Textual Sources for Buddhist Multi-life Stories Part 3: Indian Buddhist Texts

This document was created by Dr. Naomi Appleton in 2010 as part of a project funded by a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. This document is provided freely to scholars and other interested parties for personal and research use only. Please do not reproduce, circulate or cite without first obtaining permission from the author. All comments and questions can be sent to AppletonN1@cardiff.ac.uk.

Notes

I have included all the Indian Buddhist sources in a single bibliography, though I have to some extent preserved the division into “scriptural” (loosely defined as a text that considers itself to belong to the earliest teachings given by the Buddha himelf, with the exception of Mahāyāna Sūtras) and other texts. I have further diveded these “other” texts according to style, genre, purpose, or affiliation. These categories should not be considered fixed or discrete, but hopefully help to organise the material in a way that sheds light on the development of the different genres of mulitilife stories within Indian Buddhism.

Despite some close textual parallels, the organisation of narrative literature varies greatly between the Theravāda and other schools. For example there doesn’t seem to have been a single large jātaka collection outside of the Theravāda school; instead other schools collected them in smaller texts or embedded them in compilations of avadānas and related narratives. Thus the Avadānaśataka contains stories corresponding to the Pāli jātakas, apadānas, Petavatthu and Vimānavatthu, whilst much of the Therāpadāna is closely related to stories found in the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya. There was also a strong tradition of retelling birth stories in ornate Sanskrit compositions, as well as many re-collections of the stories, retold for varying purposes. Alongside the texts, there appears to have been a continuous oral tradition of telling stories prompted by notes or summaries, as is evidenced in recent manuscript finds. The travelogues of the Chinese pilgrims give us another perspective: the association of stories with a sacred landscape, where every stūpa seems to mark an event in one or other of the Buddha’s many lives.

What follows is not an exhaustive list of birth stories found in early Indian Buddhist sources, but I have tried to include all of what I consider to be of central importance to the study of developments in the genres of birth stories. With a few exceptions, I have not included Chinese translations of Indian sources, for no better reason than the difficulty of accessing them without a knowledge of Chinese. In addition, I have not extensively surveyed the numerous later collections of avadānas, though these are discussed below. I have also limited my discussion of Mahāyāna materials, for reasons explained in the relevant section. The editions and translations that I have consulted in order to create this list are noted in the appropriate places. Relevant publications that I have not been able to consult are given in square brackets. As always, I would be delighted to receive comments, criticisms, or contributions.

The texts are listed in the following order:

(1) “Scriptural” Material

– Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra*

– Lalitavistara Sūtra – Mahāvastu – Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya

(2) Manuscript Memory Aids

– Gāndhārī Fragments – Bairam-Ali Manuscript

(3) Poetic Compositions

– Jātakamālā of Ārya Śūra – Jātakamālās of Haribhaṭṭa and Gopadatta – Jātakastava (Khotanese) – Jātakastava (Sanskrit) – Kalpanāmaṇḍitikā Dṛṣṭāntapaṅkti by Kumāralāta

(4) Collections and Compilations

– Satparamitā Sannipāta Sūtra* – Avadānaśataka – Divyāvadāna – Other avadāna collections

(5) Travelogues of the Chinese Pilgrims

– Faxian – Songyun – Xuanzang – Yijing

(6) Mahāyāna Sūtras

– General notes – Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā

* Sanskrit title reconstructed from the Chinese

(1) “SCRIPTURAL” MATERIAL Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra

Samuel Beal (trans.) The Romantic Legend of Śākya Buddha (London: Trübner & Co., 1875).

This text was translated into Chinese in the 6th century C.E. and is an extended biography of the Buddha. It is extended both into the distant past, when the Bodhisattva interacted with the many buddhas of past ages, though the text mostly focuses upon his final life. Even during the narration of his final life the text is full of past-birth stories, such as a cluster of stories about his previous interactions with his wife. His lifestory is also extended to include biographies of his chief disciples, often including their past lives. A full summary of the birth stories contained in the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra is provided in a separate document.

