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1In its origination, Buddhism embraced the ideas of resistance, reaction, and protest. It emanated « as a wider response to a particular doctrine and as a reaction to the changing milieu with which it was associated »1. The social and political changes2 occurring at that time were not completely divorced from the growth of religious consciousness. In historical context, Buddhism was providing an intellectual ground for protesters. Therefore, Buddhist literature contains accounts of slippages from mainstream social structures and strictures. This article tries to delineate the lives of the marginalized groups or the subalterns through a study of the Pāli birth-stories of the Buddha called Jātaka.

2The choice of language, in this case, Pāli, can signal religious change and define religious communities. It can also give rise to and greatly shape literary genres. The birth stories of the Buddha acquire a distinct form with connections to folk literature. These connections lead them to foray into everyday lives with a lucid ease. The use of Pāli emerged out of an emphasis in early Buddhism on the use of the vernacular. Early Buddhism manifests that « sometimes new ways of thinking did require new ways of speaking, whether for reasons of ideology or efficacy »3. Some of the Buddhist monks were once troubled that other monks were distorting the Buddha’s words by repeating them in their own dialects. They asked the permission of the Buddha to compile them in Sanskrit, who rebuked them and commanded the monks with these words -

Deluded men! This will not lead to the conversion of the unconverted …You are not to put the Buddha’s words into (Vedic-Sanskrit) verse. To do this would be to commit an infraction. I authorize you, monks, to learn the Buddha’s words each in his own dialect4.

3The local speech forms were one of the factors that lead to the incorporation of subaltern practices in Buddhist literature. The term “subaltern” in historical studies comes from Antonio Gramsci, who declared that the subaltern was the subjected underclass in a society on whom the dominant power exerts its hegemonic influence. It is understood to denote the marginalized, subordinated, and inferior in status or rank. A group of South Asian scholars came together to launch a project called Subaltern Studies around 1982. They worked to make visible the historically subordinate position of the lives of various groups of people, but in recognizing their « subalterneity », giving them a voice and an agency. Though the project focused on the colonial period of India5, the approach has now cut across boundaries and timeframes6. The project suggested the use of alternate sources to locate the voice of the subaltern historically. Elite records could also be used but should be read with a different pair of lenses, against the grain. I rely on this methodology to use Jātaka stories as a primary source in this article. These stories were constructed to drive home an ideological point of Buddhist ethics and yet contain social history that contests orthodox understanding of ancient Indian society.

4The various forms of subordination aggravated by oppressive factors of caste structure, political power, economic differences, and patriarchal mindset form the focus of this reading. Even though the stories are intended to be moral parables, they are replete with historical details. With a broadly Buddhist orientation, they draw freely from the existing folklore. The many tales incidentally reveal various aspects of everyday lives of ordinary people. They also touch upon aspects of their relations with the elite, the repression that they had to suffer and the strategies they devised to cope within a society marked by deep differences.

5The Buddhist Jātakas are stories depicting the various previous lives of the Buddha and thus presenting a conceptual framework for the historical continuity of Buddhism. They do not discuss Buddhist philosophy in a direct manner, but the lessons sought from the tales have a direct root in Buddhist ethics. To this, we may add that the political critiquing or description of oppression, repression, resistance and conflict, which the paper seeks to discuss, lack a clear-cut exposition. They are rather embedded unintentionally within the main narratives that are bereft of a political context. Therefore, the effort to unravel the various forms of repression and resistance in the Jātaka tales proves to be more of an exercise in reading between the lines7 than reading in a linear fashion.

Reading the Pāli Jātakas

6The Pāli Jātakas form a part of the canonical texts of Theravāda Buddhism. The canon comprises three scriptural collections (baskets), Tripiṭaka viz. Sutta, Vinaya, and Abhidhamma. In general understanding, Suttapiṭaka deals with the questions of ethics, conduct, and duty, all covered under the Buddhist concept of Dhamma, while the Vinayapiṭaka and Abhidhammapiṭaka discuss rules of discipline and philosophical questions respectively. The Jātakapāli forms the tenth section of the Khuddaka Nikāya, the fifth book in the collection of the Suttapiṭaka. « Since these verses are clearly incomplete without the stories that accompany them, we can assume that they have always circulated with the stories of the past in some (possibly quite flexible) form »8. The core ideology of these canonical verses is supported by stories in the quasi-canonical (quasi because of their commentarial nature) Jātakatthavaṇṇanā or the Jātakaṭṭhakathā. The Jātaka legends occur in various forms at various places. They find frequent mention in the canonical Pitakas⁹. Jātaka scenes, sometimes accompanied by their titles, are found engraved in the carvings of the Buddhist railings¹⁰. On the one hand, this indicates that they definitely had a considerable impact on the society, while on the other, they can be said to contain meaningful reflections on contemporary society.

