and discussed ‘place, date,
and authorship’ and ‘linguistic peculiarities’ of the collection as a whole.
148
I.B. Horner and Padmanabh S. Jaini (tr.), Apocryphal Birth-Stories (Paññāsajātaka), Vol. I (London: 1985), xiii + 316 pp. (stories 1–25); Padmanabh S. Jaini
(tr.), Vol. II (London: 1986), 257 pp. (stories 26–50).
149
Chiang Mai Paṇṇāsajātaka, 2 vols. (Bangkok: The Fine Arts Department,
2540 [1997]), 698 pp. (Vol. I, stories 1–25, pp. 1–378; Vol. II, stories 26–50, pp.
379–698).
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
201
Thus: The [such-and-such] chapter ornamented with these ten
jātakas which exists in the Paññāsa-jātaka-saṅgaha is finished.
Can it be that the original name of the text is Paññāsa-jātaka-saṅgaha, the
title given in the vagga colophons? That is, did the author or compiler
of this ‘Burmese collection’ name his work Paññāsa-jātaka-saṅgaha
to show that it was a specific collection of apocryphal Pāli jātakas,
edited and arranged in vaggas by himself, in order to distinguish it
from other collections named simply Paññāsa-jātaka? Since the title
is not consistent in all the colophons in Jaini’s two sources, and is
not confirmed by the final colophon, further manuscripts need to be
consulted before an answer can be given.
The Piṭakat samuiṅ, an inventory of titles compiled in 1888 by U
Yan (Maṅ krī Mahāsirijeyasū, 1815–1891), the last Royal Librarian of
the Palace Library at Mandalay (which was dispersed with the British
annexation in 1885), does not use the name Paññāsa-jātaka-saṅgaha,
but rather lists the text under a further title, Lokīpaṇṇāsa-jāt. The
Piṭakat samuiṅ lists two works of this title, a Pāli text and a nissaya:150
§ 369. Lokīpaṇṇāsa-jāt: by a rhaṅ sāmaṇera who was very skillful in
religious and worldly affairs (lokadhamma), and who lived in Jaṅ: may
[Chiang Mai], Ayuddhaya division, Yui:dayā: [Thailand].
§ 898. Lokīpaṇṇāsajāt-nisya: by Ku gyi Sayadaw (gū krī charā-tō) in
the reign of the first king who founded the first city of Amarapura
(amarapūra paṭhama mrui taññ nan: taññ ma:). The nisya has three
volumes.
This king should be Bodawpaya, who moved the capital to Amarapura
in May 1783.151 A palm-leaf manuscript containing a section of a
Burmese translation in the Fragile Palm Leaves collection in Bangkok
Piṭakat samuiṅ, § 369 jaṅ: maypaṇṇāsajāt; § 898 jaṅ: maypaṇṇāsajāt nissaya.
For the Piṭakat samuiṅ see Oskar von Hinüber, Handbook of Pāli Literature, p. 3,
and U Thaw Kaung, ‘Bibliographies compiled in Myanmar’, in Pierre Pichard
and François Robinne (ed.), Études birmanes en hommage à Denise Bernot (Paris:
École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1998, Études thématiques 9), pp. 405–406. I
am grateful to Peter Nyunt for summarizing the relevant passages and to Dr.
Sunait Chutindaranon for his comments.
151
D.G.E. Hall, A History of South-East Asia (fourth edition, Houndmills and
London: Macmillan Press, 1981) (repr. 1985), p. 625.
150
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
also bears the title Lokīpaṇṇāsa. The manuscript contains the stories
of the second chapter, Sudhanuvagga, in the same order as the
Zimmè Paṇṇāsa. The name of the translator and date of translation
are unknown. On the evidence of U Yan and the Burmese-language
manuscript another title of the work is Lokīpaṇṇāsa-jāt.152 But this
title is not given anywhere in the Pāli version. Can it first have been
supplied by the author of the Nissaya, or by an early translator?
The contents and arrangement of the stories in the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa
differ from other known collections, such as the National Library and
Wat Sung Men editions. Even the verses are frequently different, as
shown above. So far the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa collection is known only in
Burma: no corresponding manuscript collection, Pāli or vernacular, is
known in Lan Na or elsewhere. However, a Northern Thai Piṭakamālā
written down in CS 1181 (BE 2367 = CE 1824) describes a ‘50 chat’ in
five vaggas which is identical in contents and arrangement to the
Zimmè Paṇṇāsa (barring the usual differences in spelling and details
of titles). To date this is the only evidence for the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa in
Lan Na itself.
Can the Piṭakamālā reference be interpreted as a confirmation of
the Burmese tradition that connects the Paññāsa-jātaka with Chiang
Mai? It cannot, since the collection may have found its way from
Burma to Chiang Mai rather than the other way around, perhaps
during the long period of Burmese rule (1558–1775). After all, as
noted in the introduction to the printed edition of the Wat Sung
Men Paññāsa-jātaka, the Piṭakamālā was written down seventeen
years later than Jaini’s Wat Jetavana manuscript, which bears a date
corresponding to 1808. All that the reference really tells us is that the
collection was known to the unknown author of the Piṭakamālā.
Is there any truth, then, to the story of Chiang Mai origins? It is
possible, but cannot be proven. At any rate, the story should only
be applied to the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa, the (purported) ‘Paññāsa-jātakasaṅgaha’. No such story is transmitted in Siam, Laos, or Cambodia
for the other collections, and it would be odd indeed if the widely
divergent collections in several languages were all composed by a
single novice in Chiang Mai.
152
The table of contents of the modern printed edition of the Piṭakat samuiṅ
uses the nicknames, listing the root-text as ‘Chiang Mai Paṇṇāsa-jātaka’ and
the Nissaya as ‘Chiang Mai Paṇṇāsa-jātaka-nissaya’.
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
203
The date of the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa is not known. An upper date is that
of the Nissaya, composed in the reign of Bodawpaya, that is between
1783 and 1826. Further research into Burmese sources, including the
Nissaya, is needed, since this may uncover new information. Another
question is whether there are any other collections in Burma.
Prince Damrong’s account of the Paññāsa-jātaka is worth citing at
length:
There is a report that once, when the Paññāsa-jātaka had spread to
Burma, the Burmese called it ‘Chiang Mai Paṇṇāsa’. But a king of
Burma declared that it was apocryphal (teng plom phra phutthawacana)
and ordered it to be burnt. As a result, no copy of Paññāsa-jātaka is
extant in Burma.153
The king described the Paññāsa-jātaka as an apocryphal teaching
ascribed to the Buddha because he misconstrued the Nipāta-jātaka
(or what we call in Thai the ‘Stories of the Five Hundred Fifty Births
of the Lord’), taking it to be the word of the Buddha when in fact it is
not. The truth of the matter is as explained by King Phrabat Somdet
Phra Chula Chom Klao [Rāma V] in his introduction to the [Thai
translation of] the Nipāta-jātaka which was printed in the Fifth Reign.
[He wrote that] the stories of the Nipāta-jātaka were probably fables
that had been popularly recited long before the time of the Buddha.
When the Lord Buddha taught the beings to be trained (venaiyasatva)
he chose some of these stories to illustrate certain points of his
sermon. It was natural that in the stories there would be a hero and
a villain. The exemplary figure might be a human or an animal, but
in any case was called the ‘great being’ (mahāsattva). Later, after the
time of the Buddha, the idea arose that the ‘great being’ in those
jātaka stories was the Lord Buddha in previous lives. Later still, when
the Tripiṭaka was compiled, the editors sought to instill a firm faith
in accordance with their own beliefs, and therefore composed the
‘identification of the characters of the jātaka’ (prachum chadok =
Pāli samodhāna), as if Lord Buddha had clearly explained that this
mahāsattva had later been born as the Buddha himself, and other
people or animals came to be this or that person in the present [that
is, in the time of the Buddha].
This explains the origin of the structure of the jātaka stories as they
appear in the Nipāta-jātaka. When members of the saṅgha of Chiang
Mai took local stories and composed them as jātakas they simply
followed the model of the ancient literature composed in former
times by the respected commentators (phra gantharacanācārya)153
For U Bo Kay’s reaction to this story, see above, n. 144.
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
they had no intention whatsoever of deceiving anyone that this
was the word of the Buddha. The king of Burma misunderstood the
matter.
Questions: Origins, authenticity, date and place of compilation
Why were the Paññāsa-jātaka stories and collections so popular that
they spread throughout mainland South-East Asia? What did they
offer, besides good stories? Several answers come to mind. Like
the classical Jātaka stories, they could function as sermons (deśanā),
offering both moral instruction and explanations of ānisaṅsa, the
benefits that accrue from the practices and deeds of the faithful such
as giving (dāna) and ethics (sīla). The stories glorify the bodhisatta.
That is, they are expressions of the ‘Theravādin cult of the bodhisatta’
which is an outstanding feature of South-East Asian Buddhism, in
which the bodhisatta acts as exemplar, transmitter of folk-wisdom,
sanctifier, and embodiment of power and perfection.
The problem of origins is complex. We have seen above that a
Burmese tradition associates the Paññāsa-jātaka with Chiang Mai.
Neither the antiquity or source of this tradition are clear. At one time
Prince Damrong believed the collection to come from Vientiane in
Laos, but later he held that it came from Chiang Mai. Niyada (2538)
has suggested that the Paññāsa-jātaka originated in Hariphunchai
(Lamphun), but on the whole the connection with Chiang Mai has
been widely and uncritically accepted: it is given by Prince Damrong
in his introduction, and even used as the title of the recent Thai
translation of the Burmese collection. Individual stories cannot have
their origin in one place alone, whether Chiang Mai or anywhere
else. Some, like Sudhana, Surūpa, and Kanakavaṇṇarāja, have Sanskrit
parallels in the Divyāvadāna and Avadānaśataka.154 Others may have
originated anywhere in the region. Some have been localized, but
this does not (necessarily) say anything about their origins, but only
about their history. For example, in Surat Thani in Southern Thailand
Voravong is associated with Chaiya and it is believed that the story
For the first two see Jaini, Paññāsa-jātaka or Zimmè Paṇṇāsa, Vol. II,
Introduction, p. xli. For the last see Fickle, An Historical and Structural Study,
pp. 63–137. See also Fickle pp. 49–54 and Table VIII.
154
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
205
took place nearby.155 In sum, it is possible that one of the collections –
such as the Zimmè Jātaka – was compiled in Chiang Mai, but it is not
possible that all of them were.
