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

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

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@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@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/

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