Introduction

i.1The Exemplary Tale of Puṇyabala is written in one the most recognizable literary forms in Buddhism: the Buddha’s past-life stories. These stories are usually morality tales, which highlight the positive benefits of certain actions and the detrimental results of others. This tale focuses on the benefits of accruing merit . Puṇyabala is a young prince whose store of merit is so great that he acquires untold riches and power.

i.2Most past-life stories of the Buddha are found within two genres of Buddhist literature: avadānas and jātakas. The Sanskrit term avadāna, broadly meaning “narrative” or “tale,” denotes a type of exemplary story that is common to most Indian religious traditions. In the Buddhist context, avadāna is traditionally specified as the tenth of a twelvefold categorization of Buddhist scripture (Skt. pravacana), classified according to content, thematic structure, and literary style. Although this class of works is as varied as it is voluminous, the stories typically illustrate the results of good and bad karma, indicating how past deeds have shaped present circumstances. In this vein, many avadānas, the present one included, set out to show how the exemplary lives of the Buddha, or more often of his followers, have resulted from their meritorious deeds in past lives. Avadānas may also, in certain cases, include prophecies (Skt. vyākaraṇa) of future spiritual attainments.

i.3Avadānas recounting past deeds generally follow a three-part narrative structure: a story from the present life of the Buddha or another protagonist, a story of an exemplary past deed, and a connecting conclusion that shows how the past protagonist and his circle were prior incarnations of the present protagonist and his circle. In this regard, avadānas bear a close relationship to jātakas (“birth stories” of the Buddha), which some scholars have justifiably considered to be a subset of the avadāna genre. One notable difference, however, is that the protagonist of an avadāna is often not the Buddha himself, as it is in most jātaka stories, but one of his followers or prospective followers. Another difference is that avadānas typically concern realized beings’ past human lives, not those as animals or nonhumans, as is the case in many jātaka tales. Finally, while jātaka stories had wide popular appeal, with plots, characters, and motifs drawn from pan-Indian folklore, the avadānas seem to have been originally intended primarily for monastics, as suggested by their frequent references to attendant monks, their moral tone, and their specific prescriptions for Buddhist practice that are interspersed throughout the narratives. Yet, in the course of their historical diffusion, these edifying tales of spiritual and moral achievement eventually gained wide popularity and came to inspire and educate Buddhist monastics and lay followers alike.

i.4The Exemplary Tale of Puṇyabala demonstrates many of the leitmotifs of the avadāna genre. The Buddha relates an inspirational story about the benefits of making merit , and uses illustrative narratives to show how this practice underpins all rival character traits, being the only one that leads directly to spiritual attainment. Although the narrative contains some elements that would be more typical of a jātaka, such as the giving away of body parts, it is primarily dedicated to explaining and illustrating the primacy and far-reaching efficacy of merit-making in spiritual life and has fewer of the entertaining plot devices that enliven the jātaka versions of this story.

i.5The central story and leading characters of The Exemplary Tale of Puṇyabala are found in various permutations throughout the Buddhist past-lives literature. The bare outline of the tale of the five young men, their debate over what is “best in the world” (Skt. loke anuttaraṃ in the Mahāvastu version), and their journey to a foreign land in order to test their differing theories, is shared by at least three other Buddhist texts that are each much shorter in length than the Puṇya­balāvadāna. These texts are the Puṇyavanta Jātaka, which forms a chapter of the Mahāvastu ; a Tocharian version of the Puṇyavanta story; and a metric version that is included in the Bhadrakalpāvadāna. Apart from their shared narrative outline, these texts are not only notably different in composition and content from one another, but also from the Puṇya­balāvadāna. While the dialog and ensuing adventures of the five young men are the focus of the Puṇya­balāvadāna and of the Puṇyavanta Jātaka in the Mahāvastu , the Tocharian version devotes more than three-quarters of its content to the stories and dialogs preceding the young men’s journey, giving only seven and a half lines to their actual adventures.

