No. 28. — 1884.] FIRST FIFTY JATAKAS, 



127 



with the Pali of the comment-portion of the Jatakas, and 

 when the attempts of using metaphysical grammar and its 

 terminology are taken into account, it seems to me evident 

 that these Jatakas were put together and compiled in the 

 8th century A.D., because the Jain activity, which was 

 attended by the study of metaphysical grammar, manifested 

 itself at this time, the Jainendra grammar being composed 

 in 728 A.D, Though the fitting in of all the materials 

 was done in the 8th century A.D., yet the materials 

 from which it was compiled existed so early as the 5th 

 century B.C." He draws a further inference as follows:— 

 " The geographical notices, as they are met with in these 

 stories, point to a time antecedent to the 3rd century B.C., 

 when Buddhistic embassies were sent to Banavasi in North 

 Canara, and to Mahishamandala or Mysore, to a time 

 when, therefore, the Dakshindpatka was well-known ; but I 

 have not met with the name of the Dakshindpatka in these 

 stories, though the word Uttarapatha is indefinitely used 

 is reference to countries to the North of Benares, as in the 

 Jataka entitled Tandula-ndli- Jataka. The inference from 

 all these facts is that the Jataka stories, both monastic 

 and popular, existed and were popularised before the 3rd 

 century B.C." By comparison with the Jain system, as 

 developed in the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries A.D., from 

 traces of the slokas of the Pancha-tantra literature, and 

 from the coins mentioned ( masaka, kakdpa?ia, kimkamka ), 

 the Professor is confirmed in assigning as late a date as 

 the 8th century for the compilation of the book in its 

 present form, and concludes that " some Buddhistic monk 

 about the 8th century A.D. at the latest, and the 5th century 

 A.D. at the earliest, put together the paccuppanna vattku, 

 the atita vattku, and the gathas, as they existed long before 

 him, and compiled his system of sermons, which he calls 

 his commentary." As an instance of this, Professor Kunte 

 calls attention to a gloss in the commentary on Gamani 

 Jataka, on Phalasa. The inversion, Phalasa- A'saphalam, 

 requires, he says, a knowledge of metaphysical grammar, 

 such as was not cultivated in India before the 6th century 

 A.D., when Hwen-thsang travelled, the time of the Brah- 

 manical and Jain revival. He says : " Between the 2nd 

 and the 1st centuries B.C., it appears that metaphysical 



