A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.318.2

v2.c19.s3.t2.318.2

The expressions pārami, pāramitā do not appear in the earliest texts, or in the Jātaka-Gāthās; but in the super-human gifts, such as the recollection of former existences, extraordinary physical powers or mental faculties, and so on. This conception of the Bodhisatta as a higher being, generally plays only a secondary part in the texts of the Theravāda sect of the Hīnayāna, whose canon is the Pāli Tipiṭaka, while with the sects of the Mahāyāna, it has been developed all the more fully. It is no accident, therefore, that the Jātakas belong to the Mahāyāna just as much as to the Hīnayāna, and the question could be raised whether their actual native soil was not Mahāyāna Buddhism rather than Hīnayāna. Indeed we find Jātakas in the texts of all Buddhist sects. Most probably they did not originally belong to any sect; but as they were one of the chief media of propaganda, and carried Buddhism into extensive circles, especially the popular Buddhism, in which there could not have been much difference between the sects, they penetrated, along with this Buddhism, deep into the mind of the people. Even at the present day, there is no book so popular among the Buddhist peoples as the Jātaka. The Singhalese still listen the whole night through, to the recitation of the Jātakas without any trace of fatigue, and with unaffected delight.