Thailand's Theory of Monarchy: The Vessantara Jataka and the Idea of the Perfect Man by Patrick Jory

Author:Patrick Jory [Jory, Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2016-05-08T17:00:00+00:00

Relations between the Thai Court and Western Pali Scholars

It is clear that Chulalongkorn’s essay on the Jātakas made considerable use of Western Pali scholarship, in particular the work of Rhys Davids. At times, the text of Chulalongkorn’s essay follows this scholarship almost verbatim. The fact that Chulalongkorn was able to make such use of Western scholarship is an indication of the closeness of the relations between the Thai court of King Chulalongkorn and the Western Pali text scholars. This relationship had in fact existed for many years before Chulalongkorn wrote his essay on the Jātakas. Besides Chulalongkorn, Prince-Patriarch Wachirayan, Sommut Amoraphan, Damrong, Narit, and other leading scholars of the Thai court made frequent use of the research and edited texts produced by the Pali Text Society and European scholars.

One of the most pressing reasons for the European scholars’ frequent contact with the Siamese court was the desire to obtain Pali manuscripts. Fausbøll, when beginning his transcription of the Jātaka Book, had requested from the king of Siam a Siamese manuscript of the Jātakas, but his correpondence had remained unanswered.64 In 1885, Fausbøll did receive from Prince Devawongse, the Siamese minister for foreign affairs, a manuscript containing a portion of the Jātaka Book, but the Jātakas it contained had already been transcribed by Fausbøll in an earlier volume.65 A copy of Fausbøll’s initial request appears in the Thai National Archives in the files of the Ministry of Education, along with a letter dated 1901 to Prince Sommut Amoraphan from R. Chalmers, the translator (under Cowell’s editorship) of the first volume of Fausbøll’s edition of the Jātaka Book. In this letter Chalmers politely declined a belated offer from the Siamese to send a Siamese manuscript of the Jātaka Book on the grounds that Fausbøll’s transcription had already been completed.66

In the inaugural issue of the Journal of the Pali Text Society in 1882, Rhys Davids had appealed for help from Burma, Siam, and Ceylon for good quality manuscripts.67 Whereas early Pali textual scholarship in the West had relied for the most part on texts from Ceylon, as contacts with the Siamese court became closer, Pali manuscripts from Siam began to make their way into Western manuscript collections.68 On occasion it even appears that the Thai court felt under some pressure from Western scholars to have texts published or manuscripts found for them. In a letter to King Chulalongkorn in 1903, Wachirayan wrote that Rhys Davids had expressed to him the desire to have the Commentaries to the Tipiṭaka published. Chulalongkorn replied that he felt embarrassed (“laai chai khao”), as he had already personally promised Rhys Davids that he would have the Commentaries printed.69 Western scholars were constantly pressing the Thai court for texts, some of which could not always be found, as in the case of Fausbøll’s request for a manuscript of the Jātaka Book.

The Buddhist scholarship of the Siamese scholars was not unrecognized by their European counterparts. In recognition of the scholarly talents of Prince-Patriarch Wachirayan Warorot, the de facto head of

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