Barlaam and Josaphat legend travels from India to the Christian world

BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT: A LEGEND FOR ALL SEASONS
Author(s): Monique B. Pitts

Source: Journal of South Asian Literature, Vol. 16, No. 1, Part I: EAST-WEST LITERARY
RELATIONS (Winter, Spring 1981), pp. 3-16
Published by: Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University
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Monique
B. Pitts
BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT: A LEGEND FOR ALL SEASONS
An Indian
legend
travels West
The
legend
of Barlaam and
Josaphat
has
inspired
a
large literary
production.
I first read it in the Occitan version
(fourteenth century)
and have since read the
Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Old
French, Latin,
Greek, Ethiopian, Georgian
and Arabic texts. I also learned of
many
more:
Slavic, Nordic,
and
English, among
others.
Let us consider the
legend
as it is told in the Christian versions.
It is
fairly easy
to reduce its
story
to a basic
plot,
which is almost
identical in all the texts.
In India the rich and
powerful King
Avennis
worships
idols and
represses Christianity.
At last a son is born to him and is named
Josaphat.
An
astrologer predicts
that
Josaphat
will
reign
in a
spiritual
world,
for he will become a Christian.
Saddened,
Avennis has a
palace
built,
in which
Josaphat grows up imprisoned,
attended
by
servants
chosen for their
beauty
and
good
health. As he reaches
manhood, Josaphat
is allowed to
go
out. In
spite
of his father's
precautions
he encounters
a blind
man,
a
leper,
and a toothless old man.
Deeply disturbed,
he
reflects on the unavoidable death
awaiting
all mankind.
Josaphat
re-
sembles a man who has lost a treasure that he does not know how to
recover. Informed
by
God of
Josaphat's
state of
confusion,
the hermit
Barlaam
secretly
arrives to
enlighten
the
prince,
under the
guise
of a
merchant who owns a
magic gem. Following
a
period
of biblical
teachings,
of
parable-telling
and
advice,
Barlaam
baptizes Josaphat,
who wishes to
accompany
him in the Senaar
desert;
but the
right
time has not
yet
come
for
Josaphat's departure.
Barlaam
gives Josaphat
his old tunic to wear.
When
King
Avennis learns of
Josaphat's conversion,
he tries
angrily
to tear him
away
from the hateful
religion,
first
by reminding
his son
of his filial
duty,
then
by
means of a
public debate,
and
finally by
exposing Josaphat
to the seductive maneuvers of a beautiful demon-
possessed princess. Everything fails,
and
Josaphat
is victorious.
Eventually
Avennis becomes a
Christian,
imitated
by
all in the
kingdom.
At his father's
death, Josaphat
leaves his
kingdom
to
join
Barlaam. At
the end of a strenuous life as an
ascetic,
he dies in the odor of sanc-
tity.
His
body, amazingly
well
preserved,
is
brought
back to the
kingdom
and becomes a shrine.
Origin of
the
Legend
The modern reader will
properly identify Josaphat
with
Buddha,
but
the resemblance did not become obvious for
many years.
The first his-
torian to
compare
Buddha with
Josaphat
was a
companion
of Marco
Polo,
the
Portuguese Diego
de Couto. In 1612 he
thought
that the Buddhist
legend
was an imitation of the Christian
legend,
or
perhaps
that "Budo" was
Joshua.
1
It was
only
in 1859 that
Laboulaye
and
Liebrecht,
2
writing
inde-
pendently, again pointed
out the similarities. Since
then,
extensive
research has
produced
the
following
results:
-4-
1)
Part of the
story
of Buddha is
adapted
in the Barlaam and
Josaphat legend.
It is found in the Latita Vistra^ and the Jataka Tales.
^
Buddha died in 483
B.C.,
and the first Buddhist
scriptures represent
three centuries of oral tradition;
thus at least ten centuries
elapsed
before the first known occurrence of the Barlaam and
Josaphat legend,
the
Arab Ismael ian version
(Bombay MS)
Le Livre de Bilawhar et
Bdsf.$
Although
the transformation is still a
mystery, linguists
have established
that Bodhisattva became Bdasf in Arabic
script.
2)
Between the Buddhist
legend
and Le Livre de Bilawhar et
Bdjisf
we
can
suppose
the existence of a lost
intermediary
text in Pehlevi. The
Ismael ian text was written between A.D. 750 and 900. Another Arabic
version
by
Ibn
Bbuya6 (MSS.
Paris Arabe 1231 and
Heidelberg
A
287)
can
be dated in relation to the author's death in 991.
3)
The Turfan
fragments?
were discovered in
Sin-kiang
between 1902
and 1914. Written in Old Persian and
Turkish, they
attest to the exis-
tence of the
legend among
the Manichaeans of Central Asia because of the
Manichean
script
used
throughout.
One
passage
concerns
questions
about
the
age
of Barlaam
(Bilawhar);
another is the
beginning
of a
parable.
The Turkish
fragment
relates the
story
of a drunken
prince
who mistook a
corpse
for his wife.
4)
The
long Georgian
version Balavariani fi inspired by
Le Livre de
Bilawhar et
Bdsf
and Ibn
Babuya,
dates back to the ninth or tenth cen-
turies and
precedes
the short
version,
The Wisdom
of
Balahvar
Special-
ists in
Georgian
studies do not
agree
on whether The Wisdom
of
Balahvar
is a
summing up
of Balavariani or if both recensions have a common source.
In
any case,
these recensions mark the Christianization of the
legend.
5)
The Greek
version,
Barlaam and
loasagh^
seems to derive from
the
Georgian.
It is now dated from the eleventh
century
and attributed,
not to St. John
Damascene,
but to St.
Euthymus
who translated it from
Georgian
into Greek at the Ivi ron
monastery
on Mount Athos .11 The trans-
formation of the name Bdsaf into
Ioasaph
is thus
explained:
Arabic ,
'

;
f ) 'J Bdsaf
I . IDdsaf
(two
V^_>-
'
->
Jr.
diacritical dots
instead of
one)
Greek
XuxTof
Ioasapn
After the eleventh
century
the
legend spread considerably.
