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Chapter 3: Mahàvastu

As belonging to the old school of Hãnayàna we have in the first place to mention the Mahàvastu ßthe Book of the Great Events.û

Le Mahàvastu, Sanskrit text, was published for the first time with introduction by E. Senart with a detailed conspectus of contents in the Introduction, Paris 1882-1897. A. Barth in Revue de l'Histoire des Religions., 11, 1885, p. 160; 42, 1900, p. 51 and Journal des Savants 1899, p. 459, p. 517, p. 623. E. Windisch, the Composition of the Mahàvastu, Leipzig 1909. A conspectus of the contents is also given by Rajendralal Mitra in his Nepalese Buddhist Literature, pp. 113-161.

The book gives itself the title of: ßThe Vinayapiñaka according to the text of the Lokottaravàdis belonging to the Mahàsaïghikas.û These Mahàsaïghikas, that is, the adherents of the Mahàsaïgha or the Great Order are according to concurrent reports the most ancient Buddhist schismatics.

This is the only thing positive which we can ascertain regarding the rise of Buddhist sects from the contradictory and confused accounts. (Compare Kern Manual of Buddhism, p. 105).

A sub-division of theirs was the Lokottaravàdis, that is, those according to whose doctrine the Buddhas are Supramundane or Lokottara and are only externally connected with worldly existence.

ßNothing in the perfectly Awakened Ones is comparable to anything in the world but everything connected with the great »ùis is exalted above the world.û They wash their feet although no dust attaches to them, they sit under the shade although the heat of the sun does not oppress them, they take nourishment although they are never troubled with hunger, they use medicine although they have no diseases (Windisch loc. cit. p. 470). According to [12] the Mahàvastu, the Lokottaravàdis belong to the Madhyadeèa or the 16 countries lying between the Himàlaya and the Vindhya mountains (Mahàvastu V.1, p. 198.)

Entirely in keeping with this doctrine, the biography of the Buddha which forms the principal contents of the Mahàvastu is related as an ßAvadànaû or a miraculous history. It is clearly not thereby differentiated much from the texts of the Pàëi canon which are devoted to the life of the Buddha. Here in this Sanskrit text just as in the Pàëi counterpart we hear of miracles which accompanied the conception, the birth, the illumination, and the first conversions brought about by the Buddha.

The Mahàvastu harmonizes with the Pàëi Nidànakathà in this that it treats of the life of Buddha in three sections, of which the first starts with the life of the Bodhisattva in the time of the Buddha Dãpaïkara (V. 1, 193) and describes his life in the time of other and earlier Buddhas. The second section (in V. 2, 1) takes us to the heaven of the Tuùita gods, where the Bodhisattva who is re-born there is determined to seek another birth in the womb of Queen Màyà and relates the miracle of conception and the birth of the prince, of his leaving the home, his conflict with Màra, and the illumination which he succeeds in acquiring under the Bodhi Tree. The third section (V. 3), lastly recounts, in harmony with the principal features of the Mahàvagga of the Vinayapiñaka, the history of the first conversions and the rise of the monastic order. And this is also one reason why the Mahàvastu is described as belonging to the Vinayapiñaka, although barring a few remarks on the initiation of the Order it contains next to nothing about the Vinaya proper or the rules of the Order.

Note: The Mahàvastu does not contain the Pàëi technical expressions, Dårenidàna, Avidårenidàna and Santikenidàna [which are found in the late Jàtakanidàna]. See Windisch loc. cit. p. 473, 476 ff. [13]

When we, however, say that the Mahàvastu recounts the main outline of the life of the Buddha for the Lokottaravàdis, that by no means implies that this exhausts the contents of the work; nor does it give an adequate idea of its composition. Far from being a literary work of art, the Mahàvastu is rather a labyrinth in which we can only with an effort discover the thread of a coherent account of the life of the Buddha. This account is constantly interrupted by other material, specially by the numerous Jàtakas and Avadànas and also by dogmatic Såtras. We find no order. Sometimes an attempt is made to put together in a loose fashion the various component parts of the work. Moreover, the same story is frequently repeated whether it be an episode in the life of the Buddha or a Jàtaka, being related twice one after another, first in prose and then in verse, although in a more or less diverging version. But in several passages the same episodes recur with a trifling difference. Thus the legend of the Buddha's birth is recounted no less than four times (Windisch, Buddha's Birth, p. 106, 124 ff.). Again language is also not uniform. No doubt the whole work, both the prose and verse, is written in what we call ßmixed Sanskrit,û but this dialect makes a varying approach to Sanskrit. The more disparate it is from Sanskrit, the more ancient it appears (Oldenberg Zeitschift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 52, 663).