Lalitavistara Sūtra

Gwendolyn Bays (trans.) The Voice of the Buddha: The Beauty of Compassion, 2 vols (Berkeley, CA: Dharma Publishing, 1983).

Unlike its counterparts the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra and Mahāvastu, the Lalitavistara does not narrate any birth stories in full. There are, however, mentions of specific people’s rebirths where this is inherent to the narrative of the Buddha’s final life: we are told that Māyā is reborn in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven; Māra mentions his acts of charity in the past, but these are trumped by the great acts of the Bodhisattva; the Bodhisattva mentions formerly offering bowls to others, earning him the right to receive his first alms bowl(s); Trapuṣa and Bhallika’s former relation, reborn as a deva, reminds them of their past resolve to feed a buddha, and directs them towards the newly-awakened Śākyamuni; the Buddha remembers visiting Vārāṇasī in past lives and deems it a suitable place to set rolling the wheel of the dharma.

In addition, the Bodhisattva is reminded of his previous births when it looks like he will never get around to leaving the palace and pursuing buddhahood. In this set of verses we find mention (and brief outline) of specific jātaka stories, illustrating the Bodhisattva’s practice of the perfections (nine stories illustrating generosity, and one each for each of the other five perfections), as well as a list of the other names under which the Bodhisattva has done amazing things. This is followed by a description of the gifts he gave to buddhas of the past. All these verses are said to have emerged from the women’s musical instruments as they played for the Bodhisattva just before his renunciation. Mahāvastu

J. J. Jones (trans.) The Mahāvastu, 3 vols. (London: Luzac & co., 1949-56). É. Senart (ed.) Le Mahâvastu : texte sanscrit publié pour la première fois et accompagné d’introductions et d’un commentaire (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1882-1897).

The Mahāvastu is another biography of the Buddha, from his interactions with buddhas of the past, through to various events in his final life. Many of the events are illustrated with jātaka stories demonstrating that such an event or situation occurred also in the past. Many of these stories cluster around the Buddha’s interactions with Yaśodharā and other members of his family, who are shown as having been bound to him in many previous births. Another set of jātakas surrounds the Buddha’s visit to Veśālī to cure a plague, and another around his interactions with Māra. In addition, several characters are shown to be reborn as the result of actions towards the Buddha. A full summary of the birth stories contained in the Mahāvastu is provided in a separate document. Mū lasarvāstivāda vinaya

Édouard Chavannes (trans.) Cinq Cent Contes et Apologues: Extraits du Tripiṭaka Chinois, 4 vols. (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1962). R. Gnoli, The Gilgit Manuscript of the Saṅghabhedavastu (Rome: Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1977) and The Gilgit manuscript of the Śayanāsanavastu and the Adhikaraṇavastu (Rome: Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1978). Marcel Hofinger, Le Congres du Lac Anavatapta, Extrait du Vinaya des Mūlasarvātivādin Bhaiṣajyavastu, 2 vols. (Louvain: Publications Universitaires & Institut Orientaliste, 1954-1990). Jampa

Losang Panglung, Die Erzählstoffe des Mūlasarvāstivāda-Vinaya (Analysiert auf grund der Tibetischen übersetzung) (Tokyo: The Reiyukai Library, 1981).

The Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya contains a great many narratives embedded amongst the monastic rules, and many of these involve past births of the Buddha or other figures. Panglung provides German summaries of narratives found in the Tibetan translation of the text, with appendices showing parallels with the Jātakatthavaṇṇanā (75 stories), Divyāvadāna, Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā (53), Jātakamālā (12), Mahāvastu (17), Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā (16) and Khotanese Jātakastava (21). Hofinger provides a French translation (alongside Tibetan text, Sanskrit fragments, and the Chinese translation by Yi Tsing) of one of the most narrative-rich portions of the text – the story of Lake Anavatapta found in the Bhaiṣajyavastu. Part one (‘Légendes des Anciens (Sthavirāvadāna)’) includes a cycle of stories about the comparative merits of Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana and a set of stories resembling in form and content the Pāli Therāpadāna. Part two (‘Légendes du Bouddha (Buddhāvadāna)’) contains the stories of the Buddha’s bad actions in the past that explain the minor sufferings he endured in his final life. Chavannes’ anthology of Chinese Buddhist stories includes, in volume two (stories 373-399, summarised with concordance in volume four), selections from the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya as well as from other vinayas.

