A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t1.70

v2.c19.s3.t1.70

III. The third great collection is the Saṃyuttanikāya,¹ "the Collection of Grouped Discourses." It consists of 56 groups (saṃyutta) of Suttas, each of which, in connection with a certain name or object, deals with various points of the doctrine. This, then, is not actually a division according to subjects, but only a feeble attempt at one. Thus the Devatā-Saṃyutta (I), contains sayings of deities (devatā), but the sayings refer to the most diverse subjects. The Māra-Saṃyutta (IV), consists of 25 Suttas, each of which relates a legend in which Māra the tempter appears in order to induce Buddha himself, or one of his disciples, to depart from the doctrine of salvation, in which he always fails. The Bhikkhunī-Saṃyutta (V), contains ten legends of nuns (bhikkhunī), whom Māra vainly tries to lure to apostasy. The Nidāna-Saṃyutta (XII), consists of 92 speeches and conversations, all of which, with endless repetitions, deal with the subject of the twelve Nidānas or the concatenation of causes and effects (paṭiccasamuppāda). The Anamatagga-Saṃyutta (XV), contains twenty speeches, of which all begin with the words: "The beginning of this Saṃsāra, O monks, is entirely unknown (anamataggo)," and explain this sentence by setting forth in ever varying comparisons and images the dreadful accumulation of sufferings in the cycle of migrations from existence to existence which has been going on from innumerable past ages of the world’s history. On the other hand, the 13 Suttas of the Kassapa-Saṃyutta (XVI), are united into a group only because the disciple Kassapa appears as speaker in all of them; in the same way the Sāriputta-Saṃyutta (XXVIII) contains ten speeches of Sāriputta. The 50 Suttas of the Nāga-Saṃyutta (XXIX) deal with the snake-demons (nāgas), enumerating the various kinds of snakes, and naming the deeds which cause one to be born again in one or other of the snake-forms. The 55 Suttas of the Jhāna- or Samādhi-Saṃyutta (XXXIV) deal with the modes of contemplation or meditations (jhāna, samādhi). The strong points and weaknesses, the virtues and vices of women (mātugāma) and the destinies which await them in the next life, are dealt with in the 34 Suttas of the Mātugāma-Saṃyutta (XXXVII). Legends of the great Moggallāna and a few of his speeches are contained in the 11 Suttas of the Moggallāna-Saṃyutta (XL). The hero of the Sakka-Saṃyutta (XI) is Sakka, the god Indra, who appears here, too,¹ as a devout Buddhist. There is surely an intentional piquancy in selecting Indra, the savage, infuriated Vṛtra-slayer of the Veda, as the exponent of the ethics of mildness and non-violence, and as a master in the art of self-command. To scare away the insolent demon who has sat upon his throne, he merely utters the polite words: “My dear friend, I am Indra, the prince of gods.”² The last Saṃyutta is the Sacca-Saṃyutta (LVI), which deals in 131 Suttas with the four noble truths (sacca) of suffering, of the origin of suffering, of the cessation of suffering, and of the way to the cessation of suffering. Here we also find (LVI, 11) the famous Dhammacakkappavattana-Sutta, the “sermon of Benares,” by means of which Buddha set the wheel of the religion (dhammacakka) in motion.³