Buddhist Parables Translated from the original Pāli by Eugene Watson Burlingame Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Lecturer in Pāli (1917-1918) at Yale University A parable, O monks, I here give unto you, that ye may understand the meaning of the matter. Majjhima Nikāya, i. 117, 155. To my Grandmother who when I was a boy taught me letters and told me stories many and various 2 Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introductory Note Note on Pronunciation of Pāli Names Bibliographical Note Chapter I: Parables from the Book of the Buddha’s Previous Existences on The Gratefulness of Animals and the Ungratefulness of Man Chapter II: Parables from the Book of the Buddha’s Previous Existences and from the Book of Discipline on Unity and Discord Chapter III: Parables from the Book of the Buddha’s Previous Existences on Divers Subjects Chapter IV: Parables from the Book of the Buddha’s Previous Existences in Early and Late Forms Chapter V: Parables from Early Sources on Divers Subjects Chapter VI: Humorous Parables from Early and Late Sources Chapter VII: Parables from Various Sources on Death 3 Chapter VIII: Parables from the Long Discourses on the Subject: “Is there a Life after Death?” Chapter IX: Parables from Buddhaghosa’s Legends of the Saints Chapter X: Parables from Early Sources on the Doctrine Chapter XI: Similes and Short Parables from the Questions of Milinda Chapter XII: Parables from the Long Discourses on the Fruits of the Religious Life Chapter XIII: Parables from the Medium-Length Discourses on Two Kinds of Herdsmen Chapter XIV: Parables from the Medium-Length Discourses on the Pleasures of Sense Chapter XV: Parables from the Medium-Length Discourses on the Fruit of Good and Evil Deeds Chapter XVI: Parables of the Sacred Heart of Buddha ToC 4 Preface [xix] This volume contains upwards of two hundred similes, allegories, parables, fables, and other illustrative stories and anecdotes, found in the Pāli Buddhist texts, and said to have been employed, either by the Buddha himself or by his followers, for the purpose of conveying religious and ethical lessons and the lessons of common sense. Much of the material has never before been translated into English. Chapters I-III contain parables drawn, with a single exception, from the Book of the Buddha’s Previous Existences, or Jātaka Book. This remarkable work relates in mixed prose and verse the experiences of the Future Buddha, either as an animal or as a human being, in each of 550 states of existence previous to his rebirth as Gotama. The textus receptus of this work represents a recension made in Ceylon early in the fifth century A. D., but much of the material is demonstrably many centuries older. For example, the stanzas rank as Canonical Scripture, and many of the stories (including Parables 4 and 14 and 27) are illustrated by Bharahat sculptures of the middle of the third century B. C. Parable 6 is taken from the Book of Discipline or Vinaya, and was very possibly related by the Buddha himself. With Parable 1, The grateful elephant, compare the story of Androclus and the lion, and Gesta Romanorum 104. With Parable 2, Grateful animals and ungrateful man, compare E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 25; A. Schiefner, Tibetan Tales 26; Gesta Romanorum 119; and the following stories in Grimm, Kinderund Hausmarchen: 17 Die weisse Schlange, 60 Die zwei Brüder, 62 Die Bienenkönigin, ToC Introductory – 5 85 Die Goldkinder, 107 Die beiden Wanderer, 126 Ferenand getrü un Ferenand ungetrü, 191 Das Meerhäschen. For additional parallels, see J. Bolte und G. Polivka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinderund Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm, Märchen 17, 62, 191. Parable 9, Vedabbha and the thieves, is the original of Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale. With Parable 10, A Buddhist Tar-baby, compare [xx] E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 89 and 410; also the well- known story in Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings. With Parable 13, Part 1, Gem, hatchet, drum, and bowl, compare Grimm, Kinderund Hausmärchen: 36 Tischchen deck dich, Goldesel, und Knüppel aus dem Sack; 54 Der Ranzen, das Hütlein, und das Hörnlein. For additional parallels, see Bolte-Polivka. A more primitive form of Parable 15, A Buddhist Henny-Penny, will be found in A. Schiefner, Tibetan Tales 22. Compare the well-known children’s story of the same name. Parables 5 and 14 are the oldest known prototypes of Panchatantra, Book 2, Frame-story. Chapter IV contains four specimens of Jātaka parables in early and late forms. Compare also Chapter II, Parables 6 and 7; and Chapter VIII, Parables 45 and 47, with Chapter III, Parables 8 and 11, respectively. The reader will observe that in the earlier (Canonical) versions, the Future Buddha has not yet become identified with any of