The Greek
version is the source of all Christian versions in the Romance ,12
Germanic
and Slavic
languages,
and the
Ethiopian
version BaraVm and
Ye^wasef'^
the last
one,
in
turn, inspired
the Christian Arabic text.
14
6)
The Latin
text,
Beati loannis Damasceni
Operai
dated
exactly
1048,
is a faithful translation from the Greek,
and from it are derived
many
Romance version.
Similarities
The
upbringing
of the
young prince
in a cloistered
palace
and his
encounters with old
age,
sickness and death are the elements that most
-5-
obviously pertain
to the
legend
of Buddha. In Latita Vistava and the
Jtaka Tales the
prince
also encounters a dead man and a monk. In Le Livre
de Bilawhav et
Budsf
and
thereafter,
the sick man has divided into a blind
man and a
leper.
In Buddhist texts the
astrologers1 predictions
are mate-
rialized
by
order of the
gods
and
by
the Bodhisattva himself. In the
Ismael ian and Greek texts the encounters are the result of the servants1
negligence.
In the Occitan text
only
Providence is mentioned.
The reaction of
Bodhisattva/Bdsf/Josaphat
to the
sight
of death is
similar: "With
agitated
heart"
(Jtaka Tales);
"Woe to me!"
{Lalita
Vi s
tura)
. With the Ismael ian
appears
the
image
of a man who has lost some-
thing:
an
animal,
then a treasure
(Christian texts).
The Budd. In the Ismael ian Le Livre de Bilawhar et
Budsf
we hear of
a
mysterious
character named "the Budd." This is the
prophet
"who came to
bring
to the Indians God's will with which he drenched their hearts in his
language."
The Budd is Buddha: "The Peni evi
Bt,
no doubt borrowed from
the
Sodgian,
means
Buddha,
and it has remained the initial
meaning
of its
Persian derivative
but/hot
. . . the
poetical archetype
of the bot corre-
sponds entirely
to the
plastic archetype
of the oriental Iranian Buddha."'"
Our interest lies
particularly
in
identifying
the Budd in the
Josaphat
legend.
David M.
Lang
believes that it is an
interpolation
from the Kitab
al Bu'~l in the Ismaelian text. The scribe did not realize that Budsf
and the Budd were one and the same J
8
d. Gimaret writes elsewhere: "the
character of the Budd,
sort of a double of Budsf,
since
they
both
originate
from Buddha.
"19
We have here not
only
a twofold but a
threefold, perhaps
a fourfold
character: "the
splitting
of the
person
of
Buddha,
whose two
aspects
are
represented
in the novel
by
two characters: the Indian
prince Joasaph,
the
true hero, passive
and
contemplative
. . . and
Barlaam,
the initiator and
the
guide
toward
perfection.
"20
This
comparison
was also made
by
Waljis
Budge
in his introduction to the
Ethiopian version, Baralam and
Yewsef.
Budge suggests
that the form
Barlaam/Balahvar might
come from the title
"Bhagavn" (Lord) given
to bodhisattvas about to become buddhas.
... if the teacher of the Bodhisattva were in
reality
the
Buddha himself,
we must assume that he took the form of a mendi-
cant monk. I am told that from the Buddhist
point
of view there
is
nothing strange
in the idea of one
perfect
Buddha
advising
. . . another Buddha in the
making, (p. xli)
The method of
explaining
a doctrine
by questions
and answers necessi-
tates two
speakers.
This method had
already
been
practiced
in Milinda-
Panha,^
in which
Menander, king
of
Bactriane,
asks the wise man
Nagasena
questions
of a heretical nature.
We note that
Sakyamuni
had
rejected
the
teaching
of several Brahmans;
having
tried the ascetic life for six
years,
he abandoned it because the
result was a near fatal weakened condition and not the Perfect
Intelligence.
Therefore,
in the
beginning,
Bodhisattva was
only
the
guide,
the initiator.
I
suggest
that the four characters Buddha/the Budd/BQdsf/Bilawhar
are
one
entity.
Buddha and the Budd have
disappeared
from the Christian ver-
sions, allowing
a
literary
life to
develop
for
Balahvar/Barlaam
and
Iodasaph/Josaphat.
22
-6-
Parables. The
teaching
of Barlaam is reinforced with
parables.
In
the Christian texts there are six biblical
parables:
the
Sower, the Prodi-
gal
Son,
the Good
Shepherd,
the Rich Man and Poor
Lazarus, the
Royal
Wed-
ding,
the Ten
Virgins,
and also St. Luke's
symbolic saying concerning
the
needle and the camel.
Apologues.
The most
interesting concerning
East-West influence are
the
apologues, probably
all
oriental,
found in all the texts. Besides
their didactic
function,
the
symbolism
of characters and situations
delays
the revelation of a hidden
message;
a bond of
recognition
and initiation
is established with the receiver of the
message
as the
myth
is
perceived
through
the
parable.
This bond exists at several levels as a
complex
net-
work of teachers and receivers is woven into the
parables:
the author
teaches the listener or
reader,
Barlaam teaches
Josaphat
who in turn
teaches others
(in
the Ismaelian
version),
and various characters within
the
parables
teach
eyery
receiver
along
the ladder.
23
One is reminded of
the
episode
of the "frozen words" in Rabelais'
Quart
Livre.
24
E. Kuhn25 and after him J. Jacob26 have tried to find sources for
these
apologues
in the
Kath-Sarit-Sgara
,27
-jn the stories of the brother
of
King
Acka28 and of
Yacas,
29
the Mhabhrata
(Book XI),
30
the Dhamma-
padci
an the
Rmyana.32.
It has not
always
been clear to me what was
coincidence, vague
resemblance or
strong
similarities. I have found the
apologue
of the Man and the Pit
(or
the Man and the
Elephant,
the Man and
the
Unicorn)
in the Chinese
Tripitaka
,33 dating
from the fifth, sixth,
seventh and
eighth
centuries A.D." This
apologue
is also found in the Book
of
Kalima and Dimna at the end of the
part concerning
Doctor
Borzoueyeh.
There are also some elements of this
apologue
in a
passage
of the Laiita
Visteara
(Tibetan
text in the French
translation):
Characteristics of desire, accompanied by
fear . . .
always
produce
oblivion,
in that similar to darkness; they always
produce
reasons for
fear,
roots of
pain
that feed the
growth
of the vine of life desires. Like a
pit
where a
burning
fire
creates fear, this is how
respectable people
consider those
desires,
similar ... to the
edge
of the sword coated with
honey.
Like the head of a snake. ...
(p. 170)
A
wery intriguing
article
by Bishop Moule,
"A Buddhist Sheet-Tract," con-
tains an
"Apologue
of Human Life" with a
reproduction
of a
woodcut,
which
is described thus:
In the
upper
corner to the
right
is Buddha,
a nimbus round the
head,
and throned on clouds.
Immediately
below is a
group
con-
sisting
of Buddha,
"The Vernable One"
conversing
with
king
Udyana
who is followed
by
an attendant.
They
are
observing
an
elephant standing
near a
well,
its head raised with
threatening
tusks towards a
man,
who
clings
to a
wildvine, pendulous
in mid
air. From the well
emerge
three
dragons.
Around it are four
serpents. They
all threaten the man who
hangs
above them. . . .
On the branch . . . are a black and a white rat
gnawing
so as
gradually
to sever the branch. . . . There is
honey dripping
from bees that
sting
the man.35
Symbolism
in this
apologue
is
similarly interpreted
in all versions of
Barlaam and
Josaphat:
the
pit
is this world,
the
dragon
is Hell
(except
in the Ismaelian
Arabic,
where the
dragon
is
Death);
the
elephant
or
-7-
unicorn
pursuing
man is the death that will overtake man; the tree or
branch or vine is the life to which man
clings;
the black and white mice
are the
day
and
night
that
gradually
consume this life, sweetened
by
the
deceptive drops
of
honey;
the four
serpents represent
the four elements
of man's
physical body.
This
apologue
is also found in The
Story of Samardiya
told
by
a Jain
monk. The
apologue
was written in Prakrit
by Haribhadra,
who lived in the
seventh
century
A.D.
36
There are seventeen other
apologues
in Le Livre de Bilauhar et
Bdasf*
two of which are also found in the
Georgian
texts.
The biblical
parables
and the
apologues
constitute the
greatest part
of Barlaam's
catechizing. They emphasize
the
opposition
between hidden
reality
and
deceiving appearance,
the accumulation of a treasure to be
enjoyed
in the world
beyond,
the renunciation of
worldly possessions,
and
divine
forgiveness.
These themes
appear
at various intervals, not
only
in
the
parables
and
apologues
but
throughout
the narrative: "The fascination
of
tracing
a theme
through
all its
phases,
of
waiting
for its return while
following
other themes,
of
experiencing
the constant sense of their simul-
taneous
presence, depends upon
our
grasp
of the entire structure-the most
elusive that has ever been devised.
"37
The reader
(or auditor)
must
constantly
be
kept
alert
through
the de-
vices of the
interlacing
of themes and
symbolism.
A
good example
is
pro-
vided
by
the theme closest to the
story
of
Buddha,
that of
imprisonment.
The
physical,
material
prison
is the
palace
built
by
Avennis to
protect
Josaphat
from external influences.
Josaphat longs
to discover what he has
never seen. A
parallel
is the
apologue
told
by Theodas,
in which a
prince
is shut in a cave until he reaches the
age
of ten and can
safely
look at
everything
without
going
blind.
Contrary
to
Josaphat,
the little
prince
is neither curious nor anxious. For
Josaphat,
the material
prison
is a
spiritual
barrier between his mind and the outside
spiritual
world. Later,
Josaphat
is
again
confined
following
the
public
debates. His father sur-
rounds him with beautiful
women, among
whom is the
princess possessed by
the Devil.
Nearly seduced, Josaphat
looks into himself in a sort of
trance. He
experiences
a vision that allows him to
escape
from a troubled
situation, and, by creating
a "mental
space"38
Or
symbolic center, he is
enabled to
reorganize
the confused elements of a moment of crisis. In the
same
way
that
Josaphat escapes
his
physical prison,
he wishes his soul to
break free out of its carnal cell.
Freedom does not come
easily; Josaphat
must
destroy
the walls one
by
one. As
long
as Avennis does not
repent
or is not
baptized, Josaphat
can-
not leave his self-made
prison.
His first
attempt
to
escape
fails when
Arachim and his
subjects bring Josaphat
back to the
palace.
The second
time,
in the dark of
night,
he succeeds.
Josaphat
exiles himself to re-
join
Barlaam in the desert. But exile is another form of
imprisonment;
the
prisoner
is on the outside,
with no
possibility
of
going
back in.
Life in the desert is a
self-imposed jail; intangible
but
real,
it is a
shelter. True liberation comes with
death,
when
Josaphat
will enter the
glorious city
of his
visions; only
then will the last walls crumble.
We
might say
that the whole
legend
is a series of
imprisonments
fitted
into one another: the soul is
imprisoned
in
Josaphat
's
body,
which in turn
is
imprisoned
in the
palace
from which he
goes
out to be
imprisoned again.
-8-
Josaphat's spirit escapes
toward the
glorious city (first vision)
and
Josaphat
is then
imprisoned
in the
kingdom.
After his
escape
to the desert
(prison-exile)
his
spirit escapes again
toward the
glorious city (second
vision); finally
the liberated soul of
Josaphat
dwells in the
glorious
city,
while his
body
is enshrined in the
kingdom.
The Mother. The mother is absent from almost all the Christian texts.
In the Latita Vistra
Queen Maya
dies
promptly;
in Le Livre de Bilawhar et
Bdasf
the mother is alive
though rarely mentioned; she has
disappeared
in
the Arabic
version, Book
of
the
King's
Son and the Asoetio.^ One
explana-
tion
might
be the
tendency
of the Church to consider the extreme
aspects
Mary/Eve
and to discard women from
any theological, philosophical
or intel-
lectual discussions. At a
mythical
level the absence of a mother
places
a
spotlight
on the
father/son relationship.
