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An Eastern Love-Story = Kusa Jakaya : a Buddhistic Legend

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An Eastern Love-Story = Kusa Jakaya : a Buddhistic Legend wm-: '../ u^rJ ^(^Ui^ oCi^rtly ^^^**^ ~<^^y /Ll*'^^^^ t9€^ k-^y^,^: ^"-^ ^ <^0i^*^^^ ^ ^ ^ - c- >>v.-- ^:; "~ >»1 .r\ V.»^v. 'e^ ^:^^ .>^;y ^^ 9^^: ^JLpU^ c^^^^u^ ^^zc;— KUSA JATAKAYA. /I ( / 7/ :^a yi^^t PKINTED BV BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THESE SLIPS IN THE COURSE OF CORRESPONDENCE. %\i Eastern fDb^-Si0rg. KU8A JATAKAYA, A BUDDHISTIC LEGENDARY POEM, WITH OTHER STORIES. TRANSLATED BY THOMAS STEELE, Ceylon Civil Service. SHILLINGS, LONDON: TKUBNER & CO., 60 PATERNOSTER ROW. MAY BE ORDERED THROUGH ANY BOOKSELLER. %n €nBttxn '§abt-Biax^. KUSA JATAKAYA, A BUDDHISTIC LEQEND: RENDERED, FOR THE FIRST TIME, INTO ENGLISH VERSE, FROM THE SINHALESE POEM OF ALAGIYAVANNA MOHOTTALA, THOMAS STEELE, CEYLON CIVIL SERVICE. LONDON: TRiJBNER & CO., 60 PATERNOSTER ROW. 1871. [All rights reserved.'^ Euscribeti, Wife Pucfe fobe, to git SEIjose gcqucst the ^rairslatio ^h iaj^pg gears g.go. PREFACE. Buddhists believe that their Great Teacher, Gautama Buddha, while a Bodisat, before attaining to Buddha- hood, underwent, as they hold do all sentient beings, countless transmigrations, five hundred and fifty of which he afterwards revealed to his followers. These are con- tained in the pansiyapanas jatakapota, or Book of the Five Hiuidred and Fifty Births, a prose classic translated from the ancient Buddhistic legends in the Pali lan- guage into the vernacular tongue early in the fourteenth century, during the reign of Prakkrama Bahu IV., King of Ceylox. The probable date of the Pali legends can- not be ascertained ; but there can be no question they are of remote antiquity. In one of these transmigrations, the Bodisat was born as Kusa, Emperor of Dambadiva or Jambudwipa (India); and his adventures, while in that life, form the subject of the Kusa Jatakaya, a favourite legendary poem of high repute among the Sinhalese, of which a rendering into English verse is now for the first time submitted to the reader. The original poem, founded on the prose legeYid in The Book of the Five Hundred and Fifty Births^ was written, as the concluding stanza shows, in 1610 A.D., by Alagiyavanna Mohottala, Secretary or Writer to the Household of a native chieftain of high rank. Alagiyavanna is regarded as one of the most dis- tinguished poets of Ceylon by his countrymen, among whom, though the circumstance may perhaps cause sur- prise to many English readers, poetry has, from remote times, been an object of earnest study and liking. Of the KusA Jatakaya it has been said, " The unity of its plan, the steady progress of its narrative, and a certain unaffected display of genuine feeling, . entitle it to rank as a poem of the highest merit."* Although this measure of praise should, perhaps, be qualified, the Legend is undeniably a favourable specimen of Sinhalese poetry; and I am fain to hope that the version now offered may be of interest to Englishmen, as evidence of a vein of Oriental literature almost wholly unsuspected at home, as illustrating Buddhistic history, precept, and practice, and modes of life and feeling in the East, little known here, and as showing what engaged the thoughts of at least one builder of " the lofty rhyme " in Ceylon, at the time when Shakspeare, resting from his dramatic labours, w^as enjoying a happy but too short afternoon of life at Stratford, and Raleigh consoled his captivity in The Tower with gorgeous day-dreams, never to be realised, of golden realms he believed himself destined to discover beyond the Spanish Main. The Legend is a love-story, and exhibits in many places great beauty and tenderness of sentiment. The student of Comparative Mythology, and the lover of old-world stories, will be interested in finding ancient Aryan incidents, which appear in the Mahcibharata, here worked * Alwis's Introduction to the Sidat Sangarava, a scholarly and highly interesting book. Islx Alwis is at present engaged on another important -work, The Descriptive Catalogue of Sinhalese Authors, undertaken at the request of the Governor, Sir Hercules KoBiNSON, whose enlightened action in regard to Sinhalese litera- ture and antiquities calls for very cordial recognition. ^^ • up into a Buddhistic myth, in a country where an almost exact counterpart of the Judgment of Solomon,* hut^not^ T derived from Hebrew sources, has long been current. The seven kings who are to marry one bride ; the hero dis- guised as a potter, a groom, and a cook; the miraculous birth of the hero by the favour of Indea ; and many minor incidents of the poem, reveal a close connection between the Legend and the old Sanskrit epic, and, it may be added, between both and many popular tales o f Western Europe. ^ The translation reads stanza for