Buddhist Legends
An English translation of this complete translation of the Dhammapada Commentary, which relates many events from the life of the Buddha and his disciples (with an embedded reading of part of the text).
THERE IS NOW A COMPLETELY REVISED EDITION OF THIS TRANSLATION, WITH MANY CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS
Link to the New Revised Translation Here
Translated from the original Pāli text of the Dhammapada Commentary by
Eugene Watson Burlingame
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; sometime Harrison Fellow for ResearChapter University of Pennsylvania, and Johnston Scholar in Sanskrit, Johns Hopkins University; Lecturer on Pāli (1917-1918) in Yale University
Part 1–3: Translation of Books 1 to 26
Volumes 28 and 29 and 30
Originally copyright, 1921
Harvard University Press (Cambridge, Mass.)
Now Public Domain
first scanned and ocr-ed by the Internet Archive with a grant from Microsoft Corporation
originally proof-read by
Ven. Khemaratana
finally proof-read and prepared for digital publication by
Ānandajoti Bhikkhu
(Ver.1.5, April, 2020)
eBooks
Html Table of Contents
Editor’s Note
In preparing this work for digital publication I have made a few minor changes which I will outline here. I have occasionally added notes to the translation, when I thought something needed explaining or a reference was occasional missed by the translator. To distinguish them from Burlingame’s own notes they are prefaced as ‘Ed. note:’.
The original publication quoted only the first few words of the verse(s) that the story is attached to; it is the same in the original Pāḷi text which is being translated. Here, though, as I think it helps to know the verse(s) in advance, I have in most cases included a full quotation of the verse(s) at the top of the story, except when the story is so short it hardly makes a difference.
The pagination of the translation is included in square brackets, so that for instance [28.145] means Vol. 28 of the Harvard Oriental Series, pg. 145. The pagination of the text of the Pāḷi Text Society is included in curly brackets. It was released in 4 volumes, so that {2.138} means Vol. 2, pg. 138. For aesthetic reasons I have normally placed the pagination after the title, and before the text, though the page of course begins with the title.
There are html, pdf, epub and mobi The Introduction is missing from the epub and mobi files because of the difficulty in reproducing the tables well in those formats. versions of this text, but unlike my normal practice I have not yet recorded all the audio.
In September, 2015, I have added in the very useful Introduction by the learned Burlingame, which greatly helps, particularly for those interested in comparative studies.
In April, 2020, I have added the Pāḷi story titles, and assembled the various volumes into one document, be it pdf, epub or mobi, which makes searching, etc. easier.
Anandajoti Bhikkhu
April, 2020.
the Buddhist Legends