This manuscript is a Jātaka tale of the Bodhisatta’s birth as Suvanna Sayām Kumāra who lived in a forest with his hermit parents. One day, a snake sputtered its venom into his parents’ eyes when they were collecting fruits in the forest. They became blind. Since then, Suvanna Sām has taken care of his parents. One day while he was collecting fruits and filling [a container] with water, he was unwittingly shot with an arrow by a hunter. He was not angry at the hunter but asked him to inform his parents what happened and take care of them. When his parents learned of this, they hugged Suvanna Sām’s body and made a wish asking the holy spirits for help. Thanks to the merit he kindly took care of his parents, he revived; the eyes of his parents also became normal. The hunter saw the miracle and promised never to kill any sentient beings during his entire life.
Colophon:
ၵုသုဝ်ႁင်ႁဝ်း လႆမႃးၵူးထုတ်လိၵ်တင် သႃၸင် ၼုၼ်းမႂ်ၼႆႉ၊ တၵ်းမႃးၶျမိင် ပုၵ်ၵုဝ် ၵႃမီးဝိၺိၺ်ၼံယုၵ် ႁႂ်ၸိုၼ် ယိၺ်ၸႂ်တ။ ဢၵျုဝ်းႁဝ်းၶျပၼ် မႃတႃ ပီတ ဢႃၸႃရိယ ၸဝ်တႃၼ ၸၵႂႃမဝ်ၵိုတ်းတင်းလုင် ယႃလွတ် လိုတ။ မတ်တ လိၼ်ၶံၸံပူ႟ ယံးလႂ်မုၼ်ၶံးလုင်းပႂင်း ႁႂ်လႆ တုၵ်းပိၼ်တေပ်း ေမ်းမႆလိုင်လင်း ၸွမ်းၸဝ်ၶဝ်ႁွတ် ၼိၵ်ပၼ်လိုတ မုၼ်႟မုၼ်ေၼႃ်။
ပီႁိင်ၼိုင်သွင်ပၵ်ၵဝ်သိပ်ဢိတ် လိုၼ်ပိတ် မႂ်ၶံၼိုင်
May the merit derived from copying the religious text on the pure white mulberry paper be shared with all living creatures, my parents, my teachers, and the sponsor who supported this manuscript production. May the Goddess of the Earth record this merit-making. When the future Buddha is enlightened in the future, may we all become his disciples, listen to his Teaching, and reach Nibbāna.
Completed this copy in Cūḷasakarāja 1286 (2467 BE), the eighth [lunar] month and the first day of the waxing moon.
Remark: This date corresponds to 1286 Ashadha 1.
Other notes:
The front cover, the back cover, and the spine are decorated with black lacquer and gilded with gold leaves. The manuscript is severely damaged by insects. The content is divided into six chapters.
(The inner flyleaf)
I put my hands together as a lotus to pay homage to the Buddha who is more excellent than humans and deities, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. Now, I, Nāi Nam Tòng Khun Heng, am going to copy this Suvanna Sām Jātaka manuscript. May I be reborn in good states of existence to accumulate the Perfections in each life. In the last life may I become a disciple of the future Buddha as Phra Sārī Putta who was a disciple of Buddha Gotama and reach Nibbāna, so that I would be liberated from the Cycle of Rebirths.