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Note on the Divyvadna

E. J. Thomas

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies / Volume 10 / Issue 03 / October
1940, pp 654 - 656
DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X00088686, Published online: 24 December 2009

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How to cite this article:

E. J. Thomas (1940). Note on the Divyvadna. Bulletin of the School of
Oriental and African Studies, 10, pp 654-656 doi:10.1017/
S0041977X00088686

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 Note on the Divyavadana
By E. J. THOMAS

corruptions in the text of the Divyavadana are well known.

As we now have it, it depends upon a number of modern copies
of a single manuscript inaccessible in Nepal. Nor would access to this
original be likely to solve all the difficulties. The editors declared that
without continual reference to the Tibetan versions it would be impos-
sible to give a satisfactory English translation. A series of highly
important emendations was given by J. S. Speyer in the Vienna
Oriental Journal (vol. xvi), but one passage there dealt with seems
to require further consideration. I t is in the story of Makandika
and his daughter, whom he wished to present as a wife to Buddha.
The reply of Buddha is in verse (Divy., p. 519). The MS. reading as
recorded by the editors is as follows :
Drstvd maya Mdrasutd hi vipra
trsnd na ndpi tathdratisva |
chando na me hdmagunesu kascit
tasmdd imam mutrapurisapurndm ||
prastum hi yakdm [v. 1. yabhdm] api notsaheyam |
The editors read drstd and -ratis ca, and these need no comment.
But the second pada is unmetrical, and they insert me after na,
evidently understanding it as " I have no craving nor passion ", but
this makes the next pada a mere repetition of the same sentiment.
The three daughters of Mara are Trsna, Eaga, and Arati, and we have
at least two of them here, Trsna and Arati, for tathdratis may imply
taiha Aratis, although the editors divide it as taihd ratis. What of the
corrupt na ndpi 1 If we read ragd for na (thus supplying the missing
syllable), and cdpi for ndpi, we get the third daughter, and the whole
then corresponds in sense with the Pali version in the Sutta-nipdta,
835:
Disvdna Tanham Aratim Ragan ca
ndhosi chando api methunasmim.
I t can scarcely be doubted that the Sanskrit goes back to a Prakrit
passage essentially like this. But there are still further correspondences
 NOTE ON THE DIVYAVADANA 655

with the Pah. In the fifth pada Speyer reads sprastum for prastum,
and this is made certain by the Pali, for the rest of it reads :
him ev' idam muttaJcansapunnam
pdddpi nam samphusitum na icche.
But the Sanskrit has the unmetrical yakdm or yabhdm. The editors
change it to yattdm, and Speyer, who seems to have tried to emend the
emendation, reads dattdm. But this is rather airy conjecture than
emendation, and if we are to resort to conjecture at all, a change of
y to p seems more probable. Then if we read pdddd we finally have a
complete correspondence between the two versions.
Speyer also discussed another strophe on the same page, which,
like many other verses in the book, has been printed as prose. Usually
in such cases the editors insert the double danda at the end of each
strophe, which seems to show that they recognized the passages as
metrical, but in this case they propose an unmetrical emendation.
They even seem to have misled Speyer, who quotes four padas and
calls them the whole. But there are five padas, as in the case of the
strophe discussed above. I t reads without emendation as follows :
{Bhagavantam idam avocat:)
imam Bhagavdn pasyatu me sutdm satdm safim |
rupopapanndm pramaddm alamkrtdm
Mmdrthinim yad bhavate pradiyate |
sahdnayd sddhur ivdcaratdm bhavdn
sametya candro nabhaslva rohinim ||
The first line, it is true, does not look exactly metrical. But in
the first place, Bhagavdn is wrong. A brahmin, it is well known, does
not address the Lord as such, but as bhavdn. He is a bho-vddin, and
there are two examples of this mode of address in the third and fourth
lines of this very passage. Makandika is here represented as not
knowing who Buddha was, and he calls him a sramana. Bhavdn is
evidently required here. The editors are dissatisfied with satdm, and
propose to read satydm. This seems to show that they recognized
nothing metrical about it. But satdm is not wanted. The brahmin
merely speaks of " my good daughter ", and satdm looks like a kind of
dittography, which has grown out of the previous sutdm. With the
reading bhavdn and the omission of the awkward satdm, the line is
perfectly metrical.
Speyer's first correction was to turn rupopapanndm . . . kdmdr-
ihinim into the nominative. Why he should have thought it necessary
VOL. X. PART 3. 44
656 NOTE ON THE DIVYAVADANA

he does not say, but it introduces a needless hiatus (pramadd alamkrtd),

and it becomes impossible if Makandika's first words are taken as
part of the strophe. Speyer's other correction improves both sense and
metre. He reads :
sahdnayd sddhu cared ratim bhavdn.
Sddhu here is said to be " another instance of the hortative particle
sddhu, not understood by copyists." There is nothing in the Pali com-
mentary on the Sutta-nipdta to throw any light on this strophe, but the
brahmin there addresses Buddha with bho. The story is also told
more in accordance with the Divydvaddna in the commentary on the
Dhammapada (i, 199), and there the brahmin addresses the Lord as
samana.