Importance of Mahàvastu

Despite this and not withstanding the circumstance that out of this book we learn hardly anything new on the life of the Buddha or of the Lokottaravàdis, it is [still] of the greatest importance because it preserves for us many ancient traditions and old versions of texts which also occur in the Pàëi canon. Thus the setting out of his home by the Prince Siddhàrtha, the celebrated abhiniùkramaõa of Sanskrit books, is related, as in the Pàëi Majjhimanikàya (26 and 36) in the most archaic fashion (V. 2, 117).

As [14] an instance of the various strata of the book we may mention another version of the same episode in the life of the Buddha and belonging to a later period which follows immediately after the first and more ancient recital in Mahàvastu. Similarly we find early versions of the celebrated ßBenares sermonû and presentments of the following well-known texts in the Pàëi canon:- The Mahàgovinda Sutta (Dãghanikàya 19) the Dãghanakhasutta (Majjhimanikàya, 74) the Sahassavagga of the Dhammapada, the Khuddakapàñha, the Pabajjà, the Padhàna and the Khaggavisàõa Suttas belonging to the Suttanipàta, and pieces from Vimànavatthu and the Buddhavaüsa (Oldenberg Zeitschift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 52, 659 f. 665 f. Windisch Màra and Buddha, 316 f, 322 f). There are poems, moreover, on the birth of the Buddha and vestiges of ancient Buddhistic ballads which we so often come across.

Its Jàtakas

Quite of special value is, however, the Mahàvastu as a mine of Jàtakas and other stories. These have been separately treated by Serge d'Oldenberg (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1896, p. 335 f.) and by Barth (Journal des Savants 1889, p. 625 f.) Charpentier has discussed a few of the Jàtakas in the Mahàvastu in his history of the Pacceka Buddhas (p. 2 f. 12 f, 25 f.) A good half of the book consists of Jàtakas which are related partly in prose with verses inserted, or first in prose and then again in verse. Further we see the Bodhisattva now as a universal sovereign, now as the son of a merchant, then as a Brahman, again as a Nàga prince, as a lion, as an elephant, etc. Many of the Jàtakas are versions of the same story which we find in the Pàëi book of Jàtakas. They harmonize word for word with the Pàëi and many a time show more or less divergence. Thus, for instance, the øyàmakajàtaka (V. 2, p. 209 f.), the pathetic story of the Brahman's son who is shot dead with his arrow by King Peliyakùa is only a [15] version of the Sàmajàtaka [Pàëi No. 540] so well known to us. The Kinnarãjàtaka (V. 2, p. 94 f.) corresponds in character, though not in contents to the Kinnara legend in the Jàtaka book. Kuèajàtaka appears once (V. 2, p. 420 f.) in a recension which is tolerably divergent from Pàëi, a second time (V. 1, p. 3 f.) in metrical form which betrays resemblances with the Pàëi gàthàs. The story of Amara, the smith's daughter, (V. 2, p. 836) answers to the Pàëi Jàtaka No. 387. The Markatajàtaka (V. 2, p. 246 f.) is the fable of the monkey and the crocodile and is known to us as No. 208 of the Pàëi Jàtaka book. The history of Nàliõã who is seduced by Eka øÔïga, grows into a highly developed legend in Mahàvastu (V. 3, p. 143 f.). But it retains some of the more ancient features which have disappeared in the prose Pàëi Jàtaka of Isisiïga (Luders, Nachrichten von der K. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen 1901, p. 20 f.)

Mahàvastu and Puràõas

There are, however, many Jàtakas and Avadànas in the Mahàvastu which have nothing corresponding to them in Pàëi. In these are especially glorified again and again the extraordinary propensity to self-sacrifice and generosity on part of the Bodhisattva. Thus as King Arka, for example, the Bodhisattva bestows upon the Buddha of the age 80,000 grottoes or cave temples fashioned out of the seven kinds of precious stones (1, 54). On another occasion he surrenders his wife and child only [in order] to learn a wise maxim (1, 91 f.) As a beggar he is more pious than King KÔki, for he kills no living being and places his pots on crossways in order that they may be filled with rice and grain for the hungry; and when he hears that his parents in his absence have given away to the Buddha the straw with which he had shortly before embellished his hut he rejoices over it for a month (1,317 f.) [Despite what Nariman said above this last corresponds to Ghañikàra the potter's story in Majjhimanikàya 81]. [16]

