A Study of the Mahāvastu

A Study of the Mahāvastu by Bimala Churn Law is an important early scholarly examination of the Mahāvastu, a major Buddhist Sanskrit work associated with the Lokottaravāda branch of the Mahāsāṃghika tradition. Published in 1930, the book investigates the text from literary, historical, doctrinal, and philological perspectives. The author describes the Mahāvastu as a rich collection of Buddhist legends and teachings, containing extensive accounts of former Buddhas, Bodhisattva careers, the life of Gautama Buddha, Jātaka-type narratives, cosmological material, and ideas concerning the progressive development of the Bodhisattva path. Particular attention is given to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the biography of Gautama Buddha, Buddhist cosmology, moral practices, stages of the Bodhisattva career, and numerous narrative traditions preserved in the Mahāvastu. The introductory note by A. Berriedale Keith also discusses the text’s relationship to the Lokottaravādins, its parallels with Pāli Buddhist literature, its mixed Sanskrit language, and its significance for understanding the development of Buddhist thought and literature. The volume remains useful for researchers interested in early Buddhist narrative literature, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda tradition, Buddhist biography, and the historical development of the Bodhisattva ideal.