Avadana

Avadāna (Sanskrit; Pali cognate: Apadāna) is the name given to a type of Buddhist literature correlating past lives' virtuous deeds to subsequent lives' events. While including accounts from the Pali language Vinaya Pitaka ("Basket of Discipline"), this literature also includes a large number of Sanskrit collections, of which the chief are the Mahāsaṅghika's Mahāvastu ("Great Book"), and the Sarvāstivāda's Avadānaśataka (Century of Legends) and Divyāvadāna (The Heavenly Legend). These latter collections include accounts relating to Buddha Gautama and the third-century BC "righteous ruler," Ashoka.

Amongst the most popular avadānas of Northern Hinayāna Buddhism are:

Though of later date than most of the canonical Buddhist books, avadānas are held in veneration by the orthodox, and occupy much the same position with regard to Buddhism that the Puranas do towards Hinduism. They act in a similar way to other texts describing past deeds or past lives held in other traditions in the region, such as the aforementioned Puranas, the Dasam Granth and Janamsakhis of Sikhism, and the Kalpa Sutra of Jainism.

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