The Story of We-Than-Da-Ya: A Buddhist Legend

The main content presents the We-Than-Da-Ya legend as a continuous Buddhist moral narrative focused on the perfection of giving. It opens with Gautama Buddha’s account of the story in response to events among his relatives, then traces the previous-life background of Po-Tha-Dee, the birth of Prince We-Than-Da-Ya, his early manifestations of generosity, and his marriage to Ma-Dee. The central dramatic movement begins when the famine-stricken kingdom of Ka-Lain-Ka sends brahmins to request the prince’s white elephant, an act of giving that provokes the people of Se-Dot-Ta-Ya to demand his banishment. The narrative then follows We-Than-Da-Ya, Ma-Dee, Za-Lee, and Ga-Hna-Zain into forest exile, where the prince’s generosity is tested to its most painful limits. He gives his children to a brahmin and later offers Ma-Dee, demonstrating complete detachment and the resolve to attain supreme knowledge. The final portion resolves the crisis through divine intervention, recognition of the prince’s merit, reunion of the family, restoration to royal dignity, the enrichment of the kingdom, and the Buddha’s closing identification of the former-life figures with persons in his final life.