The Mahāvastu, Volume III

The Mahāvastu, Volume III completes one of the major English translations of early Buddhist Sanskrit narrative literature. While the work identifies itself as a Vinaya text, its dominant character is narrative: a vast accumulation of Jātakas, Avadānas, biographical episodes, legends, conversion stories, doctrinal passages, and accounts of the Buddha’s disciples. Jones emphasizes that the text should be understood as the product of a long process of compilation rather than a single act of authorship. 

The volume opens by continuing the Kusa Jātaka, then presents a substantial sequence of Jātakas, conversion narratives, ordination stories, and episodes from the Buddha’s ministry. Among the principal sections are Jātaka of the Bull, two Jātakas of the Monkey, Puṇyavanta Jātaka, Vijitāvin Jātaka, the Ordination of Mahā-Kāśyapa, the Conversion of Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana, The Five Hundred Merchants, and the Buddha’s Visit to Kapilavastu. 

The narrative continues with episodes concerning the Buddha’s family and disciples, including Rāhula in a Former Life, the Ordination of Five Hundred Śākyans, Gaṅgapāla Jātaka, the Mahāgovindiya Sūtra, accounts of Former Buddhas, the story of Sarvamdada, and a substantial section on Rāhula. These materials illustrate the Mahāvastu’s characteristic tendency to interweave biography, past-life narratives, doctrinal exposition, and institutional history. 

A major turning point comes with “After the Enlightenment.” Subsequent episodes include the Dharmalabdha Jātaka, visits to Nāga kings, the Goat-herd’s Banyan-tree, the merchants Trapusa and Bhallika, the journey from Uruvilvā to Benares, and Rolling of the Wheel, representing the Buddha’s transition from enlightenment to active teaching. 

The latter portion follows the formation of the early Buddhist community through sections on Ājñāta Kauṇḍinya, The Five Monks, Kṣāntivādin, Śarabhanga, The Thirty Monks, Pūrṇa the Son of Maitrāyaṇī, the Questions of Nālaka and Sabhika, Yaśoda, the Jātaka of Yaśoda, renewed Temptation by Māra, instructions on begging, the Three Kāśyapas, the Chapter of the Thousand, the Conversion of Bimbisāra, and Arindama. 

The Foreword is particularly valuable for understanding the textual formation of the Mahāvastu. Jones rejects the idea that the work should be treated as the unified production of a single author or redactor. He instead proposes imagining a community of monks, over a long period, collecting traditions concerning the Buddha’s life and teaching from numerous sources. This explains why prose and verse versions of the same episode frequently coexist, sometimes overlapping, sometimes diverging, and occasionally being inserted at awkward points in the narrative. 

Jones also discusses the problem of textual strata. Earlier scholarship had proposed that linguistic features such as atha khalu versus dāni, finite verbal constructions versus nominal constructions, could distinguish earlier from later layers. Jones considers these criteria useful but insufficient, because styles and dialectal features are extensively intermixed throughout the work. 

A further contribution of the volume is its detailed attention to Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit and dialectal diversity. Jones argues that the heterogeneous language of the Mahāvastu may reflect the diversity of local oral and textual traditions from which the work was compiled. He draws attention to unusual vocabulary, grammatical forms, phonological features, and words preserved only in particular narratives, suggesting that the text retains traces of multiple regional linguistic traditions.