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Pabhāvatī

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A painting of King Kusa and Pabhāvatī depicting King Kusa trying to peek at Pabhāvatī while she is bathing.

Pabhāvatī (Burmese: ပဘာဝတီ) was a princess of Madda Kingdom and figure in the Buddhist tale Kusa Jātaka.[1] She was one of the eight daughters of King Madda of Sāgala and the wife of King Kusa, who is considered a past incarnation of the Buddha. Pabhāvatī possessed unparalleled beauty in the world, with rays of light as if from the risen sun, so profound that it could illuminate seven chambers without the need for any lamp light.[2] She was a past incarnation of Yaśodharā, the wife of Prince Siddhartha (the Buddha).[2]

In the Kusa Jātaka

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According to the Buddha, a young man lived in a village near Varanasi with his brother and sister-in-law. One day, while the young man was absent, his brother's wife prepared delicious cakes, setting aside a portion for him before consuming the rest. Shortly after, a monk appeared at the house to receive alms. Unaware that the monk was, in fact, an enlightened arhat, she offered the remaining cakes to him. When the young man returned and discovered that the cakes meant for him had been given away, he angrily reclaimed them from the alms bowl.[3]

At that moment, his sister-in-law donated some butter, which then turned a golden color. Filled with joy, she made a wish, desiring to be reborn as a beautiful woman who lived far away from the young man. He heard her wish, and made his own wish while offering his cakes back: to live one hundred yojanas away from her, before bringing her to his home to become his wife.[3] The young man's initial reclamation of the cakes led to a subsequent incarnation as an unpleasant-looking man. Meanwhile, because of her merit in offering both the cakes and the butter, his sister-in-law was reborn as a beautiful princess. The young man's eventual contrition led to his wish being granted too.[3]

According to the Kusa Jātaka (The Birth Story of King Kusa), Pabhāvatī, the eldest daughter of the Madda king, was renowned for her exceptional beauty, which rivalled that of the celestial beings Devaccharā.[2][4] In the neighbouring Malla kingdom, Crown Prince Kusa, known for his unsightly appearance, consistently refused marriage proposals. After rejecting his fourth suitor, Kusa expressed a desire to marry a woman who resembled a golden statue he had created.[2][5]

The king and queen of Malla discovered that Pabhāvatī was a perfect match for the statue's beauty. Their offer of marriage was accepted, and Pabhāvatī was brought to the Malla kingdom to marry Kusa. However, the Malla queen feared Pabhāvatī might divorce Kusa upon seeing his appearance, and imposed the condition that the couple would not live together during the day.[2][6] After their marriage, Kusa ascended the throne and Pabhāvatī became queen. Eager to see her during the day, King Kusa disguised himself as a palace servant and sought opportunities to spy on her. One day, while Pabhāvatī was bathing, she noticed Kusa and was horrified by his appearance—she mistook him for an ogre and fled in shock. Once she realized it was her husband, she could not bear his appearance and returned to her home. Kusa followed her and performed many menial tasks to win her favor, ultimately earning her love by defeating seven kings in battle.[2][7]

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Her story remains a significant part of popular Burmese theater, where she is portrayed as a romantic figure.[8]

Pabawaddy (a Burmese transliteration of the Sanskrit name) is a common designation or metaphor for a beautiful woman in Myanmar.[3]

Wunna Kyawhtin Yan Naing Sein [my], a renowned Mahāgīta songwriter, composed a tribute to the incomparable beauty of Pabhāvatī in his legacy song "A-long-daw Kutha". In the song, he describes Pabhāvatī as looking like a celestial being who fell from the heavens and shines in the seven chambers without light.[9]

Film

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  • Portrayed by Myint Myint Khine in the Burmese film Min Kutha and Pabawaddy[10]
  • Portrayed by Pan Yamone Chit in the Burmese film Min Kutha and Pabawaddy[11]

References

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  1. ^ Chopra, Tilak Raj (5 November 2018). The Kusa-Jataka. A critical and comparative study. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 978-3-11-135946-5.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Naing, Aung Min (2018). "ရတနာပုံဆရာဥ၏ မင်းကုသကွက်စိပ်" (PDF). Myanmar Academy of Arts and Science. XVI: 458, 459, 460, 461.
  3. ^ a b c d "Kutha Zatdaw" (PDF). Myanmar Alin (in Burmese). 16 June 2005. p. 10.
  4. ^ Cowell, Edward Byles (1969). The Jātaka: Or, Stories of the Buddha's Former Births. Pali Text Society.
  5. ^ Davids, Caroline A. F. Rhys (6 February 2013). Stories of the Buddha: Being Selections from the Jataka. Courier Corporation. ISBN 978-0-486-11911-3.
  6. ^ Wilson, Liz (December 1996). Charming Cadavers: Horrific Figurations of the Feminine in Indian Buddhist Hagiographic Literature. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-90054-4.
  7. ^ Warder, A. K. (1972). Indian Kāvya Literature. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. ISBN 978-81-208-2028-9.
  8. ^ ""နိပါတ်တော်လာ ဇာတ်သဘင်မဟာအစီအစဉ်" မှ "မင်းကုသနှင်ပပဝတီ" ဇာတ်တော်ကို မြန်မာ့ရုပ်မြင်သံကြား၌ ပြသမည်". Myanmar Digital News (in Burmese). 19 January 2023.
  9. ^ Muiʺ (Candayāʺ.), Lha (1967). မြန်မာဂီတစစ်တမ်း ဗဟုသုတရတနာ [Research of Myanmar old music: Knowledge treasure] (in Burmese). Ūʺ Thvanʻʺ Rī , Mruiʹ toʻ Cā pe.
  10. ^ "Myanmar Movie - မင်းကုသနှင့်ပပဝတီ (တေဇာအောင်၊မြင့်မြင့်ခိုင်၊ကေသွယ်မိုး)" (in Burmese). SEIN HTAY Entertainment. 5 October 2021.
  11. ^ "မင်းကုသနှင့် ပဘာဝတီ" (in Burmese). Law Ka Nat Film Production. 13 August 2019.
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