A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t1.33

v2.c19.s3.t1.33

One of the best dialogues in the Dīghanikāya is No. 23, the Pāyāsi-Sutta, the dialogue between the unbelieving chieftain Pāyāsi, who denies the soul and the Beyond, and the monk Kumāra Kassapa. While elsewhere in the "dialogues" of the Suttapiṭaka the person who takes the secondary part in the conversation mostly interrupts the principal speaker, who is usually the Buddha himself, only with words of assent, the Pāyāsi-Sutta is a real, lively dialogue, which sometimes recalls the Platonic dialogues. However, even this Sutta is not original, but is an Itihāsa dialogue enlarged to its disadvantage, which has been borrowed from another sect.¹ The last three Suttas also serve to indicate that the final redaction of the Dīghanikāya must have been completed at a late date: these are the Āṭānāṭiya-Sutta, which is merely an incantation to ward off snakes and demons, and the Saṅgīti and the Dasuttara-Sutta, which are written after the style of the Aṅguttaranikāya, and which, like the texts of the Abhidhamma, which they resemble in contents, are in the form of a catechism.²