A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s1.55

v2.c19.s1.55

² The fact that a Pāli Canon was known in North India as late as in the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D., is proved by a quotation (from the Saccasaṃyutta of the Saṃyuttanikāya?) about the "four noble truths" in an inscription dating from this period in Sarnath, s. *Konow*, Ep. Ind. IX, 1908, 291 ff. and Dharmananda *Kosambi*, Ind. Ant. 1910, 217. In inscriptions from Swat in the extreme North-west of India, written at the close of the first century B.C. or in the first half of the first century A.D., we find Sanskrit verses which seem to be literal translations from the Pāli of verses of the Mahāparinibbānasutta and the Dhammapada (G. *Bühler*, Ep. Ind. IV, 133ff.) A fragment of the Cullavagga discovered by C. *Bendall* (OC XIII Hamburg 1902, p. 58ff.) would seem to prove that the Pāli Canon was in existence in Nepal in the 8th and 9th centuries. But it is possible that the MS. was taken from Ceylon to Tibet. So also, when we find that Chinese and Tibetan translations betray familiarity with Pāli texts, it is possible that the translators had been in Ceylon.