renuka
Well-known member
The Devadhamma Jataka story is strikingly similar to the Mahabharat Yudhisthra and the Yaksha story with a hint of the Ramayan.
In the Devadhamma Jataka the Boddhisattva in one His previous lives as Prince Mahimsasa(had one younger brother and one younger half brother)..was asked to leave his Kingdom along with his younger brother when his father's second wife uses a boon given to her by the King.
The second wife queen asks for her son to be installed as King.
The King fearing for his lives of his other 2 sons asks them to leave the Kingdom and tells Mahimsasa to come back to the Kingdom upon his death.
So Mahimsasa(Boddhisattva) leaves the kingdom with his younger brother but the son of the second queen(the half brother) also follows them both to the forest refusing the throne.
Then all three rest by a lake which harbours a water spirit who imprisons anyone who enters the lake and not knowing to answer his question of "What is God like"
Both the brothers of the Boddhisattva get imprisoned in the water and Boddhisattva answers the water spirits question and pleased with him the water spirit allows him to choose one brother.
Boddhisattva chooses his half brother instead(the second queen's son) stating his reasons.
Could not help thinking that it so similar to Yudhs and the Yakhsa episode and also the exile of Rama and his brothers devotion to him.
So it seems to be that this story is some sort of recycled from the Mahabharat & Ramayan ..so was it really Lord Buddha's previous lives stories or it was some imagination of some Buddhist?
In the Devadhamma Jataka the Boddhisattva in one His previous lives as Prince Mahimsasa(had one younger brother and one younger half brother)..was asked to leave his Kingdom along with his younger brother when his father's second wife uses a boon given to her by the King.
The second wife queen asks for her son to be installed as King.
The King fearing for his lives of his other 2 sons asks them to leave the Kingdom and tells Mahimsasa to come back to the Kingdom upon his death.
So Mahimsasa(Boddhisattva) leaves the kingdom with his younger brother but the son of the second queen(the half brother) also follows them both to the forest refusing the throne.
Then all three rest by a lake which harbours a water spirit who imprisons anyone who enters the lake and not knowing to answer his question of "What is God like"
Both the brothers of the Boddhisattva get imprisoned in the water and Boddhisattva answers the water spirits question and pleased with him the water spirit allows him to choose one brother.
Boddhisattva chooses his half brother instead(the second queen's son) stating his reasons.
Could not help thinking that it so similar to Yudhs and the Yakhsa episode and also the exile of Rama and his brothers devotion to him.
So it seems to be that this story is some sort of recycled from the Mahabharat & Ramayan ..so was it really Lord Buddha's previous lives stories or it was some imagination of some Buddhist?
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