Divine Stories Read online

  Explore this second volume of translations, in vivid prose, from one of the most celebrated collections of ancient Buddhist stories.

  Actions never come to naught,

  even after hundreds of millions of years.

  When the right conditions gather and the time is right,

  then they will have their effect on embodied beings.

  ANCIENT BUDDHIST LITERATURE is filled with tales of past lives. The Buddha, surrounded by his followers, is asked how it came to be that a certain person has met a particular fate. With his omniscience, the Buddha looks into eons past and uncovers the events that led to the present outcome and foretells the future as well. With stories of wicked wives, patricidal princes, and shape-shifting serpents, Divine Stories offers a fascinating illustration of the law of karma—the truth that the power of good and bad deeds is never lost. These are some of the oldest Buddhist tales ever committed to writing, illuminating the culture of northern India in the early centuries of the common era and bringing to life the Buddhist values of generosity and faith.

  Andy Rotman’s evocative translation combines accuracy with readability, with detailed editorial notes comparing readings in various Sanskrit, Pali, and Tibetan sources. Divine Stories is a major contribution to Indian and Buddhist studies.

  “The Buddha was a skillful and inveterate storyteller who understood the enduring power of narrative to entertain, engage, and enlighten. In his beautiful translation, Andy Rotman ensures the transmission of these divine and very human stories to a new generation of readers.”

  —Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being

  MORE PRAISE FOR

  Divine Stories, PART 2

  “These stories are vivid reminders that Buddhism is much more than a collection of philosophical abstractions or a bare-bones meditative technique for altering our neurobiology. Here we see the Buddha’s teachings firmly anchored in their natural habitat, shaping lives by opening us up to the sorrows and joys of others. In pondering the depths of the human soul, they invite us to examine our assumptions about the hidden springs of desire and fear, and what motivates us to think, speak, and act in the way we do.”

  —C. W. HUNTINGTON JR., author of Maya

  “The Divyāvadāna interrupts the assumption that Buddhist literature is technical and devoid of drama. These stories are full of big questions—of choice and consequence, love and power—harrowing events, and unexpected turns. These Buddhist texts reveal storytelling and teaching at its narrative best, and Andy Rotman has translated them with unparalleled love and dedication.”

  —AKINCANO M. WEBER, guiding teacher, Atammaya Cologne

  “Those who devoured the first volume of Divine Stories will delight in this fresh batch of adventures and misadventures, each illustrating the twisting karmic bonds of a host of comic, tragic, evil, mundane, and divine characters. Pairing profundity with playfulness, Rotman’s precise translations of these historically important tales not only captivate, they also remind us of the power of stories to shape humans and the worlds they inhabit. An exhilarating storytelling tour de force!”

  —SARA MCCLINTOCK, Emory University

  CLASSICS OF INDIAN BUDDHISM

  The flourishing of Buddhism in South Asia during the first millennium of the Common Era produced many texts that deserve a place among the classics of world literature. Exploring the full extent of the human condition and the limits of language and reason, these texts have the power to edify and entertain a wide variety of readers. The Classics of Indian Buddhism series aims to publish widely accessible translations of important texts from the Buddhist traditions of South Asia, with special consideration given to works foundational for the Mahāyāna.

  Editorial Board

  Andy Rotman (chair), Smith College

  Paul Harrison, Stanford University

  Jens-Uwe Hartmann, University of Munich

  Sara McClintock, Emory University

  Parimal Patil, Harvard University

  Akira Saitō, University of Tokyo

  THE DIVYĀVADĀNA

  The Divyāvadāna is a large collection of Indian Buddhist stories written in Sanskrit from the early centuries of the Common Era. These stories have frequently been used in the moral education of monastics and laypeople, and they have often been considered to be the word of the Buddha himself. These stories have since spread throughout Asia, as both narrative and narrative art, leaving an indelible mark on Buddhist thought and practice. Representations of these stories can be found across Asia, from Kizil in China to Sanchi in India to Borobudur in Indonesia. It is not hyperbole to say that these are some of the most influential stories in the history of Buddhism. This volume contains stories from the second half of the collection.

  To Ida Rose and Janna Rose,

  sublime gifts for the world

  Publisher’s Acknowledgment

  The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous help of the Hershey Family Foundation in sponsoring the production of this book.

