A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t3.121

v2.c19.s6.t3.121

The Jātakamālā is also called "Bodhisattvāvadānamālā," for "Bodhisattvāvadāna" is synonymous with Jātaka; and, indeed, the Jātakas are nothing but Avadānas the hero of which is the Bodhisattva. Thus, works like the Kalpanāmaṇḍitikā and Jātakamālā often coincide with the texts of the Avadāna literature, and numerous Jātakas are also contained in the Avadāna books.¹ Like the two above-mentioned works of Buddhist narrative literature, the Avadāna texts also stand, so to speak, with one foot in the Hīnayāna literature, and the other in that of the Mahāyāna.² The earlier works still belong entirely to the Hīnayāna; though they already exhibit that Buddha worship which is also met with in the later works of the Pāli Canon (Buddhavamsa, Apadānas) they as yet eschew the exaggerations and the mythology of the Mahāyāna, whilst the latest works of the Avadāna are already completely Mahāyānistic.