the dramatis personae. This material is offered as a contribution to the history of the evolution of the Buddhist Parable. Chapter V contains four remarkably fine old parables which may well have been related by the Buddha himself. ToC Introductory – 6 Chapter VI contains several typical specimens of a variety of parable which will undoubtedly be new to many students of religious literature – the Humorous Parable. Chapter VII contains several specimens of Parables on Death. With Parable 30, Kisā Gotamī, compare E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 224; Budge, Ethiopic Pseudo-Callisthenes, pp. 306-308, 374-376; Sir Edwin Arnold, Light of Asia, Book 5; John Hay, Poems, The Law of Death. A modern Burmese version of Parables 30 and 31 combined will be found in H. Fielding Hall, Soul of a People, pp. 272-278. For a Tibetan version of Parable 31, Pāṭācāra, see Tibetan Tales, pp. 222-226. Parable 31 is one of the three principal sources of the legend of St. Eustace, the other two being Jātakas 12 and 547. For a recent treatment of the history of this legend, see H. Delehaye, La légende de saint Eustache, Bull, de l’Acad. roy. de Belgique (Classe des lettres), 1919, pp. 175-210. Compare the history of Faustus, Faustinus, and Faustianus, in the Clementine Recognitiones, 200 A. D. (outline in Diet. Chr. Biog., i. 569-570); Gesta Romanorum 110; Golden [xxi] Legend, St. Eustace; Early English metrical romance of Sir Ysumbras; and the story of Abu Sabir in the Arabian Nights (Burton, Supplemental Nights, i. 81-88). Chapter VIII contains, in the form of an imaginary dialogue between an unbeliever and the Buddhist sage Kumāra Kassapa, a lengthy discussion of the subject: “Is there a life after death?” In order to refute objections advanced by the unbeliever, the sage relates thirteen remarkably fine parables, finally vanquishing his antagonist. The arguments pro and con are the same that have been used ever since men began to discuss this important subject. The ToC Introductory – 7 dialogue forms one of the chapters of the Long Discourses, one of the oldest of the Buddhist books, but is quite modern in its freshness. Chapter IX contains several parables from a commentary on the Aṅguttara Nikāya composed by Buddhaghosa in the early part of the fifth century A. D. The first two parables in Chapter VII are from the same source. Parallels from a commentary on the Dhammapada composed by a contemporary of Buddhaghosa will be found in the author’s Buddhist Legends. Parable 49, Ghosaka, has traveled all over the world. For the principal Oriental versions, see J. Schick, Corpus Hamleticum, Berlin, 1912. For an interesting Chinese Buddhist version, see E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 45. This story appears to be the source of the ninth century apocryphal legend of the seven marvels attending the birth of Zoroaster; see the author’s paper in Studies in Honor of Maurice Bloomfield, pp. 105-116. For some interesting European derivatives, see Gesta Romanorum 20 and 283; Golden Legend, Pope St. Pelagius; William Morris, Old French Romances, King Coustans the Emperor (thirteenth century); Schiller’s ballad Fridolin; Grimm, Kinder und Hausmärchen, 29 Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren. For additional derivatives, see Bolte-Polivka, i. 286-288. The story of Amleth in the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus contains two derivatives, of which one is utilized by Shakespeare in Hamlet. Chapter X is a miscellaneous collection of parables from early sources. These parables are all much older than the beginning of the Christian era, and it is altogether probable that some of them, more ToC Introductory – 8 particularly Parables 57, 58, 59, 60, 63, and 65, enshrine the very words of the Buddha himself. [xxii] Chapter XI contains numerous selections from a collection of imaginary dialogues between Menander, Greek king of Bactria, 125- 95 B. C, and the Buddhist sage Nāgasena. §§ 1-7 are probably as old as the beginning of the Christian era; §§ 8-13 are probably not older than the beginning of the fifth century A. D. The illustrative material is wonderfully vivid and beautiful, and the expositions of Buddhist teaching on the non-existence of the soul and on Nibbāna (Nirvāṇa) are of prime importance to all students of the History of Religions. Chapters XII-XV contain selections from the Long and Medium- length Discourses of the Buddha, two of the oldest of the Buddhist books. References to the Buddhist Scriptures in the Bhabra edict of Asoka, and other considerations, amply justify the statement that the Pāli originals of these four chapters, and of Chapters V, VIII, and X as well, are, in their present form, at least three centuries anterior to the Christian era. Chapters XII and XIII elucidate fully the Practice of Meditation enjoined by the Buddha on his followers as the Way of Salvation.