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A History of Pali Literature v2.c15: Chapter VIII. Pāli Literary Pieces

A History of Pāli Literature v2.c15

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English

Contents

Chapter VIII. Pāli Literary Pieces

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In the present chapter we have to deal with seven metrical compositions, the Anāgatavaṃsa, the Jinacarita, the Telakaṭāhagāthā, the Pajjamadhu, the Rasavāhinī, the Saddhammopāyana, and the Pañcagatidīpana, which were evidently the literary productions of Ceylon¹ and which belonged mostly to the closing period of Pāli literary activities of Ceylon ranging from the tenth or eleventh to the fourteenth or fifteenth century A.D. Amongst them the Anāgatavaṃsa stands as a supplement to the canonical work, Buddhavamsa; the Jinacarita occupies the same place in Pāli as the Buddhacarita in the Sanskrit Buddhist literature, the Telakaṭāhagāthā and the Pajjamadhu represent two interesting examples of the Śataka type of poetry, the Pañcagatidīpana and the Saddhamopāyana are written for the edification of certain select topics of Buddhism and the Rasavāhinī is a most charming book of folk-tales narrated in elegant and simple style, in prose and in verse. Most of these works show a tendency towards the sanskritisation of Pāli and display that amount of literary excellence and poetic imagination as may be expected from the people of Ceylon in general and the Buddhist monks in particular.

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¹ It is only in the case of the Anāgatavaṃsa that recensions may differ.

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The Anāgatavaṃsa edited by Minayeff for the P.T.S., is based upon four Burmese manuscripts which do not agree in their contents. One manuscript embodies recension of this work in prose and in verse, and in another we have it entirely in verse while in a third we have quite a different work in prose dealing with ten future Buddhas including Metteyya and devoting a chapter to each of them. The possibility of the last mentioned work is suggested in the closing verses of that mixed recension of the Anāgatavaṃsa which is found in prose and in verse :—

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“ Metteyyo, Uttamo, Rāmo, Pasenadi Kosalo’-bhibhū
Dighasoṇi ca Saṃkacco Subho Todeyya brāhmaṇo
Nāḷāgiripalaleyyo Bodhisattā ime dasa
Anukkamena sambodhiṃ pāpuṇissanti’nāgate’ti ”.

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(Anāgatavaṃsa, J.P.T.S., 1886, p. 37.)

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So far as the mixed recension goes, this text is written in prose style of the suttas in the nikāyas. The prose passages are intervened or followed by certain verses, the general tenor of which is somewhat different from those generally met with in the nikāyas. The text is composed of a dialogue between Sāriputta and Buddha and deals with the subject of gradual decline and disappearance of Buddhism, its literature, glory, and influence in time to come rather than with the life and career of the future Buddha, Metteyya. Viewed in this light, this text of the Anāgatavaṃsa may justly be regarded as a supplement or sequel to the suttas dealing with Anāgatabhayāni, “ future dangers of the faith ”, the discourses recommended by King Asoka in his Bhābrū Edict for a constant study by the Buddhists, both monks and laity. Whether such a prose dialogue as this was at any time incorporated in the nikāyas is a question to which no decisive answer may yet be given. It may suffice here to treat as a sequel to the Anāgatabhayasuttas and the texts dealing with the ten future Buddhas.

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The text with which we are concerned is a work in verse. It is completed in 142 stanzas and which deals with the life and career of the future Buddha Metteyya. According to the Gandhavamsa the original Anāgatavamsa was the work of an elder named Kassapa (presumably the Citrakathi Kumāra Kassapa). The ascription of authorship to Kassapa is not however justified by the text itself, which is set forth as a dialogue between Sāriputta and the Buddha. It is composed apparently in the manner and style of the Buddhavamsa to which it was meant to serve, no doubt, as a supplement. A comparison between the following verses quoted from the two works may make their interconnection clear :—

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1. Buddhavamsa—With regard to Buddha Vipassi :—

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“Nagaram Bandhumatī nāma Bandhumo nāma khattiyo mātā Bandhumatī nāma Vipassissa mahesino.” (xx. v. 23.)

