A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.359

v2.c19.s3.t2.359

As we do not know the Jātaka of the canon in its original form, it is difficult to say anything definite as to the relationship between the Cariyāpiṭaka and the Jātaka. One thing, however, which we do know, is that the doctrine of the Pāramitās does not appear in the earlier portions of the canon, but belongs to a later phase of the cult of Buddha. It is therefore likely that such works as the Cariyāpiṭaka and the Jātakamālā of Buddhist Sanskrit literature belong to the same later stage of development of Buddhism, and are really selections made for the purpose, from the abundant store of Jātaka literature, though perhaps not precisely from the Jātaka of the canon.¹ The Cariyāpiṭaka, however, has not come down to us in its original form, any more than the Jātaka itself. As a matter of fact, in the introduction to the Jātaka book, the Nidāna-Kathā,² we find the résumé of a Cariyāpiṭaka, which differs considerably from our text, and most likely represented an earlier recension of the work.³ It is quite possible that various Jātakas were selected in the various monasteries as examples of the Pāramitās, and that the monks adhered only to a common stock of stories, and to the number 34.⁴ At all events the Cariyāpiṭaka, as we have it to-day, is the work of an excellent monk who was anything but a poet, while, among the authors of the Jātakas as we have them in the Jātaka book, there were, besides many a good monk and bad poet, a few distinguished poets also.