Oxford, October, 1895.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION
The 'Garland of Birth-stories' belongs to the Canon of the Northern Buddhists. For the discovery of this work we are indebted to Mr. Brian H. Hodgson, who as early as 1828 mentioned it among the interesting specimens of Bauddha scriptures communicated to him by his old Patan monk, and also procured copies of it. One of these was deposited in the library of the college of Fort William, now belonging to the Bengal Asiatic Society, and was described, in 1882, by Râgendralâla Mitra. Another was forwarded to the Paris library. Burnouf, who thoroughly studied other works belonging to the Sûtra and Avadâna classes, which form part of the Hodgson MSS. in Paris, seems to have had a merely superficial acquaintance with the Gâtakamâlâ, if we may judge from the terms with which he deals with it in his 'Introduction à l'histoire du Bouddhisme indien.' p. 54 of the second edition: 'Je dis les livres, quoiqu'il n'en existe qu'un seul dans la liste népalaise et dans la collection de M. Hodgson, qui porte et qui mérite le titre de Djâtaka (naissance); c'est le volume intitulé Djâtakamâlâ ou la Guirlande des naissances, qui passe pour[7] un récit des diverses actions méritoires de Çâkya antérieurement à l'époque où il devint Buddha.' In fact, he has never given a summary, still less a detailed account of its contents. It was not until 1875 that M. Féer gave such an account in the Journal Asiatique, VIIe Sér., t. 5, p. 413.
Moreover, Burnouf's statement is not quite correct with respect to the Nepal list. Not one, but three Gâtaka works are named there[8], the Gâtakâvadâna (No. 32), the Gâtakamâlâ (No. 33), and the Mahâgâtakamâlâ (No. 34). Of these only one, indeed, is extant, viz. No. 33, our 'Garland of Birth-stories.' No. 34 may be the work, containing 550 or 565 Gâtakas, spoken of by the Bauddha monk who imparted so much valuable information to Hodgson[9], or, perhaps, the original of the Tibetan collection of 101 tales, including also our Gâtakamâlâ, to which two Russian scholars, Serge d'Oldenburg and Ivanovski, have of late drawn the attention of the public[10]. As to No. 32, its title, Gâtakâvadâna, allows the supposition that it is either a collection of Gâtakas and avadânas, or that it contains 'great religious exploits' (avadâna) performed by the Bodhisattva, who afterwards became Buddha, the Lord. Nothing is more common than the use of both terms in a nearly synonymous manner. Our Gâtakamâlâ bears also the appellation of Bodhisattvâvadânamâlâ[11]. In translating Gâtaka by 'birth-story,' I comply with the general use and official interpretation of that term by the Buddhist Church. The original meaning must have been simply 'tale, story,' as Prof. Kern has demonstrated in his 'History of Buddhism in India[12].' Additional evidence of this statement may be drawn from the fact, that in several of the old and traditional headings of these stories the former part of the compound denotes not the Bodhisattva, but some other person of the tale, as Vyâghrîgâtaka, 'the Story of the Tigress,' or a thing, as Kumbhagâtaka, 'the Story of the Jar;' Bisagâtaka, 'the Story of the Lotus-stalks,' which are respectively Nos. I, XVII, and XIX of this collection; or an action, as Sîlavîmamsa(ka)gâtaka, the common heading of Nos. 86, 290, 305, and 330 in Fausböll's Pâli Gâtaka, Nakkagâtaka, ibid., No. 32, or a quality, as Sîlânisamsagâtaka, ibid., No. 190.
Some time after M. Féer's compte-rendu of the Paris MS. was published two new MSS. of the Gâtakamâlâ came to Europe. They belong to the valuable set of Sanskrit Buddhist works which Dr. Wright acquired for the Cambridge University Library, and are described by Prof. Cecil Bendall in his excellent Catalogue (1883). Prof. Kern was the first to appreciate the great literary merits of the Gâtakamâlâ, and soon planned an edition, availing himself of the two Cambridge MSS. (Add. 1328 and 1415) and the Paris one[13]. This editio princeps was published at the end of 1891 as the first volume of the Harvard Oriental Series of Prof. Lanman. It has every right to bear the name of 'princeps,' not only because Ârya Sûra's work has never been edited before, but on account of the critical acumen and the untiring care of the editor, whose exertions have almost purged the text from the clerical errors and blunders which greatly encumber the Nepal manuscripts[14]. Thus, thanks to Prof. Kern, this masterpiece of Sanskrit Buddhist literature is now accessible to Sanskritists in an excellent edition. I have undertaken to translate it, as I consider it a most valuable document for the knowledge of Buddhism.
Properly speaking, Gâtakamâlâ is a class-name. It has been pointed out above that in the Northern Buddhist Canon several writings of that name have been made known, and though, so far as I know, this appellation does not occur in the book-titles of the Pâli Tripitaka, such texts as the Pâli Gâtaka and the Kariyâpitaka may have some right to be thus designated. That it is a generic appellation is made plain from Somendra's Introduction to the Avadânakalpalatâ of his father Kshemendra. It is said there, verses 7 and 8:—