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2. Anāgatavamsa :—

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“Samgho nāma upāsako Samghā nāma upāsikā paccupessanti sambuddham caturāsītisahassato.” (v. 61, J.P.T.S., 1886.)

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Seeing that the account of future Buddha Metteyya is precluded from the extant Buddhavamsa scheme of the lives of 26 Buddhas including Metteyya, it will be reasonable to enquire if the Anāgatavamsa in its present form was not a later elaboration of a shorter account of Metteyya forming the closing section of the Buddhavamsa in its original form.

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At the request of Sāriputta who desired to know about the future Buddha, the Buddha Gautama spoke in brief about Metteyya Buddha. The future Buddha would be born in India at Ketumatī in a brahmin family. He would be named Ajita and would possess immense wealth. He would enjoy worldly life for eight thousand years and then would forsake the world after having seen the four nimittas (Omens). Thousands of men and women would renounce the world with him. On the day of his retirement he would proceed to the great Bodhi tree. He would attain supreme enlightenment and then would set rolling the Wheel of Law. Many would escape worldly miseries by following the Dhamma which would be preached by the Buddha Metteyya.

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Jinacarita. Jinacarita is a Pāli Kāvya consisting of more than 470 stanzas composed in different metres, some stanzas being of the atijagati class, consisting of 13 syllables. It represents a poetic development in Pāli similar to that represented by the Buddhacarita in the Sanskrit Buddhist literature. Its theme, like that of the Buddhacarita, is the life of the Buddha and the narrative is chiefly based upon the Jātaka-nidāna-kathā. The slavish dependence on the prose narrative of the Nidānakathā has proved a handicap to a free expression of the poetic sentiment.

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Mon. Duroiselle, to whom we owe the English edition and translation of the text, has aptly remarked that the poet has risen to heights placing him in the foremost rank among poets only in those places where he has broken through the slavish imitation and written from the depths of his own inspiration. In the opinion of Mon. Duroiselle, “the charm of the Jinacarita lies in its lighter style; in the author’s choice of graceful, and sometimes forcible, images; in the art of his descriptions, the richness and, in some passages, the delicacy of his expressions; qualities which go to make its reading refreshing and welcome after the laborious reading of heavy didactic poetry”. (Jinacarita, Introduction, p. ii.)

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The influence of the Sanskrit Kavya poetry of India, particularly of the works of Kālidāsa, cannot be denied. We meet indeed in the Pāli Kavya with some images and comparisons “which are seldom found in Pāli, but are of frequent occurrence in Sanskrit works (e.g., the Kumārasambhava and Meghadūta). In a few instances Mon. Duroiselle has found also an echo of some of verses of the Mahābhārata :

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Jinacarita—" Ko yaṃ Sakko nu kho Brahmā
Māro nāgo ti ādinā."
Mahābhārata—" Ko 'yaṃ devo 'thavā yakṣo
gandharvo vā bhaviṣyati ?"
(III. 6, 52, Vanaparva.)

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Without denying the intimate acquaintance of the author of the Jinacarita with classical Sanskrit poetry, we may point out that the type of stanzas quoted from the Mahābhārata is not such as not to be frequently met with in the Jātaka literature. And as far as the indebtedness of our author to Kālidāsa or to Aśvaghosa who paved the way for the former is concerned, we may equally maintain that the style of poetry developed either in the Buddhacarita of Aśvaghosa or in the Kumārasambhava of Kālidāsa, leads us back to the gāthās forming the prologue of the Nālakasutta in the Sutta Nipāta for its model.

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In the Gandhavamsa and Saddhamma-saṅgaha the work has been ascribed to one Medhaṅkara. He was called Vanaratana Medhaṅkara, and was also the author of another Pāli book ‘Payogasiddhi’ and flourished under Bhuvaneka Bāhu Ist (1277-1288 A.D.¹).

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¹ Jour. P.T.S., 1904-5, p. iv, Note on Medhaṅkara by T. W. Rhys Davids. But Mon. Charles Duroiselle thinks that "the poem was written in the monastery built by Vijayabāhu II, who ascended the throne in A.D. 1186 and was the immediate successor of the famous King Parākramabāhu". Jinacarita, p. iii (edited and translated by C. Duroiselle, Rangoon, 1906). Read also "Jinacarita", edited and translated by Dr. W. H. D. Rouse in the J.P.T.S., 1904-1905.