stanza with the* original, which consists of six hundred and eighty-seven stanzas of four lines each, all four rhyming alike, with, not unfrequently, double rhym es i n the middle of the lines. -'^ The translation is in manxp.laces necessarily freer. Old ^ Ballad Measure has been chosen as the one best adapted to convey the spirit of the original, and as affording room for amplifyin g, where necessary, into English verse, the — remarkable compression which occasionally distinguishes Sinhalese poetry. T have been urged to publish the original text in Roman characters, side by side with the English version, as was done by Turnour in his trans- lation of the Mahavanso. This would be easy, as ancient Sinhalese poetry contains none of the aspirated letters frequent in prose, and, to a certain extent, difficult to express by Roman characters ; but I refrain, for the present at least, from adopting the suggestion. It may, perhaps, be carried into effect hereafter, should this venture meet with favour enough to warrant a second edition. A few specimens of Sinhalese epigrams and stories have )C ~~'' been appended at the end of the volume, in the hope that * See Note to stanza 316, p. 218. — they may prove not unattractive to readers who take in- terest i n Aryan folk-lor e, that oldest, and, in some respects, ty most invitin body of un^vl^itten history . The resemblances ^ to old stories common in the West will not escape remark. The works, to which grateful acknowledgment should here be made, consulted in preparing the Notes, were the * ^ following : Hardy's Eastern Monachism and Manual of Buddhism ; Schlagintweit's Buddhism in Tibet ; Hodg- sox's Literature and Religion of Buddhists ; Max Muller's Essays on Comparative Mythology ; Alwis's Introduction to the Sidat Sangardva ; Skeen's Adam's Peak ; Colonel FoRBEs's Eleven Years in Ceijlon; Macready's The Sela's Message; A. M. Yergvso'n's, Souvenirs of Ceylon; Clough's Sinhalese Dictionary ; Ward's Literature and Religion of the Hindus ; Percival's Land of the Vedas ; Torrens' Travels in Ladak and Kashmir ; Capper's Duke of Edin- burgh in Ceylon; Fergusson's History of Architecture, and Tree and Serpent Worship; Sir J. Lubbock's Origin of Civilisation ; Gladstone's Homer and the Homeric Age ; Cox's Tales of the Gods and Heroes. The original poem, it may be added, is one of the books prescribed in Ceylon by the Board of Examiners for the Civil Service. T. S. Walton, May 27, 1871. /fetv^^-^ Qi^^pUIJjM. Oo^-C^W^ su^ n^^. Aw^ A— !fr^!^^ (j^^—^Kot^ n(A^/^ XoA^iA. TtuT^ 3<JVt^^/^m, >vs>^^-^^ 7-^*/^ \P^AA^^^ .CONTENTS. ^ PAGE PROEM ....... 1 THE REALM OF MALALA . , . .23 KING KUSA's birth AND UP-BRINGING : THE SEARCH FOR HIS BRIDE . .41 THE BRIDAL OF KUSA AND PRABAVATI . .66 QUEEN PRABAVATI'S DISCOVERY • . .73 HER FLIGHT : THE ORIGIN OF HER DISLIKE TO THE KING 89 VII. KING KUSa's LAMENT, AND PURSUIT . .98 VIII. WHAT KING KUSA UNDERWENT AT SAGALA , , 106 THE GATHERING OP THE SEVEN KINGS : QUEEN PRABA- VATl'S LAMENT ..... 143 THE RECONCILIATION . , . .152 THE BLOODLESS VICTORY , . .170 XII, THE BRIDAL OF THE SEVEN KINGS . .176 " " XIII, AND THEY BOTH LIVED HAPPY EVER AFTERWARDS ! . 183 NOTES EPIGRAMS. Xll CONTENTS. KUSA JATAKE: A BUDDHISTIC LEGEND IN VERSE. PART I. 1 E^z Ascription of raors!)ip. Him who, a Sun, through Unbeliefs thick, gloomy dark- ness breaks, Who beams on faithful hearts as beams the Moon on lotuis lakes, With virtue stored as is the Main with precious jewels strown, Him of three worlds Chief Teacher, shall 1 adoring own ! 2 Him who, all lusts uprooting through long-continued strife, Became the Buddha, and proclaimed the bliss of heavenly life ! ! 1 KUSA JATAKE. The true and precious Doctrine which through the workl was shown By hinij shall I unceasingly with adoration own ! 3 The Priesthood, that has blessings shed upon this world of ours, That set its sacred feet, which are as budding lotus flowers, Upon the heads of Brahmans, of gods and men—alone A field of merit, fount* of worth, shall I adoring own ! 4 Cfje Inbocation. May seven-armed* Maha Brahma, may ViSHXU mild and calm, Ganesa, Sakra, Iswara, the God of Katragam, The Sun-God and the Snake-God, all high supernal Powers, Bestow a bounteous blessing upon this world of ours ! 5 W^z ^retutie to \\z Ecrjenti. In days of Bhuwaneka, the mighty King, whose sword Brought victory in all battlefields unto its dauntless lord, Whose head with Buddha's favour was gloriously crowned, Whose ears with gladness ever heard the holy doctrine sound * See Notes. ; ! — — KUSA jatake. 3 6 Beneath that lofty monarch, an Officer of State Was clothed with mighty power, with honours rich ami great Descended from a race renowned, of high descent and far, •* Was valiant Sepala, the noble Adigar ! 7 Pure as the enamel of a shell [or pure as is a star], The Maiden was who grandsire called that noble.
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