[Y-Indology] Evidence for jatakas in dramatic performance

[Guest guest]

The Chinese Buddhist traveler I-Ching (I-Tsing) who toured

India in the last quarter of the 7th century records that ``King

"Siilaaditya [= Har.sadeva or -vardhana of Kanyaakubja (=

Kanauj)] versified the story of the Bodhisattva Jiimuutavaahana,

who surrendered himself in place of a Naaga. This version [=

Naagaananda] was set to music (lit. string and pipe). He had it

performed by a band accompanied by dancing and acting, and

thus popularised it in his time." (Transl. by J. Takakusu: ``A

Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the

Malay Archipelago (A.D. 671-695) by I-Tsing", Oxford, 1896,

pp. 163-4). In the immediately following passage I-Ching says

that ``Mahaasattva Candra [= Candragomin], a learned man in

Eastern India, composed a poetical song about the prince

Vi"svantara [i-Ching seems to confuse Vi"svantara with

Ma.nicuu.da] [...], and people all sing and dance to it throughout

the five countries of India." This seems to reflect performances

of the Buddhist play Lokaananda by Candragomin (5th cent.

A.D), who dramatized a version of the Ma.nicuu.daavadaana

(for details, see my book ``Untersuchungen zu Har.sadevas

Naagaananda und zum indischen Schauspiel", Swisttal-

Odendorf, 1997 [indica et Tibetica. 31.], pp. 32-41).

 

Moreover, Damodaragupta (800 A.D.) describes in his

Ku.t.taniimata [777-787, 856-857, in Kaavyamaalaa, pt. 3, pp. 98-

99, 104-105, Bombay, 1887] the theatrical and musical

production of Har.sa's Ratnaavalii (which admittedly is not a

Buddhist play).

 

Best regards,

Roland Steiner