Description
This is a Buddhist text written in prose and verses; this style is known as campū kāvya. The author of the text is Āryaśūra, who belonged to the late 3rd or early 4th century. This text describes the previous lives of the Buddha, as the Jātaka texts do. Therefore, this text can also be categorized as a Jātaka text. Originally, the text contained 34 Jātaka stories, but this manuscript includes 32 complete Jātaka stories and an incomplete 33rd and 34th story. It seems that after folio 144b, a few folios are missing because after the completion of the 32nd story on folio 144b, the 33rd story begins but abruptly ends at the next folio, which shows the discontinuation of the text. After the completion of the 33rd story, the 34th begins on the recto part (f. 145), but on the verso, the continuation of the text somehow breaks off, and it seems that the manuscript skips many parts of the 34th story.
"The first leaf is probably of a different text (Suvarṇaprabhāṣa), though it's a-side has the name of Jātaka-mālā (newly written). Its b-side runs as follows: -- (1b1) oṃ namo bhagavate ārya-prajñā-pāramitāyai || tad-yathā || śruti-smṛti-vijaye svāhā ||" (Matsunami, 1965, p. 57)
"The first leaf is probably of a different text (Suvarṇaprabhāṣa), though it's a-side has the name of Jātaka-mālā (newly written). Its b-side runs as follows: -- (1b1) oṃ namo bhagavate ārya-prajñā-pāramitāyai || tad-yathā || śruti-smṛti-vijaye svāhā ||" (Matsunami, 1965, p. 57)
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