In the Judeo-Christian tradi-
tion, repression
of emotions toward the mother creates revulsion for mate-
rial attachments and exaltation for
spiritual
concerns. For the
reader,
the
literary suppression
of the mother
unconsciously emphasizes masculinity
and
spirituality
as
clearly developed
in the exclusive
conflicting
rela-
tionship
between
Josaphat
and Avennis.
Barlaam's Tunia. We
might
wonder
why
a concern for the
prince's gar-
ments or for Barlaam's tunic does exist in
every
text. In Laiita Visfara
Bodhisattva leaves in order "to wander . . .
[and obtain]
the
Supreme
Intelligence exempt
from old
age
and from death"
(p. 200).
Once outside
the town of
Kapila,
he hands his clothes to his
charioteer,
cuts his hair
and
exchanges
his rich
garments
for a reddish robe. The Bodisat of Jtaka
Tates cuts his hair with his
sword, changes
his clothes made of Benares
muslin to dress himself "in the 'banner of an
Arahant,1
and
adopted
the
sacred
garb
of Renunciation"
(p. 178).
In the Ismaelian version, Bdasf
removes his
royal
robes and
jewels.
In all the Christian texts
Josaphat
puts
on Barlaam's tunic in order to live as an ascetic. When he sees the
tunic for the first
time,
he is shocked and
impressed:
"When
Iodasaph
saw
this
apron
sewn from old
rags hanging upon
him his heart welled
up.
"40
Four or five centuries later,
the Occitan Barlaam "was attired, down to his
knees,
in an old woolen cloth
extremely rough
and his shoulders were
covered with a
rag
of the same kind. When
Josaphat
saw how he mortified
himself with such
garments, Josaphat
marvelled at Barlaam. He started to
cry.
. . ."41
Another
episode
tells of a "word
patcher
who sews wounded
speech;"
renunciation
implies
a
change
of clothes and the
cutting
of hair. This
detail is also found in
every
text
(except
in the Occitan,
which has a
gap
in the
manuscript
at that
point).
We are reminded here of the old
Mesopotamian myth
of
Gilgamesh:42
the
hero,
aware of his
impending death,
leaves civilization to enter the world
of nature
peopled
with wild beasts. Like
Gilgamesh,
Buddha and
Josaphat
leave civilization to lead an ascetic life in the desert,
the forest or the
mountains.
According
to
Kirk,
"to overcome death in a modified
way,
Gilgamesh
has to move from culture and the
city
into the mountain wilder-
ness"
(p. 147).
After the death of his friend Enkidu
(who
was born in the
wild forest and had died in the
city
after a
long illness), Gilgamesh
re-
verses roles and,
covered with animal skins,
sets forth to find
immortality
in the
steppe.
At this
point
the
poem emphasizes
on
Gilgamesh
's
garments.
At the time of Enkidu's death, Gilgamesh
tears off his beautiful clothes
and
pulls
out his hair:
"any
act of
mourning
is liable to involve an
alteration of
clothing
and of the
length
of one's hair"
(p. 149).
This
-9-
might explain why,
at the time of
departure
of a hero for the desert or the
mountains,
a
change
of
appearance
is so
important.
Barlaam's
Age.
In Le Livre de Bilawhar et
Bdasf,
Bdasf asks Bilawhar
his
age
and is amazed
by
the answer: twelve
years
old.
Actually,
Bilawhar
is
sixty,
but he
only
counts his
years
of asceticism because before that
time he was dead. This
passage
occurs in
eyery text, including
the Turf an
fragments.43
Sometimes the answer is
forty-five,
when Barlaam is
really
seventy.
It
always precedes
an
explanation
of the inversion
life/death,
of
the
passage
from death to life;
sinners are
dead,
true believers are alive.
The
ascetic, by moving
back his
age,
finds a second
youth.
This
might
seem
contradictory,
since to become
young again implies delaying death,
which ascetics do not fear. We see here an
attempt
to abolish
earthly time;
The ascetic sets himself
beyond
material life and
beyond time;
he is reborn
spiritually
and marks the
beginning
of this new life. This is in line with
the fundamental
myth
of the
legend
of Barlaam and
Josaphat;
that
is,
the
rebirth of the hero. In Latita Vistra Bodhisattava
expresses clearly
his
fear of old
age,
of death and
decay.
He
begs
his father to let him
go away:
"Allow me to
disappear
from this world so that I am not
subjected any
more
to the ordeal of
migrating
life"
(p. 192). By joining
other ascetics,
Bodhisattva,
like
Barlaam,
removes himself from
earthly
time and
places
himself in a
spiritual
time that allows him to obtain the Perfect Intelli-
gence
and to abolish the
"migrating
life."
The Public debate. In all versions, King
Avennis
organizes
a debate
to show
Josaphat
how
inept
Barlaam's
religion
is. As the real Barlaam,
gone
to the desert,
could not be found,
a sosie called Nachor
replaces
him.
The debate
begins
and ends the same
way
in
eyery
text: Nachor is afraid of
Josaphat,
defends the true
religion (Barlaam's),
and converts to it after
an emotional encounter with
Josaphat.
The debate is followed
by
the wor-
shipping
of
idols,
but a saddened Avennis does not wish to
participate.
A
character,
named Theudas in Christian texts, suggests
a new
approach:
surround
Josaphat
with beautiful women. In the Ismaelian text this charac-
ter is the bahwan,
a hermit who
worships
idols. In the
Georgian
versions
he is an anchorite named Thedma. In the Occitan text he has become a
magi-
cian
(Theodas)
who
represents
Evil and who
fights against Christianity.
In the
story
of Buddha the
young
Bodhisattva and his cousin Devadatta
compete
in a tournament for the hand of
Gopa. Philippe Foucaux,
who trans-
lates from the
Tibetan, suggests
that the name Devadatta "is
exactly
an
equivalent
of the French Dieudonn, the Latin Deodatus and the Greek
Theodor"
(p. 132,
n.
2).
