Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c6.s2.t2: B. — Buddhistic literature

Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c6.s2.t2

Language: English

B. — Buddhistic literature

c6.s2.t2.1

⁵ B.IS. III.², 7-16; OLDENBERG, SBE. 13, XXXII ff.; D'ALWIS, Introd. to Kaccāyana's Gram. XXVI f., CXV f., 72-108; WEBER, Ind. Streifen 2, 337 ff.

[5] More important than the testimony of the Brahmans is that of the Ceylonese Tripiṭaka, where numerous passages bear witness not only to an acquaintance with writing, but also to its extensive use at the time when the Buddhist canon was composed. *Lekhā*, "writing,"

c6.s2.t2.3

and *lekhaka*, "a writer," are mentioned in the Bhik[k]u-Pācittya 2, 2, and in the Bhikkhunī-Pācittiya 49, 2; and the former work praises writing as [a] branch of knowledge that is honoured in all countries. The Jātakas repeatedly speak of private¹ and official² letters. They also know of royal proclamations,³ of which Mahāvagga 1, 43 likewise mentions an instance; and they narrate that important family affairs or moral and political maxims were engraved on gold plates.⁴ Twice we hear of debtor's bonds (*iṇapaṇṇa*),⁵ and twice even of MSS. (*potthaka*).⁶ A game called *akkhārikā* is mentioned repeatedly in the Vinayapiṭaka and the Nikāyas;⁷ according to Buddhaghoṣa, its main feature was that letters were read in the sky. The Pārājika section of the Vinayapiṭaka (3, 4, 4) declares that Buddhist monks shall not "incise" (*chind*) the rules which show how men may gain heaven, or riches and fame in the next life, through particular modes of suicide. From this passage it follows (1) that the ascetics of pre-Buddhistic times used to give their lay-disciples rules, incised on bamboo or wooden tablets, concerning religious suicide, which the ancient Brahmans and the Jainas strongly recommended, and (2) that the knowledge of the alphabet was widely spread among the people.

c6.s2.t2.4

¹ B.IS. III², 7 f.

c6.s2.t2.5

² B.IS. III², 8 f., 120.

c6.s2.t2.6

³ B.IS. III², 10, 18.

c6.s2.t2.7

⁴ B.IS. III², 10 f.

c6.s2.t2.8

⁵ B.IS. III², 10, 120.

c6.s2.t2.9

⁶ B.IS. III², 120.

c6.s2.t2.10

⁷ B.IS. III², 16.

c6.s2.t2.11

Finally, Jātaka No. 125, and Mahāvagga 1, 49,⁸ bear witness to the existence of elementary schools, in which the method of teaching and the matter taught were about the same as in the indigenous schools of modern India. The Jātaka mentions the wooden writing-board (*phalaka*), known (as well as the *varṇaka* or wooden pen) also to the Lalitavistara⁹ and to Berūnī,¹⁰ and still used in Indian elementary schools. The passage of the Mahāvagga gives the curriculum of the schools, *lekhā*, *gaṇanā* and *rūpa*, which three subjects, according to the Hāthigumphā inscription of the year 165 of the Maurya era,¹¹ king Khāravela of Kaliṅga learnt in his childhood. *Lekhā*, of course, means "writing," and *gaṇanā*, "arithmetic," *i.e.*, addition, substraction and the multiplication-table formerly called *aṅka* and now *āṅk*, while *rūpa*, literally "forms," corresponds to applied arithmetic, the calculations with coins, of interest and wages, and to elementary mensuration. These three subjects are still "the three R's" taught in the indigenous schools called *gāṁṭī niśāl*, *pāṭhśālā*, *lekhaḍ* or *toll*.

c6.s2.t2.12

⁸ B.IS. III², 13 ff.

c6.s2.t2.13

⁹ Sansk. text, 143; comp. BOR. 1, 59.

c6.s2.t2.14

¹⁰ India 1, 182 (SACHAU).

c6.s2.t2.15

¹¹ Sixth Oriental Congress. 3, 2, 154.

c6.s2.t2.16

These very plain statements of the Ceylonese canon refer certainly to the actualities of the period between B. C. 500—400, possibly even of the sixth century.¹² Their antiquity is proved also by the fact that all the terms for writing, letters, writers, — *chindati*, *likhati*, *lekha*, *lekhaka*, *akkhara*, — as well as nearly all the writing materials, wood or bamboo, *paṇṇa* or leaves, and *suvaṇṇapaṭṭa* or gold plates, point to the oldest method of writing, the incision of the signs in hard materials. All traces of the use of ink are wanting, though the statements of Nearchos and Q. Curtius regarding the writing materials used at the time of Alexander's invasion (see below under C) make it very probable that ink was known in the fourth century B. C., and though an ink-inscription of the third or second century B. C. is found on the inner side of the lid of the relic vessel from Stūpa No. III. at Andher.¹³ Moreover, the Ceylonese books are not acquainted with the words *lipi*, *libi*, *dipi*, *dipati*, *dipapati*, *lipikara* and *libikara* for "writing," "to write," and "writer," of which the first six are found in the **[6]** Aśoka edicts and the last two, as stated above, in Pāṇini's grammar. *Dipi* and *lipi* are probably derived from the Old Persian *dipi*, which cannot have reached India before the conquest of the Pañjāb by Darius about B. C. 500, and which later became *lipi*.¹⁴

Linked texts (4)

Jātaka — Pāli
Aṣṭādhyāyī — Pāṇini, Sanskrit
Tipiṭaka (Theravāda) — Pāli
Vinayapiṭaka — Pāli