A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s1.4

v2.c19.s1.4

Does this work of many decades include any literary activity? Certainly not. It is true that in the Tipiṭaka, the Pāli canon of the Buddhists, most of the speeches and sayings are placed in the mouth of Buddha himself; it is even related exactly and circumstantially where and on what occasion the master delivered a speech or made an utterance. How much, out of all this, should really be attributed to Buddha, will probably never be decided; for Gotama Buddha has not left behind him any written matter, even as little as Yājñavalkya, Śāṇḍilya, or Śaunaka. However, as much of the contents of the speeches and utterances of these sages has probably been handed down in the Upaniṣads, so, doubtless, many speeches and utterances of Buddha were faithfully preserved in the memory of his disciples and handed down to posterity. We may, without laying ourselves open to the charge of credulousness, regard as originating with Buddha himself, speeches such as the famous sermon of Benares on the "four noble truths" and the "noble eightfold path," which recurs always in the same wording, not only in many parts of the Pāli canon, but also in Buddhist Sanskrit texts, some of the farewell speeches handed down in the Mahāparinibbānasutta, which the master is supposed to have addressed to his disciples before his passing, and some of the verses and short utterances handed down as "words of the Buddha" in the Dhammapada, in the Udāna, in the Itivuttaka and in more or less the same form also in Sanskrit texts of Nepal, as well as in Tibetan and Chinese translations. Gotama Buddha, however, did not only preach his new doctrine of suffering and the end of suffering, but also founded a monastic order; he gathered around himself a community of disciples who, according to strict precepts, led a holy life in the way of the master, in order to reach the end of suffering—the much praised Nirvāṇa. And some of the rules and laws for this monastic community probably originated with Buddha himself, above all "the ten commandments for mendicant monks" (dasasikkhāpadāni), perhaps also the list of transgressions (pātimokkha), though in an earlier and shorter form than that in which we have it now.[^1)