A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t3.10

v2.c19.s6.t3.10

It is surely no accident that this dialogue appears inserted just here. The reason is that, precisely with regard to legends of the conception and birth of the Buddha, the Lalita-Vistara differs very conspicuously from the accounts of the other schools by its exaggeration of the miraculous element. This is not so in the further account of the Buddha’s life. In fact we find here very frequently an exceedingly close agreement with the oldest Pāli accounts, *e.g.*, those in the Mahāvagga of the Vinayapiṭaka,¹ and the Gāthās of the Lalita-Vistara sometimes appear to be more archaic than the corresponding Pāli texts. The two texts are in such cases not dependent on one another, but both reach back to a common older tradition. Here, too, however, the Lalita-Vistara has much that is entirely missing in the older accounts. Two episodes in particular are noteworthy. The one (Chapter VIII) relates how the Bodhisattva, as a boy, is taken to the temple by his foster-mother, and all the statues of the gods rise from their pedestals in order to fall at his feet. The other (Chapter X) tells of the Bodhisattva’s first day at school: