This study consists of three main parts. Part I contains introductory matter and a presentation of the manuscript material which contains stories about Kavikumāra, one of the Buddha’s earlier lives, and a rough classification of the material. Part II contains editions and translations of some of the texts containing this story and in addition one text which is the source of a part of one text. Part III contains summaries and analyses of the main texts. Part I begins with a characterization of the avadāna literature genre followed by definitions of some terms used and a characterization of the texts treated in this study. All the known texts containing a story about Kavikumāra and their manuscript sources are enumerated. In Part II editions of some of the texts mentioned in Part I are found. Different types of editions and the relations of those types with my editions are treated. The characteristics of some of the manuscripts are described. The edition of the Tibetan translation of a part of the Sanghabhedavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya is used as a check on Gnoli’s edition of the Sanskrit text, which is translated. The central part of this study is the synoptic editions of chapter 26 of Kalpadrumāvadānamālā and a prose paraphrase of the text and their translations. Critical editions of two more Tibetan texts and a diplomatic edition of two Sanskrit texts are also given. In Part III summaries of and comparisons between three of the main texts containing stories about Kavikumāra are made. The structure of the text in Kalpadrumāvadānamālā is described and the sources for the different parts are indicated. This text has been chosen for analysis because it is the earliest text which incorporates all the parts which are found in later texts containing the story. The relations of an extremely fragmentary text with the other texts are treated. A comparison of the stories about Kavikumāra and the Hero Story is made. The conclusion summarizes the main findings.
