Hwang Soonil
Department of Indian Philosophy, Dongguk University, Korea
In the Vessantara Jātaka, the main motive for Vessantara’s act of giving (dāna) even his children and wife is described as his deep consideration that he would like to give things internal to him (ajjhattikadāna), such as his heart and eye. When he was ready to give away his own life, giving things external to him (bāhiradāna), such as property, could not be a serious matter. Although it could evoke a serious ethical problem of whether children and wife can be regarded as one’s own property, it seems to be how the Pali version of the Vessantara Jātaka justifies his extreme act of giving.
Within the Chinese version of the same story, the Prince Sudāna sūtra, the aspiration of his generosity is expressed as practicing the perfection of giving (dāna pāramitā, 檀波羅蜜), the first of the six perfections (pāramitā) on the way to achieve bodhisattva-hood within the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition. According to the theory of six perfections, the perfection of giving (dāna pāramitā) consists of three acts: giving material goods (āmiṣa), such as food and shelter, giving right teaching (dharma), such as the words of the Buddha, and giving fearlessness (abhaya), that is to say, protecting other living beings from fear or danger.
It is clear that this shift of motive in the Chinese version occurs due to the influence of the Mahāyāna Buddhism. However, the perfection of giving could not possibly be enough to justify the extreme act of giving one’s own children and wife. This paper will look at various versions of the Vessantara Jātaka and try to show how the motive of his generosity shifted and in what way his extreme act of giving could be defended.
(Presented in the International Conference – Buddhist Narrative in Asia and Beyond, 9-11 August 2010, Imperial Queen's Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University with support from The Thailand Research Fund (TRF), in co-operation with Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Institute of Asian Studies, The Confucius Institute, Chulalongkorn University and l’École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO))