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BUDDHIST INDIA
prising. As Professor Deussen has said of the early Upanishads, and as Professor Winternitz has said of the Maha-Bhārata, so also may be said of the Nikāyas and of the Vinaya (and even of some portions of the Abhidhamma), that "we must judge each separate piece by itself.” And this is really only the very natural and necessary result of what has been pointed out above,' that the books grew up gradually, that they were not books in our modern sense, and that they had no single authors.
The distinctions we have to draw will best be shown by an example. The following is a: abstract of a typical Jātaka.
THE BANYAN-DEER BIRTH STORY.'
““Follow rather the Banjan Decr." This the Master told when at Jetavana about the mother of Kumāra Kassapa,' and so on.
Then follows the story of this lady, how, after being wrongly found guilty of immoral conduct, she had been declared innocent through the intervention of the Buddha. Then it is said that the brethren talking this matter over at eventide, the Buddha canie there, and learning the subject of their discourse said: “Not now only has the Tathāgata proved a support and protection to these two (the lady and her son]; formerly also he was the same." Then, on request, he revealed that matter, concealed by change of birth. "Once upon a time, when Bralımadatta was reignAbove, p. 179.
9 Xo. 12.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
