A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t3.143

v2.c19.s6.t3.143

In the same way, a pious man, a rich man, a powerful king, a happy marriage, the education of a young man, the appearance of a former Buddha, and so on are always described in exactly the same words. That is, indeed, not only the case with a few short sentences, but even with long passages extending over several printed pages. One of the longest stereotyped pieces is, for instance, the description of the smile with which the Buddha utters the prophecy that somebody will become a Buddha; for, before the Buddha prophesies the future, he invariably smiles. And when he smiles, blue, yellow, red and white rays burst forth from his mouth. Some of these rays descend to the hells, the others ascend into the worlds of heaven. And after they have travelled round the thousands and thousands of worlds, they return again to the Buddha from behind, and disappear in some part of the Buddha's body, which varies according to the subject of the prophecy. All this is very circumstantially described; and this circumstantiality and prolixity is characteristic of the method of narration of the Avadānaśataka in general. Nevertheless, besides many commonplace and tedious, though always edifying, stories, it also contains many valuable narratives and noteworthy variants from the passages of Buddhist narrative literature familiar from other texts. Only a few examples can here be quoted in extracts, in order to give an idea of the character of the collection.