Since the time of Prince Damrong a number of dates have
been proposed for ‘the’ Paññāsa-jātaka. The Prince proposed the
date 2000–2200 BE (CE 1457–1657) for the Pāli National Library
collection. This date was followed by Phra Khru Ariyasatthā Jhim
Sun Saddharrmapaññācārya in his introduction to the Institut
Bouddhique edition. Jaini suggested a thirteenth to fourteenth
century dating for the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa. Fickle reviewed available
theories and concluded:
With the realization that any date can be only tentative, we shall
assign this text to the reign periods of King Tiloka and King Muang
Keo (A.D. 1442–1525). The fact that these stories can be found on
earlier monuments in Java and Pagan indicates that versions of some
of the tales were circulating in Southeast Asia before the composition
of the P[aññāsa] J[ātaka] collections.156
Niyada has proposed before BE 1808 (CE 1265), the date of the
Thawkuthathamuti or Kusa-samuti inscription (for which see below).
Classical Thai poems allude to several jātakas: the Kamsuan khlong
dan alludes to Samuttakhot and Sudhanu, the Dvādasamāsa alludes to
Samuttakhot, Sudhanu, and Pācittakumāra. Nirat Haribhuñjaya, dated to
BE 2060 (CE 1517), alludes to Rathasena, Sudhanu, and Samudaghosa.157
The poets compare the sorrow of lovers separated from each other
with the sorrow experienced by characters in the stories in question.
In the library of Wat Sung Men there is a Samudaghosa-jātaka
translated from Pāli into Thai Yuan by Phra Ratanapaññā.158 If this
is the same Ratanapaññā who composed the Jinakālamālī, completed
in about 1528, this gives us a rare instance of a datable translation
from Pāli. But there may have been several Ratanapaññās, and the
identification remains tentative. The Chiang Mai Chronicle states that in
CE 1288/89 a Mahāthera named Mahākassapa gave a sermon to King
Mangrai based on the Vaṭṭaṅguli-jātaka (Zimmè Paṇṇāsa no. 37, Bangkok
Udom Nuthong, in Saranukrom wathanatham phak tai pho so 2529, Vol. 8, p.
3296.
156
Fickle, An Historical and Structural Study, pp. 8–9.
157
The references are given in Niyada, Paññāsa Jātaka, pp. 42–43.
158
Niyada, Paññāsa Jātaka, pp. 36–37.
155
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
National Library no. 20).159 The same story is told in the Northern
Chronicle (Phongsawadan Yonok).160 The Chiang Mai Chronicle dates from
the beginning of the nineteenth century, although the section in
question is based on ancient sources. The Northern Chronicle is even
later, dating from the late nineteenth century, although based, as is
seen in the present case, on earlier materials.
Several stories were known in Burma from an early date. An
inscription from Thawkuthathamuti temple at Pwazaw (about four
miles south-east of Pagan), dated to 627 (BE 1808 = CE 1265) gives the
following curse: ‘In this life may he be separated from his beloved
wife and son like King Thombameik was separated from his queen
and prince’. As Fickle notes, ‘Thombameik is the Burmese rendition
of Subhamitta, the hero of a tale which appears in all the P[aññāsa]
J[ātaka] collections [e.g. Zimmè Paṇṇāsa no. 5, Bangkok National
Library no. 9], a tale which hinges upon the separation of the hero
from his wife and children’.161 Two other stories were known in
fifteenth century Burma: Sudhana and Sudhanu, which were adapted
in his Thanhmya Pyitsan Pyo by Shin Agga, who flourished between BE
2023 and 2044 (CE 1480–1501).162
Generally speaking, the discussions of place and date have
ignored several fundamental facts. As we have seen, there is no single
Paññāsa-jātaka: there are several distinct collections, in different
languages. The question of date and place of composition is therefore
different for each collection: When and where was the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa
compiled, when the Bangkok National Library collection? When and
159
Tamnan pun muang chiang mai chabap chiang mai 700 pi (Chiang Mai: 2538),
pp. 26–27; David K. Wyatt and Aroonrut Wichienkeeo (tr.), The Chiang Mai
Chronicle (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1995), pp. 34–35; Camille Notton,
Annales du Siam, Vol. III, Chronique de Xieng Mai (Paris: Librairie orientaliste
Paul Geuthner, 1932), p. 46.
160
Phraya Prachakichakornchak, Phongsawadan yonok [Baṅśāvatāra yonaka]
chabap ho samut heng chat (Bangkok: repr. Khlang vitthaya, 2516 [1973]), pp.
260–261. I owe the reference to Anatole Roger Peltier, Le roman classique
lao (Paris: PEFEO, 1988), p. 29, through Peter Koret’s unpublished thesis,
Whispered So Softly It Resounds Through the Forest, Spoken So Loudly It Can Hardly
Be Heard: The Art of Parallelism in Traditional Lao Literature, Thesis submitted for
the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of London, 1994, p. 25, n. 94.
161
Fickle, An Historical and Structural Study, p. 8; Niyada, Paññāsa Jātaka, pp.
37–38.
162
Niyada, Paññāsa Jātaka, p. 36, referring to U San Tun.
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
207
where were the Wat Sung Men collection, the collections on which
Finot’s list, the Institute for Buddhist Studies version, or the Deydier
version were based, compiled? When and where were the Khmer, Tai
Khün, etc. collections compiled?
There are no ancient references to supply a ready answer. In
central Siamese literature, the earliest reference to a collection
seems to be the Traibhūmilokavinicchayakathā, mentioned earlier.
For Burma, the earliest broadly datable reference to the collection
is to the Lokīpaṇṇāsajāt Nissaya. Both references date to the end of
the eighteenth century. There is no earlier evidence for the collection,
although there is literary or inscriptional evidence for some individual
stories. That is, regardless of the date of their components, the dates
of the collections may be late. This, however, remains to be proven.
These Paññāsa-jātaka collections are not original, unitary
compositions (with the possible exception of the Burmese Pāli
collection). They are collections, assemblages, accumulations,
anthologies. Each story has its own history. Some may be, or certainly
are, ancient. Some, such as Sudhana, go back to India; these may even
be relics of the early period, Dvāravatī or Funan, when the literature
of schools other than the Theravāda, and also of the Mahāyāna,
circulated in the region.
The important point is that references in inscriptions or in datable
sources to individual titles, to characters or events in an individual
jātaka, prove nothing about the date of any Paññāsa-jātaka collection.
They only prove that the jātaka, or a version of the jātaka, was known
at that time and place. Important references of this nature have been
collected by Niyada, and they show that certain jātakas were known
at Pagan and at Sukhothai.163
The Paññāsa-jātaka collections cannot be studied apart from the
huge corpus of apocryphal jātaka literature of South-East Asia. How
did some tales come to be included in Paññāsa-jātaka collections,
others not? What were the principles of selection? Why did certain
popular jātakas like Sivijeyya, Lokaneyya, Rājovāda, or Tiṇapāla remain
‘uncollected’?164 The Sisora-jātaka is described in its colophon as taken
Niyada Lausoonthorn, ‘‘Paññāsa Jātaka’: A Historical Study’, in
Binicvarrṇakarrm (Collections of Academic Essays Based on Manuscripts) (Bangkok:
2535 [1992]), pp. 172–180 (in Thai).
164
For these titles see Suphapan, op. cit., Niyada, Paññāsa Jātaka, and A Critical
Study of Northern Thai Version, Introduction, p. 21.
163
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
from the Paññāsa-jātaka, but is not included in any of the known
collections.165 Does this mean there are other collections, lost or still to
be discovered? Why were important and well-known narratives such
as the stories of the bodhisatta’s self-sacrifice to the hungry tigress,
or the bodhisatta’s last female birth attached to the beginning of
the Mahāsampiṇḍanidāna, Sambhāravipāka, and Sotatthakīmahānidāna,
but neither included in jātaka collections, nor, it seems, circulated
independently? Why was the number fifty chosen? The number
does not seem to have any special mystical, cabalistic, historical, nor
classical significance.
Another methodological problem lies in the quest for a single
literary source for individual stories. We are concerned with a
narrative literature that was fluid and flexible, and oral/aural. The
same story would take on different guises according to function: it
could be embellished, expanded, contracted, or abridged according to
need or fancy of preacher, editor, or author. We should not think that
people learned a story from a single, fixed, literary source: they might
learn from a canonical text, an embellishment, a sermon, a teaching, a
cloth painting, a temple mural. The story changes with each telling.
What is the origin of the Pāli versions? To what degree do ‘local
Pālis’ differ from each other? Prince Damrong and others have
noted that the Pāli is poor or substandard. It is, however, uneven
from tale to tale, and research into its stylistic peculiarities is in its
infancy. The language shares features with other texts from Siam,
such as the Dasabodhisatta-uddesa, Lokaneyya-pakaraṇa, Jambūpatisutta, Mahākappalokasaṇṭhāna, etc. Useful preliminary studies of the
language of individual texts have been made by Cœdès, Martini–
Terral, Jaini, and others.166
The dates and origins of the vernacular collections are bound
up with a greater problem, that of the anonymous translation of
anonymous literature. There exists a huge body of translations of
suttas, treatises, abhidhamma, commentaries, grammars, in the
languages of South-East Asia, but the date of the translation or the
identity of the translators is rarely if ever known.
The Paññāsa-jātaka is not the only collection of narratives to
circulate in South-East Asia: there exist other collections, which
165
Niyada, A Critical Study of Northern Thai Version, Introduction, p. 22.
See especially Terral, ‘Samuddhaghosajātaka’ (Bulletin de l’École française
d’Extrême-Orient XLVIII, 1 [1956]), which compares several texts.
166
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
209
remain to be studied. What is the relation between the Paññāsa-jātaka
collections and the other collections? This must be determined both
in terms of the collections as a whole, and of individual texts.
The Suttajātakanidānānisaṃsa, for example, is an anthology of
diverse Pāli texts drawn from diverse sources.167 Other collections
are the Sotabbamālinī, Sammohanidāna, Sāvakanibbāna, Bimbānibbāna,
and Paramatthamaṅgala. The same text may be found in more than
one collection: that is, the contents overlap. The relations between
such texts remains to be determined: will the version of a text in one
collection be the same as the version(s) transmitted in another?
