A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t1.75

v2.c19.s3.t1.75

It is evident that, in the grouping of these Suttas, at least three different principles are involved. The Suttas of a group treat either (1) of one of the chief points or principal branches of the Buddhist doctrine, or (2) they refer to some classes of gods, demons or men, or (3) some prominent personality appears in them as hero or speaker. These 56 Saṃyuttas or “groups” are also divided into 5 Vaggas or “divisions,” and their contents embrace all branches of the religion of Buddha. In the first Vagga ethics and the Buddhist ideal of life are predominant, and in the next books epistemology and metaphysics are the main themes. We also find Suttas dealing with the life of the Master, others in which Buddha and Dhamma are already objects of veneration, and a few Suttas dealing with the discipline of the order (vinaya). The total number of Suttas, which are, as a rule, much shorter than those of the Majjhima- or of the Dīghanikāya, is 2889. The number of Suttas is so great, mainly because, according to some pattern or other, a subject is treated in all its different aspects—with continual repetition of the same phrases—until the subject, and the reader too, are completely exhausted. Thus, for example, the Saḷāyatana-Saṃyutta (XXXV) comprises no less than 207 Suttas, speeches and dialogues on the six senses. With untiring monotony it is here demonstrated that sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and the organ of thought (manas) are perishable and full of suffering, and have nothing to do with the Ego, that the sense perceptions corresponding to the six sense organs are perishable and full of suffering, and have nothing to do with the Ego, and that the sense objects corresponding to the six sense organs are perishable and full of suffering, and have nothing to do with the Ego. Moreover, in the case of each single sense-organ, each single sense-perception, each single sense-object, the whole series of assertions is repeated literally, and every assertion forms a Sutta in itself. However tedious we may find this multiplication of Suttas, there are sure to have been sound, practical reasons for it in the use of the Suttas for religious exercises.[^1) Even in this collection, however, we find many things which are to be appreciated also from the purely literary point of view, though it contains much more that is of importance only because it contributes to our knowledge of the doctrine of Buddha.