King Śibi in the Vahnipurāṇa

Abstract

Although the many extant Sanskrit versions of the story of King Śibi and the dove have been thoroughly studied, one version, from the Vahnipurāṇa, has so far escaped the attention of scholars. This paper presents a new, critical edition of the Sanskrit text, based on all available material — an existing edition, quotations, and a recently discovered Nepalese fragment — followed by a translation. Connections to Buddhist and Jain versions of the story are discussed. The long afterlife of the text presents an opportunity to study how it has been reused and recast over the course of many centuries, quoted in dharmanibandhas and harvested for material for other stories.