Another question is that of the ‘authenticity’ of the Paññāsajātaka. This was addressed by Prince Damrong in the introduction
to the Thai translation, cited above. It is not possible to make a
categorical statement regarding pre-modern attitudes towards the
canonicity of the Paññāsa-jātaka and other local texts. We can only
suggest that at least for some, perhaps most, the jātakas were fully
integrated into the tapestry of lives and deeds of the bodhisatta and
the Buddha. This is suggested by the importance of murals that depict
non-classical jātakas or non-classical narratives such as Jambūpati
and Phra Maleyya-thera. In the murals they are fully integrated
into the history of the Buddha (which is derived primarily from the
Paṭhamasambodhi) and stand side-by-side with classical jātakas. It is
true that the Piṭakamālā describes the Paññāsa-jātaka as ‘outside the
saṅgāyanā’, but late Theravādin works accept certain works, such as
the Nandopananda-sutta, as ‘Buddha-word’, even though they were not
included in the council (saṅgītiṃ anāropita). That is, ‘Buddhavacana’
and ‘Tipiṭaka’ are not necessarily coterminous.
Another example shows how the non-classical jātakas were on
a par with the classical jātakas, and how uses and classifications
of texts extend into realms beyond the temple library. In a Lan Na
tradition called Dhamma-jātā, people gain merit by offering texts to
a temple according to their own year, month, or day of birth. For
example, a person born in the Ox Year offers the Vessantara ruam, an
abridged Vessantara-jātaka in Thai Yuan. (The texts offered are highly
abridged, ‘sermon’ versions, in a single bundle [phūk].) Texts to be
offered according to one’s month of birth include non-classical jātakas
– Sumbhamitta, Sudhanu, Padumakumāra – alongside others from the
For a list of contents see George Cœdès, ‘Dhammakāya’, Adyar Library
Bulletin XX.3–4 (1956), p. 252, n. 2.
167
210
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
‘Ten Jātakas’ (Daśajāti).168 A similar connection between certain texts
and the twelve-year cycle is found in Cambodia.169
Conclusions
In this paper I have attempted to show the richness and complexity
of the Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka traditions. A study of this size can
only skim the surface, and leaves many questions unresolved. It is
important at this stage to raise questions, and to examine the subject
in all possible aspects – literary, social, historical, functional – with
an open mind.
It seems that the stories predate the collections, and that the
collections may be late. It is therefore no longer possible to say,
without being specific, that such-and-such a story ‘is from the
Paññāsa-jātaka’, or that such-and-such a story ‘is not included in the
Paññāsa-jātaka’. One may say that ‘it is found in the Wat Sungmen
Paññāsa-jātaka collection’, or that ‘it is found in the Thai National
Library edition, but it is not included in the Zimmè Paṇṇāsa’.
In the end it becomes difficult to distinguish between stories
included in Paññāsa-jātaka collections and non-classical jātakas
in general. Indeed, texts that are not found in any of the known
collections are sometimes described internally as ‘from the Paññāsajātaka’. For example, the epilogue of the popular North-Eastern Thai
tale Phya Khankhaak, ‘The Toad King’ states:170
This is a true account of Phya Khankhaak,
Which has been recited
In the fifty lives of the Buddha-to-be, dear readers …
The mention of ‘fifty lives’ is made by the modern editor, Phra
Ariyanuwat, who prepared the work in 1970, but he is following a
168
Udom Rungreungsri, ‘Wannakam chadok ti mi laksana pen ‘lanna’’, pp.
51–52.
169
Eveline Porée-Maspero, ‘Le cycle des douze animaux dans la vie des
Cambodgiens’, Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient L.2 (1962), pp. 316,
331.
170
Wajuppa Tossa, Phya Khankhaak, The Toad King: A Translation of an Isan Fertility
Myth into English Verse (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1996), p. 134.
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
211
tradition attested in Lao manuscripts for other tales.171 In the end, the
study of Paññāsa-jātaka almost merges with the study of traditional
narrative literature, and calls for close collaboration between
scholars of literature – whether Lao, Khmer, Shan, Khün, Thai, Mon,
or Burmese – and scholars of Pāli and of Buddhist studies.
Table I
Contents of the Wat Sung Men Paññāsajātaka172
No. Title
Location
Occasion
1. Samuddaghosa
2. Sudhanu
3. Sudhana
Jetavana
Jetavana
Jetavana
4.
5.
6.
7.
Veḷuvana
Jetavana
Jetavana
Nigrodhārāma
Nang Yasodharā
Victory over Māra
A monk who wants to
disrobe
Devadatta
Devadatta
Devadatta
Repaying one’s father and
mother
Devadatta
Perfections of giving
and virtue (dānasilapāramī)
Sacrifice of one’s life
(jīvitadāna)
—
Ariṭṭhakummāra
A monk who takes care
of his mother
Kiñcamāṇavikā
Perfection of giving
(dānapāramī)
Devadatta
Testing the teachings of
one’s father
Sirasākummāra
Sumbhamitta
Suvaṇṇasaṅkha
Candaghāta
8. Kuruṅgamigga
9. Setapaṇḍita
Jetavana
Nigrodhārāma
10. Tulakapaṇḍita
Jetavana
11. Magha
12. Ariṭṭha
13. Ratanapajjota
—
Jetavana
Jetavana
14. Sonanda
15. Bārāṇasīrāja
Jetavana
Jetavana
16. Dhammadhajja
17. Dukamma
Veḷuvana
Jetavana
Peter Koret, oral communication, February 2001.
I am grateful to Santi Pakdeekham for preparing Tables I and II. They are
based on Critical Study of Northern Thai Version of Panyasa Jātaka, Introduction,
pp. 29–31. We have not been able to check the appropriateness of the
‘occasions’.
171
172
212
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
18. Sabbasiddhi
19. Paññābala
20. Dadhivāhana
21. Mahissa
22.
23.
24.
25.
Chaddanta
Campeyya
Bahalagāvī
Kapirāja
26. Narajīva
27. Siddhisāra
28. Kussarāja
29. Bhaṇḍāgārika
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
Sirivipulakitti
Suvaṇṇakummāra
Vaṭṭaka
Tissatheravatthu
Suttasoma
Mahābala
36. Brahmaghosa
37. Sādinnarāja
38. Siridhara
39. Ajittarāja
40. Vipularāja
41. Arindumma
42. Viriyapaṇḍita
43. Ādittarāja
44. Surupparāja
45. Suvaṇṇabrahmadatta
Jetavana
The state of a miraculous
person
Pasāda of Yasodharā Yasodharā’s devotion to
the Buddha
Jetavana
Mixing with people with
bad morals
Jetavana
A monk with much
property
Jetavana
A young nun
Jetavana
Uposathakamma
Jetavana
Gratitude to one’s mother
Jetavana
Acting to benefit one’s
relatives (ñātatthacariyā)
Jetavana
A monk who takes care
of his mother
Jetavana
Dhammacakka
Jetavana
A monk who wants to
disrobe
Jetavana
The power of wisdom
(paññābala)
Jetavana
Caring for one’s mother
Jetavana
Wisdom (paññā)
Magadha
A forest fire
Jetavana
Tissa bhikkhu
Jetavana
Aṅgulimāla bhikkhu
Jetavana
Perfection of giving
(dānapāramī)
Jetavana
The ‘equipment of merit’
(puññasambhāra)
Jetavana
An upāsaka who keeps the
precepts
Jetavana
An upāsaka
Jetavana
Renunciation (cāgadāna)
Jetavana
Perfection of giving
(dānapāramī)
Jetavana
Perfection of giving
(dānapāramī)
—
A past event
Jetavana
Perfection of giving
(dānapāramī)
Jetavana
Perfection of giving
(dānapāramī)
Jetavana
Perfection of giving
(dānapāramī)
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
46. Mahāpadummakummāra Jetavana
47. Mahāsurasena
Jetavana
48. Siricuḍāmaṇi
Jetavana
49. Nalaka
50. Kukkura
Kosalajanapada
Jetavana
Supplementary stories173
*1. Suvaṇṇamigga
Jetavana
*2. Canda
Jetavana
*3. Sarabha
Jetavana
*4. Porāṇakappilapurinda
Jetavana
*5. Duṭṭharāja
*6. Kanakavaṇṇarāja
Jetavana
Jetavana
213
A monk who cares for
his mother
Offering the eight
requisites (aṭṭhaparikhāra)
Perfection of giving
(dānapāramī)
A sugarcane tree
Acting to benefit one’s
relatives (ñātatthacariyā)
A daughter of good
family (kuladhitā)
Saving the lives of
animals
Solutions for a crow and
a worm
Benefits of sponsoring
a Tipiṭaka
Devadatta
—
Table II
List of stories from the classical Pāli jātaka in the Wat Sung Men Paññāsajātaka
Wat Sung Men no.
8.
11.
20.
21.
22.
23.
25.
28.
32.
34.
49.
50.
*1.
173
Title
Kuruṅgamiggajātaka
Maghajātaka
Dadhivāhanajātaka
Mahissajātaka (Devadhammajātaka)
Chaddantajataka
Campeyyajātaka
Kapirājajātaka
Kussarājajātaka
Vaṭṭakajātaka
Suttasomajātaka
Nalakajātaka (Naḷapānajātaka)
Kukakurajātaka
Suvaṇṇamiggajātaka
The asterisks indicate that these are supplementary texts.
214
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Table III
List of the 25 jātakas published in five fascicles by l’Institut bouddhique,
Phnom Penh
Fasc. I
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Samuddaghosa
Sudhana
Sudhanu
Ratanapajota
Sirivipulakitti
Fasc. II
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Vipularāja
Sirīcuḍāmaṇi
Candarāja
Subhamitta
Sirīdhara
Fasc. III
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Dulakapaṇḍita
Ādittarāja
Dukkammānika
Mahāsurasena
Suvaṇṇakumāra
Fasc. IV
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Kanakavaṇṇarāja
Vīriyapaṇḍita
Dhammasoṇḍaka
Sudassanamahārāja
Vaṭṭaṅgulīrāja
Fasc. V
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
Sabbasiddhi
Akkharalikhitaphala
Dhammikapaṇḍita
Cāgadāna
Dhammarāja
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
215
Table IV
List of jātakas contained in the Nhok Thèm’s abridged edition, Paññāsajātaka
Saṅkhep, published in one volume in 1963 by the Faculté des Lettres et des
Sciences humaines of the University of Phnom Penh.174
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
174
Samuddaghosa
Sudhanakumāra
Sudhanukumāra
Ratanappajota
Sirivipulakitti
Vipularāja
Siricūḍāmaṇī
Candarāja
Subhamitta
Sirīdhara
Dulakapaṇḍita
Ādittarāja
Dukkammānika
Mahāsurasena
Suvaṇṇakumāra
Kanakavaṇṇarāja
Viriyapaṇḍita
Dhammasoṇḍaka
Sudassanamahārāja
Vattaṅgulīrāja
Porāṇakapilarāja
Dhammikapaṇḍita
Cāgadāna
Dhammarāja
Narajīva
Surūpa
Mahāpaduma
Bhaṇḍāgāra
Bahulagāvī
Setapaṇḍita
Puppharāja
Bārāṇasirāja
Brahmaghosarāja
Devarukkhakumāra
Salabha
I am grateful to Olivier de Bernon for preparing Tables III and IV.
