Vessantara Jataka in art and literature

by Sumana Saparamadu

In the large collection of Jataka stories – the birth stories of the Bodhisatva – some Jatakas have through the centuries been more popular than the rest. They are mainly the longer stories such as Vessantara, Kusa, Vidura, Ummagga and Dahamsanda which people have loved listening to and artists have delighted in painting.

The Dasa Jataka no longer extant, was very likely, a collection of the more popular stories. Of these Vessantara Jataka, the story of the penultimate birth of Gautama Buddha and the last in the book of Jataka Katha, has a special appeal. Its many versions have kept listeners enthralled and have served as entertainment as well as religious edification. It has inspired poets, dramatists and mural artists in Sri Lanka and other Buddhist countries. As far as I am aware, Vessantara is the only Jataka story to be made into a film.

The Vessantara Jataka has been to Sinhala Buddhists what the story of Rama and Sita is to Hindus. The praises of Vessantara and Madri, his dutiful and devoted wife form part of the mangala ashtaka sung at Buddhist weddings to bless the couple.

Vanga giriye thapas rakinta nikma giye apa bo sathun Nenga rathayak asun dednek athara magadi pinata dun

Randa ridiyen muthu menik saha siyalu vasthuva pinata dun
Sanga rathrie anuhasin vei movun hata jaya mangalam.

Western stories

Even today, despite the plethora of chitrakatha and the television that brings western stories to their homes, there is hardly a Buddhist schoolchild who has not heard the story of Vessantara and his munificence, his wife Madrin the ideal wife and their children Jaliya and Krishnajina. The long and winding path they traversed to find a home in exile “Vanga giri” has come into the language to mean a circuitous route or maze and the phrase me vessanthara kale nove is an accepted expression meaning ‘this isn't the time for largesse.”

The loathsome and wicked Jujaka (Jutaka) and his young and nagging wife are well known.” Zuzaka (Jujaka in Burmese) was a stock comic character in folk plays and the rough treatment he suffered at the hands of his shrewish young wife provoked great laughter,” says Maung Htin Aung in his book Burmese Drama.

The Vessantara has been told and retold many times in prose and verse in Sinhala. The best to my mind is Vidya Cakravarti's naration in Buthsarana. He brings out graphically the central themes of the story – compassion and self-sacrifice and the pathos in giving away the children.

The description of the grief stricken mother and Vessantara's efforts to revive her are very moving.

Poetics

It is strange that no Sinhala poet chose the Vessantara Jataka for a Maha Kavya though it has all the essentials for such a book prescribed by old writers on poetics – a traditional story (not one invented) a great and noble hero, ample scope for descriptions of city, countryside seasons, sports, separations and reunions and a theme promoting the goals of dharma (conduct) and Moksha.

But there are a large number of ballads the most popular being the Vessantara Kavya composed in the late 17th century or thereabouts. Its recitation held the folk audience captive. It used to be recited at funerals in imitation of pasan in Catholic homes, a custom taken from the Portuguese.

Long before John de Silva wrote his Vessantara for the Arya Sinha Natya Sabha in 1916. Jataka stories were being dramatised in Myanmar.

Maung Hlin Aung says “U Pon Nya the court poet of the 1850s wrote a number of plays based on Jataka stories and his Waythandaya (Vessantara) is considered a masterpiece as far as dramatic technique is considered (Burmese Drama).

Another writer U Kyin Nu who lived in the first half of the 19th century, dramatised Vessantara, now lost but well-known upto about 1880.

Many adaptations of this play were acted by professionals and amateurs alike in the early days of the British conquest of Upper Burma (Burmese Drama). The people were familiar with the story of Vessantara from folk plays staged in the roadside.

Good conduct

John de Silva might have had qualms about staging Vessantara as this extract from the introduction to the printed play indicates: “Of all the great offerings that the Bodhisatta made, this Jataka reveals that the most difficult was the giving away of his wife and children... Actors should approach with full knowledge of their parts, be of good conduct and offer flowers to the Buddha the day following the performance (translated by N.E. Weerasooria in Ceylon and Her People). Was the story of Vessantara held too sacred for dramatic performance?

The latest dramatised version of this Jataka is Ediriweera Sarachchandra's Vessantara staged in 1980.

One of the sweetest songs among Nurtya Gee is “Vessantara Raja Putha” sang at the wedding of Vessantara in John de Silva's play. Its alluring tune was debased by adaptation for an advertising jingle.

The Jataka stories usually illustrated on temple walls are Vessantara, Sasa, Kshantivada, Dahamsanda. When Ruwanveli Seya was built in the 2nd century BC, King Dutugemunu had Jataka stories painted on the walls of the relic chamber. Vessantara Jataka was painted in greater detail than the rest, says the Mahavamsa: “Vessantara Jatakantu Vittarena Vittarena Akarayi.”

Murals

Among the best known murals of the Kandyan period are those at Delgaldoruwa Vihara, a few miles north of Kandy depicting episodes in the Vessantara Jataka. The panel Ali Ethun Dandeema has often been reproduced in Vesak publications.

M.Sarlis the first artist to bring Buddhist pictures into Buddhist homes (between the beginning of the last century and the first World War) showed a preference for the Buddha Charita (life story of the Buddha) unlike the painters of temple murals, who got their inspiration from Jataka stories of the very few Jataka stories that Sarlis illustrated, the “Giving away of Madri Devi” found a place in many homes. The thin lines and sober colours are in sharp contrast to the voluptuous lines and bright colours used by George Keyt much later, to depict the same scene.