The History of Buddhist Thought c28.s4.1

c28.s4.1

What has been said of the structure of the Avadāna applies also to the work of another school, the *Mahāvastu*. This is a work on a much larger scale than the others, but constructed in the same way. It has not always been recognized as an Avadāna, though it calls itself one. Even its introductory statement has been misunderstood, which is, “the beginning of the Great Story (*Mahāvastu*) of the Vinaya-piṭaka according to the text of the Mahāsanghikas, the Lokottaravādins of Madhyadeśa.”² This seems plain enough, and it is at least clear that this is what the work actually is. It is not the Vinaya but the “Great Story” of the career of Gautama Buddha, as conceived by an adherent of the Lokottaravāda school. In order to tell this he goes through the Vinaya and incorporates all the legends he can find. To what extent they were in his Vinaya cannot say, but some of the poems, eulogies, and ballads come from other parts of the Canon.³ In carrying out his plan, his respect for the Scripture has prevented him from welding the matter into a consistent unity, but the scheme of the whole can be seen. It is the career of the Bodhisattva conceived not as the life of one man, but as one instance of the career of the Bodhisattvas, who dedicate themselves to ages of training and acquiring the requisite qualities for one who is to be a saviour of the world. It begins with a statement of the stages of the bodhisattva’s career, and describes all the legendary events of Gautama’s life down to his enlightenment and first public preaching to king Bimbisāra. The thread of the story often seems to be missing, because the connecting link between two portions of narrative may not be there, and also because two or more parallel accounts of the same events may be given, so that there is often an apparent regression. The narrative is often broken by jātakas introduced to explain the cause of the events recorded. Apart from its importance as an instance of the later canonical literature, the *Mahāvastu* is also of great value in preserving much of the older canonical material which it quotes from the Scriptures of the Lokottaravādins, and it throws light especially on the development of dogmatic views about a Bodhisattva and Buddha.