Abstract

In the Paññ?sa-j?taka transmitted in central Thailand, there are as many as eight stories of self-sacrifice, where a bodhisatta declares that he carried out his self-sacrifice not to get the achievement of a s?vaka or paccekabuddha but to attain omniscience. Such declaration is rare in the P?li Nik?yas and their commentaries. In the same way, parallel or similar kinds of stories in the av?d?nas or j?takas transmitted in Sanskrit and Chinese do not refer to the disengagement from the achievement of a s?vaka or paccekabuddha, with the exception of the story of K?ñcanas?ra. Since the direct source of the bodhisatta’s declarations including the reference to the achievement does not seem to exist in the P?li Nik?yas and their commentaries, there is a possibility that the bodhisatta’s declarations found in the Paññ?sa-j?taka are derived from a very old origin which is shared with the story of K?ñcanas?ra.