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The Jinacarita, however, throws no new light on the life of the Master; and we can hardly expect such a thing from a purely devotional work such as this. But what is strikingly surprising is that the Jinacarita is unknown both in Burma and Siam.

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The Poem. In the beautiful city of Amara, there was a Brahman youth, wise and compassionate, handsome and pleasant, by name Sumedha. Hankering after wealth and treasures he had none, for this bodily frame he had no attachment. He, therefore, left his pleasant house, went to the Himalayas, and there discovered the eight implements necessary for an ascetic. He put on the ascetic garb and within a week obtained the five High Powers and the eight Attainments, enjoying the bliss of mystic meditation. One day he came down from the sky, and lay himself down in a muddy portion of a road through which the Dīpaṅkara Buddha with his disciples was to pass. He, the Dīpaṅkara Buddha, was delighted at it, and foretold that the ascetic Sumedha, in times to come, should become a fully enlightened Buddha, by name Gotama. Sumedha did him homage, and then seated in meditation, he investigated those conditions that go to make a Buddha. Sumedha, searching for Nirvāṇa, endured many hardships while going through the continued succession of existences, fulfilling the virtue of charity. He fulfilled, moreover, the Perfections of Morality, of Self-abnegation, of wisdom, and all others, and came to the existence of Vessantara. Passing away thence, he was reborn in the city of Tusita, and afterwards had another rebirth in the city of Kapila through the noble King Suddhodana, and his Queen Māyā.

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He approached the bosom of Māyā, and at the time of his conception, various wonders took place all over the world. In her tenth month, while she was proceeding to the house of her relative, she brought forth the Sage in the Lumbini garden while she kept standing under a Sāla tree catching hold of a branch. The god Brahmā approached and received the child in a golden net, the child that was born unsullied as a priceless gem. From the hands of Brahmā and the angels, he stepped on to the ground, and gods and men approached and made offerings to him. Accompanied by a concourse of gods and men, he went to Kapilavastu and there a rejoicing of nature and men ensued for days and nights. In the Tāvatiṃsa heaven the hosts of angels rejoiced and sported and predicted that he, the child, would sit upon the Throne of Wisdom and become a Buddha. The ascetic Kalādeva, the spiritual adviser of King Suddhodana, went to the Tāvatiṃsa heaven, heard the cause of their rejoicings, came down to Suddhodana’s palace, and wanted to see the child. The child was brought and instantly, the lotus-feet of the prince were fixed on the ascetic’s head. Upon this, both Kalādeva and Suddhodana reverenced the soft lotus-feet. A second act of reverence was done by Suddhodana and other men and women of the royal house during the sowing festival when the child, the Wise One, had performed a miracle. The prince then began to grow day by day living as he did in three magnificent mansions provided for him.

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One day as he came out on chariot on the royal road, he saw in succession the representation of an old man, of a diseased man, and of a dead man. He then became free from attachment to the three forms of existence and on the fourth occasion, delighted in seeing pleasant representation of a monk. He then came back home and laid himself down on a costly couch, and nymph-like women surrounded him and performed various kinds of dances and songs. The Sage, however, did not relish them; and while the dancers fell asleep he bent upon retirement into solitude and free from attachment to the five worldly pleasures, called his minister and friend Channa to harness his horse. He then went to his wife’s apartment and saw the sleeping son and mother and silently took leave of them. Descending from the palace he mounted his horse and silently came out of the gate which was opened up by the gods inhabiting it. Māra then came to thwart him from going by saying that on the seventh day hence, the divine wheel of a universal monarch should appear unto him. But, he, the Wise of the World, did not desire any sovereignty, but wanted to become a Buddha. Upon this Māra disappeared, and he proceeded towards the bank of the river Anomā where he dismounted himself and asked Channa to go back home with the horse and his ornaments. He then cut off his knot of hair with a sword; the hair rose up into the air and Sakra received it with bent head and placed it in a gold casket to worship it.

