142 



JOUENAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [Vol. VIII. 



appear in other parts of the Pitakas in language not 

 exactly taken— to say the least— from the Commentary. 



It is to be hoped that this will be abundantly illus- 

 trated in our future proceedings when birth-stories from 

 other collections, such as are found in Mr. BeaFs Dham- 

 mapada for instance, and such as are scattered about in 

 the other Pitaka books, are compared in detail with our 

 edition. 



The Jdtakam of the Canon. — Mr. Dickson stated the 

 matter for us thus : — The Jatakas form the tenth section of 

 the Khuddakanikaya of the Sutta Pitaka of the Buddhist 

 anon. 



The date of this Canon is generally accepted as prior to 

 the third Council held under Asoka about 242 B.C. Two 

 important facts for determining the date of the Pali Canon 

 have been ably brought out by Dr. Oldenberg in his intro- 

 duction to the Vinaya Pitaka, p. xxv. 



1. In the Tripitaka no mention is made of the third 

 Council. 



2. The first Council of Rajagaha (B.C. 477) and the 

 second Council of Vesali (B.C. 37) are both mentioned. 



The Canon, therefore, cannot be earlier than the second 

 Council, and was probably finally completed before or at the 

 third Council. (See Max Muller's Dhammapada, p. xxx.) 

 It may probably be that the gathas or stanzas originally 

 formed the Jataka text of the Sutta Pitaka, and that the 

 stories gathered round them are of a later date ; but Pali 

 scholarship must be more accurate and more advanced than 

 at present before it will be safe to attempt to fix the age of 

 any portion of the text on the evidence of language. 

 Tradition leads us to believe that the text and the commen- 

 taries were brought to Ceylon by Mahinda in 241 B.C.; 

 that they were first committed to writing in the reign of 

 Buddhadasa (339—368 A.D.). As recorded in the Maha- 

 wariisa, the Suttas were translated from the Pali into the 

 Sinhalese language : and it would appear probable that the 

 Gathas continued to be written in Pali while the commen- 

 taries were in Sinhalese, until Buddhaghosa, in the beginning 

 of the 5th century A.D., rendered the whole in Pali in the 

 form in which we now have it. The original Sinhalese 

 translations of the reign of Buddhadasa are unfortunately 



