This is a e-book edition of Buddhist Legends: Books 1–26 by Eugene Watson Burlingame. It was originally published as part of the Harvard Oriental Series and is now available in print from the Pali Text Society. The translation is in the public domain, although this e-book edition is strictly for free distribution.
This e-book edition contains the complete set of origin stories to the verses of the Dhammapada as found in the Pali commentaries. The original print publication contained summaries of each story along with an introduction and index.
The language style is very readable despite being close to one hundred years old. A few Dhamma terms are somewhat incorrectly translated, such as “returning thanks” instead of “rejoicing in merit” for anumodana. As with any old translation the reader should be cautious.
There are still some typos left over from the scanning process, although it is quite readable. The footnotes are especially error prone. Check back to this page for future updates.
Download:
Complete PDF scans of the original book can be found on archive.org.
You can find another free e-book edition of this text with improved footnotes, as well as an on-line edition, at Ancient-Buddhist-Texts.net.
Is there original Pali text in the Roman script is available in this text? If there how can I order the book?
The only one I am aware of is published by the Pali Text Society.
https://www.palitext.com/palitext/ptext.htm#ot6
Look for Dhammapada Commentary. When you communicate with them please make it very clear that you are interested in the Pali language edition, not the translation.
If you are ok with a digital version, then the Digital Pali Reader has the whole thing. It starts here:
https://www.digitalpalireader.online/_dprhtml/index.html?loc=k.1.0.0.0.0.0.a