The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c10.17

c10.17

We must admit that, if we were reduced solely to the historical data relative to the texts, the enterprise would be almost desperate. It is easy to contest the orthodox belief, according to which the stanzas of the Jātaka all fell from the lips of Buddha himself; it is much less easy to replace it by more satisfactory assertions concerning the exact time of the composition of these gāthās, which are certainly very ancient, more ancient at times than Buddhism. Their commentary (aṭṭhakathā), according to the confession even of the monks of Ceylon, has existed under its present form