XI. The Act of Truth (Saccakiriya): A Hindu Spell and its employment as a psychic motif in Hindu fiction1

Eugene Watson Burlingame

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00050528

XI. The Act of Truth (Saccakiriya): A Hindu Spell and its employment as a psychic motif in Hindu fiction1

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

Eugene Watson Burlingame

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Eugene Watson Burlingame: Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

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An Act of Truth is a formal declaration of fact, accompanied by a command or resolution or prayer that the purpose of the agent shall be accomplished. For example, a hunter asks a sage how a certain nymph can be captured, and the sage replies: “Nymphs can be captured by the utterance of a truth; nor, under such circumstances, have they power to vanish from sight.” Accordingly the hunter says to the nymph he desires to capture: “You are the beautiful daughter of King Druma; if this be true, halt! you are bound fast! If it be true that you are the daughter of King Druma, and that you were reared by the king, move not a foot, O fair Mancharā!” By the utterance of this truth on the part of the hunter the nymph addressed is immediately bound fast, and is unable to vanish from sight; but all of her companions vanish into the air.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , July 1917 , pp. 429 - 467

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00050528 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1917

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^{page 429 note 2} Compare 2 Kings, , i, 10–12Google Scholar: “And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.”

^{page 430 note 1} Mahāvastu, ii, 97^9–21.Google Scholar

^{page 430 note 2} Jātaka 499Google Scholar. In Jātaka-mālā, iiGoogle Scholar, Sivi's eyes were restored by the power of his Truth-Command and by the abundant store of his merit, satyādhishṭhānabalāt puṇyopacayaviçeshāc ca.

^{page 432 note 1} See especially Milindapañha, 119–23 (translated below).Google Scholar

^{page 433 note 1} See Jātaka 48.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 1} Thera-Gāthā Commentary, ccxxxvGoogle Scholar. Jātaka 20Google Scholar: i, 172^6–7.

^{page 434 note 2} Avadāna-Çataka, i, 48⁶.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 3} Pārçvanātha-caritra, iii, 267.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 4} Jātaka, vi, 91^16–27, 154^29–30.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 5} Ibid. v, 95³.

^{page 434 note 6} Ibid. v, 29^10–13.

^{page 434 note 7} Ibid. vi, 1¹⁹.

^{page 434 note 8} Ibid. iv, 31¹⁴; v, 29^1–9.

^{page 434 note 9} Ibid. i, 294²⁴, 331²⁶.

^{page 434 note 10} Ibid. iv, 142¹⁵, 320^1–16, 410^1–14; v, 87¹³.

^{page 434 note 11} Ibid. vi, 242².

^{page 434 note 12} Divyāvadāna, 472^24–27, 473^20–27, 478^24–29, 571^5–7, 572^23–26.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 13} Ibid. 154²⁵, 155⁶.

^{page 434 note 14} Mahāvastu, ii, 97.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 15} Jātaka-mālā, xiv, 31.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 16} Mahāvastu, ii, 97.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 17} Jātaka-mālā, xv, 8.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 18} Divyāvadāna, 459²¹.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 19} Ibid. 417²⁴.

^{page 434 note 20} Jātaka-mālā, i, 30–1.Google Scholar

^{page 434 note 21} Ibid. xvi, 7.

^{page 436 note 1} The meaning of this famous passage is much disputed, and the interpretation here offered is radically different from all previous interpretations. The crux of the passage is the compound satyā-bhisaṁdha, which, in my opinion, should be translated in complete or perfect union with the truth. The second element, abhisaṁdha, appears to bear the same relation to the noun saṁdhā as abhisaṁbuddha, to saṁbuddha. The passage is one of several illustrative figures employed by a father to teach his son the essential identity of all things with “the existent”, “the real”, “the true”, the sat. This all (idaṁ sarvaṁ) is one: the phenomenal world, men, animals, plants, trees; all animate and inanimate things are an outward and visible manifestation, unfolding, diversification of “the one”, “the existent”, the sat. All things spring from the sat, return to the sat, are merged in the sat, are the sat. The meaning of the passage would, therefore, appear to be this: All visible things are identical with the existent, the sat, just as in the ordeal the accused is identified with, identical with the truth, satyaṁ, or with its opposite. The play on words (sat, satyaṁ) and the fact that the two words are radically and semantically related seem to me to be highly significant. For the sake of greater emphasis and clearness the author of the passage, following a familiar practice of Hindu authors, employs three synonymous expressions, setting them side by side: makes himself to be truth, completely unites himself with truth, incorporates himself into (or with) truth. For other interpretations of the passage see the translations of Böhtlingk, Deussen, and Max Müller, and, more recently, Edgerton in JAOS. xxxv, 245 f.Google Scholar

^{page 437 note 1} Milindapañha, 119–23.Google Scholar

^{page 442 note 1} Dhammapada Commentary, vi, 4Google Scholar; ii, 120, 124. For the whole story see my forthcoming translation of this work in the Harvard Oriental Series, under the title Buddhist Legends from the Dhammapada, Commentary. In Thera-Gāthā Commentary, CCXXXVGoogle Scholar, Kappina crosses the Ganges and two other rivers on dry foot by making the following Truth-Command (saccādhiṭṭhāna): “If the teacher of whom I have heard be in reality the Supreme Buddha, let not even a hoof of these horses be wetted.” The story also occurs in Aṅguttara Commentary. Compare the story of the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus xiv, 15–31).Google Scholar

^{page 444 note 1} Pārçvanātha-caritra, iii, 255–83.Google Scholar

^{page 445 note 1} Jātaka 75Google Scholar. In Jātaka-mālā, xvGoogle Scholar, the Great Being saw but one refuge of the afflicted, namely, a Truth-Command (satyādhishṭhānam ekam arttāyanam dadarça); the rain came by the virtue of his store of merit, by the power of his Truth-Command, and by the supernatural might of the devas, nāgas, and yakshas, who were favourably disposed to him (punyopacayagunāt satyādhishṭhānabalāt tadabhiprasāditadevanāgayak-shānubhāvāc ca); the cause of the rain is expressly said to have been his great supernatural power, the transcendent might of his truth (mahānubhāvaḥ … satyātiçayaprabhāvaḥ).

^{page 445 note 2} Jātaka 20.Google Scholar

^{page 447 note 1} Jātaka 35Google Scholar. Compare the story of the tiny pheasant in Chavannes, ' Cinq cents Contes et Apologues, 371Google Scholar; ii, 350. In Jātaka-mālā, xviGoogle Scholar, the tiny quail knew his power (viditātmaprabhāvas); and by the power of his words suffused with truth (satyaparibhāvitavacasā), so soon as the fire encountered his words (tadvācam āsādya), just as if it had reached a river, it immediately abated. The Sanskrit version concludes with the statement that fire can no more transgress the command of the truthful than the sea can overpass the shore.

^{page 448 note 1} Jātaka 444.Google Scholar

^{page 448 note 2} Jātaka 540Google Scholar. Compare Çyāmaka Jātaka, Mahāvastu ii, 218 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 449 note 1} Tibetan Tales, p. 284Google Scholar. Compare Chavannes, ' Cinq cents Contes et Apologues, 381Google Scholar; ii, 396.

^{page 449 note 2} Divyāvadāna, pp. 407–17.Google Scholar

^{page 450 note 1} Jātaka, 537.Google Scholar

^{page 450 note 2} Jātaka 519.Google Scholar

^{page 450 note 3} Diryānadāna, 153–5.Google Scholar

^{page 451 note 1} Diryāvadāna, 472.Google Scholar

^{page 451 note 2} Ibid. 473.

^{page 451 note 3} Ibid. 478.

^{page 452 note 1} Rāmāyaṇa, Uttarakāṇḍa, 17Google Scholar; Griffith, 's translation (Benares, 1895), p. 517.Google Scholar

^{page 452 note 2} Kathāsaritsāgara (Tawney), ii, p. 82.Google Scholar

^{page 453 note 1} Majjḥima Nikāya, 86Google Scholar; ii, 102 f. The story recurs in Chavannes, ' Cinq cents Contes et Apologues, 41Google Scholar; i, 143–54. Compare Udāna, ii, 8Google Scholar; p. 15 f.; Introduction to Jātaka 100Google Scholar; i, 407 f.; Dhammapada Commentary, xxvi, 31Google Scholar; iv, p. 192 f.; Thera-Gāthā Commentary, lx.Google Scholar

^{page 453 note 2} Tibetan Tales, pp. 227–8Google Scholar. Compare Chavannes, ' Cinq cents Contes et Apologues, 374Google Scholar; ii, 358. A similar story is related in Kathāsaritsāgara (Tawney), i, pp. 329–30Google Scholar, of the means employed to enable a prostrate elephant to rise. After the 80,000 concubines of the king and all the women in his capital have failed to raise the elephant by their Acts of Truth a humble woman in the train of a visiting merchant enables it to rise by touching it and saying, “If I have not even thought of any man other than my husband, may this elephant rise from the ground.”

^{page 454 note 1} Jātaka 489Google Scholar. Under similar circumstances Queen Candādevī obtains a son by making the following Act of Truth: “If it be true that I have kept the precepts unbroken, then may I obtain a son.” See Jātaka 538.Google Scholar

^{page 454 note 2} Jātaka, 463Google Scholar. In Jātaka-mālā, xivGoogle Scholar, the shipwreck was averted by the power of the Future Buddha's Truth-Command and by the splendour of his merit.

^{page 455 note 1} Divyāvadāna, 611–13.Google Scholar

^{page 456 note 1} Jātaka 542.Google Scholar

^{page 456 note 2} Jātaka 513.Google Scholar

^{page 457 note 1} Jātaka 491.Google Scholar

^{page 457 note 2} Jātaka 544.Google Scholar

^{page 457 note 3} Jātaka 518.Google Scholar

^{page 458 note 1} Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists, p. 362.Google Scholar

^{page 458 note 2} Divyāvadāna, 459Google Scholar. Compare Tibetan Tales, p. 72.Google Scholar

^{page 458 note 3} Mahābhārata, III, lvii, 17–24Google Scholar. Compare Kathāsarttsāgara (Tawney), i, p. 561.Google Scholar

^{page 459 note 1} Jātaka 7.Google Scholar

^{page 459 note 2} Jātaka. 539.Google Scholar

^{page 459 note 3} Mahāvamsa, xxv, 17–18.Google Scholar

^{page 459 note 4} Ibid. XVII, 25–6.

^{page 460 note 1} Mahāvaṁsa, xviii, 40–1.Google Scholar

^{page 460 note 2} Ibid, xxxi, 106–7.

^{page 460 note 3} Avadāna-Çataka, i, 9Google Scholar. Compare the story of Elijah's discomfiture of the prophets of Baal, 1 Kings, , xviii, 17–40.Google Scholar

^{page 461 note 1} Kathāsaritsāgara (Tawney), i, p. 487Google Scholar; compare Rāmāyaṇa, Uttarakāṇḍa, Griffith's translation (Benares, 1895), p. 520Google Scholar; also Yuddhakāṇḍa, sarga 118.

^{page 461 note 2} Jātaka 62.Google Scholar

^{page 462 note 1} Hemacandra, 's Pariçiṣṭaparvan, ii, 533–45Google Scholar; Hertel, 's translation, pp. 102–3.Google Scholar

^{page 462 note 2} Tantrākhyāyika, I, iii c.Google Scholar

^{page 463 note 1} Festschrift fur Ernst Windisch, p. 144.Google Scholar

^{page 464 note 1} Divyāvadāna, 571–2.Google Scholar

^{page 464 note 2} Tibetan Tales, pp. 315–20.Google Scholar

^{page 464 note 3} Parker, , Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, vol. i, p. 140Google Scholar; vol. ii, pp. 28–9, 47.

^{page 465 note 1} Parker, , Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, vol. iii, pp. 63–8.Google Scholar

^{page 465 note 2} Ibid., vol. i, pp. 116–18.

^{page 466 note 1} Bompas, C. H., Folk-lore of the Santal Parganas, p. 266.Google Scholar

^{page 466 note 2} “Santal Folk-Tale”: Orientalist, ii, p. 25.Google Scholar

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XI. The Act of Truth (Saccakiriya): A Hindu Spell and its employment as a psychic motif in Hindu fiction1

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