  Contents

  Preface

  Map of Indian Places in the Divyāvadāna

  Technical Notes

  A Summary of the Stories

  THE DIVYĀVADĀNA

  18.The Story of Dharmaruci

  Dharmaruci-avadāna

  19.The Story of Jyotiṣka

  Jyotiṣka-avadāna

  20.The Story of Kanakavarṇa

  Kanakavarṇa-avadāna

  21.The Story of Sahasodgata

  Sahasodgata-avadāna

  22.The Story of the Deeds of the Bodhisattva Candraprabha

  Candraprabhabodhisattvacaryā-avadāna

  23.The Story of Saṅgharakṣita, part 1

  Saṅgharakṣita-avadāna

  24.The Story of a Young Nāga

  Nāgakumāra-avadāna

  25.The Story of Saṅgharakṣita, part 2

  Saṅgharakṣita-avadāna

  31.The Story of Five Hundred Farmers

  Pañcakārṣakaśata-avadāna

  32.The Story of Rūpāvatī

  Rūpāvatī-avadāna

  34.The Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Topic of Giving

  Dānādhikaraṇa-mahāyānasūtra

  35.The Story of a Lonesome Fool

  Cūḍāpakṣa-avadāna

  36.The Story of Mākandika

  Mākandika-avadāna

  37.The Story of Rudrāyaṇa

  Rudrāyaṇa-avadāna

  APPENDIX

  The Cosmos According to the Divyāvadāna

  Notes

  Glossary

  Bibliography

  Index

  About the Translator

  Preface

  Actions never come to naught,

  even after hundreds of millions of years.

  When the right conditions gather and the time is right,

  then they will have their effect on embodied beings.

  —The Divyāvadāna

  THE Divyāvadāna is a classic, and it is a pleasure that this second installment of translations from the collection can likewise find a home in Wisdom Publications’ Classics of Indian Buddhism series. The title of the text notwithstanding, the “divine stories” in this collection are also deeply human, recording the trials and successes of ordinary people as they struggle to live good lives, with special attention given to their spiritual development. But these are also stories of charlatans, sages, and sea monsters, feasts and famines, the miraculous and the mundane, deadly sacrifices and stupendous gifts, incest and celibacy, evil ministers and wise rulers, wise ministers and evil rulers. These stories deal with big, meaningful questions: poverty and moral agency, political power and corruption, love and lust, death and the afterlife. They are stories to ponder deeply.

  While one can claim, as I
do in the introduction to Divine Stories, Part 1, that “these are some of the most influential stories in the history of Buddhism” and talk about their importance to the fields of art, law, literature, and the like,1 here I want to make a more provocative claim: these stories can be life-changing. Sara McClintock (2017) makes a convincing case for this when she describes how encountering these stories can facilitate one’s own ethical transformation. She describes reading these stories not simply to understand the logic behind particular actions or principles but as an ethical practice in its own right. This kind of ethical reading allows individuals to “fashion and refashion their subjectivity in relation to both self and world through a process of more or less conscious reflection on issues of moral significance” (2017: 185).2 The stories in the Divyāvadāna, McClintock argues (and I wholeheartedly agree), are a perfect vehicle for this exercise.

  This volume contains translations of many, but not all, of the stories in the second half of the Divyāvadāna. The original plan was that Joel Tatelman would translate these other stories, but owing to unforeseen circumstances, this plan couldn’t come to fruition. Divine Stories, Part 1, contained stories 1–17. Contained here are stories 18–25, 31–32, and 34–37. Missing are stories 26–30, 33, and 38. Fortunately, however, the stories not translated in this collection are mostly available elsewhere. Stories 26–29 constitute a narrative cycle about King Aśoka, and these have been translated by John Strong (1983) in his pathbreaking work. Story 30, “The Story of the Youth Sudhana” (Sudhanakumāra-avadāna), was translated by Joel Tatelman (2005: 219–308) in his excellent volume for the Clay Sanskrit Library. There is no English translation of story 33, “The Story of Śārdūlakarṇa” (Śārdūlakarṇa-avadāna), although Joel Tatelman is working on one. It is a fascinating drama of love, caste, class, and astrology, with an equally fascinating history of transmission.3 There is also no English translation of story 38, “The Story of Maitrakanyaka” (Maitrakanyaka-avadāna), but there is an excellent German translation (Klaus 1983). There is, nevertheless, good reason to omit this story. It is likely a later composition taken from Gopadatta’s Jātakamāla that, according to Michael Hahn (1992: 5), somehow “found its way into the Divyāvadāna, where it does not belong at all.”4

  I have been reading and pondering these stories for two decades, and this process has been transformative. These stories make good teachers: they’re smart, challenging, entertaining, surprising, and insightful. I hope my translations allow them to continue to work their magic.

