The Text

Legends of the Buddhist Saints (Apadāna) is a collection of about six hundred autobiographical poems ascribed to the accomplished Buddhas and Arahants of the early Buddhist community. Composed in India in the Pāli language around the second century, B.C.E. , the collection has been preserved for more than two thousand years. Apadāna is the source of many of the best-loved stories of the saints in the Buddhist world. It is also a particularly rich and colorful source for the social and religious history of ancient India.