7The Pāli work, entitled “the Jātaka”, contains five hundred and forty-seven Jātakas or birth-stories, which are arranged in twenty-two Nipātas or books according to the number of verses in each story. The first one hundred and fifty stories contain only one gāthā or verse and are arranged in the first book called Ekaknipāto. The next one hundred stories contain two gāthās comprise Dukanipāto, and so the order continues. Each story opens with a preface called the Nidānakathā followed by the paccupannavatthu or “story of the present”, which relates particular circumstances in the Buddha’s life which led him to tell the birth-story and thus reveal some event in the long series of his previous existence as a bodhisatta or a being destined to attain the Buddha state in atītavatthu. The kernel of the primitive tale is interpreted in the section called aṭṭhavaṇanā. In the end, a short summary called samodhāna is given where the Buddha identifies the different actors in the story in their present births at the time of his discourse. « They are also full of interest as giving a vivid picture of the social life and customs of ancient India »¹¹, as E. B. Cowell remarks.

8The dedicatory inaugural verse of the Jātakatthavaṇṇanā states its purpose « of illuminating the magnificence of the deeds of the Buddha ». Through a narration of birth stories, the objective is to illustrate the traits required for becoming a Buddha. The Bodhisatta is present in all the stories along with numerous other characters. Their interactions are meant to throw light on Buddhist ideology but also, peripherally, describe social and political practices. Even though it is extremely difficult to fix their chronology, their immense popularity in the Buddhist world surpassed both lay and monastic establishments. Their significance is beyond textual composition. Therefore, despite difficulties of chronology, they should be studied to deduce at least some trends of repression and resistance over a broad period. Scholars like Richard Fick, T. W. Rhys Davids, A. N. Bose and R. N. Mehta, in their study of the social history of the Buddha’s time, have relied heavily upon the Jātakas¹². B. G. Tamaskar configured geographical data¹³ from them, while B. D. Chattopadhyaya drew a list of various occupations from them¹⁴. There have also been efforts to examine the relationship between the Buddhist art and the Jātakas¹⁵. The studies exploring unequal relationships through the Jātakas have largely focused on slavery or the royal elites¹⁶. But there have been only a few specific studies, relying solely on the Jātakas, which deal directly with issues of subordination, exploitation, and resistance¹⁷. Through a comprehensive study of the Jātakas, various forms of oppression faced by the disadvantaged sections of the society are surveyed in this article.

Locating the Subalterns

9The Jātaka tales contain descriptions of everyday lives from different angles, and they non-deliberately bring out various forms of repression that plagued the Indian society. It is an important area to be focused upon as « …most subordinate classes throughout most of history have rarely been afforded the luxury of open, organized political activity »¹⁸. As is the case with other folktales, the Jātakas sometimes appear to deal with real concerns and issues of human society, even when the central characters are animals. Animals of these stories, like humans, live in an unequal world, face exploitation and manifest social struggles. At times the subalterns of these stories seem to defy the central beliefs and values of the elite culture and betray a counter-culture of dissent. The coping strategies of the weaker sections are very minutely drawn out from these stories. Very rarely do we see the marginalized groups breaking out into an open, unified, organized struggle. Their efforts do not reflect class consciousness nor are they aimed at subverting the mechanism of exploitation. They have modest intentions of what Hobsbawm called « working the system… to their minimum disadvantage »¹⁹ by employing « weapons of the weak »²⁰. Ranjit Guha, a pioneer leader of Subaltern Studies in India, defined the subaltern « as a name for the general attribute of subordination in South Asian society whether this is expressed in terms of caste, class, age, gender, and office or in any other way »21. In the Jātaka collection, all these areas reflect the power relation of dominance, resistance and retaining autonomy, and shall be elucidated in this study. It seeks to not only configure factors of caste, class, gender, physical vulnerability in the various modes of repression but also unmask the possibilities of resistance.

Social Inequality: Caste and Outcaste

10The superior social position that accrued to certain sections on the basis of caste and class spelled subordination for other sections. The Jātakas offer many such examples where Brahmanas22 (considered a superior caste) were accepted to exercise certain privileges over others. There are many examples of Canāḍlas, who were at the lowest rung of the caste hierarchy, being treated unfairly. Though there are some instances where the Canḍālas expose the injustice of the treatment meted out to them, but these meager efforts offer little solace. The community has variously been regarded by scholars²³ as a non-Aryan tribal group or a mixed caste. In the social milieu of the epoch, they faced extreme abhorrence under the pretext of ritual purity.