  Acknowledgments

  This book is the result of a collective effort. It would not have been possible without the help of friends, family, and teachers, although these categories often, and fortuitously, overlap.

  I first began working with the stories in the Divyāvadāna more than two decades ago when I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago. My analysis of the stories turned into a dissertation and later a book, and my translations of the first half of the stories were released with Wisdom Publications in 2008. My debts from those formative years in Chicago are numerous. Special thanks go to Sheldon Pollock, Steven Collins, Wendy Doniger, and A. K. Ramanujan for all they taught me about Sanskrit and translation, and for helping me to love both.

  In India, I received great help from scholars in Sarnath and Pune, my two primary homes during my years of research as a graduate student. In Sarnath, at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (now the Central University of Tibetan Studies), I read stories from the Divyāvadāna in Sanskrit with K. N. Mishra and Ram Shankar Tripathi, and in Tibetan (to help decipher and occasionally correct the Sanskrit) with Ramesh Negi, Geshe Ngawang Samten, Lobsang Norbu Shastri, and Pema Tenzin. They were immensely generous with their knowledge, and immensely patient with my mistakes, and I owe each a debt of gratitude.

  In Pune, I read more stories from the Divyāvadāna with M. G. Dhadphale, whose brilliance at unraveling linguistic knots and whose love for Sanskrit and the subtleties of language continue to inspire me, and also with the late J. R. Joshi. Professor Joshi spent untold afternoons reading with me, and his care and humility were humbling. I last saw him on Guru Purnima in 2009, shortly before he died. I brought him a copy of Divine Stories, Part 1, and thanked him profusely, and he offered me his blessing. I learned more than just Sanskrit from Professor Joshi; his gentleness and conscientiousness are teachings I am still trying to master.

  The catalyst for producing this second volume of translations from the Divyāvadāna was a National Endowment for the Humanities Scholarly Editions and Translations grant in 2011. My thanks to them, and also to the American Institute of Indian Studies and the Fulbright-Nehru program, whose support for other projects also allowed me to finish this one. And a special thank you to Smith College, whose faculty research grants have been enormously helpful.

  Since 2011, I have been fortunate to travel to India each year to work on this project. In Goa, I met with few distractions besides a lovely beach. Each year there I was offered the support of various friends, especially Sophia Preza and Ira Mastaram Schepetin, and in 2013 I was fortunate to spend time with Shyamdas, just before he passed away. His enthusiasm for reading texts and translation was truly infectious. Special thanks also go to Rob Phillips, whose food is a genuine lifesaver.

  In Banaras, I was the recipient of astounding hospitality. My deepest thanks to Rabindra Goswami, who welcomed me into his home for months and whose sitar would wake me each day and thrill me to work; to Ramu Pandit, whose caring and conscientiousness have guided me for decades; and to Hari Paudyal, an elder statesman in the guise of a younger brother. Thanks also to Abhishek Agrawal, Arun Himatsingka, Dhrub Kumar Singh, and Virendra Singh, whose longstanding friendship has helped make Banaras my second home; and to Rakesh Singh, for making Harmony Books the best hangout in India.

  In America, my first thanks go to my colleagues in the Religion Department and the Buddhist Studies program at Smith College and to the members of the Five College Buddhist Studies faculty seminar. The unstinting support and collective wisdom of this incredible community has made me a much better teacher, scholar, translator, and human being. My thanks to Jay Garfield, Peter Gregory, Jamie Hubbard, Connie Kassor, Ruth Ozeki, and Marilyn Rhie; Sue Darlington, Maria Heim, Susanne Mrozik, and Rafal Stepien; Mark Blum, Benjamin Bogin, Georges Dreyfus, Reiko Ohnuma, Andrew Olendzki, Kristin Scheible, and many others. Special thanks as well to Sandy Huntington and Sara McClintock, old friends whose care, comments, and suggestions have made this a much better book.

