Manohara

Manohara is the kinnari (half woman, half bird) heroine of one of the Jataka tales. Typically referred to as Manohara and Prince Sudhana,[1] the legend appears in the Divyavadana and is documented by stone reliefs at Borobodur.[2]

For the Indonesian socialite, see Manohara Odelia Pinot. For the film, see Manohara (film).

This story features in the folklore of Myanmar, Cambodia,[3] Thailand, Laos, Sri Lanka, northern Malaysia and Indonesia.[4][5][6][7] The Pannasjataka, Pali text written by a Buddhist monk/sage in Chiangmai around AD 1450-1470, also told the story of Sudhana and Manohara.[8] There are also many similar versions told in China (where it is known as Chinese: 悅意; pinyin: Yuèyì), Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, including the Chinese story of the Princess and the Cowherd. In these stories, seven women who can fly descended to earth to take a bath, the youngest and prettiest of whom was captured by a human, and subsequently became a wife of a male human (either her captor or the prince-hero of the story). Later in the stories, the heroine put on some magical thing that enabled her to fly or transform into a bird, and flew away; prompting the quest by the hero in pursuit of his flying wife.

Synopsis

Manohara, the youngest of seven daughters of the Kimnara king, lives on Mount Kailash. One day, she travels to the human realm. She is caught by a hunter (using a magic noose in some versions) who gives her to Prince Sudhana. Son of King Adityavamsa and Queen Chandradevi, Sudhana is a renowned archer and heir to the Panchala kingdom. The prince falls in love with Manohara, and they get married.

Later, when the prince is away in battle, Manohara is accused by the royal counselor of bringing bad luck to the city and is threatened with death. She flies away, back to the Kimnara kingdom. She leaves behind a ring and the directions to reach the Kimnara kingdom so that Prince Sudhana can follow her.

Prince Sudhana returns to Panchala and follows her. From a hermit, he learns the language of animals to locate the Kimnara kingdom, and the necessary prayers to win back the princess. The journey takes seven years, seven months, and seven days. Along the way, Sudhana confronts a Yaksha (ogre), a river of flames, and a gigantic tree. After the long and arduous ordeal, he meets the Kimnara king who asks the prince to prove his sincerity with various tests assessing strength, perseverance, and wit. In the first test, Sudhana is made to lift a stone bench in the garden. The second task tested his skill with the bow and arrow. The final test is to identify which of seven identical women is Manohara, who he recognizes by the ring on her finger. Satisfied, the Kimnara king consents to their marriage and the couple returns to Panchala.

Adaptations

The tale of Manora was adapted as play in Burma (Myanmar), where the character was known as Mananhurry, one of the nine royal daughters that live in a silver mountain, located after "a belt of prickly cane", "a stream of liquid copper" and a "Beloo". Her future husband, Prince Sudhana, was translated as "Thoodanoo", the Prince of Pyentsa.[9]

The characters of the tale are also known in Southeast Asia as Kev Monora and Prah Sothon.[10]

The tale was also found in the Sanskrit Buddhist literature of Nepal, with the name Story of Suchandrima and a Kinnarí, where the main couple were named Mahonará and Sudhanusha.[11] In another version from Nepal, Kinnarí Avadána, hunter Utpala captures a Kinnari (unnamed in the tale) with a magical noose. Prince Sudhana of Hastiná arrives with his hunting excursion and falls in love with the Kinnari.[12]

Another translation named the prince as Sudhanu and the kinnari as Manohara, daughter of King Druma.[13]

Legacy

The story of Manohara and Prince Sudhana may have inspired the Manora[14] type of drama dancing, performed in Thailand and Malaysia.[15]

