A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t3.174

v2.c19.s6.t3.174

Chapters XXVI to XXIX should certainly be counted among the oldest portions of the Divyāvadāna: they contain a cycle of legends centring around the person of the great king Aśoka, and are based upon an ancient "Book of King Aśoka." This book probably originated in Mathurā between 150 and 50 B. C.,¹ but is no longer extant in its original form. We only know it from two different Chinese versions.² The Divyāvadāna did not only draw on the "Book of King Aśoka," which was already augmented at that time, but it also made use of the Kalpanāmaṇḍitikā.³ These legends scarcely contain anything of much historical value;⁴ but they are all the more valuable from the purely literary standpoint. Above all, we find here the exceedingly dramatic legend of Upagupta and Māra. It is an extremely bold idea to allow Māra, the evil one, the tempter, to be converted by a Buddhist monk. The idea is still bolder when the saint Upagupta, who longs to see, face to face, the Buddha who had entered Nirvāṇa a hundred years before, beseeches Māra, whom he had converted, to appear in the guise of the Buddha, and when Māra does indeed, like a skilful actor, represent Buddha in so life-like a manner, that the saint sinks down before him in prayer. The whole of this story is so dramatic that we might believe it to be simply a Buddhist drama retold here. This passage is taken almost word for word from Kumāralāta's Kalpanāmaṇḍitikā, and in language, style and metre, it is one of the best productions of ornate poetry.¹ One of the most beautiful legends in the Aśoka cycle is the touching story of Kuṇāla, the son of Aśoka, whose lovely eyes are poked out at the instigation of his wicked stepmother, without his feeling one moment's anger or hatred towards her who has done him so much injury.² The Divyāvadāna has many legends in common with the Pāli Canon. Thus Chapter XVII contains a passage from a Mahā-Parinirvāṇa-Sūtra.³ Chapter III relates of the advent of the future Buddha Maitreya, combined with the legend of King Praṇāda.⁴ In this it partly coincides with Dīghanikāya 26. The story of Pūrṇa, who goes as an apostle to the savage and violent Śroṇaparāntakas, determined to accept it with equanimity and gentleness if they despise him, strike him, or even want to kill him, corresponds to a familiar Pāli Sutta.⁵ The story of the young son of a merchant, who gradually acquires enormous riches all on account of his having sold a dead mouse, corresponds to Jātaka No. 4.⁶ The Avadāna of Rūpavatī is reminiscent of the legends of the Jātakamālā: Rūpavatī cuts off her breasts in order to nourish with her flesh and blood, a woman who is near starvation and is about to devour her child. We see in her the Mahayāna ideal of a Bodhisattva when, in reply to an enquiry for the motive of her action, she answers: