DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29591#0371
Commentary: Chap. 24—25
367
Then there follows a short story in Prakrit:
Bcincirasie nayarle do vippd bhdyaro jamalcc Jciyaghosa-Vija-
yagiiosabhiliana cisi \ cinnayd Jciyaghoso nhciium Gamgam gao | tattha
pecchai scippena mandukko gasijjai | sappo vi majjarena clickant.o
| taha vi sappo mandukkam cimciyantam khdiyai | majjaro vi sappani
cadapphadantam khdiyai \ tcim annamannaghayam pdsittd, alio sam-
sdrassa asclrayd jo jassa pahctvai so tam ettha gasai \ kaycinto puna
savvcissa pahavai \ ao savvam pi gasai | td dhammo cevettha savva-
vasanehinito rakkhago tti cintcmto padibuddho | Gamgam uttariuna
sdhusagdse samcino jdo tti || i. e. ’In the town of Benares there lived two
Brahmin twins called Jayaghosa and Vijayaghosa. Jayaghosa once
went to the Ganges to bathe. There he saw a frog being swallowed by
a serpent; this latter, again, was assaulted by a mungoose. Then
the serpent swallows the quivering1 frog, while the mungoose
chews the wriggling2 serpent. When he saw this series of murders
he thought: Fie upon the emptiness of life, for whosoever is the
foremost he shall swallow the other one; but fate is the foremost
of all, and consequently it will devour everything. That is why
the true law is here the escape from all emergencies’. And so he
was enlightened. He crossed the Ganges and took the vows in
the presence of a holy man’.
This story is shortly told in the Niry. 511 — 514, but with
the deviation that the serpent is there devoured by an osprey
(,kulala) instead of a mungoose.
The whole plan of this chapter — the ascetic who comes to
the Brahmin to beg for alms, and instructs him on the highest
•things — undoubtedly reminds us of the twelfth chapter, the
story of the holy Harikesa and the Brahmin. It certainly means
to emphasize the same idea, viz. the preponderance of asceticism
over Brahmin ceremonial and sacrificial religion. And while we have
in the chapter on Harikesa a very old fragment of what is called
by Winternitz ’ascetic poetry’ (»asketendichtung»), as is proved
beyond doubt by comparison with an old Jataka-text, we find in
this chapter also some few parallells with verses from old texts
1 cimciydnta- probably belongs to cimcaio calitah Desln. 3, 13;
cimcai and cimcaai = viand- He. N, 115 do not make any sense here.
2 This is only a tentative rendering of cadapphadai.
367
Then there follows a short story in Prakrit:
Bcincirasie nayarle do vippd bhdyaro jamalcc Jciyaghosa-Vija-
yagiiosabhiliana cisi \ cinnayd Jciyaghoso nhciium Gamgam gao | tattha
pecchai scippena mandukko gasijjai | sappo vi majjarena clickant.o
| taha vi sappo mandukkam cimciyantam khdiyai | majjaro vi sappani
cadapphadantam khdiyai \ tcim annamannaghayam pdsittd, alio sam-
sdrassa asclrayd jo jassa pahctvai so tam ettha gasai \ kaycinto puna
savvcissa pahavai \ ao savvam pi gasai | td dhammo cevettha savva-
vasanehinito rakkhago tti cintcmto padibuddho | Gamgam uttariuna
sdhusagdse samcino jdo tti || i. e. ’In the town of Benares there lived two
Brahmin twins called Jayaghosa and Vijayaghosa. Jayaghosa once
went to the Ganges to bathe. There he saw a frog being swallowed by
a serpent; this latter, again, was assaulted by a mungoose. Then
the serpent swallows the quivering1 frog, while the mungoose
chews the wriggling2 serpent. When he saw this series of murders
he thought: Fie upon the emptiness of life, for whosoever is the
foremost he shall swallow the other one; but fate is the foremost
of all, and consequently it will devour everything. That is why
the true law is here the escape from all emergencies’. And so he
was enlightened. He crossed the Ganges and took the vows in
the presence of a holy man’.
This story is shortly told in the Niry. 511 — 514, but with
the deviation that the serpent is there devoured by an osprey
(,kulala) instead of a mungoose.
The whole plan of this chapter — the ascetic who comes to
the Brahmin to beg for alms, and instructs him on the highest
•things — undoubtedly reminds us of the twelfth chapter, the
story of the holy Harikesa and the Brahmin. It certainly means
to emphasize the same idea, viz. the preponderance of asceticism
over Brahmin ceremonial and sacrificial religion. And while we have
in the chapter on Harikesa a very old fragment of what is called
by Winternitz ’ascetic poetry’ (»asketendichtung»), as is proved
beyond doubt by comparison with an old Jataka-text, we find in
this chapter also some few parallells with verses from old texts
1 cimciydnta- probably belongs to cimcaio calitah Desln. 3, 13;
cimcai and cimcaai = viand- He. N, 115 do not make any sense here.
2 This is only a tentative rendering of cadapphadai.