[41.] The Martyrologium Romanum, whatever its authority may be, states distinctly that the acts of Barlaam and Josaphat were written by Sanctus Joannes Damascenus. “Apud Indos Persis finitimos sanctorum Barlaam et Josaphat, quorum actus mirandos sanctus Joannes Damascenus conscripsit.” See Leonis Allatii Prolegomena, in Joannis Damasceni Opera, ed. Lequien, vol. i. p. xxvi. He adds: “Et Gennadius Patriarcha per Concil. Florent. cap. 5: οὐχ ἥττον δὲ καὶ ὁ Ἰωάννης ὁ μέγας τοῦ Δαμασκοῆ ὀφθαλμὸς ἐν τῷ βίῳ Βαρλαὰμ καὶ Ἰωσάφατ τῶν Ἰνδῶν μαρτυρεῖ λέγων.”
[42.] The story of the caskets, well known from the Merchant of Venice, occurs in Barlaam and Josaphat, though it is used there for a different purpose.
[43.] Cf. Benfey, Pantschatantra, vol. i. p. 80; vol. ii. p. 528; Les Avadanas, Contes et Apologues indiens, par Stanislas Julien, i. pp. 132, 191; Gesta Romanorum, cap. 168; Homáyun Nameh, cap. iv.; Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, pp. 758, 759; Liebrecht, Jahrbücher für Rom. und Engl. Literatur, 1860.
[44.] Lalita Vistara, ed. Calcutt., p. 126.
[45.] Ibid., p. 225.
[46.] See M. M.’s Chips from a German Workshop, Amer. ed., vol. i. p. 207.
[47.] Minayeff, Mélanges Asiatiques, vi. 5, p. 584, remarks: “According to a legend in the Mahâvastu of Yaśas or Yaśoda (in a less complete form to be found in Schiefner, Eine tibetische Lebensbeschreibung Sâkyamunis, p. 247; Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, p. 187; Bigandet, The Life or Legend of Gaudama, p. 113), a merchant appears in Yosoda’s house, the night before he has the dream which induces him to leave his paternal house, and proclaims to him the true doctrine.”
[48.] Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. iii. p. 21.
[49.] In some places one might almost believe that Joannes Damascenus did not only hear the story of Buddha, as he says, from the mouth of people who had brought it to him from India, but that he had before him the very text of the Lalita Vistara. Thus in the account of the three or four drives we find indeed that the Buddhist canon represents Buddha as seeing on three successive drives, first an old, then a sick, and at last a dying man, while Joannes makes Joasaph meet two men on his first drive, one maimed, the other blind, and an old man, who is nearly dying, on his second drive. So far there is a difference which might best be explained by admitting the account given by Joannes Damascenus himself, viz: that the story was brought from India, and that it was simply told him by worthy and truthful men. But, if it was so, we have here another instance of the tenacity with which oral tradition is able to preserve the most minute points of the story. The old man is described by a long string of adjectives both in Greek and in Sanskrit, and many of them are strangely alike. The Greek γέρων, old, corresponds to the Sanskrit jîrṇa; πεπαλαιώμενος, aged, is Sanskrit vṛddha; ἐρρικνώμενος τὸ πρόσωπον, shriveled in his face, is balînicitakâya, the body covered with wrinkles; παρείμενος τὰς κνήμας, weak in his knees, is pravedhayamânaḥ sarvângapratyangaiḥ, trembling in all his limbs; συγκεκυφώς, bent, is kubja; πεπολιώμενος, gray, is palitakeśa; ἐστερήμενος τοὺς ὀδόντας, toothless, is khaṇḍadanta; ἐγκεκομένα λαλῶν, stammering, is khurakhurâvaśaktakaṇṭha.
[50.] Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vol. xxiv p. 480.