Buddhist literature :

Vessantara Jataka leads the way

by Sumana Saparamadu

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

The Dasa Jataka referred to in old Sinhala exegetical works, but no longer extant was, very likely a collection of the more popular tales. Of these popular tales, Vessantara Jataka, the story of the penultimate human birth of Gautama Buddha and the last in the Book of Jataka Tales Jatakatta Katha, has a special appeal. Its many versions, in prose and poetry, have kept listeners enthralled and have served as entertainment as well as religious edification.

It has inspired poets and playwrights in Sri Lanka and in other Buddhist countries such as Burma in the past, and in our day, a film director in Sri Lanka. 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 to Hindus. The praises of Vessantara and Manthri, his dutiful and devoted wife, form part of the “Mangala Ashtaka sung at weddings to bless the couple.

There is hardly a Buddhist schoolchild who has not heard of Vessantara and his boundless munificence and of his wife Manthri, the ideal wife and their two children Jaliya and Krishnajina.

The long and winding path the family traversed when they went into exile – Vanga Giriya – has come into the language to mean a circuitous route or maze.

Who does not know the loathsome and wicked Jujaka and his young and nagging wife Amittatapa? Maung Htin Aung in his Burmese drama, says, “Zuzaka 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. (Zuzaka is Jujaka in Burmese)

Bhanaka

In the days of the kings of Anuradhapura, there were, in Sri Lanka, bhikkhus known as Bhanaka who had specialised in the recitation of some Sutta or Jataka.

Dr. E.W. Adikaram (Early History of Buddhism) says that Jataka Bhanakas, reciters of Jataka stories – were the oldest Bhanakas in Sri Lanka.

The reciting of Jatakas was very popular and kings and princes, Bhikkhus and laymen gathered to listen to them. Some Bhanakas drew larger crowds than others, just as it happens today.

The Manorathapoorani, the commentary on the Anguttara Nikaya says that a Bhikkhu residing in Magama hearing that the Maha Jataka Bhanaka was at Digavapi to preach the Maha Vessantara Jataka, was so eager to listen to him, that he travelled the long distance from Magama to Digavapi, in a day. The Maha Vessantara Jataka consited of 1,000 verses.

The Vessantara story has been told and retold many times in verse and prose, but there is none to equal Vidyachakravarti’s narration in Buthsarana. He brings out beautifully the central themes in the story – compassion and self-sacrifice and the pathos in the giving away of the children.

The description of the collapse of the grief-stricken mother and Vessantara’s efforts to revive her move the reader to tears.

Ballads

There is a large number of ballads on the Vessantara Jataka, the most popular being the Vessantara Kavya composed in the late 17th century or thereabouts. It’s recitation held the folk audience captive.

It used to be recited at funerals Buddhist homes in imitation of ‘Pasan’ in Catholic homes, a custom taken from the Portuguese.

The rhyme of Vessantara in English verse was published in Colombo in 1985.

M.D.R. Perera follows Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner and the poem is profusely illustrated by A. Herat in the style of temple murals.

Long before John de Silva wrote his Vessantara for the Arya Sinhala Natya Sabha in 1916, Jataka stories were being dramatised in Burma. Upon 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 concerned.” (Maung Htin Aung: Burmese Drama).

Qualms

John de Silva might have had qualms about staging Vessantara as this extract from the introduction to the play (translated by N.E. Weerasoria in ‘Ceylon and Her People 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 ...The actors should approach with full knowledge of their parts, be of good conduct and offer flowers to the Buddha the day following the performance.’

Comments Weerasooria, “These precepts of J. de S. have a seep significance ... was the story of Vessantara held too sacred for dramatic performance?’

The most recent deamatised version of the story is Ediriweera Sarachchandra’s Vessantara staged in 1980.

The Jataka tales mostly illustrated in temple murals are Vessantara, Sasa, Dahamsonda and Kashantivada. When the Ruvanveli Seya was built in the Second century BC King Dutugemunu had jataka stories painted on the walls of the relic chamber. The Vessantara Jataka was painted in greater detail than the rest, says the Mahavamsa: Vessantara Jatakantu Vittharena akarayi.

Kandyan period

Among the best-known and best executed murals of the Kandyan period are those at Degaldoruwa Vihara, a few miles north of Kandy, depicting episodes in the story of Vessantara.

M. Sarlis the first artist to bring Buddhist pictures into homes (between the beginning of the last century and the first World War 1914) showed a preference for the Buddhacaritha, the life of the Buddha, unlike the traditional temple painters who drew their inspiration from Jataka stories. Of the very few Jatakas that Sarlis painted the “Giving away of Manthri”, found a place in many homes. Its thin lines and sombre colours are in sharp contrast to the voluptuous lines and bright colours used by George Keyt to depict the same episode.