Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c2.30

c2.30

We do not at all dogmatise on the point. The composition of the Jātaka collection has undoubtedly passed through several stages. It is utterly impossible to assign a definite date to the stories. Some of the poems and prose narratives must reach back to a great antiquity, even to the Vedic times. Some of the sayings, legends and ballads may belong to pre-Buddhist days. For the greater portion of the book, we may not urge any greater antiquity than the 3rd century B.C. And much of the prose decidedly belongs to the Christian era. In fact, we can generally hold, with Mr. Gokuldas De⁶ that the prose stories of the *Jātaka-Aṭṭhakathā* compiled about the latter part of the 5th century A.D. and looked upon as expansions or *viṭṭhāras* of *Jātaka* verses, many of which as old as the time of the Buddha, some even still older, are really a compendium of facts with dates ranging from the time of their origin up to the time of their final redaction, i.e., from pre-Buddhistic times down to the 5th century A.D., while we maintain that except in very rare cases, the claim to pre-Nikāya antiquity of the verses constituting the real *Jātakas* must be generally accepted.