(2) MANUSCRIPT MEMORY AIDS Gāndhār ī fragments

Timothy Lenz, A New Version of the Gāndhārī Dharmapada and a Collection of Previous-Birth Stories: British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragments 16 + 25 (Seattle & London: University of Washington Press, 2003). [Timothy Lenz, Gandhāran Avadānas: British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragments 1, 2, 3, and 21, and Senior Miscellaneous Fragments A–Z, Forthcoming.]

The Gāndhārī manuscript finds include a number of birth stories, which have been carefully studied by Lenz; the summary that follows is based entirely upon his analysis. The stories are of two types: (1) avadānas, defined here as stories of the present only; and (2) pūrvayogas, or stories of previous lives. The latter are found predominantly on fragment 16+25, where they number around eleven, of which only the first six are complete enough to analyse. There are two stories of the Buddha’s past births, two more of past births of Ānanda, and another of a past birth of Ajñāta Kauṇḍinya; the sixth is the story of an otherwise unknown character. Fragment 3 contains another version of the Ajñāta Kauṇḍinya pūrvayoga, as well as parts of two avadānas. More avadānas are found on other fragments, which are soon to be published. The pūrvayogas are very brief and are clearly designed as memory aids; Lenz provides a thorough discussion of their abbreviation formulae, including in relation to other summary texts such as the Bairam Ali manuscript, the Jātakastava, and the Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā, all of which are documented below. Bairam-Ali Manuscript

M. I. Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya (ed. & trans.) ‘A Sanskrit Manuscript on Birch-Bark from Bairam-Ali: II. Avadānas and Jātakas’ in Manuscripta Orientalia, Part 1: Vol. 6, 3 (2000): 23-32; Part 2: Vol. 7, 1 (2001): 10-23; Part 3: Vol. 7, 2 (2001): 10-19; Part 4: Vol.

7, 3 (2001): 9-14; Part 5: Vol. 7, 4 (2001): 12-21; Part 6: Vol. 8, 1 (2002): 18-26; Part 7: Vol. 8, 2 (2002): 20-28; Part 8: Vol. 8, 3 (2002): 26-33.

Of similar interest to the Gāndhārī fragments, this manuscript contains a large collection of birth story summaries. The manuscript was discovered in the city of Bairam-Ali in the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan, and is tentatively dated to around the 5th century (Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya 2000: 23). It contains vinaya and sūtra material from the Sārvāstivādin school, in addition to 163 birth stories on 68 complete folios and fragments of many others. So far Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya has published photographs, transliterations and translations of the text up to folio 28, as well as an outline of their most interesting features in the introduction to the first installment of her translation. She notes that three quarters of the stories can be identified with those in other Sanskrit and Pāli collections, but that the titles and verses differ in many cases. Sixteen of the stories identify themselves as avadānas, and although approximately two-thirds of the stories are jātakas, the term is never used in the text. She suggests that the text was written as a memory aid, since none of the stories are told in full. Instead titles are given, and a short outline of the main features of the story, such as its location, and in some cases its verse and an identification of the character that spoke the verse.

(3) POETIC COMPOSITIONS Jātakamā lā of Ārya Śūra

Peter Khoroche (trans.) Once the Buddha was a Monkey: Ārya Śūra’s Jātakamālā (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1989). Hendrik Kern (ed) The Jātaka-mālā: Stories of the Buddha’s Former Incarnations, Otherwise Entitled Bodhisattva-avadāna-mālā, by Ārya-çūra (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1891).