This is also the
opinion
of E. Rehatsek,
trans-
lator of the Book
of
the
King's
Son and the Ascetic.^ It is for the lin-
guists
to
ponder
whether or not an
intermediary
form al bahwan or at-Tahdan
was
possible
in order to
explain
the transformation of Devadatta into
Thedma or Theudas.
The idea of a
public
debate is not unknown to Indian tradition:
"Brahman,
as well as Buddhist annals resound with echoes of
great public
debates,
often
engaged upon royal
initiative or even under
royal leadership
. . . [in]
solemn debates ...
[so that]
the Blessed One
may
crush at one
meeting
all his rivals in one blow.
"45
The True
Religion.
In a
literary
context it is
possible
to find
common elements in the various texts:
1)
Asceticism. Whatever
may
be the hero's
religion,
asceticism is
-10-
its most obvious manifestation. It
always implies renouncing
material
wealth and
power, untying family
bonds because
they
hinder
holy
service.
For Buddha the
goal
is to achieve
perfect Buddhahood; for
Josaphat
asceti-
cism is a
preparation
for the real
world,
the one that cannot be seen. The
bahwan of the Ismael i an text is a transition between the Buddhist ascetic
respected
and nourished
by
his
society
and the Moslem/Christian
ascetic.
He is a "mountain
wanderer,"
a fanatic idol
worshipper;
after his conver-
sion to the "True
Religion,"
he returns to his mountain
wanderings,
and I
fail to see
any
difference between these two conditions. This
bewildering
case is resolved in the Christian texts
by making
Theodas a somewhat de-
monic character. In all the Barlaam and
Josaphat versions, any religion
other than the "True
Religion"
is to be eradicated
or,
at
best,
considered
a simulation of the "True
Religion."
2)
Death. Death is unavoidable and
represents
a
beginning (a
new
beginning
for the
Buddhists),
not an end. Death
destroys
the
body
and a
metaphor always
describes the liberation thus achieved: "The
beings
held
in the nets and the
prison
of
migrating
life . . . he will free them to-
tally
from their fetters.
"46
"The world is
despicable
... for it is
prison
for the
just
man but heaven for the wicked.
"47
3)
Heaven. Death is a
passage
to Heaven for the
just man,
to Nirvana
for the
perfect
man. We find the same
images
of
"mansions,"
of God as a
"house builder,"
of a
"dwelling" prepared
for the soul while it is incar-
nated in a
body.
4)
Good and Evil. The
sky,
or
Tushita,
in Laiita Vistara,
is
crowded with
millions
of
gods
and
gnies. Opposing
Bodhisattva are the
Devil
(Mra/Papiyan)
and armies of demons. In the Tibetan translation of
Laiita Vistara the Devil is called "the fallen demon," reminiscent of the
Christian
Devil, although
it
may
be an error in
transcribing Sanskrit,
which reads
"powerful, burning
demon"
(p. 252).
The
opposition
of Good and Evil is found in all
texts,
but its
signi-
fication varies. For the Buddhists,
Good is
Science, Wisdom, Intelligence
that will allow man to
get
off the
transmigration cycle.
Evil is
mainly
desires, troubles, hunger
and
thirst, passions, laziness, sleep, fears,
doubts, anger, hypocrisy
and ambition. In the Ismaelian version Good is
"obedience to God,"
Evil is disobedience to God and obedience to Satan.
Good deeds,
moderation of ambition, generosity,
truth and virtuous actions
are God's command. To Satan
belong
excessive ambition, lying,
bad
deeds,
avarice, envy, anger, susceptibility, concupiscence, hatred, laziness,
hypocrisy
and
calumny.
To the distinction between Good and Evil the Greek
text adds free will,
which
implies
discrimination,
the will to act;
it
also adds
baptism.
With the Occitan text free will has
disappeared;
renun-
ciation and
penance
are the
primary
duties of the Christian ,
then come
good
deeds and alms. Faith cannot be rationalized for it comes from God,
not
from
intelligence.
The Ismaelian Le Livre de Bitawhar et
Bdsf
and the
Georgian
Batavariani mention the Golden Rule of
Charity (Matthew
vii.
12).
E. Rehatsek,
in the Arabic Book
of
the
King1
s Son and the
Ascetic,
sees
there an echo of the
Dhammapada.
The confrontation of Good and Evil is manifested in
supernatural
scenes where Satan strikes a last blow in
episodes replete
with
temptations
and torments. Bodhisattva under the Bo-tree is assailed
by
the "Demon's
daughters"
who
try unsuccessfully
"a thousand feminine maneuvers"
(p. 315).
Space
teems with ferocious
beasts,
arrows and
javelins.
In the Christian
-11-
texts, Josaphat's
torments in the desert are
comparable
to those
experi-
enced
by
Bodhisattva:
roaring beasts, dragons,
swords. The
supreme
effort
of Evil
against
Good makes the hero's
victory
irrevocable.
5)
The Saviour. Like Jesus, Bodhisattva is the Saviour: "After ob-
taining
the
right
to dwell in
Intelligence exempt
from old
age
and
death,
I
will liberate the creatures"
(p. 209).
The Latita Vistala is a "Sutra ex-
panded,
whose aim is to
help
the whole world"
(p. 9).
It will
put
"an end
to the demon's force"
(p. 111).
The Bodisat of the Jataka Tales "will
remove from the world the veils of
ignorance
and sin"
(p. 151).
Christ as the Saviour is of course
explicit
in the Christian versions.
It is more difficult to find the Saviour
image
in the Ismaelian
text, where
Budsf is considered as a
guide;
but in the
apologue
of the
Anqa,
whose
little ones have eaten the
corpse
of the
Budd, "they
were filled with
pity,
kindness, sincerity,
science and wisdom"
(p. 153).
Buried in the advice
given by Budsf,
we find these words: "God . . . has chosen us ... to
save the souls from the
punishment
of the
grave
or from the fire of Hell"
(p. 211).
6)
The Doctor. This
image
is found in
e'/ery
text. Bodhisattva is
called "the best
doctor,"
who
cures,
assists and
suppresses pain.