Many of the narratives bear the impress of a Brahmanic or Puràõic character. Such is, for instance, the history of Brahmadatta who is childless and betakes himself to the »ùis upon which three birds are borne to him which speak with a human voice and utter many sapient proverbs. This story reminds us of the beginning of the Màrkaõóeya Puràõa. And incidentally it may be observed that portrayal of hell in the beginning of the Mahàvastu has points of contact with the same Puràõa. It is, however in the Pàëi tradition that we find the foundation of the visit of Maudgalyayàna to the 8th Inferno as well as his sojourn in the world of beasts and the world of Pretas, the Asåras, and various kinds of deities. For in the Pàëi tradition also Moggallàna is a saint who roams through heaven and hell and all the worlds. However, the Ràjavaüèa or the History of the Kings to whose dynasty øàkyamuni belonged begins entirely after the fashion of the Puràõas with an account of the creation (1, 338 ff.) The sprit of the Puràõas is also breathed by the Jàtaka (1, 283 ff.), in which a »ùi named Rakùita who is the Bodhisattva, attains to such miraculous powers as an ascetic that he touches the sun and the moon with his hand. The spirit of the Puràõas is very similar to that of the Mahàyàna and many of the stories in the Mahàvastu betray the same partiality for the phantasmagorial - astounding sorcerers to perform the miracles of saints, so peculiar to the Mahàyàna texts. To this class belongs ßthe Story of the Umbrellaû (Chattravastu I, 253 ff.) After the Buddha had freed the city of øràvastã of a terrible plague caused by Yakùas, gods or spirits hold up umbrellas over the Buddha to do him honour. The latter however with his usual compassionateness makes one Buddha to appear under each umbrella by virtue of his supernatural powers so that each god believes that the Buddha is seated under his own umbrella. [17]

More Mahàyàna Affinities

And, although the Mahàvastu belongs to the Hãnayàna and has contacts with much which may or actually does occur in the Pàëi texts of the Theravàdis, it embodies a good deal which makes an approach to the Mahàyàna. Thus, for instance, we find in the first volume (1, 63-193) a large section on the ten Bhåmis or places which a Bodhisattva has to go through and the description of the virtues which he must possess in each of the ten stages. In this section has been interpolated a BuddhànusmÔti (1, 163 ff.) that is, a hymn to the Buddha who in no way is here different from Viùõu or øiva in the stotras of the Puràõas. It is also in keeping with the idea of the Mahàyàna when it is said that the power of Buddha is so great that the adoration of the Exalted One alone suffices for the attainment of Nirvàõa (II, 362 ff.) and that one earns for oneself infinite merit when one only circumambulates a ståpa and offers worship with flowers and so forth. That from the smile of the Buddha proceed rays which illuminate the whole Buddha field (Buddhakùetra) occurs innumerable times in the Mahàyàna texts (III, 137 ff). It is also a Mahàyànist conception when mention is made of a great number of Buddhas and when it is stated that the Bodhisattva is not generated by father and mother, but springs directly from his own properties (Windisch, The Buddha's Birth, p. 97 Note, p. 100 f. and p. 193 f.)

Antiquity of Mahàvastu

The nature of the composition of the Mahàvastu entails the difficulty that the period when it was composed is very hard to determine. Many circumstances point to a high antiquity, for instance, the fact that it belongs to the Lokottaravàda school and also its language. That the work is entirely written in ßmixed Sanskritû while in the Mahàyàna texts this dialect alternates with Sanskrit, is a mark [18] of its greater antiquity. For, as Barth said Sanskrit is in Buddhist texts only an interloper (Journal des Savants, 1899,p. 459).

Certainly old are those numerous pieces which the Mahàvastu has in common with the Pàëi canon and which go back to ancient Pàëi sources. The gàthàs of the Khadgavièàõa Såtra (I. 357,) may be even older than the corresponding Khaggavisàõa Sutta in the Pàëi Suttanipàta. When, however, in the Mahàvastu these verses are sung by five hundred dying Pratyeka Buddhas then in their mouth they refrain. ßHe wanders lonely like a unicornû sounds peculiarly incongruous and it becomes improbable that the prose portion should be as old as the gàthàs.

To the time of the first century after Christ likewise point the Mahàyànist features already indicated as well as a few passages which seem to have been influenced by the sculptors of the Gandhàra art. When for example, in the scene of the flower miracle, the lotus flowers in the form of a circle fall round the halo of the Buddha, it may be noted that the halo was first introduced into India by Greek artists (see A Foucher Journale Asiatique 1903, p. 10, part II, p. 208, and his L'art grecobouddhique du Gandhàra, vol. I, p. 622; besides, the many Buddhas under the umbrellas remind us of the sculptured monuments). The reference in the Mahàvastu to the Yogàcàras brings us down to the fourth century (I, 120); and so do the allusions to the Huns and the most interesting ones to the Chinese language and writing and the characterisation of astrologers as ßHoràpàñhakaû (III, 178). But the core of the Mahàvastu is old and probably was composed already two centuries before Christ, although it has been expanded in the fourth century after Christ and perhaps even at a later period. For it is only the embellishment that has been borrowed from the Mahàyàna, while on the other hand, it is merely a feeble admixture of the Mahàyàna doctrine proper and not of the Mahàyàna mythology which we find in the Mahàvastu. [19]