In this text from around the 4th century C.E. Ārya Śūra narrates thirty-four jātaka stories in elegant Sanskrit verse and prose. Thirty of the stories are also found in the Pāli Jātakatthavaṇṇanā, and in some cases whole phrases or verses are identical in each version, suggesting that Śūra had access to either the Pāli or a similar source. The focus of the stories in this text is subtly different to the Pāli, for example stories of the Bodhisattva’s self sacrifice are more prominent in Śūra’s compilation. Jātakamā lās of Haribhaṭṭa and Gopadatta

Michael Hahn, Haribhaṭṭa and Gopadatta, Two Authors in the Succession of Āryaśūra: On the rediscovery of parts of their Jātakamālās, 2nd edition (revised and enlarged) (Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1992).

The works of these two poets are in the same campū (mixture of ornate prose and verse) style as their predecessor Ārya Śūra. Haribhaṭṭa’s text, which Hahn (1992: 10, n.5) dates to before the middle of the 5th century, also follows Ārya Śūra in presenting thirty-four jātaka stories, and is preserved in a full Tibetan translation and a partial Sanskrit version. Gopadatta’s (later than Haribhaṭṭa but pre 11th century) is only partially preserved, with seventeen of the (presumably thirty-four) stories found in Sanskrit and one so far discovered in Tibetan. Hahn (1992) provides an edition of four of Haribhaṭṭa’s stories and one of Gopadatta’s, as well as a full bibliography of other work on these little-known authors, including several of his own articles on individual stories.

Jātakastava (Khotanese)

Mark J. Dresden (ed. & trans.) ‘The Jātakastava or “Praise of the Buddha’s Former Births”, Indo-Scythian (Khotanese) Text, English Translation, Grammatical Notes, and Glossaries’ in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 45, 5 (1955): 397-508.

This is a Khotanese translation of a lost original, perhaps in Sanskrit (though not the Jātakastava by Jñāyaśas below) made in around the 10th century. The text’s prologue is followed by brief narrations in verse of fifty-one jātaka stories, most of which are familiar from other collections, and Dresden provides references to these parallels (447-452). The stories are related in the second person (in the manner of “When you were king such-and-such you did amazing things”) as verses of praise. Jātakastava (Sanskrit) by Jñānayaśas

H. W. Bailey, ‘The Jātaka-stava of Jñānayaśas’ in Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, IX (1937-9): 851-860. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, ‘The Jātakastava of Jñānayaśas’ in Asiatica: Festschrift Friedrich Weller (Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1954): 22-29.

Like its Khotanese counterpart, this text is a set of verses praising the Buddha on account of his actions in previous births. The text is limited to twenty verses, mentioning twelve jātakas, all familiar from other sources; parallels are listed in both Bailey’s edition and Shackleton Bailey’s translation. Kalpanāmaṇḍ itikā Dṛṣṭāntapaṅkti by Kumāralāta

Maurice Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature, Vol. II: ‘Buddhist Literature’, trans. Ketkar & Kohn (University of Calcutta Press, 1933). [Édouard Huber (trans.) Sūtrālaṃkāra Traduit en Français sur la Version Chinoise du Kumārajīva (Paris: E. Laroux, 1908).]

This text, probably composed as early as the 2nd century, is preserved only in its Chinese translation (early 5th century) and some fragments from Turfan. It is ascribed to Aśvaghosa by the Chinese, and is of the same style of poetry to the Buddhacarita, but on the basis of the Turfan fragments it is believed to have been composed rather by Kumāralāta, a younger contemporary of Aśvaghosa. It contains a number of legends in prose and verse, many with parallels in other jātaka and avadāna collections. I have not yet been able to access Huber’s translation, so this information is taken from Winternitz.

(4) COLLECTIONS AND COMPILATIONS Satpāramitā Sannipāta Sūtra (Lie Du Ji J ing, Liu Tu Chi Ching)

Édouard Chavannes (trans.) Cinq Cent Contes et Apologues: Extraits du Tripiṭaka Chinois, 4 vols. (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1962).

