A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s5.98.3

v2.c19.s5.98.3

His style is clear and lucid, and, as in his commentaries, in the Visuddhi-Magga, too, he frequently enlivens the dry elucidations by occasional parables and often by legends too. These last are not his own inventions, but he must have taken them from older sources. In style and contents, some of these legends are strongly reminiscent of the Tipiṭaka, and some do actually occur in canonical texts while most of the narratives, it is true, date from a later period, when Buddha worship was just as highly developed in the Hīnayāna as in the Mahāyāna. It is the spirit of the old Arhat ideal as it is illustrated, for instance, in the prose of the Udāna, by many legends; the same spirit is also found in narratives such as the legend of the Thera Mahā-Tissa, who is reminded of the impurity of the human body by the sight of the teeth of a beautiful woman while laughing, and by this thought, attains to the highest stage of holiness, that of an Arhat;¹ or that of the monk who lived for sixty years in his hermitage without noticing that the walls were covered with paintings; or of the monk who is so unworldly that for three months he goes daily begging for food and eating it in the house of his mother who is longing to see him but does not recognise him in his monk's robe, without once saying: "I am your son and you are my mother."² On the other hand, we find, especially in Part II, many legends which testify to a Buddha worship which recalls the Kṛṣṇa-Bhakti.