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JOURNAL. R.A.S. (CEYLON), 



[Vol. VIII. 



proofs of virtue which, regarded as historical, do credit to 

 Buddhism,— infinitely more credit than fictitious accounts 

 of exaggerated and unnatural applications of the rules of 

 virtue on the part of stags or of hares, or of human beings 

 in some other stage of the world. 



The propriety of the conduct of the hero of the stories is 

 not, I think, to be questioned within the limits of this 

 section ; but I can lay no stress on that, for if we extended 

 the inquiry to the next 50, we should find cases where 

 the conduct of the h ero is very questionable indeed. This, 

 as well as some other points of interest, can hardly be use- 

 fully dealt with till we have taken more Jatakas within 

 our scope. 



It remains to say a few words about the moral and 

 doctrinal disquisitions which the compiler—as I suppose — 

 has interwoven in his glossaries on Text and Gathas. They 

 consist in great part of quotations, and to verify these 

 quotations will be one of the most laborious, but most 

 useful, parts of the task of any one who undertakes fully to edit 

 the Jataka Book. But they contain also some subtle moral 

 disquisitions, many of which show, not only a hand practised 

 in moral distinctions and an extensive store of moral terms, 

 but also a good deal of shrewd observation. 



In illustration of this a note of the grammarian on the 

 words Mri and ottappam is translated in the Appendix. 



Migrations of the Tales. — Having given his readers a 

 sample of the contents of the collection, Mr. Davids goes 

 on to tell us how some at least of the tales found their 

 way to Europe. But here the unenlightened reader has 

 to complain of Mr. Davids for not making it perfectly clear 

 what he is proving, and what not. For the work which he 

 learnedly follows into Europe is not the Jataka — as such— 

 but the Pancha Tantra. Now, 1 should be extremely sorry 

 to deny that the Hindu Pancha Tantra is derived from Bud- 

 dhist sources ; this is the general opinion of scholars, and in 

 particular of Professor Benfey, whom Mr. Davids afterwards 

 quotes at some length. But it does not follow that the 

 Pancha Tantra is derived from our Jataka Book. And if it 

 should turn out that the Pancha Tantra was not borrowed 

 from the Jataka at all, but was an independent collection of 

 similar materials from the same sources, then all that 