This text was translated in the 3rd century C.E. though it is not totally clear if it is a translation of a whole Indian text, or a compilation of Indian stories arranged by the translator to fit the six perfections: generosity (stories 1-26), morality (27-41), forbearance (42-54), vigour (55-73), concentration (74-79) and wisdom (80-88). The

text is found at the beginning of Chavannes’ first volume, and he also provides a summary and concordance of the stories in volume four.

It is worth noting that Chavannes’ anthology contains many other birth stories, of both the Buddha and other figures, retold in a variety of forms and contained within a variety of texts. However, with the exception of a separate rendition of the story of Sudāna (Vessantara), there is no other text devoted solely to birth stories. Summaries of all the stories and references to their parallels in other texts can be found in Chavannes’ fourth volume. Avadānaśataka

J. S. Speyer (ed.) Avadānaśataka: A Century of Edifying Tales belonging to the Hīnayāna, 2 vols. (St Petersburg: Biblioteca Buddhica III, 1902-1909). [P. L. Vaidya (ed.) Avadāna-Śataka (Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1958).] Léon Féer (trans.) Avadāna-Śataka: Cent Légendes Bouddhiques (Paris: Annales du Musée Guimet, 1891).

Most likely composed during the 2nd century C.E. this Sanskrit work contains one hundred avadānas in ten sections. Each section comprises ten stories and has a particular focus: (1) prediction of various characters to buddhahood; (2) and (4) jātaka stories, i.e. stories of Gautama Buddha’s past lives; (3) stories of people attaining or being predicted to pratyekabuddhahood; (5) actions leading to rebirth as pretas; (6) actions leading to rebirth in the heavens; (7) members of the Śākya clan becoming arhats; (7) female arhats; (8) and (9) stories of irreproachable arhats; (10) arhats who have done wrong and suffered as a consequence. Divyāvadāna

Andy Rotman (trans.) Divine Stories: Divyāvadāna, part 1 (Boston: Wisdom, 2008). E. B. Cowell & R. A. Neil (eds.) Divyāvadāna (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1886). John S. Strong, The legend of King Aśoka: a study and translation of the Aśokāvadāna (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983).

Compiled in the early centuries of the Common Era, this is a Sanskrit work containing thirty-six avadānas and two sūtras, which, in the words of Rotman, ‘chronicle the spiritual development of Buddhist devotees with special attention given to their karmic legacies’ (2008: 2). More than half the stories are also found in the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya (see above), and have been shown to be abridgements of the versions in that text. These were combined with other narratives to make the (or, perhaps, several) Divyāvadāna collection. The final stories, which make up the Aśokāvadāna, also circulated as a separate text. Rotman provides a summary of stories 1-17 as well as a full translation, and also gives a concordance of stories contained within both the Divyāvadāna and the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya. Other avadāna collections

Rajendralala Mitra, The Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1882). Maurice Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature, Vol. II: ‘Buddhist Literature’, trans. Ketkar & Kohn (University of Calcutta Press, 1933).

Several avadāna collections were compiled from the Avadānaśataka and elsewhere, including three avadānamālās: Kalpadrumāvadānamāla, Ratnāvadānamālā (or Ratnamālāvadāna), and Aśokāvadānamālā, which date probably from the 6th century and later. The Dvaviṃśatyavadāna also contains tales largely drawn from the

Avadānaśataka, here retold to illustrate the benefits of moral and devotional actions. In the introduction to his translation of the Avadāna Śataka (see above), Féer provides tables of concordance for the stories that are collected in these texts, demonstrating the pattern on which they were extracted. The Bhadrakalpāvadāna, perhaps composed in the 11th century, contains thirty-four legends, also largely drawn from the Avadānaśataka. The Vratāvadānamālā contains legends explaining the origins of various rites (vrata); these are not generally found in the earlier avadāna texts, but share the avadāna frame narrative (Upagupta speaking to Aśoka). The Vicitrakarṇikāvadāna contains thirty-two stories, some from the Avadānaśataka, told in very varied language and style. The (Bodhisattva-) Avadānakalpalatā is an 11th century compilation of 107 stories from various sources, retold by Kṣemendra, with a 108th story and introduction added by his son Somendra. As well as these various collections, popular stories circulate individually. Mitra provides summaries of many of these texts, and Winternitz gives a good overview of the collections.

