Buddhist Legends
Translated from the original Pāli text of the Dhammapada Commentary
By Eugene Watson Burlingame
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, mobi and flipbook versions of this text, but unlike my normal practice I have not yet recorded all the audio. I am making some recordings of the stories at present, and will update when I can.
To make the work a manageable size I have divided the eBooks into three volumes, following the original publication scheme.
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.
Anandajoti Bhikkhu
September, 2015.
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