|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Wednesday, 17 March 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Artscope | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Jatakas in simplified language and original flavour by Prof. Sunanda Mahendra 'If our own scholars feel that the great collection of Jataka stories have wielded an academic interest all over the world, I would request a team of writers to take up the task of rewriting them in simplified language, enabling the school goers to possess a better understanding'. This seems to be the guiding philosophy behind the newly drafted project of the book publisher S. Godage, titled 'sarala basin jataka katha (simplified jatakas). Explaining further his literary idealogy publisher Godage says he has always taken an interest in promoting jataka tales, both in prose and verse, and also in English translation. To his credit the veteran Sinhala journalist Denagama Siriwardena has already published 100 titles selected from the great collection of 550 tales, though the collection has only 476 tales commencing from Apannaka Jataka, and ending in Vessantara jataka.
It looks like a great journey of Bodhisatva, (the would be Buddha) symbolic of the various phases undergone in all forms of existences. Jataka tales have been included in most text books and they are constantly utilised as supplementary readers both in the East and the West. Prof. Ediriweera Sarachchandra has utilised jataka tales as source materials for most of his plays such as Maname, Mahasara, Kadavalalu, Vessantara, BhavaKadaturawa, and Hastikanta Manthare. What the professor believed and was obsessed with was the idea of an eternal human experience transcending from the trivial experiences of love, hatred, cruelty, and brutality. His novel 'Vilasiniyakage Premaya', which is titled as a champu kavuya, is based on one of the most sensitive human stories ever told, in Jataka form, named as Kanavera Jataka. Experiences Though set in ancient India, specifically in Benares or modern Varanasi, the human experiences surpass the geographical barriers making all time legends for the whole world. Coming back to the subject of the forthcoming Godage jataka project, the formula is twofold. Firstly the jataka stories are selected to be included into ten flimsy volumes, each containing at least ten tales. These tales will be rewritten without obliterating the original flavour and essence meant to be read and utilised as supplementary readers at all ages, ranging from the primary level of education to the university level and the common reader too in mind. The term 'retold' is used in many countries to denote the rewritten form, but it looks as if the publisher wishes to retain the original sans any modern interpretations, enabling the reader at all levels to reach the great collection of jatakas. Secondly, the collections will be well edited and illustrated. Testimony The well-known media practitioner and specialist psychiatrist Dr. D.V.J. Harischandra told me once that he utilises Jataka tales for therapeutic treatment and the fact that the age old legends are beneficial is ample testimony to the embedded power of Jatakas. As I am enamoured by some of the complex human experience in Jatakas, there is no wonder that they could be utilised for medical treatment, the value of which could be explained, I suppose, only by a person of the calibre of Dr. Harischandra. Jataka tales in simplified form ought to prove that the indigenous knowledge on such aspects as morals, family bonds, love and compassion could be taught creatively in class rooms, without attempting to impart them via western fairy tales in translated forms. Introducing Jataka tales to the English reader, the great Buddhist scholar Rhys Davis, said in his Buddhist birth stories, that, the stories (in Jataka collection) are written in a common Indian form, with a religious layer of meaning, using prose for most of the narrative and verse for dialogue and climax; and they are usually accompanied by prose commentaries. The jataka collection contains fables, fairy tales, moral tales, maxims and legends. More than half the stories are not of Buddhist origin (though Buddha had utilised them for his sermons) and are found in other Indian collections such as the Panchatantra. Many fables like the 'Ass in the lion's skin' appear in various other collections mainly attributed to Aesop. In the jataka collection, that particular tale is denoted as Sihachamma Jataka. Most jataka stories have gone into the making of folk tale and folk ballads both in india and Sri Lanka. The Buddha, in his journey around the length and breadth of ancient India with his disciples, may have collected these legends, and thence enveloped them as edifying tales to illustrate creatively the sermon intended. As such the listeners, whoever they were, passed the creative 'message' down the centuries. Today we have that heritage and legacy as a knowledge giving source. Sermon As is generally observed no sermon goes without a Jataka tale illustrating a life concept. The mass mind is in a way moulded by Jatakas. The two best examples come via the pandals (or torana) erected during the Vesak season and the temple paintings in almost all Buddhist temples. During the sixties the veteran Sinhala writer V.D. De Lanarolle popularised 'Jatakas' as 'Yatagiya dawasa' in one of the Sunday newspapers. Later the collection became a popular supplementary reader. Introducing the first fifty Jatakas (J.R.A.S. vol viii) (N 28, 1884) Rev. Copleston, once said a large number of the Jatakas are especially associated with the Dhammapada, that valuable collection of stanzas on topics of Buddhist Doctrine and morality. According to the Buddhist belief, every man living has entered on his present life in succession to a vast number of previous lives, in any one of which he may have been a man-a king, monk, an arrival a goblin or deity, as the case might be. **** Back **** |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
