A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s5.57

v2.c19.s5.57

The occasional references to the Nidāna-Kathā, in the "stories of the present" (Paccuppanavatthu) prove that the Nidāna-Kathā does not precede the Jātaka commentary by mere accident, but forms an essential part of it. However, as the author of the former work expressly says in one passage,¹ that he deviates from the Jātakaṭṭhakathā, and refers to the "other Aṭṭha-Kathās," it follows that he did not merely translate the Singhalese commentary, but revised it freely with the aid of other commentaries. Unfortunately we have no clue for a definite determination of the date of the Jātaka commentary, and consequently, not of the Nidāna-Kathā either. One thing, however, is certain. The many points of agreement between the Buddha legend as it is related in the Sanskrit sources, and the Nidāna-Kathā, prove that the last-mentioned work is based on the same *Indian* tradition as the former, and therefore probably also reaches back to commentaries which were brought from India to Ceylon, and that at a time before the Mahāyāna literature was developed in India. At all events the Nidāna-Kathā represents an earlier phase in the development of the Buddha legend than the Lalitavistara and similar Sanskrit works, even if the latter must be ascribed to an earlier time.