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頂生王故事經

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Text ID
KR6a0039
Date
290–311
Dynasty
西晉

Dǐngshēng wáng gùshì jīng 頂生王故事經

Sūtra of the Story of King Mūrdhāja (the Mūrdhātajasūtra / Mandhātujātaka; parallel to Madhyama-āgama sūtra 60, the Sì zhōu jīng 四洲經, and to T40) by 法炬 (Fǎjù, 譯)

About the work

The Dǐng-shēng wáng gùshì jīng is a single-fascicle Western Jìn 西晉 translation of the canonical jātaka-narrative of King Mūrdhātaja 頂生王 (“Born-from-the-Top-of-the-Head”; Pāli Mandhātu; Skt. Mūrdhāja / Mūrdhātaja) — the cakravartin who, born from a tumour on his father’s crown, conquered the four continents and even ascended to the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, only to fall back to earth through his greed for half of Indra’s throne. The Pāli parallel is found in the Mandhātu-jātaka (Jat 258) and in DN 26 (and elsewhere); the Chinese parallels are T26[60] (the Sì-zhōu jīng 四洲經 of the Madhyama-āgama) and T40 (the Wéntuójié wáng jīng 文陀竭王經 by Dharmakṣema).

The text opens at the Jetavana monastery in Śrāvasti, with the Buddha (here addressed by the archaic 婆伽婆 Pó-jiā-pó for Bhagavat, characteristic of pre-Saṃghadeva translations) recounting the story of the great cakravartin Mūrdhātaja and the tale of his rise and fall.

Prefaces

The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the Western-Jìn translator’s signature at the head: 「西晉三藏法炬譯」.

Abstract

T39 was produced during Fǎjù’s Western Jìn translation period (290–311 CE; cf. KR6a0023 for biographical context), and that bracket is recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost. The principal scholarly interest of T39 is in the comparison with T40 (Dharmakṣema, c. 414–433): both texts render essentially the same Indic Mandhātu legend, with characteristic differences of diction (T39’s use of 婆伽婆 vs. T40’s use of 世尊; T39’s 頂生 “Born-from-Crown” vs. T40’s phonetic-translation hybrid 文陀竭 Wéntuójié = Mandhātu).

The Mūrdhātaja / Mandhātu legend was, in the early Mahāyāna, an important locus classicus for the doctrine of the inevitability of saṃsāra: even the greatest cakravartin, ruler of the four continents and visitor of the heavens, eventually falls. The story would be retold in countless later Mahāyāna avadāna compilations.

Translations and research

  • Cowell, E. B., et al., tr. The Jātaka, or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births. 6 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1895–1907. — Includes Jat 258 Mandhātu-jātaka.
  • Strong, John S. The Legend and Cult of Upagupta. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. — Treats the Mandhātu legend within the wider cakravartin tradition.
  • No dedicated study of T39 specifically has been located.

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