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Next he put up the eight requisites of a monk and having spent seven days in the Anupiya mango grove in the joy of having left the world, went to Rājagaha and made his round for alms just enough for his sustenance. Leaving the town he went to the Pāṇḍava mountain and took the food. He was repeatedly approached by King Bimbisāra and offered the kingdom, but he declined it; and retiring to a cloister practised unmatched hardships. All this was of no avail; he, therefore, partook of material food and regaining bodily perfection, went to the foot of the Ajapāla banyan tree where he sat facing the east. Sujātā, a beautiful woman, mistook him for a sylvan deity and offered him a gold vessel of milk rice. The Sage took it, and having gone to the bank of the Nerañjarā river he ate the food, took his rest, and then in the evening went to the Bo-tree which he circumambulated keeping the tree to his right. To his astonishment, a throne appeared, on which he took his seat facing the east, and promised that he would give up his efforts to attain Supreme Enlightenment even if his flesh, blood, bones, sinews, and skin dried up. On his head the Mahā-Brahmā held an umbrella. Suyāma, the king of gods, fanned a splendid yak’s tail, and god Pañcasikha, the snake-king Kāla and thirty-two nymphs all kept standing and serving the Sage. Māra, then, creating unto himself a thousand dreadful arms, and surrounding himself by a manifold faced army, approached the Bo-tree.

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And at his approach the gods made good their escape. Māra created a terrific wind with a fierce roar, then the terrible torrent of large rocks, and brought on a most dreadful darkness, but each in succession was of little avail. All these turned to good account and the Blessed One did not even show any sign of consternation. The Evil One then threw his disc, hurled rocky peaks, yet the Unconquerable sat motionless as before. Baffled in his attempts he approached the All-Merciful and asked him to rise from his seat. The Blessed One enquired of the witness about his seat and Māra, showing his army, told that they were his witnesses and asked in his turn who had been the witness of Siddhārtha. Siddhārtha then stretched his hands towards the earth and called the earth goddess to witness. She gave forth thousands of roars and Māra caught by the fear fled with his army. Having dispersed Māra’s hosts, he remained seated still on the immoveable seat, and in the first watch of the night he obtained the excellent knowledge of the past, and in the middle watch the Eye Divine. In the last watch, he gained thorough knowledge of the concatenation of causes and effects, and at dawn he became perfectly Enlightened Buddha. Yet he did not rise up from his seat, but to remove the doubts of the gods remained seated there for seven days and performed a double miracle.

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Then after the investigation of the Pure Law, he at the foot of the goat-herd’s banyan tree, caused to wither the face of Māra’s daughter, and, at the foot of the Mucalinda tree, caused to blossom the mind of the snake-king. And, at last, at the foot of the Rājāyatana tree, he enjoyed the bliss of meditation. Then the king of the Law, entreated by Brahmā Sahampati, wanted to fill the world with the free gift of the nectar of the Good Law. With this object, he travelled to the splendid Deer Park where the sages and mendicants made him a saint, and came to acknowledge him as the Sanctified, the Perfectly Enlightened, the Tathāgata. To the Elders of the Park, he delivered a discourse on the establishment of the kingdom of Truth, and dispelled their ignorance. He thus set the Wheel of the Law in motion for the good of the world by delivering the people from the mighty bond of transmigration. On his way next to Uruvela, he gave to some thirty Bhaddavaggiya princes the immortal draught of the Three Paths; and conferred on them the gift of ordination. He then went to Laṭṭhivana Park and there presented King Bimbisāra with the immortal draught of true doctrine. Thence he proceeded to the Veluvana Park and dwelt there in a hermitage. Then King Suddhodana, having heard that his own son had attained to Supreme Knowledge, sent his minister Udāyi to bring his son back to him.

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Udāyi came with a thousand followers and hearing the Master preach renounced the world and entered upon the path to sainthood. He then made known to the Master the desire of Suddhodana to see him, and requested to preach the Law to his kith and kin. The Buddha agreed to it and went to Kapilavastu where he was worshipped by Suddhodana and his relatives. But seeing that the young ones did not greet him, he performed a miracle at the sight of which Suddhodana was filled with joy. Then he went to the royal palace and preached the sweet doctrines to the king and hundreds of fair royal women. Next he extinguished the great grief in the heart of Bimbā or Yasodharā, his wife; and ordained prince Nanda even before the three festivals, marriage, ceremonial sprinkling and entering on the house, had taken place. When his own son Rāhula followed next for the sake of an inheritance, the Wise One ordained him too.

