A.N.D. Haksar, formidable, versatile and prolific translator of Sanskrit texts, gives us a gentle and very sweet version of Arya Shura’s Jatakamala from the fourth century, overflowing with the Buddhist virtues of generosity and compassion towards all living creatures. The translation is a reprint and we must be grateful to Harper Collins for rescuing it from wherever it had been abandoned. As we all know, the Jatakas are the stories of the Buddha’s previous births where, as a Boddhisattva, he defers his own enlightenment for a lifetime so that he can help other sentient beings break through the endless cycle of rebirth and redeath. There are stories that we know well, like the one about King Shibi, renowned in the three worlds for his unending capacity to give. Indra instigates a sightless brahmin to ask the king for one of his eyes and the Boddhisattva king immediately gives him both his eyes.
August 2015, volume 39, No 8