A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.199

v2.c19.s3.t2.199

Among the Jātakas of our collection, far more than 500, in number,¹ all kinds and forms of narrative composition are represented. First, as regards the form, we find: 1. Narratives in prose with fable verses, fairy-tale stanzas, or aphorisms inserted here and there. Prose and verses easily join with one another, and together form such a beautiful whole that we cannot but assume that in these cases the Jātakaṭṭhavaṇṇanā used good old traditions for the prose also. 2. Ballads, (*a*) in dialogue form,² (*b*) in a mixture of conversational verses and narrative stanzas. The prose which we find in the Jātakaṭṭhavaṇṇanā, is, as a rule in these cases, the entirely superfluous and insipid fabrication of some commentator, and, as a matter of fact, is not infrequently in actual contradiction to the verses. 3. Longer narratives, beginning in prose and continued in verse, or in which prose narration alternates with narrative and conversational verses. Here prose is indispensable, but the prose of the Jātakaṭṭhavaṇṇanā is not a faithful copy of the original prose, but greatly enlarged on and disfigured by commentatorial additions.³ 4. Collections of sayings on any subject, and 5. Regular epics, or epic fragments. In the latter two cases, the prose in the book is again a superfluous commentary, and mostly spiritless into the bargain.