A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.195

v2.c19.s3.t2.195

³ See above, Vol. I, p. 469. Even the manifold connections between the Jātakas and the Epics (*cf.* Vol. I, pp. 400 note 4, 401, 410 note 3, 415 note 1, 471 f., 473 note 1, and 508 f.) are of no use in determining the date, as the period of the epics is far too uncertain. Unfortunately, the fact that numerous Jātakas are mentioned and quoted in Book IV of the Milindapañha, and that in Book V of the same work, Jātaka reciters are mentioned side by side with the Dīgha and Majjhima reciters, does not help us. For these books belong to the later parts of the Milindapañha, which are missing in the Chinese translation, and are of uncertain date. The fact that in Milindapañha IV even fairy-tale verses which contain nothing Buddhistic, are quoted as "words of the Buddha," only proves that a few centuries after Christ, these verses were canonical, and every word of the canon was regarded as a word of Buddha. The fact that, even in these late books of the Milindapañha, deviations from the Jātaka book occur in the quoted Jātakas, shows the uncertainty of the transmission. The circumstance that a few Jātaka verses occur in *Patañjali's Mahābhāṣya*, and that the language of the latter shows points of contact with the language of the Jātakas (F. *Kielhorn* JRAS 1898, 17 ff. and R. G. *Bhandarkar* in OC IX, London 1892, I, 421 ff.), would indicate that some of the Jātakas originated in the 2nd century B.C.