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JATAKA TALE Thet Mahachat Chant Festival Throughout the Kingdom for Centuries

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JATAKA TALE Thet Mahachat Chant Festival Throughout the Kingdom for Centuries MORAL DILEMMA IN THE throughout her long history.2 The tale of BODIDSATTVA IDEAL: ARE­ the great giving of V essantara, the penultimate life of Prince Sidhatta the READING OF VESSANTARA future Buddha, has been transmitted in the JATAKA TALE Thet Mahachat chant festival throughout the kingdom for centuries. It has been Suwanna Satha-Anand1 popular both among the general populace and among the elite in the royal court. The story of Vessantara's career is also widely Abstract depicted in many temple murals in all regions of the land. As a major narrative in This article offers an analysis of various Thai cultural life for centuries, the general situations of moral dilemma generated by (pre-critical) understanding of this great the Bodhisattva ideal of extreme self­ Buddhist tale has been one of awe and sacrifice, with special reference to the admiration for his great self-sacrifice. career of V essantara. The analysis focuses Though there has been some uneasiness on the dilemmas resulting from his expressed in response to the giving away marvelous giving of gifts (dana), as a of wife and children of Vessantara, the prince of a kingdom, as a royal son to his general orientation of responses seems to parents, as a husband and as a father. be one of admiring acceptance, with the Emphasis will be directed to the various importance of the narrative centering on lines of reasoning, both supportive and the generosity of Vessantara? The oppositional to the gift giving, voiced by the people around him who were directly 2 effected by his generosity. Finally, some Steven Collins. 1998. Nirvana and other Buddhist Felicities. Cambridge: Cambridge possibilities for reconciliation will be University Press, pp.497-498. According to explored. Brereton's research published in 1995, a recent catalog of Lan Na (Northern) Thai manuscripts, Introductory note 396 out of 2,700 (14%) were devoted to the Vessantara Jataka. (Ibid.,p.,498) Also, please take note of K.rompraya Damrongrajanupab. Thai Buddhists in general hold the view B.E.2460. "The Legend of Thet Mahachat", that the ideal of a bodhisattva, a being Mahachat Royal Chant. Bangkok: Rongpim working on becoming a fully-enlightened Thai. one in the future, is more central to the traditions of Mahayana Buddhism than to 3 See an interesting example of research the Theravada School of Thailand. questioning the moral adequacy of many However, many Buddhist scholars have bodhisattvas, including Vessantara in Rassagala pointed out the fact that the story of Seewali Thero. B.£.2542. A Critical Study of Vessantara bodhisattva has been the most Ethical Problems of Bodhisattva s Karuna in Jataka Stories. Bangkok: Mahachulalongkom popular Buddhist tale in Thai society Rajavidyalaya University. See also a defense of Vessantara's gift-giving in Phra Pimonlatham (Chob Anujareemahathera). B.E.2533. Vessantara Jataka Review. Bangkok: K.rongkarn 1 Ph.D., Faculty of Arts Chulalongkom University Moonnithi Hortri (Hortri Foundation Project). In my view, a questioning in the frrst book and a Downloaded from Brill.com10/06/2021 09:47:10PM via free access MANUSYA: Journal ofHumanities 7.2, 2004 dramatic movements of the story are orientation and re-appropriation of the punctuated by each act of giving of story.4 Vessantara, beginning with the auspicious elephant, to his giving the seven Scope ofAnalysis ofa Composite Text marvelous gifts, his children and finally his wife, Madsi. In the middle of the story The term ''jataka , · literally means "birth is the departure from his city and the story. " It indicates a set of birth stories journey toward the forest. At the end, the narrating the previous lives of the Buddha family reunites and everything given away when he was born in human form or is restored to Vessantara. animal performing certain acts of self­ sacrifice in order to perfect attributes of a This article is an attempt to "re-read" the bodhisattva. These tales were collected story from other perspectives, namely into one group of texts in the Khuttaka from the perspectives of those around Nikaya, comprising the last section of Vessantara, rather than from Vessantara Sutta in the Tripitaka. It is generally himself. This new center of focus will understood that these stories were form the basis for an analysis of the originally folktales used by the Buddha different reasons voiced by the people of and his disciples for teaching the dhamma Sipi, Ktng Sonchai, Queen Pussadi, Madsi to the people. Later, these stories were and Ganha-Chalie. By turning the center collected and the main characters were of analysis to these people's voices, the infused with the idea of a former birth of different I evels of moral dilemma can be the future Buddha.5 In other words, the clarified and discussed. The purpose