SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The Sudhana-Manohara literary tradition, descending in the jataka tale form from early Indian versions, has been a well-established story in numerous Southeast Asian languages. Two poems in the Thai language based on the story, and set in the Thai verse idiom known as klon suat. closely relate to a Pali version included in a Pali collection of extra-canonical jataka tales (Pannasa-jataka) thought to have been composed in northern Thailand. While the two Thai poems claim the Pali version as their source and adhere to it in all major and minor details, they also embellish and naturalise the background of the tale in keeping with the characteristics of Thai literature and culture. The two poems evidence numerous stylistic similarities in their treatment, employing description and digression, stylized phrases, epithets, similes, etc. in creating a Thai framework for the story. At the same time regional distinctions are apparent between the two versions, indicating a central Thai origin for the National Library poem and southern context in the Songkhla text. The Thai tradition of the Sudhana-Manohara tale also relates indirectly to an indigenous southern Thai popular dance-drama called manora or nora, which appears to borrow its name from the heroine of the tale. The Lao, Cambodian, and Mon versions of the tale also reveal certain relationships with the Thai and Pali versions.