216
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Sonanda
Devanda
Narajīvakaṭhina
Rathasena
Varanetta-varanuja
Saṅkhapatta
Sabbasiddhi
Siddhisāra
Sisorarāja
Supinakumāra
Suvaṇṇakacchapa (dī 1)
Suvaṇṇakacchapa (dī 2)
Suvaṅṅavaṅsa
Sūryavaṅsavaravaṅsa
Atidevarāja
Editions of Pāli jātakas from the Thai Paññāsa-jātaka done in Japan. (We have
updated the list for the present publication but we regret that it remains
incomplete.)
Tanabe Kazuko. 1980. ‘On the Sudhana-jātaka found in the Paṇṇāsa-jātaka.’
Journal of Indian Buddhist Studies XXVIII-2, pp. 99-126.
Tanabe Kazuko. 1981. ‘Paṇṇāsajātaka (50 Jātaka-s) found in Thailand.’
Bukkyogaku Vol. 11, pp. 65-88.
Tanabe Kazuko. 1981. ‘The Sudhana-jātaka in the Paññāsa-jātaka (I).’ Buddhist
Studies (Bukkyō Kenkyū) 10, pp. 99–126.
Tanabe Kazuko. 1983. ‘The Sudhana-jātaka in the Paññāsa-jātaka (II).’ Buddhist
Studies (Bukkyō Kenkyū) 13, pp. 105–121.
Tanabe Kazuko. 1984. ‘Surūparāja-jātaka contained in Paṇṇāsa-jātaka.’
Journal of Indian Buddhist Studies XXXII-2, pp. 1065-1062
Tanabe Kazuko. 1985, ‘On Sirīdhara-jātin Paññāsa-jātaka’. Toho (The East),
Vol. I (17)–(34).
Tanabe Kazuko. 1985. ‘Samuddhaghosajātaka in Paññāsa-jātaka.’ In The
Thought and Problems of Buddhism in Honour of Akira Hirakawa on his 70th
Birthday (Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 1985), pp. 155–161.
Tanabe Kazuko. 1991. ‘Siricūḍamaṇijātaka of Paññāsa-jātaka.’ In Studies
in Buddhism and Culture in Honour of Egaku Mayeda on his 65th Birthday
(Tokyo), pp. 267–274.
Tanabe Kazuko. 2005. ‘Paññāsajātaka Study in Japan.’ In Buddhism and Jainism:
Essays in Honour of Dr. Hojun Nagasaki on his Seventieth Birthday, edited by
the Committee for the Felicitation of Dr. Hojun Nagasaki’s Seventieth
Birthday, Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten, 2005, pp. 650-641.
Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia
217
Kazuko Tanabe and Kinoshita Koji. 1999. Sattadhanu-jātaka [Japanese
translation]. Buddhist Studies (Bukkyō Kenkyū) XXVIII (March, 1999), pp.
89–122.
Unebe Toshiya (ed.) 2008. A Study of Southeast Asian Buddhist Literature Based
on Pāli and Thai Manscripts, Study result of the research project, Grant-inAid for Scientific Research (C), Project Number 17520046 (2005-2007). Nagoya
University, Graduate School of Letters, (Contains romanized editions and
Japanese translations of Dhammasoṇḍaka-jātaka, Sudassana-mahārājajātaka, Vaṭṭaṅgulirāja-sutta-vaṇṇanā, and Dulakapaṇḍita-jātaka).
Yoshimoto Shingyo. n.d. ‘Romanized Transliteration of the Otani Palm Leaf
Manuscript of the Surūpajātaka.’ In Annual Memoirs of the Otani University
Shin Buddhist Comprehensive Research Institute (Shinshu sogo kenkyusho
kenkyu kiyo) 16 (Kyoto: Otani University), pp. 214–224.
Yoshimoto Shingyo (ed.). 2004. Paññāsajātaka, Thai Recension Nos. 1218, 22-39 kept in the Otani University Library: Transliteration from
Manuscripts in Khmer Script. Pāli Manuscripts Resarch Project, Shin
Buddhist Comprehensive Research Institute, Otani University, March
(Contains romanized editions of Thai Recension Nos. 12-18, 22-39).
Yoshimoto Shingyo. 2005. ‘The Manuscript of the Surūpa-jātaka from the
Paññāsajātaka kept in the Otani University Library.’ In Buddhism and
Jainism: Essays in Honour of Dr. Hojun Nagasaki on his Seventieth Birthday.
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Ravindra Panth, and Ichijo Ogawa (ed.), Contribution of Buddhism to the
World Culture, Vol. 2, Mumbai and New Delhi: Somaiya Publications Pvt.
Ltd, pp. 106-122.
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Years of Prof. Prasert Na Nagara) (Bangkok: Faculty of Eastern Languages,
Department of Archæology, Silpakorn University, 2003): 85–96.
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Sciences humaines en Asie du Sud-Est 8 (Bangkok 2001): 57–66.
6. ‘Ārādhanā Tham: Invitation to Teach the Dhamma.’ Manusya. Journal of
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Association], 2002): 91–102.
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of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 20/1 (1997): 93–107.
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Fifth Reigns: Relics and Images according to Somdet Phra Saṅgharāja
Pussadeva’s Paṭhamasambodhi Sermon.’ Manusya. Journal of Humanities,
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– ‘The Sūtra on Impermanence.’ WFB Review XIII.6 (Nov.–Dec., BE 2519): 15–
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– ‘A Passage from the Cloud of Jewels Sutra.’ International Buddhist Forum
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1978
– ‘Un passage du Sūtra du Nuage de Joyaux (1).’ LSPÉB 3 (mai): 20–26.
– ‘Une édition critique de la version tibétaine d’un passage de l’Abhidharmakośaṭīkopāyikā de Śamathadeva—tirée de l’ensemble le plus étendu des
matériaux d’Āgama trouvables en tibétain: «Les quatre sortes de karma».’
LSPÉB 3 (mai): 27–30.
– ‘Addenda à «Une note sur les Trois Sortes de Sagesse».’ LSPÉB 4 (août):
14–16.
– ‘Les Quatre Sortes de Karma.’ LSPÉB 44 (août): 16–24.
– ‘L’Ārya-kalyāṇamitrasevana-sūtra.’ LSPÉB 5 (novembre): 13–22.
1979
– ‘Discourse on the Four Kinds of Karma.’ The Journal of Religious Studies
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– ‘Une note sur l’Upāliparipṛcchā.’ LSPÉB 6 (février): 19–27.
– ‘Un Discours comparant différentes sortes de connaissance
(Vidyāsthānopamasūtra).’ LSPÉB 7 (mai): 15–20.
1980
– ‘The Daśottara-sūtra, the Ṣaṭsūtraka-nipāta, and the Śīlaskandhikā.’ LSPÉB 10
(mars): 26–35.
– ‘On the Five Aggregates of Attachment [I].’ LSPÉB 11 (juin): 20–31.
– ‘On the Five Aggregates of Attachment (II).’ LSPÉB 12 (septembre): 25–30.
– ‘On the Five Aggregates of Attachment (III).’ LSPÉB 13 (décembre): 30–37.
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1981
– ‘The Unconditioned (I).’ LSPÉB 16 (septembre): 20–26.
1981-1982
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– ‘Uddaka Rāmaputta and Rāma.’ Pali Buddhist Review 6/2: 99–104.
– ‘The Three Similes.’ Pali Buddhist Review 6/2: 105–112.
1982
– ‘History and Tenets of the Sāmmatīya School.’ LSPÉB 19 (juin–septembre):
38–52.
1987
– ‘The Saṃskṛtāsamskṛta-viniścaya of Daśabalaśrīmitra.’ BSR 4/1: 3–23.
1990
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41–51.
1991
– ‘A Brief Guide to the Golden Tanjur.’ JSS 79/2: 138–146.
– ‘A Buddhist Verse Inscription from Andhra Pradesh.’ Indo-Iranian Journal
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1992
– ‘The Rakṣā Literature of the Śrāvakayāna.’ JPTS XVI: 109–182.
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– ‘Two Ports of Suvarṇabhūmi: A brief Note.’ JSS 80/1: 131.
– ‘Symbols on the Body, Feet, and Hands of a Buddha, Part I–Lists.’ JSS 80/2:
67–79.
1993
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– ‘Theravādin Literature in Tibetan Translation.’ JPTS XIX: 69–201.
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I/2 (Jan.–Mar.): 73–85.
– ‘Righteous and Unrighteous: Tales of a Two-headed Bird.’ JSPS II/3 (April–
June): 65–66 (+ Thai summary, pp. 67–68).
– ‘A Note on the History of the Bhikkhunī-saṅgha (I): Nuns at the time of the
Buddha.’ JSPS II/5 (Oct.–Dec.): 39–46 (+ Thai summary, pp. 47–50).
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– ‘Kanjur Titles and Colophons.’ In Per Kvaerne (ed.). Tibetan Studies:
Proceedings of the 6th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies,
Fagernes 1992, Volume 2. Oslo: The Institute for Comparative Research in
Human Culture: 768–780.
– [2537]. ‘A Note on the History of the Bhikkhunī-saṅgha (I): Nuns at the time
of the Buddha.’ WFB Review XXXI/2–3 (April–Sept.): 47–55 [= 1993].
– ‘The Synonyms of Nirvāṇa according to Prajñāvarman, Vasubandhu, and
Asaṅga.’ BSR 11/1: 29–49.
– ‘Vimuttimagga and Abhayagiri: the form-aggregate according to the
Saṃskṛtāsaṃkṛtaviniścaya.’ JPTS XX: 171–210.