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After this he went to Sītāvana at Rājagaha where he preached to a merchant of Sāvatthī, named Sudatta, who attained the fruit of the First Path. Sudatta then went back to Sāvatthī, and there selected a park of Prince Jeta for the residence of the Blessed One. He (better known as Anāthapiṇḍika) bought this for a crore of gold pieces for the Teacher's sake alone, and built there a chamber and a noble monastery for the abode of the Master and his followers. He also beautified it with tanks and gardens, etc., and then inviting the Teacher to the spot dedicated to him the park and the monastery. The Buddha accepted the gift and thanked Sudatta for it, preaching to him the great benefit which lies in the giving of monasteries.

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Residing there, he spent his days going here and there and beating the great drum of the Law. In the first season, he dwelt in the Deer Park in the Benares city. In the second, third, and fourth seasons he dwelt in the lovely Veluvana at Rājagaha. In the fifth season, he made his abode in the great wood near Vesālī. In the sixth, he dwelt on the great mountain Makula, and in the seventh in the cool and spacious rocky seat of Indra. In the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth seasons, he dwelt respectively in the delightful wood of Bhesakalā, in the Kosambī silk cotton wood, in goodly Pāraleyya, and in the Brahman villages of Nālā and Verañjā. In the thirteenth season, he lived on the beautiful Cāliya mountain, and in the fourteenth, in fair and lovely Jetavana. In the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth seasons, the Wise One made his abode respectively in the great Nigrodha monastery on a large hill at Kapilavatthu in the city of Ālavaka, in Rājagaha, and twice on the great mount Cāliya. In the twentieth season, he took up his abode in Rājagaha; and for the rest twenty-five years of his life, he made his abode in Sāvatthī and Jetavana. Thus for forty-five years, the Blessed One preached his sweet doctrine, bringing happiness to men, and freeing all the world and the gods from the great bond of transmigration.

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The book ends with a prayer of the author in which he gives out his pious wishes to be born in the Tusita heaven, to be born contemporaneously with the great being, the future Buddha, to be able to give food, drink, alms, and monasteries to the Wise One and so forth, and to become at least a Buddha himself.

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The Telakaṭāhagāthā is a small poem in 98 stanzas on the vanity of human life. It contains some of the fundamental doctrines of Buddhism. The verses are written in chaste language. They represent the religious meditations and exhortations of a great thera named Kalyāṇiya who was condemned to be cast into a cauldron of boiling oil on suspicion of his having been accessory to an intrigue with the Queen-consort of King Kalani Tissa who reigned at Kelaṇiya in 306–207 B.C.¹ A reference to this story can be traced in the Mahāvaṃsa, the Rasavāhinī and the Sinhalese work, the Saddhammālaṅkāra, which is a compilation from the Rasavāhinī.² The incident on which the poem is based is somewhat differently narrated also in the Kākavaṇṇatisāraññavatthu. The author of this work is unknown. A careful study of the poem shows that the author was well acquainted with the texts and commentaries of the Buddhist scriptures. This work mentions the three refuges, death, impermanence, sorrows, soullessness of beings, evils of committing bad deeds, fourfold protection, and exhorts all to practise dhamma strenuously and attain salvation. It then discusses paṭiccasamuppāda (dependent origination) and points out that nothing happens in this world without any cause. Avijjā or ignorance is the cause of bad deed which leads to birth and which in turn is the cause of manifold miseries such as old age and death. So every one should practise dhamma by doing good deeds and thus escape from worldly miseries.

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¹ G. P. Malalasekera, The Pāli Literature of Ceylon, p. 162.

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² J.P.T.S., 1884, p. 49.

