The Pāli Nidānakathā and its Tibetan Translation: Its Textual Precursors and Associated Literature

The Nidānakathā as it is preserved in the Pāli Canon, and in the Tibetan bKa’ ’gyur, has come to us via canonical traditions and an extensive network of commentarial traditions that began in India and were continued later in Ceylon. These commentarial traditions began at a very early period, possibly from the time of the death of the Buddha, and were inspired by the need to establish certain facts concerning the life of the Buddha. The commentarial traditions associated with the Jātaka were centred on the Jātakatthavaṇṇanā, consisting of prose elucidation on the gāthās of the Jātaka text. This work, or at least its core, was possibly in existence at the time of the first Council, and is known to have been a part of the Canon at the time of the Council of Vaiśālī. That there is evidence of a Jātaka and commentary from such an early stage is an indication of its antiquity, its contents being drawn from earlier Indian sources with some elements of it probably reaching back to the lifetime of the Buddha.