11In the Setaketu- Jātaka²⁴, a Canḍāla is shown subverting the Brahmanical notion of pollution. A well-known teacher had a Brahmana student who thought a great deal of his high caste. One day, the student happened to come near a Canḍāla. The Brahmana was horrified at the thought of the wind touching Canḍāla’s body and then strike him, thereby polluting him. He, therefore, ordered the Canḍāla to move to the leeward side of the road so that he did not stand in the wind’s path. The Brahmana moved to the windward side himself. However, the Canḍāla did not oblige. He stood his ground on the windward side of the Brahmana and said that he would obey the Brahmana only if the latter could answer his questions, which the Brahmana was unable to do. As a result, he had to put up with public humiliation in the hands of the Canḍāla.

12In the Citta-Sambuddha Jātaka, two Canḍāla friends feel ashamed when two girls wash their eyes with perfumed water after seeing them. Their humiliation is worsened by a public beating for coming in the sight of the maidens. They disguise themselves as Brahmanas and go to a university for education but get ultimately exposed and greatly humiliated²⁵. Their caste is revealed through the words that they blurt out when they gobble a mouthful of hot food. It is indicated in many places that this section had its own dialect. The language and customs were derided, and derogatory connotations were attached to terms like duṭṭhacanḍāla²⁶ or mahācanḍāla²⁷. The social exclusion of the Canḍālas was made even more severe by spatial and physical restrictions. It appears that they lived in the outskirts of the cities called bahinagare or canḍālagāme²⁸. Their appearance was such that they stood apart. There was an injunction for them to be easily recognizable when they entered the city²⁹. They were assigned the “impure” task of removing and burying dead bodies³⁰. They also mingled with the animals and developed unconventional skills. The rise on the social ladder reached a high pinnacle when they were portrayed as spiritual leaders to be respected when they entered sanyāsa³¹. The Buddhist texts attempted to defy the monopoly of knowledge by placing it in the hands of the marginalized. A Brahmin had to lose all the tantric powers as he did not acknowledge his Canḍāla teacher to evade disrepute³².

13The Buddha himself is born as a Canḍāla in the Satadhamma Jātaka³³. He was travelling with a Brahmana who was not carrying food. As a Bodhisatta, the Buddha does not offer him food due to caste restrictions. The Brahmana youth, in the grip of hunger pangs, satiates himself with the left-overs of the co-traveler. Tormented by a guilt-ridden conscience of trespassing food restrictions, he commits suicide. The food was considered inedible, if a Canḍāla so much as sighted it, and if such food is consumed even unknowingly, it resulted in social ex-communication³⁴. Such a fate befell sixteen hundred Brahmanas who tasted the water used for cooking rice by a Canḍāla. The Brahmanas were to immediately lose their caste in such instance³⁵. The Canḍālas resorted to acquiring knowledge to gain respect but did not have such outlets. Thus, they faced social repression through neglect, arduous, unpleasant task, disrespect and exclusion. And calling someone akin to Canḍālas, canḍāla-sadisso, was an expression of ultimate rejection³⁶. Though a Bodhisatta could take birth as a Canḍāla, he earned praise for adhering to caste rules by taking care not to “defile” a Brahmana by offering him food.

Economic Inequality: Masters and Slaves

14Slaves were not entitled to any rights according to the Jātakas. In fact, that they can be discarded at will is used as a simile in Kiṃchhinda Jātaka, while describing a hapless situation of destitution, « As…they throw the outworn slave away »³⁷. The Pāli term for slaves, dāsa, is used as an insult at many places³⁸. Although it was enjoined upon the masters to mete out good treatment to the slaves and servants and harshness was not approved of, sometimes the masters beat up the servants. The Vessantara Jātaka gives a heart-wrenching account of a Brahmana’s cruelty towards his male and female slaves. However, some scholars say that even though cruel masters existed, they were an exception and not the norm. In this light, such descriptions must be considered exaggerated³⁹. The slaves could also be freed by payment of a penalty⁴⁰. A Brahmana gahapati (householder) freed all his slaves when he was ordained into the Buddhist Order⁴¹. But there are also examples in the Katāhaka Jātaka and the Kalanduka Jātaka, when the slaves acquired some education and rose above their station⁴². This was considered arrogance and not to be tolerated. Either they remained in disguise and were shown their place⁴³ or they were recaptured⁴⁴. Sometimes the masters beat up the servants but not always did the meekly accept such ill-treatment. Finding a discreet opportunity in the Takkha Jātaka, a cruel daughter in a household, who used to revile and beat servants, was thrown into the river by them⁴⁵.