(5) TRAVELOGUES OF THE CHINESE PILGRIMS

Faxian (turn of 5th century)

Samuel Beal (trans.) Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-yun, Buddhist Pilgrims, from China to India (400 A.D. and 518 A.D.) (London: Trübner & co, 1869). James Legge (trans.) A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-Hien of his travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886).

During his travels through Northwest India Faxian mentions four sites associated with the events of previous births of the Buddha: where the Bodhisattva ransomed the life of a dove, where he gave away his eyes to another, where he gave away his head to a man, and where he gave his body to a starving tigress. A little later he mentions the place where the Bodhisattva bought flowers with which he made an offering to Dīpaṅkara Buddha. In connection with a stūpa at Vaiśālī he narrates the story of a king whose hundred sons unknowingly attack his kingdom but are subdued by their mother. One of the sons is identified as the Bodhisattva. In connection with Bodh Gayā we find a past birth of King Aśoka, in which he inflicted terrible punishments but repented after an encounter with a Buddhist monk. Having reached Sri Lanka, Faxian describes the festival of the tooth relic, accompanied by proclamations mentioning jātaka stories and images depicting the Bodhisattva’s various births. Songyun (early 6th century)

Samuel Beal (trans.) Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-yun, Buddhist Pilgrims, from China to India (400 A.D. and 518 A.D.) (London: Trübner & co, 1869).

In his very short travelogue, Songyun mentions the same four North Indian pilgrimage sites as Faxian, as well as mentioning another area associated with a previous birth of the Buddha in which he took the form of a giant fish and voluntarily sustained the population on his flesh, and another where he used his own marrow and bones to write down some words of the dharma. He also gives a long description of the area associated with the Vessantara jātaka. Xuanzang (7th century)

Samuel Beal (trans.) Si-Yu-Ki, Buddhist Records of the Western World, translated from the Chinese of Hiuen Tsiang (A.D. 629), 2 vols. (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co, 1906). [Li Rongxi (trans.) The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions (Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1996).]

Xuanzang was an enthusiastic storyteller, and his travelogue contains many birth stories in amongst a great deal of other narrative material. Many are jātaka stories associated with a particular stūpa or other physical feature; there are also stories of the past births of several nāgas converted by the Buddha, and a few interesting stories of other characters. A full summary of the birth stories contained in this text is provided in a separate document. Yijing (7th century)

J. Takasuku (trans.) A Record of the Buddhist Religion, as practised in India and the Malay Archipelago (A.D. 671-695) by I-Tsing (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896).

In contrast to the earlier pilgrims, Yijing’s travelogue is focused upon what he has learnt about the correct application of the vinaya regulations. As such, there is little narrative content, but there are a few notable mentions of jātaka stories and texts: During his discussion of the ceremony of chanting (chapter 32 in Takasuku’s translation) he mentions the popularity of a Jātakamālā text ‘to teach the doctrine of universal salvation in a beautiful style, agreeable to the popular mind and attractive to readers’ (p.163). He further explains that many jātakamālā texts have been composed, and that individual stories have been dramatised and set to music. Much later, in his discussion of the unlawfulness of burning the body (chapter 38), he mentions the extreme acts of bodily sacrifice undertaken by the Bodhisattva as things that bhikṣus should not do. His only narration of a birth story, however, is his early explanation of the origins of Hāritī; even in this case he refers the reader to the vinaya for the full story.

