An Old Tibetan Version Of Ramayana

SR No.: 269273
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong
Total Pages: 13
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 9

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J. W. DE JONG
It is undoubtedly not necessary to indicate in which respects this story differs from Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa. However, it is perhaps useful to compare briefly the Tibetan story with the two Rāma stories which have been preserved in Chinese Buddhist texts, and with the Khotanese version.
The Tibetan version of the Rāmāyana does not show any Buddhist influence, unlike the earlier of the two Chinese Rāma stories "The Story without Names” which was first translated into French by Édouard Huber and, later, by Édouard Chavannes 13). At the end of one of the Tibetan manuscripts the scribe has added the words: "Homage to Sākyamuni, the Tathāgata, the Arhat, the Samyaksambuddha''; but this is only of importance in relation to the beliefs held by the scribe. Both in the Chinese version and in the Khotanese Rāma text 14) the story is told in the form of a jātaka, but both texts are written entirely in prose. The Tibetan text contains many verses, more than 250 in recension I. The relation between verse and prose is not the same as in Pāli jātakas in which both prose and verse relate the same story. In the Tibetan version the story is told in prose. The verses contain the words spoken on different occasions, and also the texts of the letters from Ramana to Sītā and from Sītā to Ramana. The prosody of these verses is much more complicated than that which is found in other ancient Tibetan texts from Tun-huang 15). It seems probable that the text of the verses closely follows an Indian original. For the history of the Tibetan Rāma story and for the better understanding of the verses, which are often difficult to understand, it would be very useful to find in Indian Rāmāyaṇa recensions verses which resemble those found in the Tibetan story. As yet, only one close parallel has been pointed out by Balbir 16). In Vālmiki's Rāmāyaṇa Laksmana reminds Sugriva of his promise to come to the assistance of Rāma. Lakşmaņa pronounces the following verse: na sa samkucitah panthā yena vālī hato gatah / samaye tistha sugrīva mā vāli patham anvāgah (IV.30.81). This verse is reproduced almost with the same words in both Tibetan recensions. The difference between the two resides in the qualifications of the path which is said to be na samkucitaḥ in
13) Édouard Huber, BEFEO, IV, 1904, pp. 698-701; Édouard Chavannes, Cinq cents contes et apologues, I, Paris, 1910, pp. 173-178.
14) H. W. Bailey, Rāma, BSOS, X, 1940, pp. 365-376; Rāma II, BSOAS, X 1941, PP. 559-598.
15) Cf. R. A. Stein, La civilisation tibétaine, Paris, 1962, p. 222. 16) Cf. J. K. Balbir, op. cit., p. 33.