A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t3.124

v2.c19.s6.t3.124

The word avadāna³ means a "noteworthy deed," sometimes in a bad sense,⁴ but generally in the good sense of "a heroic deed," "a feat," with the Buddhists a "religious or moral feat” and then also the “story of a noteworthy deed, or feat.” Such a “feat” may consist of the sacrifice of one’s own life, but also merely of a gift of incense, flowers, ointments, gold and precious stones, or the erection of sanctuaries (Stūpas, Caityas, and so on). As these stories are, as a rule, intended to show that “black deeds bear black fruits, and white deeds white fruits,” they are also Karman stories, which show how the actions of one existence are very closely connected with those of former or future existences. It is, of course, only from our standpoint that they are “legends”: the Buddhists regard them as actual events, related by the Buddha himself, and are just as authentic as “words of the Buddha” (buddhavacana) as a Sūtra. Like the Jātakas the Avadānas, too, are a kind of sermons. It is therefore usually told, by way of introduction, where and on what occasion Buddha related the story from the past, and at the end, the lesson is deduced from the story by Buddha. A regular Avadāna, then, consists of a story of the present, a story of the past, and a moral. If the hero of the story of the past is the Bodhisattva, this kind of Avadāna can also be called a “Jātaka.”¹ There is a special kind of Avadānas, namely those in which the Buddha, instead of telling a story of the past, gives a prophecy of the future. Like the usual story of the past, this story of the future serves to explain the present Karman.² There are also Avadānas in which both kinds of stories are combined, and finally also such in which a Karman already shows its good or bad fruits in the present existence.