The Buddha gave a Jātaka story of his previous birth to his disciples. A princess of Vārānasī city married with Naga and had four sons. The second son named Phūrithatta left the city to strictly practice meditation and follow precepts at a river bank. One day, a Brahman met Phūrithatta and asked him about a snake charmer. Phūrithatta then took him to the Nāga kingdom. However, the Brahman had a snake expert catch Phūrithatta for earning money from public shows. To rescue Phūrithatta, his two siblings transformed themselves into a hermit and a green frog and challenged Phūrithatta to fight against the frog. The frog released venom on the Brahman’s hand, causing him leprosy. The Brahman surrendered. Phūrithatta could thus continue his practices and was reborn as the present Buddha.
Colophon:
ၸင်ဝႃ ဢွၼ်ၵၼ်တွင်းတ ၶုၼ်တင်းၼင်း႟ မွင်းၵင်း တင်းတႆ မွင်း ႁႆသုတ်းၶိုဝ်း မွင်းမိုဝ်းၼိၵ်ပၼ် ၶဝ်ၼေႃ်း၊ လၵ်းတေႃ်ဢႃးထုၵ် ၼင် ပုရိတတ် ၼၼ်တ၊ ၼင်ႁိုဝ် တၵ်းပွႆးၸိဝ်းပုၼ် သံသရႃၶိုင်ဝုတ် ရၼ်သူ မိုင်းဢရေ်း ၼံၼႆ႟။ ၼွၵ်ဝႃၼႂ်းဝႃ ယႃဝႃတ လၵ်းတေႃ်ၸွင်ၶျုၵ် မိုၼ် ၼင်လွင်းၸဝ်ၼၼ်တ၊ ပုၼ်ၸတသုၵ် ပုၵ်႞ တုဝ်တုဝ် ဢဝ်ၼင် ဢလုဝ် ပၼ်းၼတ် သွႆၵိပ်ၵႂလုၼ် ႁုင် ဢႃသဝတီ ၽီလေ်ၵုၼ်း ပုတ်ၵၼ်ၸုံး ၵံး႞ ၵွၼ်ယဝ် သူ႟ သူၼေႃ်း။
ပီႁိင်ၼိုင်သွင်ပၵ်ၸိတ်သိပ်ႁႃ လိုၼ်ပိတ် လွင်ႁုၵ်ၶံ
All women and men, please remember, if you would like to escape the Cycle of Rebirths, you had better practice meditation as Phūrithatta and make merit during and off the Buddhist Lent. [The copying of] this manuscript was finished. Flowers from heaven have fallen down and been appreciated by all of us. Please rejoice with [the merit].
Cūḷasakarāja 1275, the eighth [lunar] month, the sixth day of the waning moon.
Other notes:
The front cover and the back cover are decorated with glass flakes, patterns, and black lacquer and gilded with gold leaves. The cover is slightly damaged but the content is seriously damaged by insects.
(The inner flyleaf)
I put my hands together to pay homage to the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. I will copy this manuscript pertaining to the Perfection of Tolerance of the Bōdhisatta. May I never encounter dangers but have longevity and increasingly accumulate merit. May I join the great junk bringing all of us across the Cycle of Rebirths or the Nibbāna.
(This manuscript) was copied from the older extant manuscript copied by Care (of) Müang Nòng and sponsored by Nāi Phrā Takā Pingyācòta (from) Bān Chiang Düan in Cūḷasakarāja 1247, on the ninth day of the waxing moon of the second [lunar] month.
Note: Nāng Kham and her family donated this manuscript in Cūḷasakarāja 1247, on the fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the fourth [lunar] month.