Târanâtha, the historian of Tibetan Buddhism, has preserved a legend which shows the high esteem in which the _G_âtakamâlâ stands with the followers of the Buddha's Law. 'Pondering on the Bodhisattva's gift of his own body to the tigress, he [viz. _S_ûra] thought he could do the same, as it was not so very difficult. Once he, as in the tale, saw a tigress followed by her young, near starvation; at first he could not resolve on the self-sacrifice, but, calling forth a stronger faith in the Buddha, and writing with his own blood a prayer of seventy _S_lokas, he first gave the tigers his blood to drink, and, when their bodies had taken a little force, offered himself[21].' In this legend I recognise the sediment, so to speak, of the stream of emotion caused by the stimulating eloquence of that gifted Mahâyânist preacher on the minds of his co-religionists. Any one who could compose discourses such as these must have been capable of himself performing the extraordinary exploits of a Bodhisattva. In fact, something of the religious enthusiasm of those ancient apostles of the Mahâyâna who brought the Saddharma to China and Tibet pervades the work of _S_ûra, and it is not difficult to understand that in the memory of posterity he should have been represented as a saint who professed the ethics of his religion, _non disputandi causa_, as Cicero says of Cato, _ut magna pars, sed ita vivendi_. [21] I quote the very words, with which Dr. Wenzel translates d'Oldenburg's quotation from the Russian. See Journ. Roy. As. Soc., 1. 1. p. 307. It was no easy task to translate a work of so refined a composition, still less because there is no help to be had from any commentary. The Sanskrit text has none, and the Chinese commentary mentioned by Bunyiu Nanjio is not translated. Repeated and careful study of the original has led me to change a few passages of the translation I formerly published in the Bijdragen voor Taal-Land-en Volkenkunde van Ned. Indië, vols. viii and x of the fifth 'Volgreeks.' Moreover, I have adapted this, which may almost be styled a second edition, to the wants and the arrangements of the 'Sacred Books of the East.' J. S. SPEYER. GRONINGEN, _April 16, 1895_. _G_ÂTAKAMÂLÂ OR GARLAND OF BIRTH-STORIES BY ÂRYA _S_ÛRA. _Om! Adoration to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas!_ INTRODUCTORY STANZAS. 1[22]. Grand and glorious, of inexhaustible praise and charm, comprising excellent virtues and thereby auspicious, are the wonderful exploits which the Muni performed in previous births. Them will I devoutly worship with the handful of flowers of my poem. [22] The cipher on the left denotes the number of the stanza. The prose parts of the original are indicated by the absence of the cipher.