No. 28. — 1884.] fikst fifty jatakas. 



139 



within an easy drive of Colombo, or with the drawings on 

 the equally accessible temple at Kotte, where, besides the 

 D6vadhamma Jataka, are the Kattahari Jataka, and the 

 Khadirangara Jataka, which last, as just stated, is one of 

 those before you to-night. 



The subject of this paper has been the popular acceptance 

 of the Jatakas, as shown in sculptures and picture-stories. 

 The Nidanakatha, or Introduction to the Jatakas, has been 

 regarded as part of them. It, with them, affords subjects 

 for the decoration of Buddhist buildings, and for the instruc- 

 tion of the people. We have seen that these illustrations 

 existed from 250 B.C. to this day ; and that they have been 

 found from beyond Lahore, and at Bharhut and Amravati, 

 down to Ceylon. The sculptures give the same names to the 

 Jatakas as they bear to-day ; or they give a different name, 

 while the popular story remains unaltered ; and we have an 

 important historical scene described in the third century in 

 letters inscribed on the stones in the very words of the Pali 

 edition of the J atakas now on the table, and Fa-hian relates 

 how in 405 A.D. the stories were told at length in pictures 

 as you see them at this day on the wails of the temples. 

 Briefly to illustrate this, and to bring before you within the 

 time allowed for our meetings some of the more striking 

 examples of the Buddhist picture-stories from the third 

 century B.C. to this day, has been the endeavour of this paper. 



II.— THE TEXT. 



So far the question has been of the Matter and contents, 

 their nature and origin separately and as a collection ; the 

 question of the Text, and the different editions it may have 

 passed through, is another. 



Original form of Book — The Jataka of the Tripitaka, the 

 last book of the KhuddakaNikaya, is not our Jataka Book, 

 but consists only of the gathas or stanzas. The stories 

 are not there. The book which contains the stories and 

 the long introductory history of the Buddha is called the 

 Jataka Commentary, Jataka Atthavannana. The theory of 

 the stories is that they are only a comment on the stanzas. 

 Some scholars have, therefore, been satisfied to understand 

 by the word Jatakam (when it is shown by the Dfpawamsa 



