The Lpaen and Pannasajataka - Apocryphal Jataka

Abstract

This article, originally written in Khmer, deals with one of the major genres in traditional Cambodia literature, the Lpaen or verse-novel. A large number of Lpaen were composed during the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries: the oldest one being Khyan Sankh, written in 1792. The Lpaen derived overwhelmingly from the Pannasajataka and other extra-canonical Jataka, the stories of former lives of Buddha written in South East Asia in imitation of the Canonical Jataka. The most popular verse-novels to be discussed in details are Samuddaghos, Brah Sudhan, and Khyan Sankh. The Story of Samuddaghos and Brah Sudhan are taken from Samuddaghos Jataka and Suddhan Jataka, which appear in all versions of Pannasajataka in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Burma. As for Khyan Sankh, this verse-novel is taken from other apocryphal Jataka but also gains high popularity in Cambodia as well as in Thailand . It was later dramatised both in the court and the popular dance-drama. From the article, it can be clearly seen that the Pannasajataka was undoubtedly the principal source for the classical literature of the Buddhist countries in the Mekong region.