Page:Sacred Books of the Buddhists Vol 1.djvu/21

 characters which he filled during the periods of the twenty-four previous Buddhas.

The Gâtaka stories are therefore at least as old as the compilation of the Buddhist Canon at the Council of Vesâli, about 377 It was at that Council that the great schism took place, and that the ancient Canon was rearranged or disarranged. Among the books thus tampered with is mentioned the Gâtaka, which therefore must be considered as having existed, and formed part of the old Canon before the Council of Vesâli. This is what the Dípavamsa (V, 32) says on the subject:

Whatever else this may prove with regard to the way in which the ancient Canon was preserved, it shows at all events that Gâtakas existed before the Vesâli Council as an integral portion of the sacred Canon, and we learn at the same time that it was possible even then to compose new chapters of that canon, and probably also to add new Gâtaka stories.

Whether we possess the text of the Gâtaka in exactly that form in which it existed previous to the Council of Vesâli in 377 is another question. Strictly speaking we must be satisfied with the time of Vattagâmani in whose reign, 88-76, writing for literary purposes seems to have become more general in India, and the Buddhist Canon was for the first time reduced to writing.

What we possess is the Pâli text of the Gâtaka as