古代インドの女性観(4)  [in Japanese] Women in Ancient India (IV)  [in Japanese]

これ迄、三回に亘って古代インドの女性観の諸側面を論じて来たが、今回はこのProjectの最終回に当って、残余の若干の問題を3章に亘って邦訳を通して見る事とした。その第一は疑惑を持たれた貞女の純潔の証明、第二は貞女の功徳の中から彼女の前世想起力、そして最後に生盲の由来を説く奇想天外な物語を紹介する。今回も又前回同様、今年度本学の演習に於いて学生諸君と共に読み進んだ所を提示するもので、この機会に演習に参加された諸君の熱意に感謝する。

Three topics, of uneven length, are discussed in this paper: (1) The way women can prove their chastity when suspected of infidelity. Two cases are presented: (1-1) Sita I translate Valmiki's Ramayana 6.102-106 into Japanese. In this fragment, Rama, who fears public rumour (janapavada), rejects Sita after recovering her from her confinement in the Lanka Island. In spite of her piteous protest, Rama does not accept her, and as human means (manusa-pramana) fail to prove her innocence, Sita resorts to divine means, i.e. ordeal (daivika-pramana). She invokes Agni, the fire god, and steps into it. Agni, however, does not burn her and thus testifies to her chastity. (1-2) Yasodhara Yasodhara, one of Sakyamuni's wives (the other two being Gupika and Mrgi), was doubted of her lack of chastity because she conceived just before the Buddha's departure from the palace and delivered on the same day of his awakening-the well-known story of Rahu's six-year stay in his mother's womb. According to several sutras preserved in Chinese translation, Suddhodana, her father-in-law, and other people accused her of being unchaste and sentenced her to death. Yasodhara (in some variants, together with Rahu) was thrown into fire, but the fire turned into a pond, which proved her chastity. In another narrative version, she herself threw Rahu, tied to a stone, into a pond in order to prove that he was a legitimate son. Water did not let Rahu sink, and this testified to Yasodhara's chastity. I translate and discuss six Chinese sutras describing the fire-ordeal and seven texts containing the water-ordeal, alongside their Sanskrit equivalents. Compared to the ordeal (divya) prescribed in later Smrti literature, these narratives are simple and closely related to sapatha and satya-vacana. (2) Jati-smarana (The miraculous power of a chaste woman) I offer a Japanese translation of Visnu-purana 3.18.53-104. This is a story of a king who undergoes bad re-births because of his talking to a heretic (pasanda). His queen, however, refuses to speak with the heretic and does not even look at him, keeping instead her eyes on the Sun. Even after her death as a sati, she continues to be faithful to the king and retains his memory. Because of her chastity, she is able to find her husband six times in various forms (dog, jackal, etc,) until she is finally united with him. (3) The story of Dirghatamas I translate Mahabharata 1.98 and 12.328.43-51 into Japanese. The lustful sage Brhaspati seduced Mamata, (the wife of Utathya, Brhaspati's own brother), and unites with her against her will. As Mamata was already pregnant with Dirghatamas, the latter notices Brhaspati's penis entering his mother's womb and kicks it out saying there is no room for his tejas or retas. Discovering that his semen was wasted and fell on earth, Brhaspaiti becomes angry and curses Dirghatamas to be born blind (jaty-andha). (The story seems to presuppose complete darkness in the womb.)