Bruhat Katha kosha

Author(s): Harishen Acharya,
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Page 47

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BRHAT-KATHĀKOŠA
specimens of ballad narrative edifying ascetic ideals. The two texts Vimänavatthu and Petavatthu give stories, all made after one model, which illustrate how a happy or unhappy existence in the next world with its splendour or torment was acquired : these stories are meant to prove the universality and the efficacy of the doctrine of Karman. When the individuals concerned are made to explain their fate, such narrations would certainly have an effect on the believing hearers. The commentators are there to supply the requisite details in full. Thera- and Theri-gāthā are collections of spiritual confessions of souls of monks and nuns yearning for peace. Undoubtedly these are ascetic heroes whose utterances are to enlighten and whose examples are to inspire others that want to follow the spiritual ideal. Some of them appear to be historical persons. The verses uttered by them do not give any biographical details, but the corresponding Apadāna stories and the commentary of Dharmapāla give good many details about these monks and nuns. Most of these stories look like mechanical patterns; but as tales meant for a moral exhortation, they have a definite significance. The names have not got much value; but the spirit of asceticism, the working of the Karma doctrine, truth of moral values and the need of a pious life are all impressed upon the believers by these stories. When one looks at the tales of men and women of different status in life who are inspired by religious ideals and necessarily adopt the monastic life, it only means that ascetic values weilded a great influence on the outlook of these story-writers. Some of these stories are interesting as pieces of genuine didactic tale and realistic pictures of life.
Then there are two other extensive tracts of early Buddhistic narrative literature that preach moral and ascetic ideals interwoven in a story. The first is the Jātaka, and the second the Apadāna. According to Buddhist terminology, Jātaka is a story in which Buddha, in one of his earlier births, plays some part, it may be as a hero or any other character or even as a mere witness. The dogma of Bodhisattva, coupled with the doctrines of transmigration and Karman, could turn any tale into a Tătaka. These Jātakas not only heightened the greatness of Buddha's personality; but quietly propagated also the ideas of rebirth and Karman, and established certain moral standards in the society for its collective welfare. Some of the stories that came to be put into the Jātaka form are already found in the Suttas as simple tales. If they are stripped of the personality of Bodhisattva and special Buddhistic outlook and terminology, we find that their contents include fables, fairy tales, anecdotes, romantic and adventurous tales, moral stories and sayings, and legends. These have been drawn from the comman stock of Indian folklore which is utilised by different religious schools in their own way.
To be distinguished from the Tataka tale is the Apadāna story which gives the life of its hero or heroine in one or more births laying
1 Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, the article on the Jātaka; A History of
Pāli Literature by B. C. Law (Calcutta 1937), Vol. I, pp. 271 ff.