Indian Buddhist Narratives about the Buddha, His Community, and his Teachings

Narratives about Gautama Buddha’s past lives, his quest for awakening, his teaching, and his death occur in the Discourse (sūtra; Pāli sutta) and Code of Conduct (vinaya) sections of the Buddhist canon and in sacred biographies such as Aśvaghoṣa’s Acts of the Buddha (Buddhacarita), composed around the first–second centuries ce. Stories of the Buddha’s past lives (jātaka), some corresponding to stories preserved in the Pāli canon, are included within the Great Story (Mahāvastu) and in the fourth–fifth-century Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamāla) of Āryaśūrya and Haribhaṭṭa. Archaeological evidence indicates that some of these tales were well known in the third–second centuries bce and carved in bas-relief on the monuments at the Buddhist sites of Sāñchī, Amarāvatī, and Bhārhut. Artisans also painted and inscribed scenes and verses from Āryaśura’s stories in the Buddhist caves at Ajaṇṭā (Khoroche 1980: xi–xix).