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Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c5.s2.t2: The Appearance of the Jātakas and Avadānas

Aspects of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its Relation to Hīnayāna c5.s2.t2

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The Appearance of the Jātakas and Avadānas

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Besides the efforts of the old and the new schools to vie with one another in the field of literature, one notices also a keen competition among them for propagating among the masses the tenets of their respective schools, which, as a matter of fact, resulted in a great measure in the wide propagation of Buddhism.⁵ It is a well-known fact that the Jātakas and the *Avadānas* were meant for inspiring in the minds of the people a faith in Buddhism and thus popularising the religion.¹ The *Jātakas* were only an afterthought of the Theravādins. They originally did not form part of their scriptures (*Buddhavacana*). The *Jātaka Book*² or the floating mass of *Jātakas*, some of which found their way into the famous stone-monuments of India, belongs certainly to an ancient date as is proved by scholars like Rhys Davids, Cunningham, Oldenberg, and Winternitz, but still all of them are not considered to be of the same age as the *Nikāyas*. Rhys Davids' suggestion that the stories found both in the *Nikāyas* (i.e., *Suttanta-Jātakas* of the *Cullaniddesa*) and in the *Jātaka* collection form the oldest type of *Jātaka* stories and may be called pre-*Jātaka* is of great value.³

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⁵ The inscriptions, which speak of the gifts made to a particular

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¹ See Speyer, Preface to the *Ava. S.*, pp. v, vi.

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² In the *I.H.Q.*, vol. iv, p. 6, Prof. Winternitz draws our attention to the fact that the Mandalay and Phayre Mss. of the *Jātaka-Book* (i.e., *Verse-Jātaka*) have been examined by Dr. Weller and found to be extracts made from the *Jātaka* commentary. He, however, still cherishes the view that there was a canonical *Jātaka-Book* and that it was in verses.

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³ *Buddhist India*, pp. 190 f.; Mr. G. D. De (*Cal. Rev.* 1929-30) however shows that versions of some of the *Suttanta-Jātakas* are posterior to the versions of those of the *Jātaka-Aṭṭhakathā*; hence all *Nikāya-Jātakas* are not of the oldest type and cannot be called pre-*Jātaka*.

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The mention of *Jātakas* among the *Navāṅgas*, a very ancient division of the Buddhist scripture, may lead one to think that the most ancient Buddhists were not without a *Jātaka* literature of their own. This seems plausible at first sight, but it should be remembered that the division of Buddhist scriptures into nine *Aṅgas* does not refer to nine different groups of literature but to nine types of composition to be found in the collections of the ancient Buddhists. In school, add sometimes that the gifts were meant also for the *cāturdiśa saṅghas*, i.e., members of the Buddhist Saṅgha in general.

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Compare the *Ava. S.*, p. xxxix (*Kalpadrumāvadāna*) :

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Gacchata bhiksave yūyam sattvānām vinayārthataḥ,
Deśān pratyabhigacchantaḥ prakāśayata *saṃvṛtim*.

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(The word *saṃvṛti* in this verse is noteworthy. The Mahāyānists will not admit that the *dharmas* which were mostly propagated by the Hīnayānists at first were anything but the truth in disguise. There is, of course, also the hint that *paramārtha* truth is a matter for realisation and cannot be the subject of preaching.)

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one Sutta or Suttanta there may be portions which can be called a sutta, a geyya¹, a gāthā, an udāna, a veyyākaraṇa, an abbhutadhamma, or a jātaka. It was long after the navāṅga division was known that the compilations Udāna, Itivuttaka, and Jātaka came into existence. The explanation of navāṅgas as attempted by Buddhaghosa² also shows that he did not know any particular sections of literature corresponding to the navāṅgas. It is very interesting to notice in his exposition that for two of the nine aṅgas, viz., Vedalla and Abbhutadhamma,³ he could not find any work or group of works which could be classified under these headings and so he named some suttas which came under them. Taking these two as our clue, we may suggest that the other seven of the navāṅgas should also be explained in the same way. Instead of putting the whole Abhidhamma collection under Veyyākaraṇa,⁴ the Suttas, in which Sāriputta, Mahākaccāna or Buddha⁵ gave detailed expositions of the four truths or the eightfold path, or of any tenet of Buddhism or of any of the pithy sayings of Buddha, should have been included. So also the Jātaka-Aṅga does not refer to the 550 Jātakas as Buddhaghosa says, but to the few stories found in the Nikāyas, in which Buddha refers to incidents in one of his

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¹ Attha., p. 26: Sabbam pi sagāthakam suttam Geyyan ti veditabbam.

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² Sum. Vil., pp. 23, 24; Attha., p. 26; Petavatthu A., p. 2.

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³ Attha., p. 26: Sabbe pi acchariyabbhutadhammapaṭisamyuttā suttantā Abbhutadhamman ti veditabbam. The ‘Acchariyabbhutadhamma Sutta’ (Majjhima, III, pp. 118 f.) may be treated as one of the Abbhutadhamma class. For Abbhutadhamma, see also Mtu., III, p. 200.

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⁴ As done in the Attha., pp. 27-28.

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⁵ The Mahākaccānabhaddekaratta-sutta (Majjhima, III, No. 133) offers an excellent example of a sutta containing gāthā and veyyākaraṇa. The Mahākammavibhaṅga-sutta (Majjhima, III, No. 136) is a type of veyyākaraṇa sutta.