See also

References
  1. Schiefner, Anton; Ralston, William Shedden. Tibetan tales, derived from Indian sources. London, K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & co. ltd. 1906. pp. xlviii-l and 44-74.
  2. "The Story of Prince Sudhana and Manohara". 5 February 2003. Archived from the original on 5 February 2003.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. Porée-Maspero, Eveline. "III. Le cycle des douze animaux dans la vie des Cambodgiens". In: Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient. Tome 50 N°2, 1962. pp. 311-365. DOI:https://doi.org/10.3406/befeo.1962.1536 ; www.persee.fr/doc/befeo_0336-1519_1962_num_50_2_1536
  4. Jaini, Padmanabh S. “The Story of Sudhana and Manoharā: An Analysis of the Texts and the Borobudur Reliefs.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, vol. 29, no. 3, 1966. p. 533. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/611473. Accessed 24 Apr. 2020.
  5. Jaini, Padmanabh S. (1 January 2001). Collected Papers on Buddhist Studies. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 9788120817760 – via Google Books.
  6. "Sandakinduru Katava | Ceylonese dance-drama". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2017-04-16.
  7. Yousof, Ghulam-sarwar (1 January 1982). "Nora Chatri in Kedah: A Preliminary Report". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 55 (1 (242)): 53–61. JSTOR 41492911.
  8. Terrai G. "VI. Samuddaghosajâtaka. Conte pâli tiré du Pannâsajataka". In: Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient. Tome 48 N°1, 1956. pp. 249-351. DOI:https://doi.org/10.3406/befeo.1956.1291 ; www.persee.fr/doc/befeo_0336-1519_1956_num_48_1_1291
  9. Smith, J. "Specimen of Burmese Drama". In: Asiatic Society (Kolkata, India), Biodiversity Heritage Library, and Asiatic Society of Bengal. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. nr. 91, July 1836. Vol. 8. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal. 1836. pp. 536-551.
  10. Porée-Maspero, Eveline. Étude sur les rites agraires des Cambodgiens. Tome I. École Pratique de Hautes Studes - Paris. Paris: Mouton & Co./La Haye. 1962. pp. 657-658.
  11. Mitra, Rājendralāla, Raja; Asiatic Society. The Sanskrit Buddhist literature of Nepal. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal. 1882. pp. 129-131.
  12. Mitra, Rājendralāla, Raja; Asiatic Society. The Sanskrit Buddhist literature of Nepal. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal. 1882. pp. 62-63.
  13. The Mahavastu. Volume II. Translated from the Buddhist Sanskrit by J. J. Jones. London: Luzac and Company LTD. 1952. pp. 91-111.
  14. Plowright, P. (1998). The Art of Manora: An Ancient Tale of Feminine Power Preserved in South-East Asian Theatre. New Theatre Quarterly, 14(56), 373-394. doi:10.1017/S0266464X00012458
  15. Sooi-Beng, Tan. “The Thai ‘Menora’ in Malaysia: Adapting to the Penang Chinese Community.” Asian Folklore Studies, vol. 47, no. 1, 1988, pp. 19–34. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1178249. Accessed 24 Apr. 2020.

Bibliography
  • Jaini, Padmanabh S. “The Story of Sudhana and Manoharā: An Analysis of the Texts and the Borobudur Reliefs.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, vol. 29, no. 3, 1966, pp. 533–558. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/611473. Accessed 24 Apr. 2020.
  • Schiefner, Anton; Ralston, William Shedden. Tibetan tales, derived from Indian sources. London, K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & co. ltd. 1906. pp. xlviii-l and 44-74.
  • Toshiharu, Yoshikawa. 1984. "A Comparative Study of the Thai, Sanskrit, and Chinese Swan Maiden." In International Conference on Thai Studies, 197-213. Chulalongkorn University.

Further reading
  • Bailey, H. W., and Ṛddhiprabhāva. “The Sudhana Poem of Ṛddhiprabhāva.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, vol. 29, no. 3, 1966, pp. 506–532. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/611472. Accessed 24 Apr. 2020.
  • De Chiar, Matteo. "THE TWO RECENSIONS OF THE KHOTANESE SUDHANĀVADĀNA." In Multilingualism and History of Knowledge: Vol. I: Buddhism among the Iranian Peoples of Central Asia, edited by JENS E. BRAARVIG, GELLER MARKHAM J., SADOVSKI VELIZAR, SELZ GEBHARD, DE CHIARA MATTEO, MAGGI MAURO, and MARTINI GIULIANA, 71-102. Wien: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2013. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1vw0pkz.7.
  • Degener, Almuth. "MIGHTY ANIMALS AND POWERFUL WOMEN: On the Function of Some Motifs from Folk Literature in the Khotanese Sudhanavadana." In Multilingualism and History of Knowledge: Vol. I: Buddhism among the Iranian Peoples of Central Asia, edited by JENS E. BRAARVIG, GELLER MARKHAM J., SADOVSKI VELIZAR, SELZ GEBHARD, DE CHIARA MATTEO, MAGGI MAURO, and MARTINI GIULIANA, 103-30. Wien: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2013. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1vw0pkz.8.
  • Dezső, Csaba. "Inspired Poetry: Śāntākaragupta's Play on the Legend of Prince Sudhana and the Kinnarī." Indo-Iranian Journal 57, no. 1/2 (2014): 73-104. www.jstor.org/stable/24665889.
  • Foucher, A. "Notes d'archéologie bouddhique". In: Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient. Tome 9, 1909. pp. 1-50. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/befeo.1909.1911 ; www.persee.fr/doc/befeo_0336-1519_1909_num_9_1_1911
  • Ginsburg, Henry (1971). The Sudhana-Manohara tale in Thai: A comparative study based on two texts from the National Library, Bangkok and Wat Machimawat, Songkhla. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London.
  • Simmonds, E. H. S. “‘Mahōrasop’ in a Thai Manōrā Manuscript.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, vol. 30, no. 2, 1967, pp. 391–403. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/611002. Accessed 24 Apr. 2020.
  • Simmonds, E. H. S. “‘Mahōrasop’ II: The Thai National Library Manuscript.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, vol. 34, no. 1, 1971, pp. 119–131. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/614627. Accessed 24 Apr. 2020.
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