A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s5.70

v2.c19.s5.70

In fact the commentary on the Dhammapada¹ forms a valuable supplement to the commentary on the Jātaka, and, like the latter, contains many an ancient, popular narrative theme, some of which are well known in universal literature, far beyond the borders of India. Thus we find here the story of a king of Benares who, like Harun al Rashid, wanders about the city at night, the tale of "Doctor Know-all," and so on. Here we also meet with the famous story of Kisā-Gotamī, the mother who strays about in despair with her dead child in her arms, and comes to the Buddha who tells her that he can restore her child to life if she will bring him a mustard seed; but this mustard seed must come from a house in which nobody has ever died. In vain the mother searches from house to house, until finally it dawns upon her that the Master was only endeavouring to teach her the great truth of the universality of death, and, comforted, she becomes a member of the community of Buddha. The legend proves itself genuinely Indian, owing to the fact that it belongs to the type of "consolatory stories" so familiar to us. For this reason, when we meet with a similar anecdote in the Alexander-legend, in a few versions of Pseudo-Kallisthenes as well as in Arabian, Jewish, Persian and Coptic narratives of Alexander, it is more probable that the Buddhist legend influenced the Greek legend; and Rohde's hypothesis of its having first originated on Greek soil, is less feasible.¹ On the other hand, when we read in the romance of Udena and Vāsuladattā,² how King Pajjota, in order to entice Udena into an ambuscade and to get him into his power, had a wooden elephant made, in which he concealed sixty warriors, we see in this an echo of the legend of the Trojan horse, which penetrated to Indian shores.