1995
– ‘Female Renunciants (nang chi) in Siam according to Early Travellers’
Accounts.’ JSS 83: 55–61.
– ‘On the Five Aggregates of Attachment.’ WFB Review XXXII/2: 39–55 [revised
version of 1980].
Peter Skilling: Publications
225
1996
– ‘Symbols on the Body, Feet, and Hands of a Buddha, Part II–Short Lists.’ JSS
84/1: 5–28.
– ‘Verses associated with the *Rāhula-sūtra.’ In Michael Hahn, Jens-Uwe
Hartmann and Roland Steiner (ed.). Suhṛllekhāḥ: Festgabe für Helmut Eimer.
Swisttal-Odendorf: Indica et Tibetica 28: 201–226.
– ‘The Sambuddhe Verses and Later Theravādin Buddhology.’ JPTS XXII: 151–
183 [revised version of 1993].
– ‘An Arapacana Syllabary in the Bhadrakalpika-sūtra.’ JAOS 116/3 (July–Sept.):
522–523.
1997
– ‘Citations from the Scriptures of the “Eighteen Schools” in the Tarkajvālā.’
In Petra Kieffer-Pülz and Jens-Uwe Hartmann (ed.). Bauddhavidyāsudhākaraḥ:
Studies in Honour of Heinz Bechert on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday. SwisttalOdendorf: Indica et Tibetica 30: 605–614.
– ‘L’arrivée du bouddhisme theravāda en Asie du sud-est continentale.’ Bulletin
de liaison des recherches au Cambodge 3 (avril) (École française d’ExtrêmeOrient): 43–48 (translated from English by Olivier de Bernon).
– ‘On the School-affiliation of the «Patna Dhammapada».’ JPTS XXIII: 83–122.
– ‘New Pāli Inscriptions from South-east Asia.’ JPTS XXIII: 123–157 [contains
I. A Recently Discovered Pāli Inscription From Nakhon Pathom, pp. 123–133;
II. Pāli Inscriptions on a Stone Dhammacakka and an Octagonal Pillar from
Chai Nat, pp. 133–151; III. A Paritta Inscription from Śrīkṣetra in Burma, pp.
152–157].
– ‘”Eight Appropriate Similes” (’Thun pa’i dpe brgyad): Verse 5 of
Nāgārjuna’s Pratītyasamutpādahṛdaya-kārikā and the Sūtra on the Questions
on how Transmigration Occurs.’ In Bhikkhu Tampalawela Dhammaratana
and Bhikkhu Pāsādika (ed.). Dharmadūta—Mélanges offerts au Vénérable Thích
Huyên-Vi à l’occasion de son soixante-dixième anniversaire. Paris: 251–260.
– ‘From bKa’ bstan bcos to bKa’ ’gyur and bsTan ’gyur.’ In Helmut Eimer (ed.).
Transmission of the Tibetan Canon: Papers Presented at a Panel of the 7th Seminar
of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995. Vienna: 87–111 (=
Vol. III of Ernst Steinkellner [gen. ed.]. Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the
International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995. Vienna: Beitrāge zur
Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens, Nr. 22 (Österreichische Akademie der
226
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Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Denkschriften, 257. Band):
87–111.
– ‚The Advent of Theravāda Buddhism to Mainland South-east Asia.‘ JIABS
20/1: 93–107.
– ‘Dharmakīrti’s Durbodhāloka and the Literature of Śrīvijaya.’ JSS 85: 187–
194.
1998
– ‘A Note on King Milinda in the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya.’ JPTS 24: 81–101.
– ‘A Note on Dhammapada 60 and the Length of the Yojana.’ JPTS 24: 149–170.
– ‘Sources for the Study of the Maṅgala and Mora-suttas.’ JPTS 24: 185–193.
– ‘Praises of the Buddha beyond Praise.’ JPTS 24: 195–200.
– ‘The Sūtra on the Four Conditions: A (Mūla)Sarvāstivādin Discourse on
Causality.’ WZKS XLII: 139–149.
1999
– ‘”Arise, go forth, devote yourselves…”: A verse summary of the teaching
of the Buddhas.’ In Socially Engaged Buddhism for the New Millennium: Essays in
honor of the Ven. Phra Dhammapitaka (Bhikkhu P.A. Payutto) on his 60th birthday
anniversary. Bangkok: Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation: 440–444.
– [2542]. ‘A Buddhist inscription from Go Xoai, Southern Vietnam and notes
towards a classification of ye dharmā inscriptions.’ In 80 pi śāstrācāry dr.
praḥsert ṇa nagara: ruam pada khwam vijākāra dan charük lae ekasāraporāṇa [80
Years: A collection of articles on epigraphy and ancient documents published
on the occasion of the celebration of the 80th birthday of Prof. Dr. Prasert Na
Nagara]. Bangkok, 21 March: 171–187.
– ‘The Sixty-four Destructions according to the Saṃskṛtāsaṃskṛta-viniścaya.’
JPTS 25: 113–120.
2000
– ‘Nonnen, Laienanhängerinnen, Spenderinnen, Göttinnen: Weibliche
Rollen im frühen indischen Buddhismus.’ In Ulrike Roesler (ed.). Aspekte des
Weiblichen in der indischen Kultur. Swisttal-Odendorf: Indica et Tibetica 39:
47–102 (translation by Ulrike Roesler of paper ‘Nuns, Laywomen, Donors,
Goddesses: Female Roles in Early Indian Buddhism’ given at University of
Marburg).
Peter Skilling: Publications
227
– ‘A Survey of the Vyākhyāyukti Literature.’ JIABS 23/2: 297–350.
– ‘Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia.’ Japanese translation by
Toshiya Unebe, Otani University, Kyoto.
2001
– ‘The Batang Manuscript Kanjur in the Newark Museum: A Preliminary
Report.’ Annual Report of The International Research Institute for Advanced
Buddhology at Soka University, Vol. 4/71–92.
– ‘The Place of South-East Asia in Buddhist Studies.’ Buddhist Studies (Bukkyō
Kenkyū) XXX: 19–43 (talk given at the International College for Advanced
Buddhist Studies, Tokyo, 21 November, 2000).
– ‘Some Literary References in the “Grande Inscription d’Angkor” (IMA 38).’
Aséanie. Sciences humaines en Asie du Sud-Est 8 (Bangkok): 57-66.
– ‘Eṣā agrā: Images of nuns in (Mūla-)Sarvāstivādin literature.’ JIABS 24/2:
135–156.
– ‘Nuns, Laywomen, Donors, Goddesses: Female Roles in Early Indian
Buddhism.’ JIABS 24/2: 241–274.
2002
– ‘On a New Edition of the Syāmaraṭṭhassa Tepiṭakaṭṭhakathā.’ JPTS XXVII:
155–158.
– ‘Some Citation Inscriptions from South-East Asia.’ JPTS XXVII: 159–175.
– ‘Ārādhanā Tham: “Invitation to Teach the Dhamma”.’ Manusya: Journal of
Humanities, Special Issue No 4 (Bangkok): 84–92.
– ‘Three Types of Bodhisatta in Theravādin Tradition: A Bibliographical
Excursion.’ Buddhist and Indian Studies in Honour of Professor Sodo Mori.
Hamamtsu: Kokusai Bukkyoto Kyokai (International Buddhist Association):
91–102.
2003
– [2546]. ‘Ideology and Law: The Three Seals Code on Crimes related to Relics,
Images, and Bodhi-trees.’ In Winai Phongsipan (ed.). Sichamai-achan: Phiphit
niphon chert chu kiat satsadachan dr. prasert na nakhon — satsadachan wisuth
butsayakun nuang nai okat mi ayu 88 pi nai pho. so 2546. Bangkok: Fuang Fa Printing.
[Sichamai-achan: Articles in honour of Prof. Dr. Prasert Na Nagara and Prof.
Visuddh Busyakul on the occasion of their 84th birthday in BE 2546]: 287–307.
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– ‘Dvāravatī: Recent Revelations and Research.’ Dedications to Her Royal
Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra on her
80th birthday. Bangkok: The Siam Society: 87–112.
– ‘An Oṃ maṇipadme Hūṃ Inscription from South-East Asia.’ Aséanie 11 (June
2003): 13–20.
– [2546]. ‘Manuscripts and Inscriptions, Languages and Letters.’ Phasa-Charük,
Vol. 9 (88 Years of Prof. Dr. Prasert Na Nagara). Bangkok: Faculty of Eastern
Languages, Department of Archæology, Silpakorn University: 85–96.
– ‘On the agnihotramukhā yajñāḥ verses.’ In Olle Qvarnstrom (ed.). Jainism and
Early Buddhism: Essays in Honor of Prof. Padmanabh S. Jaini. Fremont, California:
Asian Humanities Press, Part II: 637–667.
2003–2004
– ‘Traces of the Dharma: Preliminary reports on some ye dhammā and ye
dharmā inscriptions from Mainland South-East Asia.’ BEFEO 90–91: 273–287.
2004
– [2547]. ‘Mahāyāna and Bodhisattva: An essay towards historical
understanding.’ In Pakorn Limpanusorn, Chalermpon Iampakdee (ed.).
Phothisatawa barami kap sangkhom thai nai sahatsawat mai [Bodhisattvaparami
and Thai Society in the New Millennium]. Bangkok: Chinese Studies Centre,
Institute of East Asia, Thammasat University. [Proceedings of a seminar in
celebration of the fourth birth cycle of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha
Chakri Sirindhorn held at Thammasat University, 21 January 2546 (2003)]:
139–156.
– ‘Random Jottings on Śrīghana: An Epithet of the Buddha.’ Annual Report of
The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University for
the Academic Year 2003, Vol. VII. Tokyo: The International Research Institute
for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University: 147–158.
– ‘Jambudvīpe pracaramāṇaḥ: The Circulation of Mahāyāna Sūtras in India.’
Journal of the International College for Advanced Buddhist Studies, Vol. VII. Tokyo:
73–87.
– [2547]. ‘Pāli in Early South-East Asia and in Sukhothai.’ In Tharapong
Srisuchat (ed.). Boranakhadi lae prawatisat sukhothai: khwam ru ruang sukhothai
nai 4 totsawat/Archaeology and History of Sukhothai. Sukhothai: Samnak Silpakon
ti 6: 65–72 (Proceedings of seminar held at Sukhothai, 6–8 September, 2003).
