A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s5.59

v2.c19.s5.59

In the Gandhavaṃsa, a "History of the Books," probably written in Burma in the 17th century, Buddhaghosa is said to be the author of the Jātaka commentary. If this were correct, he would belong to the 5th century A.D.; for, little as we know of this commentator, equally celebrated in Ceylon and Burma,¹ we may believe tradition as far as to assume that he lived in the reign of King Mahānāma of Ceylon. It is true that we find this report only in the continuation of the Mahāvaṁsa, which was not written until about the middle of the 13th century. It is, however, confirmed by the fact that a work by Buddhaghosa was already translated into Chinese in 489 A.D.² Out of all the legends that have been woven about this learned man, we might accept as an historical fact that, during the reign of King Mahānāma, he diligently studied the texts of the Tipiṭaka and the Singhalese Aṭṭha-Kathās or "commentaries" in the "great monastery" (Mahāvihāra) of Anurādhapura in Ceylon, where they were kept, and that later, as the first-fruits of his studies, he wrote a systematic work on the Buddha doctrine, the Visuddhi-Magga,³ and afterwards revised, in the Pāli language, the commentaries on the chief texts of the Tipiṭaka.⁴ It is credible, too, that, as the legend has it, he was descended from a Brahman family in the neighbourhood of Bōdh-Gayā, became deeply learned in Brahmanical lore in early youth, but, in consequence of a disputation, was converted to Buddhism by the monk Revata, and was stimulated by his teacher to go to Ceylon to study the Singhalese commentaries.¹ He certainly wrote many of the works ascribed to him which made his name so great, that he was regarded as the commentator *par excellence*, and that commentaries were later ascribed to him which were the work of other authors, or whose authors were unknown. He himself, in introductory verses, mentions as his works the Visuddhi-Magga, the Samantapāsādikā (commentary on the Vinayapiṭaka), the Sumaṅgalavilāsinī (commentary on the Dīghanikāya), the Papañcasūdanī (commentary on the Majjhimanikāya), the Sāratthapakāsinī (commentary on the Saṃyuttanikāya) and the Manoratha-Pūraṇī (commentary on the Aṅguttaranikāya). In the Gandhavamsa there are also ascribed to him the commentaries Kaṅkhāvitaraṇī (on the Pāṭimokkhas), Paramattha-Kathā (on the seven books of the Abhidhammapiṭaka) and those on the Khuddaka-Pāṭha, Suttanipāta, Jātaka and Apadāna.²