A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t1.41

v2.c19.s3.t1.41

II. The Majjhimanikāya, “the collection of the medium-sized Suttas,”¹ consists of 152 speeches and dialogues, which differ from those of the Dīghanikāya only in being, on the whole, shorter. But in this collection, too, each Sutta forms a complete whole, and they are as different in kind as they are in value. The great number of the Suttas is one reason for their contents being much more varied than that of the Dīghanikāya. We find in them discourses on almost all the points of the religion of Buddha, on the four noble truths, on the Karman, the vanity of desires, the objectionableness of the belief in a soul, Nirvāṇa, the various kinds of meditation, and so on. Though these discussions are often only tedious sermons, they frequently have the popular and agreeable form of dialogues with a long or short introduction, or a frame story (Itihāsa dialogues). Instruction by means of similes is a favourite device, whether *one* simile is spun out through an entire speech, or whether a whole series of similes runs through a speech in order to impress one and the same doctrine again and again. Myths and legends, too, are related for the sake of introducing some doctrine or other, as in No. 37, where the visit of Moggallāna, the renowned disciple of Buddha, to Indra’s heaven is described. The monk Moggallāna, with his great toe, causes the whole heavenly palace to shake²—a trait strongly reminiscent of the Brahmanical legends of the Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas. Some of the frame narratives give the impression of actual events as, for instance, the story of Pukkusāti, who desires admission into the order, and, while he goes to fetch a cloak and a begging bowl, is killed by a cow (No. 140), in which connection Buddha inculcates the lesson that this man attained Nirvāṇa, in spite of not having been a monk. There is, again the story of the monk Channa (No. 144), who was overtaken by a serious illness, and who took his own life by opening a vein, which Buddha approves. Suicide, he says, is blameworthy if by that means one merely desires to gain another body (in a new re-birth), but not if one enters Nirvāṇa. The beautiful Assalāyana-Sutta (No. 93) strikes us, as though taken from the actual life of the time of Buddha. Gotama's doctrine of the "purity of all the four castes" must have been very awkward for the proud Brahmans. Such dialogues about the problem of caste, as that between the young Brahman Assalāyana and Gotama Buddha, must frequently have occurred in real life. The reasoning against the caste claims of the Brahmans is excellent. Assalāyana says to Buddha: