Art. IX.—The Stories of Jîmûtavâhana, and of Hariśarman

Extract

The Buddhist legend of Jîmûtavâhana is related twice in the Kathâ Sarit Sâgara, in the 22nd Tarânga, from which the following translation is made, as well as in the 90th Tarânga. The two versions of the legend differ somewhat in their treatment of the story, the latter version giving a fuller account of Jîmûtavâhana's courtship and home-life, at the same time omitting all account of his actions in a former birth, and their results. The legend has also been dramatised in the Nâgânanda, or Joy of the Snake World, a highly sensational drama, remarkable as being the only known existing drama commencing with an invocation to Buddha. The drama follows the lines of the legend as laid down in Tarânga 90.