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Buddhaghosa makes himself quite clear in his attempt to establish that the Kathāvatthu is as much Buddha-bhāsita as were the Madhupiṇḍika and such other Suttas expounded by Mahākaccāna, Ānanda and others. His argument is that Buddha at some places gave only the mātikā (substance), which was sometimes explained by Mahākaccāna, and the whole of it was regarded as Buddhavacana. Suttas of this type, in my opinion, were meant to be included under Veyyākaraṇa-division. See Attha., p. 5.

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previous births. Pūrvānusmṛti is one of the abhijñās (superior knowledge) acquired by the Arhats; so it is quite in keeping with the tenets of early Buddhism to speak of one's previous existences. But the idea of utilising these stories of Pūrvānusmṛti as a means of propagation of the religion came later, at least, subsequent by a century and a half to the inception of Buddhism. So it is in the second period of our division that we must place the compilation or composition of the Abhidhamma and the Jātaka literatures.¹

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¹ In addition to what has been said in connection with the Abhidhamma (see fn. ante, p. 6), it may be pointed out that the Mahāsāṅghikas also rejected the claim of the Theravādins that the Abhidhamma and the Jātakas were canonical. Compare the Yogācāra tradition that in the first part of his life, Buddha preached the four Āgamas, Dharmānusmṛtyupasthāna, Lalitavistara, Karmaśataka and Avadānaśataka. Wassiljew, Buddhismus, p. 352. According to the Sarvāstivādins, each of the Abhidharma books had a compiler. Cf. Kośa-vyākhyā, p. 12: Śruyante hi abhidharmaśāstrāṇām kartāraḥ.

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Like Buddhaghosa, the Mahāyānic expositors attempted to classify their literature according to the twelve aṅgas—a division current among the Sarvāstivādins, the Mahāsāṅghikas and others, placing the Aṣṭasāhasrikā-Prajñāpāramitā under Sūtra, the Gaṇḍavyūha, Samādhirāja and Saddharmapuṇḍarīka under Vyākaraṇa, and so forth.² But this division of scriptures into twelve Aṅgas was not the work of the Mahāyānists. It had been made by the Sarvāstivādins³ and the Mahāsāṅghikas and followed by some of the other Hinayānic schools. The three additional Aṅgas are Nidāna, Avadāna and Upadeśa.⁴ Burnouf explains Nidāna as those treatises which show the causes antecedent to events, e.g., how Śākyamuni became a Buddha. The cause was the completion of the Pāramitās by Buddha and so the treatises, or the portions of treatises, describing the completion of pāramitās are called Nidānas. He also points out that there is no literature which is classified under Nidāna.¹ The explanation of Burnouf is supported by the Nidānakathā of the Jātakaṭṭhavaṇṇanā. But in the Mahāyāna literature as well as in the Mahāvastu, Nidāna signifies the introductory description which sometimes contains, as in the case of the Mahāvastu,² hints of the topics to be dealt with in the treatise. The description of the preparations made by Buddha, viz., entering into samādhi and putting forth rays of light from the body, the appearance of Buddhas on lotus, and so forth before the preaching of the Prajñāpāramitā, is called Nidāna.³ In the Tibetan versions of the Ratnakūṭa-sūtras, the place where a particular Sūtra was delivered is referred to as Nidāna.⁴ Considering the uses of this expression, we may take it as that aṅga (portion) of a treatise, which contains the introductory matters. The sense of the term Avadāna is clear and needs no comment. It includes all stories of previous births whether of Buddha or of any of his disciples or of any prominent figure professing the Buddhist faith, and a huge literature has grown under this heading.⁵ In the explanation of the term Upadeśa, however, there is some obscurity. There is hardly any justification for considering the Buddhist Tantras as coming under the heading Upadeśa, for they had not come into existence when the term Upadeśa came into vogue.⁶ It certainly means "instruction" and this is supported by the Tibetan rendering of the term by bab-par-bstan pahisde. In one⁷ of the Chinese texts it has been explained as those discourses which contain expositions of the profound and mysterious dharmas. That the term later on bore this sense is also apparent from the fact that the *Abhisamayālaṅkārakārikā* is sometimes called *Prajñāpāramitopadeśaśāstra*.¹

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² Burnouf, Intro., pp. 51-67; Hodgson, Notices etc., in the Asiatic Researches, XVI; Wassiljew, Buddhismus, pp. 118 f.

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³ Kośa, VI, 29b. Professor La Vallée Poussin drew my attention to the fact that the 12 aṅgas are mentioned in Yaśomitra's Vyākhyā and not in the Kośa itself.

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⁴ Taking Vaipulya=Vedalla, see Kern, Manual of Buddhism, p. 7. For a discussion about Vaipulya=Vaitulya, see J.R.A.S., 1907, pp. 432ff and 1927, pp. 268ff; but cf. Buddhaghosa's interpretation in the Attha., p. 26.

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¹ Burnouf also points out the technical signification of the term Nidāna=12 links of the Pratītyasamutpāda. Cf. Nidānasutta in the Dīgha.

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² Mtu., I, pp. 2, 4.

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³ Pañca., p. 17.

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⁴ M. Lalou's paper in the J.A., 1928.

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⁵ See Speyer's Intro. to the Ava. Ś. The Pāli collection has also an Apadāna. It contains accounts of the previous lives of Arhats.

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⁶ Burnouf, op. cit., pp. 55-6; As. Res., XVI, p. 427; Wassiljew, op. cit., p. 119: "die Upadesas eine analystische Untersuchung der Lehre."

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⁷ On 12 Aṅgas, see Nanjio's Catalogue, No. 1199 (Taisho ed. of the Tripitaka, vol. 31, p. 586).

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¹ See my Intro. to the Pañca.

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