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The charm of the style of composition lies in the balanced rhythm of the lines and alliterations, a literary art that may be seen developing itself through the stanzas of such earlier poems as Ratana Sutta in the Khuddakapāṭha and Sutta Nipāta and the Narasīhagāthā presupposed by the Jātaka commentaries.

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(1) Telakaṭāhagāthā, stanza No. 3:

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Sopānamālaṃ amalaṃ tidāsalayassa
Saṃsārasāgarasamuttaraṇāya setuṃ
Sabbāgatībhayavivajjita khemamaggaṃ
Dhammaṃ namassatha sadā muninā paṇītaṃ.

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(2) Ratana Sutta, v. 222:

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Yānidha bhūtāni samāgatāni
bhummāni vā yāni va antalikkhe,
sabbe va bhūtā sumanā bhavantu,
atho pi sakkacca suṇantu bhāsitaṃ.

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Though in Goonaratne’s edition published in J.P.T.S., 1884, the poem contains 98 stanzas, it may be presumed from its general style and purpose that it was meant to represent a Pāli sataka consisting of a hundred stanzas. The poem, as we now have it, is divided into nine sections, each section dealing with a particular topic of Buddhism, Ratanattaya, Maraṇānussati, Aniccalakkhaṇa, Dukkhalakkhaṇa, Anattalakkhaṇa, Asubhalakkhaṇa, Duccarita-ādinavā, Caturārakkhā, and Paṭiccasamuppāda. The sataka type of poetry came into vogue with the popularity of the three famous satakas, the Śṛngāra, the Vairāgya, and Nirvāṇa, composed by so great a poet as Bhartrihari. Among the Buddhist satakas, the one which may rank as a high class of poetry is no doubt the Bodhicaryāvatāra of Śāntideva. Although the aim of the satakas, whether found in Sanskrit or in Pāli is didactic like that of the Pāli Dhammapada or the Śāntiparva of the Mahābhārata, the characteristic difference of the Centuries lies in their conscious attempt to give expression to individual moral or religious experiences. This differential feature of the satakas has been well brought out in the following apology of Śāntideva in the opening verses of his Bodhicaryāvatāra.

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“ Na me parārtha cintā, samano vāsayituṃ
kritaṃ mamedam
Mama tāvadanena yāti vriddhiṃ, kuśalaṃ
bhāvayituṃ prasādavegaḥ
Atha matsamadhātureva paśyed aparo’
pyenamato’pi sārthako’yam.”

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By this one must understand that the object of a sataka is not so much to instruct others as to manifest one’s own self in the hope that those “who are like-natured, like-minded, and like-visioned will care to look at the (matter as the author has) viewed it and may, perhaps, derive some benefit from it” (Barua’s Gaya and Buddhagaya, p. xi). We mean to say that in the satakas, the didactic aim has been subservient to the purpose of self-expression, a feature which is noticeable in certain Psalms of early Buddhist Brethren and Sisters.

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The Pajjamadhu is a poem composed of 104 stanzas in praise of the Buddha. Buddhappiya, a pupil of Ānanda, is the author of this work. He is also the author of the Pāli grammar known as the Rūpasiddhi. “We may safely premise”, says Goonaratne, “that it was composed at the same time as the Rūpasiddhi to which scholars give 1100 A.D. as the probable date”.¹ The author has given his name and pupilage in verse 103 of this poem :

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¹ J.P.T.S., 1887, p. 1.

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“ Ānanda rañña ratanādi mahā yatinda
Niccappa buddha padumappiya sevi naṅgī
Buddhappiyena ghana buddha guṇappiyena
Therālinā racita Pajjamadhum pi bantu.”

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The language is sanskritised Pāli and some of the verses are puzzling. There is a gloss in Sinhalese on the entire poem but it is verbose and rather diffuse in its explanations. This poem may be regarded as another example of sataka in Pāli with four stanzas in excess. The first 69 verses describe the beauty of the Buddha and the remaining verses are written in praise of his wisdom concluded with a panegyric on the order and nirvāṇa. It is lacking in the vigour of poetical imagination and its style is laboured and artificial and is far from fulfilling the promise of sweetness of poetry suggested in its title Pajjamadhu.