i.6The characters also differ among these works. The protagonist in our avadāna, Puṇyabala, is named Puṇyavanta in the other works (or its equivalent Punyavaṃ in the Tocharian version) and likewise Rūpabala is Rūpavanta in the other works. Moreover, in the Mahāvastu version, the young prince’s companions are said to be ministers’ sons (Skt. amātyaputrā) who are of the same age, whereas they are referred to as princes (Tib. gzhon nu, Skt. kumāra; Tocharian mäñcuṣke) belonging to the same royal family in both the Tocharian tale and the Puṇya­balāvadāna. The concluding correspondences drawn between the past characters and their present incarnations are largely similar, except that Śilpavanta becomes one of the Buddha’s ten leading disciples, Aniruddha (Pāli Anuruddha), in the Puṇya­balāvadāna and the Tocharian tale but becomes a lesser known disciple, Rāśtrapāla (Pāli Raṭhapāla), in the Mahāvastu tale.

i.7An interesting narrative difference between these works is that the Mahāvastu version of the exploits of Rūpavanta, Prajñāvanta, and Puṇyavanta contains erotic intrigues or escapades that are absent in the Puṇya­balāvadāna and the Tocharian tale, though the latter does describe at some length a nocturnal liaison between a painter and a maiden, as an illustration of the perils of artistry offered by the wise Prajñāvanta. In general, the Puṇya­balāvadāna gives comparatively little consideration to the feats of the other princes, which are each summarized in only a line or two and devotes far more attention than the other works to explaining and illustrating the benefits of merit-making through the lens of Puṇyabala’s life. In the Mahāvastu narrative, it is not through any meritorious deeds that Puṇyavanta earns the respect of King Brahmadatta and his ministers, but rather by generally making an agreeable impression on them, and especially by not falling prey to the sexual advances of the love-smitten princess! It is for these rather passive successes that the king rewards Puṇyavanta with the princess’s hand in marriage and makes him heir to the throne. In the Puṇya­balāvadāna, by contrast, it is only through a series of arduous merit-making tasks‍—including living in poverty, giving wealth to the poor, giving his limbs and blood to an amputee, and making the aspiration to gain spiritual awakening so that he can liberate all beings from saṃsāra‍—that Puṇyabala’s efforts bear fruit. Even then, it is only upon gaining the final approval of the god Śakra, who appears in the guise of a brahmin to interrogate the young prince and ensure that his altruistic deeds have not been corrupted by any disinclination or vested interest, that Puṇyabala finally gains prosperity, kingship, and the assurance of future awakening to buddhahood.

i.8Of the works considered, it is only the Puṇya­balāvadāna that treats the ideal of merit in systematic detail and argues for its alleged superiority over the other virtues. Significantly, the Tocharian tale devotes well over half its content to extolling insight, giving relatively short shrift to merit . The Mahāvastu story gives only cursory treatment to each of the five prized qualities and seems to be invested far more in plot developments than in ethical and didactic considerations. Taken together, all these structural and thematic differences between the versions of this story reinforce our general impression that the Puṇya­balāvadāna was primarily intended as a morality tale for a Buddhist monastic audience. It is perhaps worth noting that there are several jātaka tales featuring a King Puṇyabala who is renowned for his generosity, but these otherwise bear little resemblance to the Puṇyavanta narrative.

i.9Let us now give a brief synopsis of The Exemplary Tale of Puṇyabala. Our story begins with the Buddha delivering a teaching to his disciples in Prince Jeta’s Grove about the crucial importance of generosity, the accumulation of merit , and the maintenance of discipline. The Buddha’s teaching prompts his students to debate over which human quality should be considered the most valuable quality and therefore the most worthy aim in life. Venerable Nanda argues that good looks are most valuable to humans. Venerable Śroṇakoṭīviṃśa argues that it is diligence. Venerable Aniruddha argues that it is artistic skill, and venerable Śāriputra argues that it is insight. When they cannot resolve their disagreement, they ask the Buddha. The Buddha tells them that merit is the best human quality, as it underpins all the others. He then tells a story from one of his past lives to illustrate this claim.

i.10He recounts a previous life as King Puṇyabala, who was the fifth of five brothers. His four older brothers each exemplify, and indeed are named after, the human qualities they consider most worthy: Rūpabala, Vīryavanta, Śilpavanta, and Prajñāvanta. It becomes clear early on that it is Puṇyabala’s inborn quality of merit , especially generosity, that makes his birth the most valuable and auspicious of the five. Indeed, his presence in his mother’s womb already attracts the veneration of the gods and all the kingdom’s residents, including the king, and causes treasures to rain down from the sky.

i.11In the episodes of his coming of age, Prince Puṇyabala’s merit is described as closely related to his generosity; he is generous because of his merit , and his merit is, in turn, a result of his generosity. A key example of this is his compassionate act of granting food to hungry pretas who were hitherto unable to eat anything that was offered to them.