15Although the slave girls or the dāsis shared the misfortune of slave-hood, there seem to be even more restrictions on them on account of their gender. A large chunk of the burden of household chores falls on their shoulders. Sometimes they are assigned the pleasant tasks of taking care of the jewellery⁴⁶, but arduous tasks like pounding the rice comprise a more regular fare. In the Sīlavimāṃsā Jātaka, a slave girl Pingala could get some sleep only after she had bathed the feet of her master and his family, and when they had lain down to rest⁴⁷. In the Durjana Jātaka, the slave girl was used as a simile to denote meekness: « On days when she did wrong, she was as meek as a slave girl bought for hundred pieces… »⁴⁸

Political Office: Kings, Officials, and Subjects

16The political climate depicted in these tales shows a dominant monarchical bias. Though the rulers were frequently admonished for sloth and misgovernance, there were many instances of their atrocities over their subjects. The Mahāpingala Jātaka enumerated the various modes of tortures wielded by a king. The common people were « crushed like sugarcane in the mill » by heavy taxation, fines, many mutilations, and robberies. Lack of compassion in the ruler was identified as the chief cause of state-based oppression. Such rulers were cruel even in the personal realm causing misery to wives, sons, and daughters. Mahapingala, the Great Yellow King, was unkind to the courtiers and even the ascetics could not escape his misplaced wrath⁴⁹. The story concludes that « … a wicked king can be a nuisance like a speck of dust in the eye or a thorn in the heel »⁵⁰.

17It was well within the powers of the rulers to cast uninvited, undeserving misery upon his subjects. A king, in pursuance of a goat thief, burnt homes seven times in an entire village in which the thief was hiding, causing great hardship to other innocent villagers⁵¹. In another tale, the king’s ingratitude is brought out. While visited by a person who had done him a great favour in an hour of need, the king recoiled at the thought of repaying him or other people knowing about it. He ordered him to be flogged on every street and ultimately executed⁵². Such a king was disrespected, and in this particular case, he was not only overthrown but even slain by indignant nobles, the brahmanas, and people of all classes. Sometimes the subjects rejoiced when an oppressive king died⁵³.

18One of the cruelest examples of this type of kings is mentioned in the Dhonasākha-Jātaka⁵⁴. A prince summons a very skillful artisan, and gets him to build a palace unsurpassed in magnificence and splendor for him. To avoid the replication of his master piece, he gets the eyes of the artisan plucked out. Another instance is a king in Culladhammapāla Jātaka who becomes jealous of his queen’s affection towards their child⁵⁵. He orders the child to be mutilated and killed. In spite of the queen pleading to spare the child, the king orders the infant’s body to be swirled on the point of a dagger.

19Sometimes there were other non-whimsical, material temptations that led those in power to go astray. The officials embezzled public money very often. The Kharrassara Jātaka recounts the misdeeds of a village headman, who incites robbers to the taxes collected for the king on the condition that they give him half the loot. He gives the robbers time to drive and slay the cattle and burn the houses⁵⁶. Another judiciary official is greatly resented for giving false judgments after taking bribes⁵⁷. In any case, ordinary people did not seem to be in a position to pose a threat to the state or garner staunch opposition, thus rendering the state machinery an effective apparatus for repression.

Physical Vulnerability: Old Age

20The physical challenge and limitations emerge with advancing age and are directly proportionate to the vulnerability in the society. With physical limitations, the economic role and power of the aged also diminish. The Soṇananda Jātaka⁵⁸ mentions two brothers who take care of their aged parents. The younger brother deviously supplies them with unripe fruits. This greatly angered the elder brother when he discovers the wrongdoing. He rebukes him and later the younger brother looks after the parents. The relationship between a daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law depicted in Kaccani Jātaka involves more nuances⁵⁹. The aged mother-in-law is served with food that is either too hot or too cold and similar is the state of her bath water. To add insult to injury, the old lady is accused of needless complaining. Her bed is deliberately infested with fleas and false allegations on her in front of her son are some of the tactics used to denigrate the old woman. At one point, the son even turns the old mother away, but takes her back later on and tends to her. In a similar incident of the young finding it cumbersome to attend to the elderly, a son plans to murder his own father⁶⁰. He is overheard by his child, who asks him if he should make a similar plan about his father. This produces remorse in the heart of the plotting son. He takes his father back and resolves to take care of him. Political ambition has been a goading factor for many treacherous acts. In yet another tale, a prince, who is eager to succeed to the throne, proposes to murder his father⁶¹.

