Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch Volume I Part 38

[Footnote 613: Pali means primarily a line or row and then a text as distinguished from the commentary. Thus Palimattam means the text without the commentary and Palibhasa 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 Congres des Orientalistes_, 1905. Grierson, "Home of Pali" in _Bhandarkar Commemorative Essays_, 1917.]

[Footnote 614: It is not easy to say how late or to what extent Pali was used in India. The Milinda-Panha (or at least books II. and III.) was probably composed in North Western India about the time of our era.

Dharmapala 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.]

[Footnote 615: 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.]

[Footnote 616: E.g. nominatives singular in _e_. For the possible existence of scriptures anterior to the Pali version and in another dialect, see S. Levi, _J.A._ 1912, II. p. 495.]

[Footnote 617: Cullavag. V. 33, chandaso aropema.]

[Footnote 618: 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.]

[Footnote 619: Mahaparinibbana-sutta, II. 26. Another expressive compound is Dhumaka-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.]

[Footnote 620: Winternitz has acutely remarked that the Pali Pitaka resembles the Upanishads in style. See also Keith, _Ait. Ar_. p. 55. For repet.i.tions in the Upanishads, see Chand. v. 3. 4 ff., v. 12 ff. and much in VII. and VIII., Brihad. ar. III. ix. 9 ff., VI. iii. 2, etc.

This Upanishad relates the incident of Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi 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.]

[Footnote 621: E.g. Mahav. 1. 49, Dig. Nik. I. 14, Sut. Vib. Bhikkhuni, LXIX., Sut. Vib. Paraj. III. 4. 4.]

[Footnote 622: Cullav. IV. 15. 4.]

[Footnote 623: Ang. Nik. IV. 100. 5, ib. v. lxxiv. 5.]

[Footnote 624: See Buhler in _Epigraphia Indica_, vol. II. p. 93.]

[Footnote 625: Even at the time of Fa Hsien's visit to India (c. 400 A.D.) the Vinaya of the Sarvastivadin school was preserved orally and not written. See Legge's trans, p. 99.]

[Footnote 626: Ang. Nik. IV. 160. 5, Bhikkhu bahussuta ... matikadhara monks who carry in memory the indices.]

[Footnote 627: Cullavag. XI., XII. ]

[Footnote 628: Dig. Nik. 1.]

[Footnote 629: It is remarkable that this account contemplates five Nikayas (of which the fifth is believed to be late) but only two Pitakas, the Abhidhamma not being mentioned.]

[Footnote 630: It refers to a king Pingalaka, said to have reigned two hundred years after the Buddha's time.]

[Footnote 631: Mahav XI. 3.]

[Footnote 632: Mahav. II. 17.]

[Footnote 633: Cullav. IX. 5.]

[Footnote 634: The pa.s.sages are:

1. The Vinaya-Samukasa. Perhaps the sermon at Benares with introductory matter found at the beginning of the Mahavagga.

See Edmunds, in _J.R.A.S._ 1913, p. 385.

2. The Alia-Vasani (Pali Ariya-Vasani) = the Samgiti-sutta of the Digha Nikaya.

3. The Anagata-bhayani = Anguttara-Nikaya, V. 77-80, or part of it.

4. The Munigatha=Sutta-Nipata, 206-220.

5. The Moneyasute=Moneyya-sutta in the Itivuttakam, 67: see also Ang. Nik. III. 120.

6. The Upatisapasine. The question of Upatissa: not identified.

7. The Laghulovade musavadam adhigicya. The addresses to Rahula beginning with subject of lying=Maj. Nik. 61.]

[Footnote 635: See _J.A._ 1916, II. pp. 20,38.]

[Footnote 636: For the date see the chapter on Ceylon.]

[Footnote 637: S. Levi gives reasons for thinking that the prohibitions against singing sacred texts (ayataka gita.s.sara, Cullavag. V. 3) go back to the period when the Vedic accent was a living reality. See _J.A._ 1915, I. pp. 401 ff.]

[Footnote 638: _Museon_, 1905, p. 23. Anesaki thinks the text used by Gu?abhadra was in Pali but the Abhayagiri, which had Mahayanist proclivities, may have used Sanskrit texts.]

[Footnote 639: Nikaya-Sangrahawa, Fernando, _Govt. Record Office_, Colombo, 1918.]

[Footnote 640: See Mahayana-sutralatikara, xvi. 22 and 75, with Levi's notes.]

[Footnote 641: Cullav. VII. 3.]

[Footnote 642: In the first book of the Mahavagga. ]

[Footnote 643: Ang. Nik. V. 201 and VI. 40.]

[Footnote 644: It may be objected that some Suttas are put into the mouths of the Buddha's disciples and that their words are very like those of the Master. But as a rule they spoke on behalf of him and the object was to make their language as much like his as possible.]

[Footnote 645: The Pali anthology known by this name was only one of several called Dhammapada or Udana which are preserved in the Chinese and Tibetan Canons.]

[Footnote 646: The work might also be a.n.a.lyzed as consisting of three old doc.u.ments (the tract on morality, an account of ancient heresies, and a discourse on spiritual progress) put together with a little connecting matter, and provided with a prologue and epilogue.]

[Footnote 647: But in Ceylon there was a decided tendency to rewrite Sinhalese treatises in Pali.]

[Footnote 648: Cf. Divyav. ed. Cowell, p. 37 and Sam. Nik. _P.T.S._ edition, vol. IV. p. 60.]

[Footnote 649: See Takakusu on the Abhidharma literature of the Sarvastivadins in the _Journ. of the Pali Text Society_, 1905, pp.

67-147.]

[Footnote 650: But not always. See S. Levi, _J.A._ 1910, p. 436.]

[Footnote 651: See Luders, _Bruchstucke Buddhistischer Dramen_, 1911 and ib. _Das Sari putra-prakara?a_, 1911.]

[Footnote 652: Inscriptions from Swat written in an alphabet supposed to date from 50 B.C. to 50 A.D. contain Sanskrit verses from the Dharmapada and Mahaparinirvanasutra. See _Epig. Indica_, vol. IV. p. 133.]

[Footnote 653: E.g. The Sanskrit version of the Sutta-Nipata. See _J.R.A.S._ 1916, pp. 719-732.]

[Footnote 654: See the remarks on the Sa?yuktagama in _J.A._ 1916, II.

p. 272.]