Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1

599

I consider it possible, though by no means proved, that the Abhidhamma was put together in Ceylon.

600

For the Burmese Canon see chap. XXVI. Even if the Burmese had Pali scriptures which did not come from Ceylon, they sought to harmonize them with the texts known there.

601

Pali Tipiṭaka.

602

So in Maj. Nik. xxi. a man who proposes to excavate comes Kuddalapiṭakam âdâya, "With spade and basket."

603

The list of the Vinaya books is:

604

I find it hard to accept Francke's view that the Dîgha should be regarded as the Book of the Tathâgata, deliberately composed to expound the doctrine of Buddhahood. Many of the suttas do not deal with the Tathâgata.

605

The Saṃyutta quotes by name a passage from the Dîgha as "spoken by the Lord": compare Sam. Nik. XXII. 4 with Dig. Nik. 21. Both the Anguttara and Saṃyutta quote the last two cantos of the Sutta-Nipâta.

606

It appears that the canonical book of the Jâtaka consists only of verses and does not include explanatory prose matter. Something similar to these collections of verses which are not fully intelligible without a commentary explaining the occasions on which they were uttered may be seen in Chândogya Up. VI. The father's answers are given but the son's questions which render them intelligible are not found in the text but are supplied in the commentary.

607

The following ia a table of the Sutta Pitaka:

608

See J.R.A.S. 1891, p. 560. See too Journal P.T.S. 1919, p. 44. Lexicographical notes.

609

Mrs Rhys Davids' Translations of the Dhamma-sangaṇi give a good idea of these books.

610

The works comprised in this Pitaka are:

611

Maj. Nik. XXII. and Angut. Nik. IV. 6.

612

Pali means primarily a line or row and then a text as distinguished from the commentary. Thus Pâlimattam means the text without the commentary and Palibhâsâ is the language of the text or what we call Pali. See Pali and Sanskrit, R.O. Franke, 1902. Windisch, "Ueber den sprachlichen Character des Pali," in Actes du XIV'me Congrès des Orientalistes, 1905. Grierson, "Home of Pali" in Bhandarkar Commemorative Essays, 1917.

613

It is not easy to say how late or to what extent Pali was used in India. The Milinda-Pañha (or at least books II. and III.) was probably composed in North Western India about the time of our era. Dharmapâla wrote his commentaries (c. 500 A.D.) in the extreme south, probably at Conjeevaram. Pali inscriptions of the second or third century A.D. have been discovered at Sarnath but contain mistakes which show that the engraver did not understand the language (Epig. Ind. 1908, p. 391). Bendall found Pali MSS. in Nepal, J.R.A.S. 1899, p. 422.

614

Magadha of course was not his birth-place and the dialect of Kosala must have been his native language. But it is not hinted that he had any difficulty in making himself understood in Magadha and elsewhere.

615

E.g. nominatives singular in e. For the possible existence of scriptures anterior to the Pali version and in another dialect, see S. Lévi, J.A. 1912, II. p. 495.

616

Cullavag. V. 33, chandaso âropema.

617

Although Pali became a sacred language in the South, yet in China, Tibet and Central Asia the scriptures were translated into the idioms of the various countries which accepted Buddhism.

618

Mahâparinibbâna-sutta, II. 26. Another expressive compound is Dhûmakâ-likam (Cullav. XI. 1. 9) literally smoke-timed. The disciples were afraid that the discipline of the Buddha might last only as long as the smoke of his funeral pyre.

619

Winternitz has acutely remarked that the Pali Pitaka resembles the Upanishads in style. See also Keith, Ait. Ar. p. 55. For repetitions in the Upanishads, see Chând. v. 3. 4 ff., v. 12 ff. and much in VII. and VIII., Brihad. Âr. III. ix. 9 ff., VI. iii. 2, etc. This Upanishad relates the incident of Yâjñavalkya and Maîtreyî twice. So far as style goes, I see no reason why the earliest parts of the Vinaya and Sutta Pitaka should not have been composed immediately after the Buddha's death.

620

E.g. Mahâv. 1. 49, Dig. Nik. I. 14, Sut. Vib. Bhikkhunî, LXIX., Sut. Vib. Pârâj. III. 4. 4.

621

Cullav. IV. 15. 4.

622

Ang. Nik. IV. 100. 5, ib. v. lxxiv. 5.

623

See Bühler in Epigraphia Indica, vol. II. p. 93.