During my recent travels in Cambodia I came across a collection of folktales by Muriel Paskin Carrison. To my delight, I found that the author had chosen the stories intelligently and translated them with utmost care from the original Gatiloke (GAH-tee-Low-Kah), a collection of ancient Cambodian folk stories which is a part of the country’s ancient literary tradition. These tales were used by Buddhist monks in their sermons. They are moral tales set in villages or towns and are about ordinary people and their strengths and weaknesses and how they go about making a living. Gati means “the way” and loke means “the world”. Loosely translated “Gatiloke” means “the right way for the people of the world to live.”
Among all the Gatiloke stories, this one caught my attention because even after reading it, I was at a loss about its purpose, till I read a tiny note at the end of the book which said that Buddhist monks often told stories about a crude Brahman character. It was only then that I understood the point of the story: it was told and retold by the monks to mock or ridicule the Brahmanical society in a country which was switching over from Hinduism to Buddhism. The monks delighted in telling stories which tarnished the brilliance and high position enjoyed by Brahmans and depicted them as crude, selfish and silly. A religion based on ahimsa and very high moral standards was not averse to using some underhand methods to make its point against the abhorrent caste system and the Hindu religion with its superstitious obedience to the Brahmans.
This is how story goes……..
Once upon a time, a Bodhisattva in the form of a son was born to a noble Brahman couple. The father passed away when he was young and his mother sent him away to the eminent scholars in Taxila, a revered centre of learning, to study the Vedas and the ancient scriptures. After years of intensive study and successfully mastering the three Vedas and other scriptures, the boy returned home. His mother by then was an old lady and he began caring for her and teaching the children in his village. Soon he became popular and was well respected as a teacher and his fame spread far and wide. Scholars and students travelled long distances to study under him and listen to him.
Among the Bodhisattva’s students was one who was not only dazzlingly handsome but also intelligent, diligent and humble. The student, however, was completely unaware of his qualities. He worked hard for three years, acquired knowledge of the Vedas, bid farewell to his learned teacher and came back to his village. Upon his return, he excitedly told his parents everything he had learnt. His mother listened thoughtfully and expressed her joy at her son’s depth and breadth of knowledge, but she sprang upon him a question to which he did not have an answer. The mother asked whether he had learnt how to court a woman, the answer to which was negative. The mother suggested that he ought to go back to his teacher and learn about that too.
The handsome young man returned to his Bodhisattva teacher and requested him to teach about women and the art of courting. The Bodhisattva carefully considered the matter but given his ignorance of the subject, suggested that the student should approach his mother who was an expert. The boy thanked Bodhisattva and went to the Brahman lady, his guru’s mother. She was now an octogenarian with wrinkled skin and withered body but when she saw the dazzling handsome young man she instantly fell in love with him. She did not lose much time in professing her love for him and goaded him to marry her. The young student was perplexed at such a proposal as she was the noble mother of his respected teacher. He politely refused to do anything discourteous that might distress his esteemed teacher. The old Brahman lady was so besotted that she refused to take NO for an answer. She even promised to get rid of her son by killing him. The young man was at a loss. Her passion and lust scared him and he acquiesced, half-heartedly, with her plan. But, he was loyal to his teacher so, he went to the monastery and with great embarrassment narrated the entire story. The Bodhisattva listened to him calmly and requested his student to find out how and when his mother planned to kill him.
The youth went back to the Brahman lady and asked about her plans. The old lady, totally unsuspecting and eager to please her husband to be, told him that in the dead of night, when the Bodhisattva slept, she would behead him with a sharp sword. The youth duly reported back. The Bodhisattva hatched a plan. He asked his student to get the trunk of a banana tree, about four-arm length tall, and place it on his bed and cover it with a blanket. The young man did as told and hid with his guru behind the curtain. At the stroke of midnight the feeble old lady entered the room dragging behind her the heavy sword, went close to the bed and checked that her son was fast asleep. She tried to lift the heavy sword to bring it down on her sleeping son, but she was weak and the sword much too heavy for her. So as she attempted to bring it crashing down on to the covered banana tree, the old lady slipped, fell and died instantly.
The Bodhisattva and his handsome student watched everything hiding behind the curtain and they agreed with a heavy heart that the noble lady foolishly died of love.
Glossary
Bodhisattva is a divine being worthy of nirvana who remains on the human plane to help men to salvation.
Story collected by: Anuradha Dhar Bose
Text Source: Cambodian Folk Stories from Gatiloke by Muriel Paskin Carrison