i.12Even such acts, however, do not convince his brothers of the preeminence of merit . As a result, he eventually devises a test to see which of their qualities is the most valuable quality for humans. He suggests that they travel to a foreign land where they are unknown and test out which quality proves most beneficial to themselves and others. The other brothers agree, and all five leave home to live incognito in a distant land. After they arrive, the other brothers soon find success by virtue of their respective qualities, but they are not as successful as Puṇyabala. In fact, their varying degrees of success reflect an ascending hierarchy of the values they embody, with each being more beneficial and encompassing than the last.

i.13Puṇyabala begins his life abroad by staying in a pauper’s house. His host quickly becomes wealthy and respected, and so does Puṇyabala. Puṇyabala then encounters a man who had given unacceptable medical advice to a rival king and was punished by amputation of all his limbs. Puṇyabala offers him his own limbs, and he uses the power of words of truth to attach his severed limbs to their new recipient. Śakra is compelled by this act to make an appearance. He demands to know if Puṇyabala regrets the action, and Puṇyabala confirms his continuing diligence in generosity by pronouncing another truth statement‍—which restores his arms and legs. Śakra is impressed and states that Puṇyabala will soon attain awakening.

i.14After these acts, Puṇyabala grows increasingly wealthy and becomes the king of a neighboring land. He is then given additional kingdoms, until eventually he comes to rule most of the world. His brothers and father seek him out and acknowledge his superiority. After his death, he is reborn in Heaven of Joy and eventually takes rebirth as the Buddha.

i.15The narrative concludes, in standard avadāna fashion, with the Buddha revealing the true identities of the characters in the story. He relates that he was Puṇyabala, the parents in the story were none other than his current parents, and Puṇyabala’s brothers were the four monks who argued over which human quality is the most valuable quality.

i.16The Buddha continues with a further past-life story in which he had taken birth as a pauper named Dyūtajaya, who had gambled away all his money and become utterly destitute. On his way home, however, he encountered a previous buddha named Aparājita, to whom he confessed his errant ways; he aroused the mind of awakening and made an offering to Aparājita of five handfuls of cowrie shells and his upper garment. This was a paltry offering, but presumably all he could manage given his recent deprivation and, most importantly, it was made with pure intention. As a result of this pure deed, he went on to first become wealthy, then a king on earth, and eventually a king in heaven. Eventually, it was the catalyst for his rebirths as Puṇyabala and the Buddha. This final narrative serves to illustrate how any human being, even a wrongdoer, can attain the highest goals in life if he or she strives to benefit others with pure intention.

i.17The colophon of the text states that it was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan by the imperial-era translators Jinamitra, the Kashmiri scholar, and the Tibetan Devacandra (eighth to ninth centuries). Jinamitra was active in Tibet at the end of the eighth century or during the first decades of the ninth. The Puṇya­balāvadāna’s inclusion in the Denkarma Catalog shows that it was translated prior to that catalog’s compilation in 812. In this catalog, the text is grouped within the category of Hīnayāna sūtras (Tib. theg pa chung ngu’i sde). Indeed, its cast of characters includes only the Buddha Śākyamuni and his śrāvaka disciples (in their present and former lives), and none of the bodhisattvas who often appear in the Mahāyāna sūtras.

i.18This text was also translated into Chinese by Dānapāla in 983, during the Northern Song Dynasty. However, the text of the Chinese translation does not closely match the Tibetan version of the text, and only begins partway through the narrative. It therefore seems likely that the Chinese and Tibetan translations were based on different versions of the text (or perhaps the Chinese translation was based on an incomplete source text). We have not consulted the Chinese translation in preparing this English translation of The Exemplary Tale of Puṇyabala.

i.19Kazuo Kano has noted that a Sanskrit version of the Puṇya­balāvadāna that once belonged to the Indian scholar Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna is currently stored in the Potala Palace in Lhasa. Unfortunately, however, this text along with the many other Sanskrit and Tibetan texts in the Potala collection remain unavailable to scholars at this time.

i.20The Exemplary Tale of Puṇyabala has not previously been translated into any Western language. In producing the present English translation, we based our work primarily on the Tibetan edition found in the Degé Kangyur, but consulted variant readings in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) and the Stok Palace manuscript edition.