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– ‘Bunds, Bells, and Bazaars: Notes on the Vocabulary of Inscription No. 1.’
In Winai Pongsripian and Weerawan Ngamsuntikul (ed.). Catusansaniyachan:
Essays in honour of Maj. Gen. M.R. Suphawat Kasemsri, Chulthusna Byaghrananda,
Dr. Kasem Sirisumpundh, and Khunying Kanita Lekhakul, and on the occasion of their
seventy-second birthday anniversary in 2004. Bangkok: Historical Commission,
Ministry of Culture: 294–325.
2005
– ‘Cutting across categories: The ideology of relics in Buddhism.’ Annual Report
of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University
for the Academic Year 2004. Vol. VIII, Tokyo: The International Research
Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University: 269–322.
– ‘Unsettling Boundaries: Verses shared by Śrāvaka and Mahāyāna texts.’
Journal of the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies IX: 99–112.
– [2548]. ‘Pieces in the Puzzle: Sanskrit Literature in Pre-modern Siam.’
Phasa-Charük 10 (Bangkok: Faculty of Eastern Languages, Department of
Archæology, Silpakorn University): 1–13.
– ‘Worship and Devotional Life: Buddhist Devotional Life in Southeast
Asia.’ In Lindsay Jones (ed.). Encyclopedia of Religion. Second Edition. Detroit:
Macmillan Reference USA/Thomson Gale, Vol. 14: 9826–9834.
– ‘”Buddhist sealings”: Reflections on terminology, motivation, donors’
status, school-affiliation, and print-technology.’ In Catherine Jarrige and
Vincent Lefèvre (ed.). South Asian Archaeology 2001. Vol. II, Historical Archaeology
and Art History. Paris: Éditions Recherches sur les Civilisations: 677–685.
– (with Paul Harrison). ‘What’s in a Name? Sarvāstivādin Interpretations of
the Epithets “Buddha” and “Bhagavat”.’ In Buddhism and Jainism, Essays in
Honour of Dr. Hojun Nagasaki on his Seventieth Birthday. Kyoto: 700–675 [131–
156].
2006
– ‘Daśabalaśrīmitra on the Buddhology of the Sāṃmitīyas.’ Nagoya Studies in
Indian Culture and Buddhism - Sambhasa No. 25. Nagoya: Department of Indian
Studies, Graduate School of Letters, Nagoya University: 98–123.
– ‘Jātaka and Paññāsa-jātaka in South-East Asia.’ JPTS XXVIII: 113–173.
– ‘Buddhism: Imperfection and Transcendence.’ Journal for the Comparative
Study of Civilizations (Reitaku University) 11: 26–32 [International Symposium
230
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to Commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the Center for the Comparative
Study of Civilizations and Cultures].
– ‘Paṭa (Phra Bot): Buddhist Cloth Painting of Thailand.’ In François
Lagirarde and Paritta Chalermpow Koanantakool (ed.). Buddhist Legacies in
Mainland Southeast Asia: Mentalities, Interpretations and Practices. Paris: École
française d’Extrême-Orient (Études thématiques 19)/Bangkok: Sirindhorn
Anthropology Centre (SAC Publication 61): 223–275.
– (with Sieglinde Dietz and Olle Qvarnström). ‘A Fragment of a Commentary
(?) on a Hitherto Unknown Recension of the Mahasamājasūtra.’ In Jens
Braarvig (gen. ed.). Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection: Buddhist Manuscripts,
Vol. III. Oslo: Hermes Publishing: 195–206.
– ‘La vie du Bouddhe: Traditions et Histoire.’ In Religions et Histoire 8 (maijuin): 18–23.
– ‘Le Jâtaka: Vies entérieure et Perfections du Bouddha.’ In Religions et Histoire
8 (mai-juin): 52–57.
2007
– ‘King, Saṅgha, and Brahmans: Ideology, ritual and power in pre-modern
Siam.’ In Ian Harris (ed.). Buddhism, Power and Political Order. London and New
York: Routledge: 182–215.
– ‘Geographies of Intertextuality: Buddhist Literature in Pre-modern Siam.’
Aséanie - Sciences humaines en Asie du Sud-est 19 (June 2007): 91–112.
– ‘Zombies and Half-Zombies: Mahāsūtras and Other Protective Measures.’
Journal of the Pali Text Society XXIX (Festschrift in honour of the 80th birthday
of K.R. Norman in 2005 and the 125th anniversary in 2006 of the founding of
the Pali Text Society): 313–330.
– ‘For merit and Nirvāṇa: The production of art in the Bangkok Period.’ Arts
Asiatiques 62: 76–94.
– ‘Mṛgāra’s Mother’s Mansion: Emptiness and the Śūnyatā Sutras.’ Journal of
Indian and Tibetan Studies 11 (ed. Shoryu Katsura, Association for the Study of
Indian Philosophy, Kyoto, Japan): 225–247.
– ‘”Dhammas are as swift as thought …”: A note on Dhammapada 1 and 2 and
their parallels.’ Journal of the Centre for Buddhist Studies, Sri Lanka V: 23–49.
– Review of Pratapaditya Pal (ed.). Buddhist Art: Form and Meaning. Mumbai:
Marg Publications (2007). In Orientations 38/8 (Nov./Dec.): 102–103.
Peter Skilling: Publications
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2008
– ‘Buddhist sealings and the ye dharmā stanza.’ In Gautam Sengupta and
Sharmi Chakraborty (ed.). Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia. New Delhi/
Kolkata: Pragati Publications (Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training,
Eastern India): 503–525.
– ‘Buddhist Sealings in Thailand and Southeast Asia: Iconography, Function,
and Ritual Context.’ In Elisabeth A. Bacus, Ian C. Glover and Peter D. Sharrock
(ed.), with the editorial assistance of John Guy and Vincent C. Pigott.
Interpreting Southeast Asia’s Past – Monument, Image and Text. Selected Papers
from the 10th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast
Asian Archaeologists, Volume 2. Singapore: NUS Press: 248–262.
– ‘New Discoveries from South India: The life of the Buddha at Phanigiri,
Andhra Pradesh.’ Arts Asiatiques 63: 2–24.
2009
– ‘A Recently Discovered Sūrya Image from Thailand.’ In Gerd J.R. Mevissen
and Arundhati Banerji (ed.). Prajñādhara: Essays on Asian Art, History, Epigraphy
and Culture in Honour of Gouriswar Bhattacharya. New Delhi: Kaveri Books: 455–
465 and pls. 46.1–10.
– ‘Redaction, Recitation, and Writing: Transmission of the Buddha’s Teachings
in India in the Early Period.’ Chap. 4. In Stephen C. Berkwitz, Juliane Schober,
and Claudia Brown (ed.). Buddhist Manuscript Cultures: Knowledge, Ritual, and
Art. London: Routledge.
COLLABORATIONS
1982. Introduction to and English translation of the Heart Sūtra in Jen Wen
(ed.), Prajñāpāramitā-Hṛdaya-Sūtra, Das Sūtra vom Herzen der Vollkommenen
Weisheit, The Heart Sūtra, Zero Verlag, Rheinberg. English translation of
the Heart Sūtra in Thai version of preceding, Bhikkhu Dhammavīro, Laiat
Silanoi (tr.), Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdayasūtra, Bangkok, BE 2527.
1996. With Jampa Samten. ‘On the Date of the Śel dkar (London) Manuscript
bKa’ ’gyur (Or. 6724).’ In Ulrich Pagel and Séan Gaffney, Location List to the
Texts in the Microfiche Edition of the Śel dkar (London) Manuscript bKa’ ’gyur (Or.
6724), The British Library: London (Catalogus Codicum Tibetanorum I): 1-9.
232
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1999. With Prapod Assavavirulhakarn. ‘Vasubandhu on Travel and Seclusion.’
Manusya: Journal of Humanities, Vol. 2, No. 1, March, 1999. Bangkok:
Chulalongkorn University: 13-24.
2002a. With Prapod Assavavirulhakarn. ‘Tripiṭaka in Practice in the Fourth
and Fifth Reigns: Relics and Images according to Somdet Phra Saṅgharāja
Pussadeva’s Paṭhamasambodhi Sermon.’ Manusya: Journal of Humanities,
Special Issue 4: Tripitaka (The Buddhist Canon): 1–6.
2002b. With Santi Pakdeekham. ‘Charuk phra savok lae charuk phra chao
sutthothana phop mai thi phiphitaphan sathan haeng chat u thong
ch. suphanburi’/‘Hearers of the Buddha and the Buddha’s Father: A
Preliminary Reprot on Inscribed Artefacts in U Thong National Museum.’
Fragile Palm Leaves Newsletter No. 7 (December 2545/2002): 11–14.
2002c. With Santi Pakdeekham. ‘Wannakam ang ing nai charuk yai haeng
nakhon wat.’ Muang Boran Vol. 28 No. 4 (October–December 2002): 79–85
(revised and expanded Thai version of Skilling 2001c).
2006-2007. With Prapod Assavavirulhakarn. ‘New Readys of Early Indiclanguage Inscriptions from Nakhon Si Thammarat, Southern Thailand.’
Bulletin d’Études Indiennes 24-25.
REVIEWS
1976. Thomas Merton on Zen; Hee-Jin Kim, Dōgen Kigen—Mystical Realist,
W.F.B. Review XIII/6 (Nov.–Dec., BE 2519): 22–24.
1977. Tenzin Gyatso, The Buddhism of Tibet and the Key to the Middle Way;
Nāgārjuna and the Seventh Dalai Lama, The Precious Garland and Song
of the Four Mindfulnesses, International Buddhist Forum Quarterly,
Introductory Issue, Bangkok: 71–73.
1990. Jinamahānidāna, Cakkavā¬adīpanī, Lokapaññatti, Lokadīpakasāra,
Traibhūmikathā hru traibhūmi braḥ rvṅ, BSR 7.1–2: 115–21.
1991. Paul Harrison, The Samādhi of Direct Encounter with the Buddhas of
the Past, JSS 79.2: 152–56.
1992a. JPTS XIV, JSS 80.1: 162–63.
1992b. “Buddhist Literature: Some Recent Translations”, JSS 80.1: 135–43.
1997a. Donald Swearer, The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia, JAOS 117.3: 579–80.
Peter Skilling: Publications
233
1997b. Pamela Kyle Crosseley, The Manchus. JSS 85: 201–202.
