Mahāvastu
Also known as: Mahavastu, Mahāvastu-Avadāna, Great Story
A sprawling Lokottaravāda Buddhist compilation mixing prose and verse that narrates the Buddha’s past lives and final life, from descent to enlightenment and first teaching, interwoven with Jātaka and Avadāna tales.
Description
The Mahāvastu (“Great Story”) is a Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit compilation preserved within the Lokottaravāda branch of the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya. It assembles biographical episodes of Śākyamuni’s final rebirth alongside extensive cycles of Jātakas and Avadānas that illustrate karmic causation, generosity, and the bodhisattva path. The work combines prose narrative with embedded verses, hymns, and catalogues, drawing on earlier oral traditions and later scholastic redaction. Its life-of-the-Buddha arc—descent from Tuṣita, birth at Lumbinī, renunciation, awakening at Bodhgayā, and the first sermon at Ṛṣipatana—anchors a wide repertory of exempla used for preaching and monastic instruction.
Historiography
Transmitted in Nepalese manuscripts of the Lokottaravāda Vinaya, the Mahāvastu reflects layered composition and stylistic seams typical of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. Émile Senart produced the first critical edition (3 vols., 1882–1897). J. J. Jones published the standard English translation in three volumes (1949–1956). The text has parallels with Lalitavistara and northern Avadāna collections, and has been central to studies of early Buddha biography and bodhisattva ideology.
Date Notes
Composite compilation of the Lokottaravāda Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya with older narrative strata and later redactional layers.
Themes
Archetypes
Major Characters
- Gautama Buddha
- Bodhisattva
- Dipankara
- Mara
- Ananda
Myths
- Past Lives of the Buddha
- Miraculous Birth and Childhood
- The Śrāvastī Miracles
- Conversions of Disciples
Facts
- Belongs to the Lokottaravāda branch of the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya corpus.
- Composed in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit with alternating prose and verse.
- Among the earliest extended Buddha biographies preserved in Sanskritic tradition.
- Integrates large cycles of Jātaka and Avadāna narratives as doctrinal exempla.
- Redaction shows multiple layers, reflecting centuries of oral and written transmission.
- Preserved primarily in Nepalese manuscript traditions associated with the Lokottaravādins.
- First critical edition published by Émile Senart in three volumes (1882–1897).
- Standard English translation by J. J. Jones in three volumes (1949–1956).
- Shares narrative overlaps with Lalitavistara and northern Avadāna collections.
- Important for reconstructing early bodhisattva ideology and devotional practice.