[INDOLOGY] Buddhist murals Sri Lanka Vessantara-Jataka

Mon Feb 13 04:44:56 UTC 2017

Dear Fumi, Christoph and Seishi,

thank you very much for your help. So I came back to the roots, to Alsdorf.

Lately I came across this stanza in the Pali-version.

The Sinhalese version appears to be more close to this Pali-stanza than 
the Pali-commentary.

While writing about this mural I am staying in Sri Lanka.

I will try to contact my friends at the LMU in Munich to send me a copy 
of that article.

Best regards

Heiner

Rolf Heinrich Koch

Am 13.02.2017 um 06:41 schrieb Seishi Karashima:
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I published nearly thirty years ago an annotated Japanese translation 
> of the Pāli /Vessantara-jātaka/, when I was studying under Prof. K. R. 
> Norman in Cambridge.
>
> /Vessantara-jātaka Yakuchū /(ヴェッサンタラ・ジャータカ訳注) [An Annotated 
> Japanese Translation of the Pāli /Vessantara-jātaka/], in: /The 
> Jātakas/ (ジャータカ全集), vol. 10, ed. by Hajime Nakamura, Tokyo: 
> Shunjūsha, 1988, pp. 149–257, 263–317, ISBN4-393-11620-8.
>
> As it is written in Japanese, I assume that no Western scholars of our 
> field has read it. When I wrote this, I checked all the then available 
> Pali manuscripts, and compared the Pali version with the Sanskrit, 
> Tibetan and Chinese versions and added 675 philological notes. 
> According to my notes, none of the versions except for the Pali Jātaka 
> has the part in question.
>
> The discrepancy between four red deer and four horses results not from 
> the difference of the Southern and Northern traditions but from the 
> interpretation of the Pali verse, no. 215 in the /Vessantara-jātaka/ 
> itself.
>
> The latter half of the verse in question reads as follows: 
> /migarohiccavaṇṇena /(/v.l. migā ro-/; CpA/migā rohitavaṇṇena/) 
> /dakkhiṇ(’)assā vahanti maṃ/ “The excellent (lit. able) horses, 
> looking like red deer, carrying me on.” (Cf. M. Cone, /The Perfect 
> Generosity of Prince Vessantara/, Clarendon Press 1977, p. 33).
>
> The composer of the prose part (ca. 5c. C.E.) misunderstood this verse 
> and wrote as follows: /cattāro devaputtā rohiccamigavaṇṇena āgantvā 
> rathadhuraṃ sampaṭicchitvā agamaṃsu/ “Four gods in the guise of red 
> deer came, took the yoke of the carriage and went forward.” (cf. Cone, 
> loc. cit.; she misunderstood the meaning of /sampaṭicchitvā/). Thus, 
> /dakkhiṇ(’)assā/ in the verse was neglected in the prose part. This 
> misinterpretation might have based on the variant readings /migā rohi- 
> /in some manuscripts and CpA.
>
> Murals, which show four horses, and the Butsarana must base on the old 
> verse, while those, which depict the red deer instead, base on the prose.
>
> Such discrepancipies between prose and verses are found also in the 
> /Mahāvastu/ and /Saddharmapuṇḍarīka/, on which I am now working.
>
> What I wrote above is not my finding. Alsdorf wrote about this 
> discrepancy in the /Vessantara-jātaka/ 60 years ago!: “Bemerkungen zum 
> Vessantara-Jātaka”, in: Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd- und 
> Ost-Asiens I (1957):37-38 = /Kleine Schriften/, hrsg. von Albrecht 
> Wezler, Wiesbaden 1974 (GlSt 10), pp. 306f. I also quoted his argument 
> in notes in my Japanese translation, p. 278, n. 199, 200.
>
>    With best regards,
>
> Seishi Karashima
>
>
> 2017-02-13 0:35 GMT+09:00 Fumi Yao via INDOLOGY 
> <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>:
>
>     Dear Heiner,
>
>     I think none of the three stories of Viśvantara in the
>     Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya ("the Viśvantara-Jātaka I--III" in
>     Panglung 1981 "Preliminary remarks on the uddānas in the vinaya of
>     the Mūlasarvāstivādin," p.229) and the Viśvantarāvadāna in the
>     Gilgit manuscripts ("the Viśvantara-Jātaka IV," ibid.) gives
>     aśvaveśa. They do not mention Śakra's help in this part of the
>     story, either.
>
>     Viś I (Tibetan, Chinese, and newly identified Skt fragments):
>     Viśvantara gives both the coach and horses to a Brahmin and goes
>     to the forest on foot.
>
>     Viś II (Tibetan and Skt fragments): After he gave the coach to
>     some Brahmins, Viśvantara rides his horse. Later, he gives the
>     horse to another group of Brahmins and proceeds on foot.
>
>     Viś III (Tibetan, Chinese, and Gilgit manuscript): same as Viś I.
>
>     Viś IV (Gilgit manuscript): same as Viś I.
>
>     I hope this helps you.
>
>     Kindest regards,
>     Fumi
>
>     Fumi Yao
>
>     McMaster University
>     University Hall Room 104
>     1280 Main Street West
>     Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L8
>     Canada
>
>     2017-02-12 8:41 GMT-05:00 Rolf Heinrich Koch via INDOLOGY
>     <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>:
>
>         Dear listmembers,
>         there is one episode in the Vessantara-Jātaka which describes
>         the following plot:
>
>         ...After Vessantara gave away the two horses of his coach,
>         Sakka advised four junior gods
>         to pull Vessantara's coach. They appeared in the guise of a
>         red deer....
>
>         Some murals which depict this plot show four horses instead of
>         the red deer.
>         As the only textual source I found one edition of the
>         Butsarana with aśvaveśa (for mṛgaveśa).
>         All Pali and further Sinhala sources read mṛgaveśa.
>
>         I suppose there is a northern tradition which records aśvaveśa
>         (Gilgit, Tibetan or Chinese).
>
>         Anyone came across this version and is willing to share this
>         with me?
>
>         Thank you in advance
>
>         Heiner
>
>         Rolf Heinrich Koch
>         https://rolfheinrichkoch.wordpress.com/
>         <https://rolfheinrichkoch.wordpress.com/>
>
>
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