བསད་ནམས་ཀྱ་སྟབས་ཀྱ་རྟགས་པ་བརྗད་པ intro.9

intro.9

Of the works considered, it is only the Puṇya­balāvadāna that treats the ideal of merit in systematic detail and argues for its alleged superiority over the other virtues. Significantly, the Tocharian tale devotes well over half its content to extolling insight, giving relatively short shrift to merit. The Mahāvastu story gives only cursory treatment to each of the five prized qualities and seems to be invested far more in plot developments than in ethical and didactic considerations. Taken together, all these structural and thematic differences between the versions of this story reinforce our general impression that the Puṇya­balāvadāna was primarily intended as a morality tale for a Buddhist monastic audience. It is perhaps worth noting that there are several jātaka tales featuring a King Puṇyabala who is renowned for his generosity, but these otherwise bear little resemblance to the Puṇyavanta narrative.