A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t1.36

v2.c19.s3.t1.36

To anyone who has followed this survey of the contents of the Dīghanikāya, it will scarcely be credible that a prominent Pāli scholar³ attempts to prove that this text should be regarded as "a literary work which was drawn up as a uniform whole.”[^1) It is a matter of course that the compiler or the committee of compilers were desirous of arranging the Suttas according to some principle, classing together such Suttas as seemed to belong together by reason of association of ideas or wording;[^2) but this does not prove that the whole work is the work of *one* author. When the same scholar seeks to trace a uniform idea underlying the whole of the Dīghanikāya, namely, that Gotama Buddha was a Tathāgata, *i.e.*, that he had trodden the path of salvation in order to encourage his disciples to tread the same path, and that the doctrine of the path leading to liberation or Nirvāṇa is the nucleus of the work, it is merely saying in other words that the alleged author wished to present the tenets of the Buddha on the ideal life. Now this comprises practically all Buddha's teaching, and therefore, in this way, one could puzzle out a “uniform underlying idea” in all the texts of the Tipiṭaka dealing with the Dhamma, and claim that they are the work of *one* author.[^3)