Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c42.s2.t4.11

v2.c42.s2.t4.11

the word ‘pāramitā’ did not carry the meaning attributed to it in the later texts. Like pāramim gato in Pāli, there are several uses of the phrase ‘pāramiprāpta’¹ and ‘paramim gato,’² in the Mahāvastu. In speaking of Bodhisattva’s several attainments, perfection in the six pāramitās³ as a condition precedent to a Bodhisattva’s progress from a lower to a higher bhūmi, is not insisted upon,⁴ as has been done in the Daśabhūmikasūtra.⁵ At the time of composition (2nd century B.C.) of the Mahāvastu,⁶ the doctrine of pāramitā, it seems, was not well developed. Unlike the Mahāvastu, we have in the Lalitavistara, not only frequent references to the six pāramitās, but also eulogistic accounts of the deeds of Bodhisattva for attaining perfection in the six pāramitās.⁷ These gāthās imply wide currency of the Jātaka-stories as also a great popularity of the pāramitā-doctrine.⁸ In the Aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā, the six pāramitās are systematically mentioned in the enumeration of Bodhisattva’s attainments, with the rider that these perfections are not to be taken as reals⁹ (paramārtha). Thus, we may say that the doctrine of pāramitā was fully developed before the time of composition of the Lalitavistara and the Aṣṭasāhasrikā, i.e. about 1st century A.D. and after the date of the Mahāvastu, i.e., 2nd century B.C.