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The Rasavāhinī is a collection of 103 tales written in easy Pāli, the first forty relating to the incidents which happened in Jambudīpa and the rest in Ceylon. A Sinhalese edition of this work has been brought out by M. S. Unnanse. The text with Sinhalese interpretation by B. Devarakkhita has been published in Colombo, 1917. The P.T.S., London, has undertaken to bring out an edition of this work in Roman character. Its date is unknown, but at the conclusion the author gives us a clue which helps us in determining it to be in all probability in the first half of the 14th century A.D. It is considered to be a revision of an old Pāli translation made from an original compilation by Raṭṭhapāla Thera of the Mahāvihāra in Ceylon. Vedeha, the author of the Rasavāhinī, gives us an account of the Vanavāsī School to which he belonged.¹ The late H. Nevill suggests that the Sahassavatthuppakaraṇa still extant in Burma, formed the basis for the Pāli Rasavāhinī.² This work throws much light on the manners, customs, and social conditions of ancient India and Ceylon. It contains materials of historical importance and as such is widely read in Ceylon. This work has been edited and translated by P. E. Pavolini.³ There is a glossary on the Rasavāhinī called the Rasavāhinīgaṇthi. The verses of this text with a word-for-word Sinhalese translation by Dharmaratna have been published in 1913.

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¹ Malalasekera, The Pāli Literature of Ceylon, p. 210. ² Ibid., p. 129. ³ Societe Asiatica Italiana, 1896.

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Buddhist legends of Asoka and his time translated from the Pāli of the Rasavāhinī by Lakṣmaṇa Śāstri with a prefatory note by H. C. Norman (J.R.A.S., 1910) and Zwei Erzählungen aus der Rasavāhinī, Von. Sten Kono (Deutsche morgenländische Gesellschaft, Zeitschrift, Leipzig)—II settimo capitolo della Rasavāhinī by P. E. Pavolini (Societe Asiatica Italiana, Giornale, Firanze, 1895), should be consulted. Die Zweite dekade der Rasavāhinī (M. and W. Geiger), Munchen, 1918, with translation deserves mention.

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The Saddhammopāyana edited for the P.T.S. by Richard Morris and published in the J.P.T.S., 1887, is a most notable work on Buddhism. It is written entirely in verse and completed in 629 stanzas. It begins with a prologue and is closed with an epilogue, the author introducing himself in the prologue under the name and designation of Brahmacārī Buddhasomapiya.¹ He was undoubtedly a Buddhist teacher of Ceylon. The work, as its title implies, deals with the Way of the Good Faith. We can broadly divide it into two parts, the first of which contains an edification of the dangers or disadvantages of things moral and the second, that the rewards or advantages (ānisamsa) of things moral. The author dwells on such topics of the saddhamma as akkhana, dasa akusala, petadukkha, pāpādinava, puññaphala, dānānisamsa, and the rest. Though the views of the author are not in any way new, the manner of treatment of each topic is masterly, and his style is at once easy, dignified, and restrained. Such a treatment of the subject cannot be expected from one who had not long pondered over it and thoroughly assimilated the fundamental principles of Buddhism. He has nowhere slavishly followed any earlier authority—a fact which may be clearly brought home to the reader by a comparison between the Praises of sīla (sīlānisaṃsa) in Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga and those in the Saddhammopāyana :—

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¹ Nāmato Buddhasomassa piyasabrahmacārino—Saddhammopāyana, verse 3.

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(1) Visuddhimagga—

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“Na Gaṅgā, Yamunā cāpi, Sarabhū vā Sarasvatī,
ninnagā vā’ ciravati Mahī vā pi mahānadī
Sakkuṇanti visodhetuṃ taṃ malaṃ idha pāṇinaṃ,
Visodhayati sattānaṃ yaṃ ve sīlajalaṃ malaṃ.”
(Vol. I, p. 10.)

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(2) Saddhammopāyana—

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Idaṃ hi sīlaratanaṃ idhaloke parattha ca
ānisaṃsavare datvā pacchā pāpeti nibbutiṃ
Paccakkhaṃ hīnajaccaṃ hi accantoḷāra-vaṃsajā
narindā sīlasampannaṃ namassantīha bhāvato.
(Verses 415–416.)

