Jātakatthavaṇṇanā

The commentary on the Jātaka, the birth stories — the longest single work in this layer, running to seven volumes. This first volume covers the Ekakanipāta, the stories told with a single verse, and closes Ekakanipātavaṇṇanā niṭṭhitā.

Nobody knows who wrote it or when. The opening verses name three men who asked for it — Atthadassin, Buddhadeva and Buddhamitta — and mention the Mahāvihāra, but no author. There is no closing colophon either: the verses at the end were added by a scribe. The book does not even claim a title, and is called simply Jātakatthavaṇṇanā, the explanation of the meaning of the Jātaka. No date can be given.

It says nothing about earlier Jātaka commentaries, yet it clearly had one: the Samantapāsādikā mentions a Jātaka-aṭṭhakathā, and the parallel stories preserved in Buddhaghosa's commentaries show the older material at work behind the explanations of the verses. Tradition assigned this book to Buddhaghosa as well; Norman lists it there and adds that “there is some doubt about the last five” — the Dhammapada, the Jātaka, the Khuddakapāṭha, the Suttanipāta and the Apadāna (Norman 1983, p. 121).