$Avad\bar a na$, a technical term for genre of Buddhist narrative literature explaining actions and their results through biographical accounts of the Buddha and other personages, appears as the thirteenth section of the $Khuddakanik\bar a ya$ in the Suttapitaka of the Pali scriptures and the seventh of twelve limbs (anga) in Mahayana literature. The largest collection of postcanonical $avad\bar a nas$, the $Bodhisattv\bar a vad\bar a nakalpalat\bar a$ ($AK$), containing 108 stories, was composed by the Kasmirian polymath Ksemendra and his son Somendra and completed in 1052.

The $AK$ was translated into Tibetan between 1260-1280 by the Indian scholar Laksmikara and the Tibetan translator Shong-ston. Its last revision took place during the Fifth Dalai Lama's reign and was printed from 1664-1665. Both the Chone and Derge Bstan-'gyur contain a bilingual edition of the $AK$ and the Narthang and Peking Bstan-'gyur editions contain the Tibetan translation.

The present edition and translation of the first five chapters is based on the abovementioned sources, Das-Vidyabhusana's bilingual Bibliotheca Indica edition of the $AK$--based on the Fifth Dalai Lama's blockprint--and Vaidya's Sanskrit edition of the $AK$ published in Mithila Institute's Buddhist Sanskrit series. The edition is preceded by a discussion of the author, his works, the $AK$ and principles of the edition/translation. Following the annotated translation are proper name, meter and verse indices.