The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c10.66

c10.66

¹ Loc. cit., pp. 73-74. — Since the above article was written Prof. RAPSON has been so good as to have copied by one of his pupils. Mr. W. H. B. THOMPSON, under his direction and for our use, the version of the Shaddantâvadâna from the Bodhisattvâvadâna-kalpalatâ, which is lacking in the Paris ms. (cf. above, p. 188, n. 3), according to the mss. Add. 1306 and 913 in the University Library at Cambridge. The kind communication of this copy has enabled us to prove the identity of this version — with the exception of three interpolations — with that of the Kalpadrumâvadâna. It appears that the author of the latter collection restricted himself to reproducing, without however (in any way) informing the reader of the fact, the work of Kshemendra, except that on two points he has lengthened the narrative of his predecessor, which in his opinion was too much abbreviated. This fact, however unexpected it may be, naturally does not change anything in our conclusions, as far as concerns the general chronology of the successive forms of the legend : it only causes us to think that the Kalpadrumâvadâna and Bodhisattvâvadâna-kalpalatâ agree in preserving for us the version of the canon of the Mûla-Sarvâstivâdins, which, as we know (cf. above, p. 151, n. 2), usually serves as a basis for the poetic lucubrations of Kshemendra. On the other hand, it supplies us with an excellent illustration justifying the reservations expressed above concerning the chronology of the texts : here, in fact, we are dealing with a well-known author, who wrote at the beginning of the XIth century, and who yet makes use of a version older than that of the Sûtrâlankâra. Thus it was wise on our part to consider as an acquired result only the demonstration of the difference of time between the stanzas of the Pâli Jātaka and their commentary. We are happy to be able on this last point to connect with the already cited evidence of M. SENART and Professor LÜDERS that of Prof. OLDENBERG (Nachrichten der k. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Phil.-hist. Klasse, 1911, pp. 441 sqq.).