Pabhāvatī
Pabhāvatī (Burmese: ပဘာဝတီ) was a princess of Madda Kingdom and figure in the Buddhist tale Kusa Jātaka. 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 universe, 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.[1] She was a past incarnation of Yaśodharā, the wife of Prince Siddhartha (the Buddha).[2]
Legend
[edit]According to the Kusa Jātaka (The Birth Story of King Kusa), Pabhāvatī was the eldest of the eight daughters of the king of Madda. All the daughters were of extraordinary beauty, akin to the Devaccharās. Pabhāvatī's beauty was unmatched in the universe, with no rivals.[2]
In a neighboring Malla kingdom, there was a crown prince named Kusa, who was extremely ugly. His parents desired for him to marry, but he consistently refused. After rejecting marriage proposals for the fourth time, Kusa created a golden statue of a beautiful woman and told his mother that he wished to marry someone who resembled the statue.[2]
The king and queen summoned their councillors to find a woman who matched the statue's beauty. When the search led them to the city of Sāgala in the kingdom of Madda, they found Pabhāvatī, who was a perfect match. The councillors proposed marriage to the king of Madda, who agreed. Pabhāvatī was brought to the Malla kingdom, where a marriage ceremony was held. However, the queen, concerned that Pabhāvatī might divorce Kusa upon seeing his appearance, decreed that they should not live together during the day but could be together at night, as per the kingdom's tradition.[2]
After their marriage, Prince Kusa ascended the throne, and Pabhāvatī became queen. Eager to see her during the day, King Kusa disguised himself as a palace servant and secretly watched her. Obsessed with her beauty, he found new ways to spy on her day after day. One day, while Pabhāvatī was bathing at Mingala Lake, King Kusa hid beneath a lotus leaf to watch her. When Pabhāvatī noticed him, she was horrified by his appearance, mistaking him for an ogre, and ran away in shock. Upon realizing it was her husband, she could no longer bear his appearance and returned to her home. King Kusa followed her and performed many menial tasks to win her favor. Ultimately, he earned her love by defeating seven kings in battle.[2]
In past life
[edit]In a past life, the future King Kusa was a young man living in a village near the city gates of Varanasi. He shared a household with his elder brother and his brother's wife (who was a past incarnation of Pabhāvatī). One day, while the young man was out in the forest, his brother's wife fried some delicious cakes. She set a few aside for him and ate the rest. Shortly afterward, a monk (who was actually an enlightened arhat) appeared at the front of the house to receive alms. The elder brother's wife offered the remaining cakes to the monk. When the young man returned from the forest and learned that the cakes intended for him had been offered, he angrily took them back from the alms bowl.[3]
At that moment, the young man's sister-in-law donated some butter she had brought from her mother's house. After making the offering, she noticed that the butter had turned a golden color. Filled with joy, she made a wish: "May the merit from this donation bless me to be reborn as a beautiful woman with a radiant appearance. And may I never have to live in the same place as this unworthy person (referring to the young man)". Hearing her wish, the young man, while offering his cakes back, made his own wish: "May I live one hundred yojanas away from this woman, and may I bring her to my place from that distant land, where she will become my wife".[3]
Due to these wishes, the consequence of the young man angrily taking back the cakes from the alms bowl led to his next life as King Kusa, who had an unpleasant appearance. On the other hand, the merit from offering the cakes and butter with a pure heart allowed Pabhāvatī to be reborn as a beautiful princess with a radiant appearance. The young man's merit also resulted in Pabhāvatī becoming his wife in his next life.[3]
In popular culture
[edit]Her story remains a significant part of popular Burmese theater, where she is portrayed as a romantic figure.[4]
Pabawaddy (a Burmese transliteration of the Sanskrit name) is a common designation or metaphor for a beautiful woman in Myanmar.[3]
Film
[edit]- Portrayed by Myint Myint Khine in the Burmese film Min Kutha and Pabawaddy[5]
- Portrayed by Pan Yamone Chit in the Burmese film Min Kutha and Pabawaddy[6]
References
[edit]- ^ "Ja 531 The Birth Story about (King) Kusa (70s)". ancient-buddhist-texts.
- ^ a b c d e Naing, Aung Min (2018). "ရတနာပုံဆရာဥ၏ မင်းကုသကွက်စိပ်" (PDF). Myanmar Academy of Arts and Science. XVI.
- ^ a b c d "Kutha Zatdaw" (PDF). Myanmar Alin (in Burmese). 16 June 2005. p. 10.
- ^ ""နိပါတ်တော်လာ ဇာတ်သဘင်မဟာအစီအစဉ်" မှ "မင်းကုသနှင်ပပဝတီ" ဇာတ်တော်ကို မြန်မာ့ရုပ်မြင်သံကြား၌ ပြသမည်". Myanmar Digital News (in Burmese). 19 January 2023.
- ^ "Myanmar Movie - မင်းကုသနှင့်ပပဝတီ (တေဇာအောင်၊မြင့်မြင့်ခိုင်၊ကေသွယ်မိုး)" (in Burmese). SEIN HTAY Entertainment. 5 October 2021.
- ^ "မင်းကုသနှင့် ပဘာဝတီ" (in Burmese). Law Ka Nat Film Production. 13 August 2019.