of my analysis is not to See an interesting treatment of similar belittle the great generosity of Vessantara, problems as viewed from within the Confucian but simply to open up a new vista for traditions in Alan Chan. 1984. "Philosophical understanding this important jataka. In Hermeneutics and the Analects: The Paradigm fact, the ethos of moral dilemma is clearly of Tradition", Philosophy East and West. expressed in the text and several Buddhist Vol.34 No.4, October 1984, pp.421-436. Although the "content" of the problem is scholars have pointed out some aspects of different, the need to search for a prope~ the moral conflicts inherent in the text. I transmission of one's tradition is always hope that the bringing forth of the various · pertinent to a people who wish to avoid the levels of moral dilemma would help two extreme positjons of total negation and un­ provide an intimate point of contact critical acceptance. In this sense the article by between this great tale and the present Alan Chan is highly relevant to our discussion generation of audience in contemporary in this paper. life. I also hope that the two extremes of 5 negation of anything traditional on the one Uthong Prasartwinitchai. B.E. 2545. Te Cha hand, and a non-critical acceptance of Su Ne Ma: Roaming the Ten Births Through Mural Paintings. Bangkok: Khanapuggala anything inherited on the other, would be Narnrin, pp.9-12. According to Uthong, better balanced in · this process of re- "During the time of the Buddha, these stories were probably folk tales widely known among defense in the second one indicate a sense of the peoples. The Buddha and his disciples uneasiness with Vessantara's seemingly probably used these tales to teach dhamma. extreme generosity. Later a connection was created to link these stories with the career building paths of the 84 Downloaded from Brill.com10/06/2021 09:47:10PM via free access Moral Dilemma in Budhisattva Buddhist infusion is a later addition to the her fate of being the wife of an old original folktales, thus creating a genre brahmin as easily as those versions from called "jataka" or birth story. The origins the central region. When a text is of these tales give rise to the question transmitted through so many different oral whether, and to what extent, these birth versions, an analysis which is based on stories could be analyzed as representing one particular version of the text needs to "Buddhist philosophy." If and when we be credited with only relative authority. use these stories as expressing Buddhist philosophy, then do we not need to Third, the particular text used for analysis exercise caution in claiming full in this article is itself a composite text, philosophical authority for the birth collected and selected for reasons of stories, as much as we do for other literary merit and because of the cultural articulations like the Theory of Dependent and political authority oft he c omposers.6 Origination or the Three Characteristics of The book Vessantara Jataka: A Royal Existence? Chant is comprised of 13 chapters composed by distinguished authors like the Second, we must take into consideration royal poet Krompra Poramanuchitchinoros, the fact that the Vessantara Jataka Tale has Chao Praya Praklang, and King Rama IV. been chanted by popular monk chanters in When this text is analyzed, it is analyzed different regions in the country for as a whole, leaving aside the issue of the centuries. As a result, there are several different authorship collected into one hundred versions of the same story with composite text. <It would be very awkward different emphasis, elaboration, and to offer analysis of a passage from one interpretation. The "core" or common chapter composed by one author and then components remain relatively constant, the analysis to shift to the authority or namely, that the Prince Vessantara gives intention of another when analyzing away the auspicious elephant of his another chapter in the same book.) kingdom to Brahmins from a neighboring land, is later expelled from his palace ·and, Finally, given my limited knowledge in together with his wife and children, live in the Pali language, I still have not crossed­ the forest. Again, he gives away his checked this particular version of the children to an old brahmin by the name of Vessantara Jataka with the original Pali. Jujaka, and finally his wife to the Lord Therefore, this article as yet cannot fathom Indra disguised as a brahmin. At the end of the different nuances of meanmgs the story everything given away is returned to him. However, among the different chant versions, the nuances in the 6 Vessantara Jataka: A Royal Chant of 13 interpretations and elaborations are most Chapters. Bangkok: Dhammabannakarn telling. For example, Arnittada in some of {Dhammabannakam Publisher), B.E.2521. Please the Northern versions does not give in to take note of the preface saying, "Vessantara Jataka is considered a piece of classic 1bai literature.
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