A History of Sanskrit Literature c33.s7.13

c33.s7.13

Of the Mahāyāna Sūtras proper the *Saddharmapuṇḍarīka*⁶ occupies the most prominent place. It displays throughout the ideal of the Bodhisattva and luxuriates in the glorification of the Buddha as a being of ineffable glory and might. It appears possible that originally it was written in mixed Sanskrit verses with short prose passages interspersed; but, as we have it, it is in prose with mixed Sanskrit verse sections in the older chapters, while in xxi–xxvi, in which the worship of Bodhisattvas is inculcated, we have prose only; the comparative lateness of these chapters is confirmed by the Chinese version made before 316, which has them out of place as appendices. The work as a whole need not date before A. D. 200 and is not likely to be much earlier. It contains, among other legends, the tale of the father⁷ whose son lived as a beggar in his house but was enriched by his father on his deathbed, a parable of how the Buddha gradually draws mankind to him, which has been unwisely compared with the biblical tale of the son who was lost and was found.