1997c. Heinz Braun, Burmese Manuscripts. Part 3. JSS 85: 205–206.
1997d. Oskar von Hinüber, A Handbook of Pāli Literature. JSS 85: 206–207.
1998a. Robert Brown, The Dvaravati Wheels of the Law. JSS 86: 245–247.
1998b. Heinz Bechert, Singhalesische Handschriften. JSS 86: 247–248.
1999a. Sarabanchi suan ti 1 khü tamaeng rachakan ch.s. 1245; Sarabanchi
suan ti 2 khü ratsadon nai changwat thanon lae trok ch.s. 1245. Aséanie
3, mai 1999: 162–63.
1999b. Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Traditions of South and Southeast
Asia. Edited by Juliane Schober. Crossroads 12.2: 108–110.
1999c. Niyada Lausoonthorn, Thananchaibanditachadok: phap saton
phumipanya khongchau ayutthaya. Aséanie 4: 206–208.
2000a. Hans Penth et al., Corpus of Lān Nā Inscriptions, Vol. 3. JSS 88: 248–
249.
2000b. Klaus Wille, Sanskrithandschriften aus den Turfanfunden, Teil 8. JSS
88, p. 249.
2000c. Mark Allon, Three Gāndhārī Ekottarikāgama-Type Sūtras: British
Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragments 12 and 14.Bulletin of the Asia Institute New
Series Vol. 14: 163–164.
2001. Anne Peters, Burmese Manuscripts. Part 4, Catalogue Numbers 736–
900. JSS 89: 131–132.
2002a. Georg von Simson, Sanskrittexte aus den Turfanfunden XI:
Prātimokṣasūtra der Sarvāstivādins, Teil II. IIJ 45.3: 264–266.
2002b. Gerhard Ehlers, Indische Handschriften, Teil 13: Die Sammlung MS
OR FOL der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin–Preussischer Kulturbesitz . IIJ 45.3:
263–264.
2002c. Christine Chojnacki et al., Vividharatnakaraṇḍaka, Festgabe für
Adelheid Mette. IIJ 45.4: 373–377.
2007. Buddhist Art: Form and Meaning, edited by Pratapaditya Pal (Marg
Publications, Mumbai, 2007), reviewed in Orientations Vol. 38, No. 8
(November-December 2007) 102-103.
2008. Buddhist Goddesses of India by Miranda Shaw (Princeton University Press
2006). Reviewed in Material Religion, Volume 4, Issue 2: 241-242.
234
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
MISCELLANEA
Writings in Fragile Palm Leaves Newsletter 1 (March, 1997) 2 (October, 1997),
3 (June, 1998), 4 (September, 1998), 5 (May, 1999), 6 (Dec. 2000), 7 (Dec.
2002). Bangkok.
The bibliography does not include poetry published in Toronto in the writer’s
long-ago youth, or reviews and articles written for the Bangkok Post.
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Arunsak Kingmanee. 1996. ‘Suvannakakkata-Jataka on the Bai Sema of Wat
Non Sila-atwararam.’ Muang Boran, Vol. 22 no. 2 (April–June): 133–138.
Arunsak Kingmanee. 1997. ‘Bhuridatta-Jataka on the Carved Sema in Kalasin.’
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Title Index
A
Abhidharmakośa 25, 98, 146
Abhidharmakośopāyikā-ṭīkā 133
Abhiniṣkramaṇa-sūtra 144
Abhisamayālaṃkāra 54
Ākāravatta-sutta 140, 154
Anāgatavaṃsa 58, 78, 121, 147
Anāthapiṇḍikovāda-sutta 85
Ānisaṅs 108 kaṇḍ chabap perm term mai 45
Ānisaṅs pha paṅsukula 188
Apadāna 151, 156, 159, 171
Apadāna-aṭṭhakathā 159
Ārādhanādharrma 88
Ārādhanādharrma yang bistāra 88
Ariyapariyesana-sutta 83, 89, 96, 132
Arthaviniścaya 98
Aruṇavatī-sūtra 9, 140, 150
Aruṇavatīsūtra-aṭṭhakathā 9
Ārya-sarvadurgati-pariśodhani-uṣṇīṣavijaya-nāma-dhāraṇī 32, 42
Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā 38, 97, 98
Āṭānāṭiya-paritta 141
Āṭānāṭiya-sutta 133
Aṭavisi-pirit 141, 152
Atidūrenidānakathā 138
Aṭṭhakathā-jātaka 173
Avadānakalpalatā 167
Avadāna-śataka 30, 148, 166, 204
B
Bahubuddha-sūtra 149
Bhadracāripraṇidhāna 79
Bhadrakalpika-sūtra 145, 149, 162
Bhaiṣajyavastu 143, 148
Bhikkhunīpātimokkha nissaya 102
Bhikkhu-vibhaṅga 133
Bimbānibbāna 58, 209
261
262
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Bodhicaryāvatāra 86
Bodhisattvabhūmi 99
Bodhisattva-piṭaka 145
Braḥ Mahādibamantr 43
Brahmajāla-sutta 159
Brahmasaṃyutta 84
Brahmayācanakathā 84
Brahmāyācana-sutta 84
Buddhacarita 84
Buddhaghosanidāna 13
Buddhamant bidhī (chabap somboon) 44
Buddhāpadāna 151
Buddhavaṃsa 65, 81, 82, 85, 87, 88, 105, 112, 132, 135, 151, 153, 159, 171, 175
Buddhavaṃsa-aṭṭhakathā (commentary) 85, 87, 159
C
Cakkavāḷa-dīpanī 9, 28, 56
Cakkavattisīhanāda-sutta 147
Cāmadevī-vaṃsa 5, 6, 12, 186
Candasuriyagatī-dīpanī 57
Caṅkī-sutta 155, 159
Cariyāpiṭaka 100, 135, 136, 137, 159
Cariyāpiṭaka-aṭṭhakathā 100, 136, 137, 159
Chaddanta-paritta 179
Chagati-dīpanī 9, 56
Chiang Mai Chronicle 205, 206
Chiang Mai Paṇṇāsajātaka 7
Chumnum ānisaṅs 65 ruang 45
Chumnum suat mant chabap luang 44
Commentary on the Discourse on the Ten Stages 163
Cularājaparitra 128
D
Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā 163
Dasabodhisatta-uddesa 92, 136, 140, 147, 208
Dasabodhisatta-vyākaraṇa 58
Dasabodhisattuppatti-kathā 140, 147
Dasajāti (Daśajāti) 10, 70, 167, 173
Dhajagga-sutta 106, 153, 155
Index
Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta 108, 110
Dhammapada 4, 12, 30, 60, 62, 78, 107, 108, 109, 137, 184, 186, 190, 193
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā 12, 30, 60, 78, 137, 184, 190
Dhammasaṅgaṇī 108
Dhammasattha 14
Dhammasoṇḍaka 186, 214, 215
Dhanañjayapaṇḍita-jātaka 36, 72
Dhutaguṇanirdeśa 113
Dibamant prachum pad suat mant 44
Dibbamanta 34, 58
Dīghanikāya-ṭīkā 159
Dīpa-vaṃsa 50, 104
Divyāvadāna 134, 182, 204
Duṅyantinidāna 12
Durbodhāloka 54
Dūrenidānakathā 138
Dvādasa-paritta, (Twelve Paritta, Twelve Protections) 120, 128, 141
E
Extended Mahāvaṃsa 29
Extensive Abhidhamma: 35
G
Gārava-sutta 132, 133
Greater Royal Paritta 128
’Gro ba bzaṅ mo 167
H
Hitopadeśa 29, 30
J
Jaccandha-vagga 159
Jambūpati-sūtra (-sutta) 12, 14, 30, 31, 36, 41, 56, 180, 185, 208
Jātaka-aṭṭhavaṇṇanā 171
Jātakamālā 162
Jātakanidāna 85
Jet Tamnan 128
Jinakālamālinī (Jinakālamālī) 6, 12, 137, 138, 150, 175, 205
Jinamahānidāna 57, 142
263
264
Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
K
Kaliṅgabodhi-jātaka 82
Kāmandakī Nīti-śāra 13
Kanakavaṇṇarāja 186, 204, 214, 215
Kapphiṇa-avadāna 30, 31
Kara Monogatari 183, 187
Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka 132, 144, 145
Katha [Gāthā] phan 173
Khandhavatta-jātaka 179
Khong di chak pap sa 44
Kinnarī-jātaka 164
Kojiki 50
L
Lalitavistara 20, 84, 96, 97, 145, 162
Lesser Royal Paritta 128
Līnatthappakāsanā 159
Lokadīpakasāra 9, 56, 92, 136
Lokānanda 168
Lokaneyya-pakaraṇa 13, 14, 36, 37, 57, 70, 71, 72, 73, 185, 186,
208
Lokapaññatti 9, 13, 56
Lokaprajñapty-abhidharma-śāstra 13
Lokasaṇṭhānajotaratanagaṇṭhī 9, 56
Lokīpaṇṇāsa-jāt 201, 202
Lokīpaṇṇāsajāt-nisya (-nissaya) 201, 207
Lokuppatti 9, 56, 140
M
Madhuratthavilāsinī 81, 82, 85, 87, 88, 158
Mahābhārata 29
Mahābuddha-vaṃsa 101
Mahachat kham luang 174
Mahādib(b)amantra (-manta, -mant) 35, 43, 58, 59, 65, 154, 180
Mahājāti 173, 174
Mahājaya 35
Mahākappalokasaṇṭhāna 56, 208
Mahākappalokasaṇṭhānapaññatti 9
Mahākapphiṇadhaja-sūtra 31
Index
265
Mahākappinarāja-jātaka 31
Mahākappina-sutta 12
Mahākaruṇāpuṇḍarīka 145
Mahākaruṇāpuṇḍarīka-sūtra 144
Mahānidānakathā 138
Mahāpadāna-sutta 84, 133, 149
Mahāparinibbāna-sutta 17, 121
Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra 172
Mahārāja-paritra 128
Mahāsampiṇḍanidāna 137, 208
Mahāśītavana-sūtra 144, 145
Mahāvadāna-sūtra 133
Mahāvagga 84, 89, 106, 107, 108, 118
Mahāvaṃsa 13, 29, 50, 55, 104, 164
Mahāvastu 25, 84, 96, 134, 144, 145, 149, 151, 162
Mahāvessantara-jātaka 175
Mahāvyutpatti 98, 99
Mahāyānasaṃgraha 163
Mālālaṃkāra-vatthu 139
Māleyyadeva-sutta 102
Māleyya-sutta 121, 175
Maṅgalabidhī 44
Maṅgala-sutta 65, 107
Manopaṇidhānakathā 138
Mant bidhī samrap phra bhikṣu sāmaṇera lae buddhaśāsanikajana tua pai
44
mDo las byuṅ ba’i gtam rgyud sna tshogs 167
mDo mdzaṅs blun 166
Milindapañhā (Milindapañha) 13, 59, 70, 85, 136
Moggallānanibbāna 58
Mora-paritta 179
Mūlaśāsanā 12, 142
Munināthadīpanī 140
N
Nagara-sutta 133
Nandakaprakaraṇa 29, 41
Nandopananda-sutta 209
Nangsu suat mant chabap bodhiñāṇ 44
Nangsu suat mant mahā phra buddhamant 44
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Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia
Nangsu unahit-wichai kham lilit 45 (see also Uṇhissa-vijaya etc.)
