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Document Details : Title: In Defence of the Vessantara-jātaka Subtitle: An Ethically Enriching Work of Literature Author(s): APPLETON, Naomi Journal: Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Volume: 48 Date: 2025 Pages: 1-32 DOI: 10.2143/JIABS.48.0.3295421 Abstract : Of all the many hundreds of jātaka tales – stories of the past lives of the Buddha – that circulate across the Buddhist world, the Vessantara story is the most widespread, the most developed, the most popular, and the most morally challenging. The moral challenge emerges from the story’s presentation of the Bodhisatta pursuing the perfection of generosity to such extremes that he even gives his young children into slavery, and his wife to a stranger. That the Bodhisatta would be prepared to do such seemingly uncompassionate deeds has troubled Buddhists and scholars (and scholars who are Buddhists), to the extent that some have argued it is not really a Buddhist story at all, despite its highly influential place in Buddhist culture since the earliest period. This article offers a new reading of the story, treating it as a work of Buddhist literature. By paying attention to the text’s own cues about how to respond to its challenging events – including its position within the jātaka genre, intertextual allusion, and emotional engagement – it argues that the Vessantara story, while seeming to be morally offensive, is actually an ethically enriching work of literature, exploring the core Buddhist (and human) themes of love and loss. |
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