The Budd
is "a doctor of
souls,"
the
Georgian
Balahvar introduces himself as a
"phy-
sician." The Greek Barlaam
explains
that God "hath mixed . . . the
potion
of
repentance, prescribing
this for the remission of sins."
7)
Return of the Messiah. Before
leaving
the
Tushita,
Bodhisattva
confirms his
successor,
the Bodhisattva
Mitrya,
who will come one
day
to
preach
the Law in his
place.
The Ismaelian
Budsf
is considered as the
Budd 's successor: "You are the
one,
the
guide
Indians awaited for a
long
time ... for this was
already
said in the old tradition of the leaders of
the
Religion" (p. 194).
The second
coming
of Christ and the Last
Judgment
are
predicted
in the Christian
texts, starting
with the Greek version.
8) Destiny.
It is
always preordained,
but the Christian
legend
de-
scribes the
earthly
life of the
hero,
whereas the
preparation
in the
Tushita of the birth of Buddha is
minutely
orchestrated. Events unfold
according
to a scenario foretold
by
oracles.
In the Ismaelian text, Budsf asks: "What
happens
to man,
does it
come from
destiny
or from his actions?"
(p. 117)
Bilawhar answers that it
is a vicious circle.
Destiny
must be linked to action; that is, without
action, destiny
could not be
realized; destiny
is what is
necessary^and
unavoidable. The
king's
adviser Rakis tells how he was raised
by
Fati s and
Tatir whom the
king
consulted when
BsJsf
was three
days old;
these two
wise men were
overjoyed
and
laughed
because "the
guide"
was
born,
and cried
at the same time because
they
had
only
twelve
days
to live. This
episode
reminds us of
yery
similar circumstances in Latita Vistara when Bodhisattva
was
born, and of the visit of the Rishi Asita and his
nephew
Naradatta
(p. 104).
In the Occitan text God's will is often
expressed by
the formula:
"When it
pleased
our Lord."
Josaphat's
death thus occurs: "it
pleased
our
Lord to claim his rent and his crown. And he made him
pass away
in
peace"
(p. 1218).
-12-
Evolution
of
the
Legend
The author of the Greek text has
rearranged
the
legend
to make it more
coherent
(polarization
of
characters, repetitions, conversions),
and he has
inserted
floating
elements to reinforce the
catechizing
tone: the
Apology
of Aristides, the terrors of the Last
Judgment,
and Hell's torments
(the
apocalyptic
accents of Isaiah
appear
at least
thirty times). Subsequent
texts reduced the
teachings
of Barlaam and
preserved
the
apologues,
there-
fore
restoring
the
original
Oriental
atmosphere.
It should be noted that
the
Portuguese
version
(end
of the fourteenth
century)
and the French
play
Le
Mystre
du
Roy
Advenir
(1455)
omit the
apologues
almost
entirely
and
emphasize
the efforts to convert idol
worshippers.
Why
some
apologues
have
disappeared
is not clear, but others
might
have been too violent or realistic or too esoteric. Bilawhar's
teaching
in the Ismael i an
version,
illustrated
by
the
metaphor
of the two suns about
Intelligence,
has been
replaced by
a
teaching
more conformable to the
Christian
dogma,
which rests
upon
Faith and Renunciation. Since
passages
concerning
the Budd could not be
integrated
into a Christian text, they
have been
totally
eliminated.
The
Georgian
text Balavariani is the first known
Christianizing
link
in the
legend.
It
emphasizes
the
political
nature of
King
Abenes1 hostil-
ity
toward Christians,
a characteristic without
equivalent
in
any
other
text: "This hostile
campaign
of theirs
may
well
produce
some revolution in
my kingdom
and overturn all
public
order therein"
(pp. 53-54).
The reason
for
persecution
is tied to the fear of an attack
upon royal power
and the
threat of troubles in the
kingdom.
When Abenes
gives Josaphat
half of his
kingdom,
his fears become
partly justified;
the
people
leave him to
join
Josaphat,
some even rebel:
"They disregarded many
of his ordinances. . . .
Popular contempt
for
King
Abenes became
daily
more
apparent.
... He was
afraid that
they
would rise in revolt
against him,
and that someone would
kill him and seize his
kingdom" (p. 158).
Given the fact that a
precise
date
has not been attributed to the Balavariani
(ninth
or tenth
century),
it is
difficult to determine what historical events
might
have influenced the
Georgian
translator. After the fourth
century paganism
survived in the
newly
Christianized
Georgia,
torn
by religious
and
political
strife both
internal and external. Interference came from all sides:
Byzantine/
Orthodox,
Persi
an/Mazdean, Arab/Islamic. Georgia
seems an ideal
territory
for the transformation of our
legend.
Constant
struggles
to maintain
local and national
sovereignties may
have contributed to reinforce the
political aspect
of the Balavariani.
Asceticism is essential to the
legend;
it is a
way
of life for the
Indian Samanas as well as for the desert anchorites.
Beginning
with the
Ismael ian
version, religion
became
mandatory. Subjects
must adhere to
their
king's religion
or risk
reprisals.
With the Christianization of the
legend
we see mass
baptisms
and conversions,
and we are told that when
Josaphat
becomes
king
his
kingdom prospers,
while his father's declines.
We observe a
"puritanization"
of the
legend
and a
tendency
to
keep
only
what is
compatible
with the Christian idealization of a saint. The
Christian
Josaphat
cannot fail nor can he be
corrupted;
idol
worshippers
must
appear wicked;
the Ismael ian
King
Abennes is endowed with
qualities
unknown to his successor
King Avenis;
Theodas becomes an evil
magician,
while the beautiful
princess
who tries to seduce
Josaphat
is
possessed by
the devil .
-13-
The burden of
sin, totally
absent from Buddhist
texts, appears
with
the Christianization of the
legend.
The
weakening
of
predestination,
which coincides with the introduction of free will, makes man more vulner-
able to his own
passions,
and at the same time more heroic when he over-
comes his
temptations.
In Buddhist texts man is
ignorant,
whereas in
Christian texts man is a sinner. Note that the Buddhist and Ismael ian
heroes can
integrate
themselves into this
world, but the Christian hero
must leave the world and dwell in exile and isolation.
