Many Buddhas, One Buddha

The Avadānaśataka is a centrally important text for understanding non-Mahāyāna Sanskrit Buddhism. Naomi’s introduction presents some significant new points about the work as a whole and her translation is accurate, and closely follows the syntax and phrasing of the original Sanskrit. Yet the English flows easily. In my opinion, this a wonderful achievement, for it gives the reader a feel for the way such Buddhist legends sound–how they are worded and put together–in addition to what they mean. This volume will be well received by scholars in the discipline and much appreciated by students and general readers with an interest in Buddhism or just in some good stories. John S. Strong, Charles A. Dana Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, Bates College

Naomi Appleton is Senior Lecturer in Asian Religions at the University of Edinburgh. Her primary research interest is the role of narrative in early South Asian religions. She is the author of Jataka Stories in Theravada Buddhism (Ashgate, 2010), Narrating Karma and Rebirth: Buddhist and Jain Multi-Life Stories (CUP 2014) and Shared Characters in Jain, Buddhist and Hindu Narrative (Routledge 2017) as well as a number of articles on Buddhist and Jain narrative.