Excerpt from The Mahavastu, Vol. 3
In the Foreword to the first volume of this translation, and again in that to the second, the translator expressed his intention to give, with this third and final volume, a detailed study of the composition of the whole of the Mahavastu. It is now seen, however, that such a study could not be contained within the limits of a foreword. A long article, or even a whole volume, would be needed to do anything like justice to the subject. Partial analysis, confined to the more prominent or extensive passages, would not suffice to give a fair conception of the manner and process of the composition of the whole text. The traditions which have gone to the making of the Mahavastu are so numerous and so varied that a comparative study of them must needs make use not only of Pali texts, canonical and commentarial, but also of other Buddhist Sanskrit works, not to speak of Tibetan and Chinese.
Here, therefore, the translator must confine himself to a few general remarks, forgoing even the quotation of parallel or relevant texts which, in a full study, would be indispensable to the argument. These remarks may consequently seem to be based too much on impressions, but the translator is convinced, even from the little progress he has already made with his full critical and comparative study, that these general remarks give a fair idea of the conclusions to which such a study will lead. Besides, he may justly claim that any mere impressions he may seem to indulge in derive a certain degree of validity from the simple fact that they are the result of a long and close acquaintance with the text of the Mahavastu.
Some scholars have spoken of an author of our text, others of its redactor or redactors, but a more accurate description of its creation would be gained by imagining a community of monks, over a more or less long period of time, busily engaged, out of motives of piety, in gathering traditions of the Buddha's life and teaching from all sources accessible to them.
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