Nihon-shoki 50
Nipāta-jātaka 173, 203
Nīti 13, 29
O
Okāsaloka 9, 56
Okāsaloka-dīpanī 9
P
Padumakumāra 209
Pakiṇṇakanayasāra-niddesa 92
Pañcabuddha-byākaraṇa 188
Pañcabuddhaśakarāja-varrṇanā 188
Pañcagati-dīpanī 9, 56
Pañcagatidīpanī-ṭīkā 9
Pañcappakaraṇa-aṭṭhakathā 95
Pañcaskandha-bhāṣya 99
Pañcaskandha-prakaraṇa 99
Pañcatantra 13, 29
Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā 97, 116
Paññāpāramī 37, 39, 41
Paññāpāramī-deśanā 37
Paṇṇāsajāt 200
Paññāsa-jātaka 7, 8, 29, 57, 161, 168, 176, 177, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185,
186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202,
203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 213, 215, 216
Paññāsa-jātaka-saṅgaha 201, 202
Paññāsajātak samrāy 198, 199
Paññāsajātak saṅkhep 198
Paññāsa-nipāta 189, 190
Paṇṇāsapāḷi 200
Papañcasūdanī 89, 159
Paramatthadīpanī 158
Paramatthamaṅgala 7, 36, 45, 209
Pāsarāsi-sutta 83, 89
Paṭhamamūla 140, 142
Paṭhamamūlamūlī 137, 140
Paṭhamamūla Paṭhamakap lae Mūlatantraiya 140
Index
Paṭhamasambodhi 29, 58, 81, 109, 120, 121, 122, 123, 209
Paṭhamasambodhi Sermon 121
Paṭisambhidāmagga 107, 109, 110, 112
Patna Dharmapada 25
Phra chao liap lok 55
Phra Mahāpuruṣalakṣaṇa 140
Phra Malai 102, 175
Piṭakamālā 177, 202, 209
Prachum Silacharuk 3
Prajñāpāramitā for Humane Kings 163
Prātimokṣa-sūtra 134
Pravrajyāvastu 133, 134
Puggalapaññatti 94, 95
Puggalapaññatti-aṭṭhakathā 95
Pum Rājatham 13
Puṇṇovāda-sutta 115
R
Rājovāda-sutta 177
Rāma-jātaka 178
Ramakien 178, 179
Rāmāyaṇa 29, 178, 179
Rasavāhinī 56
Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā-sūtra 162
Ratanabimba-vaṃsa 5, 6, 12, 56
Ratana-sutta 107
Royal Chanting Book 83, 88, 121, 128, 129, 141
S
Saddharmālaṅkarāya 137
Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra 98, 99, 149
Saddharma Ratnāvaliya 139, 142, 186
Sagāthavagga 155
Samantapāsādikā 102, 171, 172
Sambhāravipāka 12, 57, 102, 137, 140, 142, 208
Sambuddhe-gāthā 58, 128, 130, 152
Saṃgharakṣitāvadāna 134
Sammoha-nidāna 8, 209
Sampasādanīya-sutta 132, 159
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Sampiṇḍita-mahānidāna 12, 57
Saṃskṛtāsaṃkṛtaviniścaya 105
Samuddaghosa-jātaka 177, 182, 184, 189, 197, 205
Saṅghabhedavastu 84, 96
Saṅgītiya-vaṃsa 11, 55, 102
Sangoku denki 168
Saranukrom watthanatham thai 52
Sārasaṅgaha 177
Sāriputtanibbāna 58
Sarvatathāgata-uṣṇīṣavijaya-nāma-dhāraṇī-kalpa 42, 43
Sarvatathāgata-uṣṇīṣavijaya-nāma-dhāraṇī-kalpa-sahita 42, 43
Sāsana-vaṃsa 54
Ṣaṭpāramitā-saṅgraha-sūtra 165
Satta-paritta 128
Sāvakanibbāna 58, 209
Śayanāsana-vastu 134, 148
Scripture of the Collection of the Six Perfections 165, 170, 194
Seven Paritta 128
Seven Protections 128
Shishū hyaku-innen shū 168
Sihiṅga-nidāna 6, 56
Sipsong Tamnan 128
Sirimāvimāna 82
Sisora-jātaka 207
Soga Monogatari 169
Soṇadaṇḍa-sutta 155, 159
Sotabbamālinī 209
Sotatthakī-mahānidāna 12, 57, 58, 90, 102, 137, 142, 147, 151, 208
Śrāvakabhūmi 172
Suat mant chabap phra buat mai 44
Suat mant muang nua 43, 44
Suat mon plae chabap ho phra samut wachirayan 80
Suddhodana-vatthu 137
Sudhana 10, 168, 181, 190, 191, 195, 204, 206, 207, 211, 214, 216
Sudhanu 191, 205, 206, 209, 211, 214
Sukhāvatīvyūha 145
Sumaṅgalavilāsinī 159
Sumbhamitta 209, 211
Surūpa 182, 204, 215
Sūryasiddhānta 57
Index
Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish 31, 166, 168, 182
Sūtra on the Contemplation of the Two Bodhisattvas 145
Suttajātakanidāna-ānisaṃsa-kathā 8, 209
Suttanipāta 100, 108, 136
Suttanipāta-aṭṭhakathā 100, 136
Suvarṇaprabhāsa 162
T
Tamnan Mūlaśāsanā 139
Tathāgata-udāna 139
Telakaṭāha-gātha 109, 110, 119
Thammasombat (Dharrmasampati) 121
Thanhmya Pyitsan Pyo 206
The Benefits of the Mahāvessantara-jātaka 175
The Sūtra of the Wise and Foolish 183
Thotsachat kham chan 176
Thūpa-vaṃsa 164
Tipiṭaka 4, 5, 14, 40, 49, 55, 56, 62, 68, 78, 132, 133, 152, 171, 209, 213
Tissathera-vatthu 193
Traibhūmi chabap lanna 139
Traibhūmi chabap luang 156
Traibhūmilokavinicchayakathā 10, 156, 191, 207
Traibhūmi phra ruang 10, 56, 78
Twelve Paritta, Twelve Protections: see Dvādasa-paritta
U
Udāna-aṭṭhakathā 156, 159
Uṇhissa-vijaya-sutta 12, 32, 34, 35, 36, 41, 43, 44, 45, 58, 65, 179
Uṇhissa-vijaya dhamma 34
Upāyakauśalya-sūtra 85
Uppātasanti 58, 154
Uṣṇīṣavijaya 32, 180
Uṣṇīṣavijayā-dhāraṇī 32, 33, 34, 42
V
Vajirasārasaṅgaha 13
Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā 38
Vaṃsamālinī 13, 55
Vaṭṭaka-paritta 179
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Vaṭṭaṅguli-jātaka 205
Vessantara-jātaka 173, 175, 176, 209
Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana 13, 37
Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana-phadet-nissaya 37
Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana-ṭīkā 37
Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana-upadesa 37
Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana-yojanā 37
Vimalakīrtinirdeśa 149, 160
Vimaloṣṇīṣa-dhāraṇī 33
Vimānavatthu 82
Vimuttimagga 105, 112, 113, 119
Vinayavastu-ṭīkā 149
Vinayavibhaṅga-padavyākhyāna 149
Visuddhimagga 60, 108, 109, 110, 112, 136, 190
Viśvāntara-jātaka 167
Vyākhyāyukti 115
Y
Yamaka 59
Yogācārabhūmiḥ 99
Z
Zimmè Jātaka 194, 200, 205
Zimmè Paṇṇāsa 7, 57, 181, 184, 185, 186, 187, 197, 198, 199, 200, 202, 203,
204, 205, 206, 210
sabbapāpassa akaraṇaṃ
kusalassūpasampadā
sacittapariyodapanaṃ
etaṃ buddhāna sāsanaṃ
ye dhammā hetuppabhavā
tesaṃ hetuṃ tathāgato āha
tesañ ca yo nirodho ca
evaṃvādī mahāsamaṇo
maṅgalaṃ lekhakānaṃ ca
pāṭhakānaṃ ca maṅgalaṃ
maṅgalaṃ sabbabhūtānaṃ
bhūmibhūpatimaṅgalaṃ
Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation
Fragile Palm Leaves is a non-profit foundation based in Bangkok, Thailand.
The foundation seeks to preserve and study the Buddhist literature of
South-East Asia. Its aims include:
To study and describe the history of the Buddhist literature of SouthEast Asia;
To collect information about and to prepare catalogues of manuscripts,
inscriptions, ancient documents, and mural paintings related to the
Buddhism of South-East Asia;
To edit and publish Buddhist texts in Pāli or vernaculars that have not
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To translate Buddhist texts from Pāli or vernaculars into English, Thai
and other languages.
Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation
P.O. Box 2036, Chulalongkorn Post Office
Bangkok 10332, Thailand
Facsimile (+66 2) 962-1469
Lumbini International Research Institute
The Lumbini International Research Institute is located in Lumbini, Nepal,
the birthplace of Śākyamuni Buddha, where it is an integral part of the
intellectual life of the Lumbini Master Plan. The Institute provides research
facilities for the study of religion in general and Buddhism in particular by
maintaining a research library. The Instituted is supported by the Reiyukai
(Tokyo, Japan).
Lumbini International Research Institute
P.O. Box 39
Bhairahawa, Dist. Rupandehi, Nepal
Phone/Facsimile 00977-71-80175
e-mail liri@mos.com.np
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