The
primitive myth
of the hero's rebirth is formed
by
the interaction
of several
mythic
units.
Josaphat's quest
for a father
figure
is a series
of
attempts
at
regeneration, triggered by
the revelation of Death.
Baptism
and exile are at once a
symbolic destruction,
a
symbolic swallowing,
a
symbolic center,
and the return to
innocence;
in other
words,
the
passage
from death to life. It is at this
mythical
level that we find a continu-
ation of the
legend
of Buddha.
Conclusion
The
legend
of Barlaam and
Josaphat
has evolved in the direction of
individualizaron
(ambivalence
of characters like Avennis and
Theodas, per-
sonal
victory
of the Christian
hero).
Individual ization
explains
the division
Badasf/Budd
and that of
Barlaam/Josaphat. Buddha, guide
and
wandering ascetic,
has
split
into
several
literary
creations: the
Budd, ancient
prophet
whose
memory
is
glorified
and transmitted in the
apologues; Bdsf, who resumes the Budd's
teaching
and himself becomes
guide
and
ascetic; Barlaam, guide
and
hermit,
who
brings
the treasure of eternal life to
Josaphat;
and
Josaphat, prince
and anchorite.
In our modern
age
the
legend
has
inspired
the writer
Jorge
Luis
Borges,
who,
in a short
essay
"Forms of a
Legend,
"48
insists that the four en-
counters in Latita Vistava are caused
by
Buddha. The divine Buddha directs
everything,
while the
earthly
Buddha suffers and
acts,
and this
justifies
the title Latita Vistra
(Development
of
Games)
and the
theory
of an
illusory
world dreamed
by
Buddha.
If we
accept
the
projection
of one buddha
by
another
buddha, we can
also
accept
the
projection
of Barlaam
by Josaphat.
This
concept,
admis-
sible for
Buddhists,
is admissible in the
literary
creation of the
legend
because of the individual ization of the
aspects
of Buddha: the
guide,
the
prince,
the
prophet,
the
saviour,
and the
suffering god.
The idea of an
illusory
world in the
legend
of Barlaam and
Josaphat
is
no
longer
the dream or the
game
of a
deity.
The hero renounces a transient
world and
hopes
to enter an invisible world he wishes to be real. If the
legend
has known an enormous
diffusion, it is because it offers an alterna-
tive to the
finality
of Death.
NOTES
1 . The Book
of
Ser Mareo Polo the
Venetian, concerning
the
Kingdoms
and
Marvels
of
the
East,
ed. and trans. Sir
Henry
Yule
(London: 1903),
II,
325.
-14-
15. Beati
locarais,
Damaoeni
Opera,
fols. 568-656
(Basle: 1559).
Based
upon
Codex VIII B
10,
fols. 416V-502V, Naples
National
Library.
16. Assadullah Souren Melikian-Chirvani
,
"L'vocation littraire du
Bouddhisme dans l'Iran
musulman,"
Le Monde iranien et
l'Islam, II,
Hautes Etudes
islamiques
et orientales d'Histoire
compare,
no. 6
(Genve: 1974),
34-37. The translation into
English
is mine.
17. The Fihrist
of Al-Nadim,
a Tenth
Century Survey of
Muslim
Culture,
ed.
and trans.
Bayard Dodge (New
York:
1970), p.
717.
18. Wisdom
of Balahvar, p.
32.
19. Le Livre de Bilawhar et
Bdsf , p.
22.
20. H.
Zotenberg,
"Notice sur le texte et les versions orientales du Livre
de Barlaam et
Jozaphat,"
Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits.
21. On this
subject,
see Wisdom
of Balahvar, p.
15.
22. Go S.
Kirk,
Myth,
Its
Meaning
and Functions
(Berkeley: 1970), p.
274.
Kirk
quotes
E. Evans-Pritchard:
"Religious
ideas are
produced by
a
synthesis
of individual minds in collective
action,
but once
produced
they
have a life of their own."
Quotations
from
Myth
will be annotated
in the text.
23. I have
developed
at
length
in
my
thesis
(chap,
ii and
conclusion)
the
subject
of
parables
and
apologues
in the
legend.
See also W, Fo
Bolton, "Parable, Allegory
and Romance in the
Legend
of Barlaam and
Josaphat," Traditio,
XIV
(1958),
353-366.
24.
Franois
Rabelais,
Oevres
completes,
ed. Jourda
(Paris: 1962), II,
chaps,
lv and
Ivi,
203-208,
25. Ernst
Kuhn,
"Barlaam und
Joasaph,
eine
bibliographischliterargeschicht-
liche
Studie," Abhandlungen
der Baverischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften,
XX
(Munich: 1897).
26o
Joseph Jacobs,
Barlaam and
Josaphat, English
Lives
of
Buddha
(London: 1896).
27. The
Kath-Sarit-Sgara
or Oceans
of
the Streams
of Story,
trans,
from Sanskrit
by
C. H.
Tawney,
2nd ed.
(Delhi: 1968).
28. Emile L.
Burnouf,
Introduction a l'Histoire du Bouddhisme indien
(Paris: 1844).
This seems to me to refer to an
episode
found on
pp. 416-419,
and not as indicated
by Kuhn, p.
370.
29. Burnouf, Introduction, pp.
374-376.
30. Le
Mahabharata,
Onze
Episodes,
trans. Foucaux
(Paris: 1862).
31. "The
Dhammapada,
a Collection of
Verses, being
one of the Canonical
Books of the Buddhists,"
Sacred Books
of
the
East,
ed. and trans,
from Pali
by
Fo Max Mller
(Delhi: 1965), X,
Part
1,
No. 25,
10.
32.
According
to
Jacobs,
Barlaam and
Josaphat, p.
cxxxl ,
the
Ramyana
-15-
2. M.
Laboulaye,
"Le Barlaam et le Lai ita
Vistara,"
Journal des
Dbats,
26
juillet
1859. F.
Liebrecht,
"Die
Quellen
des Barlaam und
Josaphat,"
Jahrbuch
fur
romantische und
englische Literatur,
II
(1860),
314-334,
3.
