Lùmǔ jīng 鹿母經
Sūtra of the Mother-Deer by 竺法護 (Dharmarakṣa, 譯)
About the work
A short single-fascicle jātaka recounting the past life of the Buddha as a pregnant mother-deer who, separated from her herd in a royal hunt, is captured in a hunter’s snare and pleads to be released to nurse her two newly-born fawns; the hunter, moved by her appeal, releases her, and she returns voluntarily to him after suckling her young. Translated by 竺法護 Dharmarakṣa. Signature: 「西晉月氏國三藏竺法護譯」.
Prefaces
No preface or postface; only the canonical translator-signature.
Abstract
T182a is the Korean-canon recension of 竺法護 Dharmarakṣa’s translation; T182b is a parallel recension. The narrative is one of the bodhisattva-as-animal jātakas, paralleled in the Migapotaka-jātaka (Pāli Jātaka no. 372) and in various Indic jātaka-anthologies. The translation can be dated to Dharmarakṣa’s documented Cháng’ān-period activity (c. 285–311).
Translations and research
- Cowell, E. B. (ed.). The Jātaka. Vol. 3 (Migapotaka-jātaka).