  The extended community of Buddhist scholars has likewise been helpful. Thanks to Stefan Baums, Johannes Bronkhorst, José Cabezón, Chris Clark, John Dunne, Michael Hahn, Jens-Uwe Hartmann, Satoshi Hiraoka, Timothy Lenz, Kazunobu Matsuda, Dieter Maue, Jason McCombs, James McHugh, Richard Salomon, Dieter Schlingloff, Johannes Schneider, Jonathan Silk, John Strong, Akincano Marc Weber, and Monika Zin for their helpful advice. A special thanks, too, to Joel Tatelman, who began work on this volume with me and whose insights have been enormously beneficial. I am especially grateful to Shrikant Bahulkar for helping me to finalize this book; to Peter Skilling, the outside reviewer, whose comments were immensely helpful; and to Paul Harrison, who reviewed the book on behalf of the board of the Classics of Indian Buddhism series. His careful reading helped me make many corrections to the manuscript.

  Additional thanks also to the rest of the CIB board, for their wise counsel, and to Wisdom Publications, for their consummate professionalism. David Kittelstrom is an extraordinary editor, with an uncanny ability to make my translations both more accurate and more literary. Tim McNeill, Daniel Aitken, Kestrel Slocombe, Lydia Anderson, Gopa Campbell, Lindsay D’Andrea, Ben Gleason, and the rest of the staff at Wisdom Publications also merit special recognition for all that they’ve done for the field of Buddhist studies. Thank you for your indefatigability.

  This book also owes a great debt to friends and scholars outside the field of Buddhist studies. Ernie Alleva, Nalini Bhushan, Arin Brenn
er, Lewis Davis, Laura Desmond, Jamal Elias, William Elison, Rick Fantasia, Jack Hawley, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Phoebe McKinnell, the friendly folks at Northampton Coffee, Christian Novetzke, Davin Pasek, Andrea Pinkney, April Strickland, Twobert, and James Wilson have been crucial interlocutors and consigliere.

  Thanks, too, to my parents, Arline and Barry; my brothers, Dave and Al; my grandmother Ida; and the rest of the clan. Your love has been an inspiration.

  And my deepest thank you to Janna Rose White—partner, editor, muse, and sage.

  Technical Notes

  Sources

  THE FOLLOWING translation is based on the Sanskrit edition of the Divyāvadāna compiled by E. B. Cowell and R. A. Neil in 1886 (= Divy). Cowell and Neil made use of seven manuscripts in compiling their edition (mss. A–G).5 I also consulted two manuscripts from the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project, labeled 5819, A120/5–121/1 (ms. H) and A874/3 (ms. I). In addition, I refer to the edition by P. L. Vaidya from 1959 (= Divy-V), which is primarily a rendering of Cowell and Neil’s Roman-script edition into Devanāgarī. Vaidya’s edition contains some welcome emendations as well as some unfortunate mistakes. I indicate the former in my notes and, on occasion, the latter. Page numbers to Cowell and Neil’s edition are included in square brackets within the translation. This pagination is retained in the margins of Vaidya’s edition but not in the online versions available through the Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages (http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/).

  In instances when versions of the stories from the Divyāvadāna are also contained in the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya, I note some of the major discrepancies and preferable readings. I rely on the Sanskrit of the Gilgit Manuscripts (= MSV), the facsimile edition of the Gilgit Buddhist Manuscripts (GBM; cf. Clarke 2014), and critical editions of portions of the text when available (e.g., GM-Saṅgh; GM-Nāga). I also make reference to the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya in its Tibetan recensions, generally to both the Peking (= P) and Derge (= D) editions of the Tripiṭaka, which I cite in that order in the notes. Full citations are offered at the beginning of each story and abbreviated ones in what follows. For many of the Tibetan variants, I rely on the excellent work of Satoshi Hiraoka, who translated the text into Japanese and compiled a list of suggested emendations, first as an appendix to his translation (HA) and then in two articles published in English (HC, HD). His work supplements the work of D. R. Shackleton Bailey (1950, 1951), who likewise compiled a list of preferable readings in the Tibetan as well as their Sanskrit equivalents.