Philippe
E. Foucaux,
Rgya
Tch'er Rol Pa ou
Dveloppement
des Jeux.
Contenant lf histoire du Bouddha
akya-Mouni,
traduit sur la version
tibtaine du
Bkahhgyour,
et revu sur
l'original
sanscrit
(Lalitavis-tra)
(Paris: 1848). Quotations
from this work will be
annotated in the
text;
the translations into
English
are mine.
4. T. W.
Rhys Davids,
Buddhist Birth Stories (Jataka Tales)
(London:
1925).
5. Daniel G i ma
ret,
Le Livre de Bilawhar et
Bidasf,
selon la version arabe
ismaelienne
(Genve: 1971).
Contains an excellent introduction indi-
cating
the
progress
of research until 1971
concerning
texts
preceding
the Greek
version;
that
is,
the Arabic non-Christian versions,
the
Turf an
fragments
and the
Georgian
recens i ons0
Quotations
from this
work will be annotated in the
text;
the translations into
English
are
mine.
6. Abu Ga'far b.
Babuya al-Qummi as-Saduq,
Kitab ikmal ad-din wa itmam
an-ni'ma
ft
itbat al
ayba
wa
ksf al-hayra,
MSS. de Paris Arabe 1231
et
Heidelberg
A 287.
7. W. B.
Henning,
"Persian Poetical
Manuscripts
from the Time of
Rudaki,"
A Locust
Leg (London: 1962).
8. David M.
Lang,
The Balavariani
(Berkeley: 1966). Quotations
from
this work will be annotated in the text.
9. David M.
Lang,
The Wisdom
of
Balahvar. A Christian
Legend of
the
Buddha
(New
York:
1957).
Contains an excellent
bibliography
and
places
the
Georgian
versions in relation to other versions.
10. St. John
Damascene,
Barlaam and
Ioasaph,
ed. Boissonade,
trans. G. R.
Woodward and H.
Mattingly (New
York:
1914).
11.
Balavariani, p.
20.
12. Jean
Sonet,
Le Roman de Barlaam et
Josaphat,
I
(Namur: 1949).
The
author has classified most of the Romance
language
versions issued
from the Greek. Possible filiations have been
suggested
for the
Spanish,
Italian and Catalan texts
by
Gerhard
Moldenhauer,
Die
Legende
von Barlaam und
Josaphat auf
der iberischen
Halbinsel; Untersuchungen
und
Texte,
Romanische Arbeiten No. XIII
(Halle: 1929).
For the
Italian texts
by Georg Maas,
"Die altitalienische Storia
Josaphas,"
Romanisches
Museum,
II
(1914);
and for the Old
Provenal
text
by
Ferdinand
Heuckenkamp,
Die
provenzalische
Prosaredaction des Geist-
lichen Roman von Barlaam und
Josaphat (Halle: 1912).
13. Baraldm and
wasef,
trans. B. A. Wallis
Budge,
II
(Cambridge: 1923).
14. An extensive
bibliography
of all works
published
before 1959 as well
as a
chronological
chart
appear
at the end of Hiram Peri
[Heinz
Pflaum],
"Der
Religiondisput
der
Barlaam-Legende
ein Motiv abendlandi-
scher
Dichtung,"
Acta
Salamanticensia, XIV, no. 3
(1959).
-16-
would be the source of the
apologue
of the
prince
who had never seen a
woman. The
apologue presents strong parallels
with
Josaphat's
own
life,
and therefore with Buddha.
33.
Cinq
Cents Contes et
Apologues
extraits du
Tripiaka chinois,
5 vols,
trans. Edouard Chavannes
(Paris: 1962).
See no.
205, Trip. XIX, 7;
no.
469, Trip. XXXVI, 4; Trip. XIV,
8.
34. Ibn
Al-Muqaffa,
Le Livre de Kalila et
Dirnna,
trans. Andre
Miquel
(Paris: 1957), pp.
47-48.
35. "A Buddhist Sheet-Tract,"
trans.
Bishop Moule,
Royal
Asiatic
Society
North China Branch
Journal, XIX,
94-102
[read
in
1884].
36. William Theodore de
Bary,
Sources
of
Indian Tradition
(New
York:
1958), pp.
56-58.
37.
Eugne Vinaver, The Rise
of
Romance
(Oxford: 1971), p.
81.
38.
Angus Fletcher,
Allegory,
the
Theory of
a
Symbolic
Mode
(Ithaca: 1964),
pp.
348-350.
39. E.
Rehatsek,
"Book of the
King's
Son and the
Ascetic," Journal
of
the
Royal
Asiatic
Society of
Great Britain and
Ireland,
XXII
(1890), pp.
119-155.
40.
Balavariani, pp.
116-117.
41.
Ren Nel li and Ren Lavaud,
Les
Troubadours, I,
1132. Further
quota-
tions from this work will be annotated in the
text; the translations
into
English
are mine.
42. Kirk,
Myth, pp.
142-152.
43.
Fragment M181,
F.B. See
Henning,
"Persian Poetical
Manuscripts,"
pp.
92 and
95,
n. 9.
44. Rehatsek,
"Book of the
King's
Son and the
Ascetic," p.
55. See also
Nel
li,
Les
Troubadours, I, 1173,
n.a.
45. A. Foucher,
La Vie du Bouddha
d'aprs
les Textes et les Monuments de
l'Inde
(Paris: 1949), p.
282. The translation into
English
is mine.
46. Laiita
Vister, p.
106.
47. Le Livre de Bilawhar et
Bdsf, p.
125.
48.
Jorge
Luis
Borges,
"Forms of a
Legend,"
A Personal
Anthology (New
York:
1967), pp.
122-127. See also "The Circular Ruins," ibid.,
pp.
68-74. Also see Didier Jan's
"Borges1
Allusions to Hinduism and
Buddhism" in this issue, pp.
17-30.

Barlaam and Josaphat legend travels from India to the Christian world

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Barlaam and Josaphat legend travels from India to the Christian world

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BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT: A LEGEND FOR ALL SEASONS

Author(s): Monique B. Pitts

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