Gender Discrimination: Patriarchy and Women

21The Jātaka tales are replete with examples to illustrate the women as innately adulterous⁶². Their partners, the men, without whose participation, it is difficult to commit adultery, are more often than not absolved completely of any guilt, while the status of a temptress is awarded to the woman. In the Bandhanmokkha Jātaka, the queen extracts a promise of fidelity from the king by « unceasing importunity. » When the king is away at the battle, she commits debauchery with each messenger that the king sends her except the last one. When the king comes to know about her dalliances, he is refrained from punishing her or any of the messengers with the words, « …the men are not to blame; for they were constrained by the queen…And as far as the queen is concerned, she is not to blame, for the passions of women are insatiate, and she does not but act according to her inborn nature »⁶³. Women are often shown to have recourse to trickery and to successful and deceitful manipulation of the men who loved them. A fair wife deviously manages to not only escape the fire ordeal but also connives to be with her lover⁶⁴, while another resorts to intoxicating her lover to have her way⁶⁵.

22Though women were generally assumed to be devious, some Jātakas sympathize with wronged women too. There was once a queen taken privately by a king. She was asked not to contact him if she bore a daughter and given a royal signet to be spent on her upbringing. The strong bias for male progeny, in this story, is more than obvious. In this case, if she had borne a female child, the responsibility of rearing the child would have been solely hers. She begot a son. However, when she came to the king’s palace, the king denied her claims as to his paternity to avoid public shame⁶⁶. The matter was resolved much later by the efforts of the young son. Further on, childlessness was a stigma and married women not bearing children were sometimes not shown proper respect⁶⁷. The life of widows also appears to be wrought with difficulties. Such a woman faced economic hardships and toiled about miserably. Even her children suffered from unfair treatment. She had to brave unkind words even if she lived in a prosperous household⁶⁸.

23While most of the stories exhort men to keep women at bay in order to escape their evil snares, there is one heartwarming episode that rebukes the ungrateful husband in no uncertain terms⁶⁹ and, in one case, the Buddha even exhorts the wife to leave a thankless husband. In the Godha Jātaka, the queen reveals the utter selfishness of the king upon which the Bodhisatta says, « Lady, ever since the time when your husband ceased to love you, why did you go on living with him, making unpleasantness for both?’ and he emphasizes70:

Turn your back on the worthless being who abandons you
Rouse no love for the one who has ceased to love you
Be like a bird that wisely leaves a dried-up tree
And builds her nest in some far distant grove

Conclusion

24Within the system of domination and power relations, some unique coping strategies of the subalterns emerge. Legal redressal was not always an option to combat the drudgery of the quotidian. Therefore, highway robberies were very common, and caravans of merchants were highly prone to be stolen. These cases of robbery took place in forests, providing amenable hide-outs from the state machinery. The other issue that was not likely to garner sympathy from the king was taxation. The unique strategy that the villagers employed was to abandon the villages completely in a very short span of time and flee to the frontiers where tax collection could not be easily carried out⁷¹. These were relatively powerless people who made geographical maneuvers to escape state-centric conditions. Similar to humans animals are described as devising coping strategies unique to the weak. To get the better of their superiors, they sometimes resort to flattery⁷²: a crow is able to manipulate a pigeon into facilitating access to assorted culinary samples through hyperbolic praise. Feigning illness and resorting to other pretenses to avoid work was also very common⁷³. At other times they get the better of the stronger by using cunning as a device. A boar is challenged by a lion for a physical contest. Realizing that he is at a great disadvantage, the boar is frantically searching for a way out. His friends advise him to smear himself with dung. When the lion finds him in such a foul state, he refuses to take him on in a fight.

25It is important to seek the forms of resistance reflected in the Jātakas. All historical societies had a persistence of exploitative relationships. Efforts to resist them or counter them reflect a unique construction of social consciousness with different levels of awareness, solidarity and in many instances also the lack of either. It is a useful exercise to unravel the inroads commoners made into the seemingly straightforward social facts through subtle resistance that ranged from the threat of migration, diffidence, disobedience, stubbornness to studied carelessness, or spreading a bad word to malign reputation. Many tales enjoin upon the king to be benevolent and generous towards his subjects lest the forces of cosmos shall turn against him and he shall lose his kingdom. There is also the tool of religious sanction to invoke a benevolent attitude of the powerful class, which is very interesting because it is the same tool which was used to perpetuate the subordination of the marginalized, specifically through caste system. The Jātaka tales also reflect the cracks in the social norms through the various forms of resistance employed by the weak. The silent struggles patiently carried out by these seemingly passive agents provided the necessary breathing spaces within the oppressive structures of social, political and economic inequalities.