The Balavariani (Barlaam and Josaphat) - A Buddhist Tale from the Christian East tr from the Old Georgian by David Marshall Lang - Intro by Ilia V Abuladze (1966).pdf

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THE BALAVARIANI
(BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT)
A TALE FROM THE C H R I S T I A N
EAST
T R A N S L A T E D FROM THE OLD G E O R G I A N
BY
DAVID MARSHALL LANG
Professor of Caucasian Studies
University of London
I N T R O D U C T I O N BY
ILIA V. ABULADZE
Director, Institute of Manuscripts
Georgian Academy of Sciences, Tbilisi
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BERKELEY AND
LOS
ANGELES
* 1966
BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT
Was Barlaam truly Josaphat,
And Buddha truly each?
What better parable than that
The unity to preach—
The simple brotherhood of souls
That seek the highest good;
He who in kingly chariot rolls,
Or wears the hermit's hood !
The Church mistook? These heathen once
Among her Saints to range!
That deed of some diviner dunce
Our wisdom would not change.
For Culture's Pantheon they grace
In catholic array.
Each Saint hath had his hour and place,
But now 'tis All Saints' Day.
ISRAEL Z A N G W I L L
October 27, 1895
(1864-1926)
PREFACE
In the literary world of mediaeval Christendom, few worthies
were more celebrated than the Indian hermit Barlaam and his
royal pupil Prince Josaphat, who were supposed between them
to have converted India to Christianity at some vaguely defined
period of historical antiquity. The Churches celebrated their
festival days with appropriate solemnity, and their relics were
invested with exceptional healing power. In 1571, for instance,
the Doge of Venice presented King Sebastian of Portugal with
what purported to be a bone and part of the spine of St Josaphat,
which later found their way to the cloister of St Salvator in
Antwerp. Shakespeare adapted one of the holy Barlaam's fables
for the episode of the Three Caskets in
The Merchant
of
Venice,
while Jesuit priests made the story the subject of edifying
morality plays.
The practical influence of the story of Barlaam and Josaphat
is inestimable, extending over many centuries and many coun-
tries. Its advocacy of the ascetic way of life and renunciation of
the worlcf inspired the mediaeval Albigensian heretics, to such
an extent that the work has sometimes been taken to be a Cathar
document. Equally striking is the story's impact on the great
Leo Tolstoy, as recounted in his own Confession. Among the
influences which determined Tolstoy to turn his back on wealth,
fame and even his own family, that of the Buddha's Great
Renunciation was among the most compelling. Not only does
Tolstoy relate in his Confession some of the episodes of the
Bodhisattva Prince's Renunciation, including the Four Omens,
but he even quotes verbatim from the book of Barlaam and
Josaphat one of the most effective of the fables whereby
Barlaam (Balahvar in the Georgian text) seeks to demonstrate
the valueless nature of human life on earth.
There is an Eastern fable, told long ago, of a traveller over-
taken on a plain by an enraged beast. Escaping from the beast he
BARLAAM AND JUSAFHAT
gets into a dry well, but sees at the bottom of the well a dragon
that has opened its jaws to engulf him. And the unfortunate
man, not daring to climb out lest he should be destroyed by the
enraged beast, and not daring to leap to the bottom of the well
lest he should be swallowed by the dragon, seizes a twig growing
in a crack in the well and clings to it. His hands are growing
weaker and he feels he will soon have to resign himself to the
destruction that awaits him above or below, but still he clings
on. Then he sees that two mice, one black and the other white,
go regularly round and round the stalk to which he is clinging
and gnaw at it. And soon the twig itself will snap and he will
fall into the dragon's jaws.
'The traveller sees this and knows that he must inevitably
perish: but while still hanging he looks around, sees some drops
of honey on the leaves of the twig, reaches them with his tongue
and licks at them.—So I too clung to the twig of life, knowing
that the dragon of death was inexorably awaiting me, ready to
tear me to pieces: and I could not understand why I had fallen
into such torment. I tried to lick the honey which formerly
consoled me, but the honey no longer gave me pleasure, and the
white and black mice of day and night gnawed at the branch by
which I hung. I saw the dragon clearly and the honey no longer
tasted sweet. I only saw the dragon from which there was no
escape, and the mice, and I could not tear my gaze from them.
And this is not a fable, but the real unanswerable truth,
intelligible to all!'
I must here express thanks to my Californian friend Mr Tom
Foley, who drew this remarkable passage to my attention: the
full text of the fable, taken from the Old Georgian version,
appears on pages 77-78 of the present volume.
In spite of striking similarities between the pious career of
St Josaphat and the traditional lives of Gautama Buddha, it was
not until a century ago that the authenticity of this Christian
cult was challenged, and definite proof produced to show that
Barlaam and Josaphat were not early Christian saints at all, but
legendary figures whose image was based on ancient Indian
stories about the Bodhisattva prince and his Great Renunciation.
Since that time, a large number of articles and books have been
devoted to comparative study and analysis of the many versions
of the Barlaam and Josaphat story which survive in virtually all
10
PREFACE
countries of Christendom from Iceland to Ethiopia, from Poland
to the Philippines. Even today, traces of the legend crop up in
unexpected places. For example, the Ahmadi sect in Islam have
created a legend that a certain holy man named Yuz Asaf, whom
they identify with Our Lord Jesus Christ, came to Kashmir and
died there; in reality, the whole Ahmadi story of 'Yuz Asaf, as
I have tried to show in a previous study, is simply based on an
extract from the familiar Arabic version of the Barlaam and
Josaphat romance, and has no connection with the life of Jesus
Christ at all.
1
In face of all this evidence of the diffusion of the Buddha's
legendary life story and spiritual heritage throughout Christen-
dom by the medium of the Barlaam and Josaphat legend, it is
surprising to find writers on comparative religion who continue
to devote entire volumes to listing the coincidental resemblances
between Buddhism and Christianity, but without making any
reference to Barlaam and Josaphat whatever.
2
We should always bear in mind that the Barlaam and [osaphat
romance is not a direct translation of any Indian original, but
represents the result of a long migration of the life story and
teaching of the Buddha through several different religious and
cultural environments, until the work took on its final Christian
shape and colouring. A particularly important role in this migra-
tion was played by the Manichaeans of Central Asia, and
Arabic writers of Baghdad in the epoch of Harun al-Rashid. I
have myself attempted to trace these eastern origins of the
Barlaam and Josaphat legend in some separate articles, listed in
the bibliography at the end of this volume, as well as in the
introduction to my earlier book,
The "Wisdom
of
Balahvar;
A
Christian Legend of the Buddha
(London: George Allen &
Unwin; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1957). This work
aroused interest in several countries; comments and suggestions
were made which have been taken into account in the prepara-
tion of this new translation. However, no new evidence has been
produced which would alter the main lines of my conclusions
'D. M. lang.
The
Wisdom
of
Balahvar: A Christian
London, Allen & Unwin, 1957, Postscript, pp. 129-30:
and the Kashmir Shrine'.
'The latest work of this category is Winston L.
Christianity.
Same Bridges of
Understanding, London,
11
Legend
of
the Buddha,
'Mr Graves, Mr Podro
King's
Buddhism and
Allen & Unwin, 1963.

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