Jinālaṅkāra

Not a devotional pamphlet but a work of Pali kāvya. The Jinālaṅkāra, “Ornament of the Conqueror”, tells the life of the Buddha in 241 verses, in a range of difficult metres, applying every kind of alaṅkāra — from the vow made before Dīpaṅkara to the Nibbāna. Its last chapter carries the author's own wish, in nine triṣṭubh verses: to be reborn when Metteyya appears, and then to aspire to Buddhahood himself.

The date is exact — 1156 CE — and the authorship is settled from two independent directions. Tradition was confused about who wrote it, but the closing verses of the Jinālaṅkāravaṇṇanā state that text and commentary alike were made in that year by the Thera Buddharakkhita, born in Rohaṇa in Ceylon. The Pali catalogue says the same without being asked: jinālaṅkāro, jinālaṅkārassa ṭīkā attano matiyā buddharakkhitācariyena kato — the Jinālaṅkāra and its subcommentary were made of his own motion by the teacher Buddharakkhita.

It was edited with a translation by J. Gray in 1894.