As Professor Speyer has explained, the _G_âtakamâlâ, the Garland of Birth-stories, which he has translated, is a totally different work. It is a Sanskrit rendering of only thirty-four _G_âtakas ascribed to Ârya _S_ûra. While the Pâli _G_âtaka is written in the plainest prose style, the work of Ârya _S_ûra has higher pretensions, and is in fact a kind of kâvya, a work of art. It was used by the Northern Buddhists, while the Pâli _G_âtaka belongs to the Canon of the Southern Buddhists. The date of Ârya _S_ûra is difficult to fix. Târanâtha (p. 90) states that _S_ûra was known by many names, such as A_s_vaghosha, Mât_rik_e_t_a, Pit_rik_e_t_a, Durdarsha (_sic_), Dharmika-subhûti, Mati_k_itra. He also states that towards the end of his life _S_ûra, was in correspondence with king Kanika (Kanishka?), and that he began to write the hundred _G_âtakas illustrating Buddha's acquirement of the ten Pâramitâs (see p. xiv), but died when he had finished only thirty-four. It is certainly curious that our _G_âtakamâlâ contains thirty-four _G_âtakas[6]. If therefore we could rely on Târanâtha, Ârya _S_ûra, being identical with A_s_vaghosha, the author of the Buddha_k_arita, would have lived in the first century of our era. He is mentioned as a great authority on metres (Târanâtha, p. 181), and he certainly handles his metres with great skill. But dates are always the weak point in the history of Indian Literature. Possibly the study of Tibetan Literature, and a knowledge of the authorities on which Târanâtha relied, may throw more light hereafter on the date of _S_ûra and A_s_vaghosha. [6] The same is also the number of Avadânas in the Bodhisattva-Avadâna, and the stories seem to be the same as those of our _G_âtakamâlâ.--Rajendralal Mitra, Sanskrit Buddhist Literature, p. 49. F. MAX MÜLLER. OXFORD, _October, 1895_. CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION xxi Introductory Stanzas 1 I. The Story of the Tigress 2 II. The Story of the King of the _S_ibis 8 III. The Story of the Small Portion of Gruel 20 IV. The Story of the Head of a Guild 25 V. The Story of Avishahya, the Head of a Guild 30 VI. The Story of the Hare 37 VII. The Story of Agastya 46 VIII. The Story of Maitrîbala 55 IX. The Story of Vi_s_vantara 71 X. The Story of the Sacrifice 93 XI. The Story of _S_akra 104 XII. The Story of the Brâhman 109