A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s5.46

v2.c19.s5.46

As regards the Buddha legend, we have seen that there was no actual Buddha biography contained in the canon, but only the beginnings of one. In the Vinayapiṭaka, in certain speeches of the Suttapiṭaka and in a few of the ancient ballads of the Suttanipāta, we found on the one hand records, more or less reliable, of the actual life of the Master, and on the other, the earliest beginnings of a Buddha legend and a Buddha epic. In the Buddhavaṃsa we found a kind of previous history, and in Chapter 26 of it, the epitome of a biography, of the Buddha. The Cariyāpiṭaka and the Jātaka, too, telling of the former existences of the Buddha, contain, at least in the view of the orthodox Buddhist, contributions to the history of the life of Buddha.¹ As far as Pāli literature is concerned, there is, however, no connected life story of the Buddha until we come to the Nidāna-Kathā,² the "Narrative of the Beginnings,"³ which precedes the Jātakaṭṭhavaṇṇanā, the Jātaka commentary, and forms a part of this great commentary work.