(6) MAHĀYĀNA SŪTRAS General Note

It is beyond the scope of my current project to consider all the Mahāyāna sources. Many texts refer to birth stories in passing, or focus upon the bodhisattva path in more general terms with the occasional birth story as an example. Even the philosophers have been known to refer to birth stories in their texts (see, for example, Karen Lang’s paper presented at the 14th conference of the International Association of Buddhist Studies in 2008: ‘Candrakīrti’s use of jātaka tales in his exposition of the bodhisattva’s path’.). Some Mahāyāna sūtras contain one or more birth story told in full, though the focus of the text as a whole is not the narration of birth stories. These texts include:

• The Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra contains the story of the Bodhisattva’s sacrifice of his body to save a starving tigress, as well as several other stories of rebirth. An English translation is given by R. E. Emmerick (trans.) The Sūtra of Golden Light (London: Luzac, 1970).

• The Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra has a chapter devoted to the Aśvarāja / Siṃhala story, in which the Bodhisattva is the merchant Siṃhala and is saved from an island of demonesses by a magical horse, who in this case is

Avalokiteśvara. In addition there are several mentions of Śākyamuni Bodhisattva’s encounter with the person or reputation of Avalokiteśvara in the past. An English summary of the text can be found in Alexander Studholme, The Origins of Oṃ Maṇipadme Hūṃ: A Study of the Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra (New York: SUNY Press, 2002). A critical edition and translation of the Aśvarāja story from this text, within a study of its other versions, can be found in my M.Phil. thesis (Naomi Appleton, Seduced by Saṃsāra, Saved by a Flying Horse: A Study of the Aśvarāja and Siṃhala Stories, University of Cardiff, 2004) and a shorter study of the various versions of the story is found in my ‘The story of the Horse-King and the Merchant Siṃhala in Buddhist Texts’ in Buddhist Studies Review, Vol. 23, 2 (2006): 187-201.

• The Samādhirā ja Sūtra contains a version of the Kṣāntivādin-jātaka, as well as several other stories of the previous births of the Buddha, his interlocutor Candraprabha, and other characters. Mitra provides a summary of this text in The Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1882) and a discussion of the Kṣāntivādin story can be found in A. T. Skilton, ‘An Early Mahāyāna Transformation of the Story of Kṣāntivādin – ‘The Teacher of Forbearance’’ in Buddhist Studies Review, Vol. 19, 2 (2002): 115-136.

• The Saddharmapuṇḍar īka or Lotus Sūtra contains two stories of the previous births of the Buddha (as Sadāparibhūta, who was kind to all and preached the Lotus Sūtra; and as Sarvasattvapriyadarsana, who set fire to his own body as an offering to a buddha) as well as a few tales of the previous births of others, and many predictions of future buddhahood. See Burton Watson (trans.) The Lotus Sutra (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).

The use of birth stories in these and other Mahāyāna texts is worthy of serious attention; they are not treated fully here simply because to do so would involve more time and resources than I have at my disposal. A single Mahāyāna sūtra is mentioned here, since it is a valuable resource for understanding the transmission and use of jātaka stories: Rāṣṭrapālaparip ṛcchā Sūtra

Daniel Boucher, Bodhisattvas of the Forest and the Formation of the Mahāyāna: A Study and Translation of the Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā-sūtra (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008). Jacob Ensink (trans.) The Question of Rāṣṭrapāla, Translated and Annotated (Zwolle: J. J. Tijl, 1952). Louis Finot (ed.) Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā, Sūtra du Mahāyāna (St Petersburg: Academy of Sciences, 1901; reprinted ‘S-Gravenhage: Mouton & co., 1957).

This is a Mahāyāna text composed in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit verse and Buddhist Sanskrit prose. A 3rd century translation into Chinese is somewhat different to the Sanskrit version that has come down to us (Boucher 2008: xix) but gives us the latest possible date of its original composition. There are also translations into Tibetan and Mongolian. The text narrates Rāṣṭrapāla’s questioning of the Buddha about the nature of the bodhisattva path. The Buddha’s response includes very brief narrations of fifty previous births, each generally referred to in a single verse. Finot (1957: vii-viii) gives parallels of these stories in other texts. Later in the text there is an extended narration of the Buddha’s previous birth as Prince Puṇyaraśmi, his encounter with a buddha, and his determination to be a bodhisattva despite the objections of his father (a past birth of Buddha Amitāyus).