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The Pañcagatidīpana has been edited by M. Leon Feer (J.P.T.S., 1884, pp. 152–161). It is written in 114 stanzas. This work tells us of the five destinies which are in store of beings according as they commit good or bad deeds in this world by body, mind, etc. This text furnishes us with an interesting piece of information regarding different hells, namely, Sañjīva, Kālasutta, Saṃghāta, Roruva, Mahāroruva, Tapa, Mahātapa, and Avīci. Those who kill and cause living beings to be killed out of avarice, delusion, fear, and anger must go to the Sañjīva hell. For one thousand years they suffer in this hell being subjected to continual torments without losing life and consciousness. Those who cause injury or do harmful deeds to friends and parents, speak falsehood and backbite others must go to the Kālasutta hell.

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In this hell they are cut to pieces with burning saws. Those who kill goats, sheep, jackals, hares, deer, pigs, etc., are consigned to the Saṅghāta hell, where they are huddled up in one place and then beaten to death. Those who cause mental and bodily pain to others or cheat others or are misers have to go to the Roruva hell, where they make terrible noise while being burnt in the terrific fire of hell. Those who steal things belonging to gods, brahmans, and preceptors, those who misappropriate the property of others kept in trust with them, and those who destroy things entrusted to their care are cast into the Mahāroruva hell, where they make a more terrible noise while being consumed by a fire fiercer than that in the Roruva hell. Those who cause the death of living beings by throwing them into the Dāvadaha fire, etc., have to go to the Tapa hell, where they have to suffer being burnt in a dreadful fire. Those who cause the death of beings by throwing them into greater Dāvadaha fire must go to the Mahātapa hell, where they have to suffer still more by being burnt in a greater fire. Those who injure men of great virtue and those who kill parents, arahats, or preceptors must sink into the Avīci hell, where they suffer being burnt in such a terrible fire that would consume even the hardest things. In this hell there is not a least wave of happiness, it is therefore called the Avīci or waveless. Besides these hells, mention is made of a hell called the Patāpana, where people suffer by being burnt in fires that are much more terrific than those of the Tapa and Mahātapa hells. Each hell has four Ussadanirayas, viz., Miḷhakūpa, Kukkula, Asipattavana, and Nadi. Those who are in the Mahāniraya have to proceed to Miḷhakūpa when released. In this terrible hell they are bitten by a host of worms. Thence they go to Kukkula where they are fried like mustard seeds on a burning pan. Coming out of Kukkula they find before them a beautiful tree of fruits and flowers where they take shelter for relief from torments. As soon as they reach the tree they are attacked by birds of prey such as vultures, owls, etc. They are killed by these animals which they make a repast on their flesh. Those who are traitors must go to the Asipattavana where they are torn and eaten up by bitches, vultures, owls, etc. Those who steal money will also suffer in this hell by being compelled to swallow iron balls and molten brass. Those who kill cows and oxen, suffer in this hell by being eaten up by dogs having large teeth. Those who kill aquatic animals will have to go to the fearful Vaitaraṇī river where the water is as hot as a molten brass. Those who prostitute justice by accepting bribes will be cut to pieces in an iron wheel. Those who destroy paddy have to suffer in the Kukkula hell. Those who cherish anger in their heart are reborn as swans and pigeons. Those who are haughty and angry are reborn as snakes. Those who are jealous and miserly are reborn as monkeys. Those who are miserly, irritable, and fond of backbiting are reborn as tigers, bears, cats, etc. Those who are charitable but angry at the same time are reborn as big Garuḍas. Those who are deceitful and charitable are reborn as great Asuras. Those who neglect their friends on account of their pride are reborn as dogs and asses. Those who are envious, cherish anger, or become happy at sight of sufferings of others are reborn in Yamaloka and the demon world. (Cf. the description of hell in the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa.)

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There is nothing new to be learnt from this poem, new in the sense of that which is different from what we read in some of the Jātakas and suttas and particularly in the canonical text, Petavatthu. The real literary value of this poem consists in the simplicity of its diction and the handy form which is peculiar to a later digest of doctrines that are old.

Cites (20)