Narrative
Maha Vessantara Sadok
Not translated into English
Anonymous · 1799
Synopsis
Maha Vessantara Sadok (The Great Jataka of Vessantara): Prince Vessantara, whom the Lao call Phra Vet, has given everything he is asked for since his birth. When he gives the kingdom's white elephant to Brahmins from Kalinga, the angered people obtain his banishment. He leaves for the forest with his wife Mathi and their children, Saly and Khanha. There, a Brahmin comes to claim his children from him, and he gives them; then his wife is asked of him.
Context
The last of the ten great jatakas, the narrative is copied in Laos in tham script, in verse mixing Pali and its Lao translation, and has thirteen sections filling sixteen fascicles of palm leaves. The faithful commission copies of it for merit, down to King Sisavang Vong in 1929. The oldest precisely dated Lao manuscript found is a fragment completed on 5 September 1799 in Luang Prabang; the composition is older and undated.
Who it is for
For approaching the great Buddhist narrative of generosity, which the Lao listen to every year; only the Pali text is translated.
Prizes and reception
Every year, the Boun Phavet festival has the whole narrative chanted by the monks in the temples, from the fourth month.
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