In the Paññāsa-jātaka transmitted in central Thailand, there are as many as eight stories of self-sacrifice (ajjhatika-dāna), where a bodhisatta declares that he carried out his self-sacrifice not to get the achievement of a sāvaka or paccekabuddha but to attain omniscience. Such declaration is rare in the Pāli Nikāyas and their commentaries. In the same way, parallel or similar kinds of stories in the avādānas or jātakas transmitted in Sanskrit and Chinese do not refer to the disengagement from the achievement of a sāvaka or paccekabuddha, with the exception of the story of Kāñcanasāra. Since the direct source of the bodhisatta’s declarations including the reference to the achievement does not seem to exist in the Pāli Nikāyas and their commentaries, there is a possibility that the bodhisatta’s declarations found in the Paññāsa-jātaka are derived from a very old origin which is shared with the story of Kāñcanasāra.
