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A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2: 2. Narratives, Songs and Sayings

A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2

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English

Contents

2. Narratives, Songs and Sayings

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The Khuddakanikāya or "the Collection of the Smaller Pieces," usually reckoned as the fifth Nikāya of the Suttapiṭaka, but sometimes also classed with the Abhidhammapiṭaka, would more correctly be called "collection of miscellanies": for in this collection, besides several short works, we find also a few of the most extensive books of the Pāli-Canon. In contents and character, however, the texts incorporated into this collection differ very widely. In a very remarkable Sutta, which recurs several times,¹ we read a prophecy on the dangers which threaten the religion of Buddha in the future. One of these dangers is that the monks will no longer wish to hear and learn "the Suttantas proclaimed by the Tathāgata, deep, deep in meaning, reaching beyond this world, dealing with the Void,"² but will only lend their ear to the "profane Suttantas proclaimed by disciples, made by poets, poetical, adorned with beautiful words, beautiful syllables." From this we might conclude that the poetical pieces were not at first generally recognised, that their claim to be regarded as sacred texts was contested and that they were only later on combined into a Nikāya, namely the Khuddakanikāya. This assumption is based on the fact that the chief contents of this collection are works of poetic art—collections of aphorisms, songs, poems, fairy tales and fables. This collection was probably only concluded at a late period, and a few non-poetical texts, the authenticity of which is in a similar way, not universally recognised, might have been included afterwards.³ There is no doubt that the works combined in this collection originated at very different periods, and were not originally intended to form parts of one collection.¹ Even though the collection as such belongs to the latest compilations of the Canon, yet, in addition to comparatively modern fabrications, it also contains many of the oldest Buddhist poems. Indeed, it contains precisely all those works of Buddhist literature which are among the most important creations of Indian poetry. We propose to discuss the texts of the Khuddakanikāya not according to their probable age or their importance, but in the order in which they have come down to us in the manuscripts of the Buddhists of Ceylon.

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¹ Saṃyuttanik, XX, 7; Aṅgutt., IV, 160; V, 79, 5. Cf. *Rhys Davids*, Buddhist India 110 f.; *La Vallée Poussin*, Bouddhisme, p. 149. The passage is also very significant for the oral transmission of the Buddhist texts. When they were no longer heard and recited, they disappeared.

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² Suññata "void," *i.e.*, "devoid of independent reality." Here, as in a few other passages of the Pāli Canon, we already meet with the conception of the Void (śūnyatā), which in later times is the central idea of the philosophy of the Mahāyāna. Cf. C. A. F. *Rhys Davids*, A Buddhist Manual of Psychological Ethics, p. xlii f.

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³ It is significant of the unstable character of the Khuddakanikāya as a canonical collection, that the Buddhists of Burma include in the Khuddakanikāya four texts which are not regarded as canonical in Ceylon, namely the Milindapañha, the Suttasaṃgaha (an anthology from the Suttapiṭaka), the Peṭakopadesa and the Netti. (Mabel H. *Bode*, Pali Literature of Burma, London, 1909, p. 4 f.) It is perhaps not a mere accident that in the Siamese edition of the Pāli-Canon (see above p. 21, note 1) eight texts of the Khuddakanikāya are missing: Vimānavatthu, Petavatthu, Theragāthā, Therīgāthā, Jātaka, Apadāna, Buddhavaṃsa and Cariyāpiṭaka. According to the Dīpavaṃsa, V, 37, the Mahāsaṃgītikas did not recognise the Paṭisambhidā, the Niddesa and a part of the Jātaka. The Khuddakanikāya as a whole does not appear in the Chinese Āgamas, but many of the texts are included in other collections. Cf. M. *Anesaki* in Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. 35, part 3, 1908, p. 9.

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¹ Otherwise it would be unaccountable, why the small Khuddakapāṭha should contain three Suttas (Maṅgala-Sutta, Ratana-Sutta and Metta-Sutta) which appear verbatim in the Suttanipāta too; or why the same stories should be told in the Cariyāpiṭaka from entirely different points of view from that of the Jātaka.

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1. At the head of this collection stands the Khuddakapāṭha,² "the Short Recitals." This is a compilation of nine short texts which the novice must know before all others, and which are used in the Buddhist cult as a kind of Mantras or "prayers." It must remain an open question whether the collection was intended as a little hand-book for novices or as a "prayer-book." The first four pieces are quite short. No. 1 is the Buddhist confession of faith, No. 2 an enumeration of the ten commandments for monks, No. 3 a list of the 32 parts of the body, for purposes of meditation on the loathsomeness and perishableness of the human body, and No. 4 contains the "questions of the novice." In ten questions ("What is one? What is two?" etc.) and answers, after the manner of the Aṅguttaranikāya, it explains the most important Buddhist terms. The five remaining pieces are short Suttas, which, by their contents as well as the formula-like phrases and refrains, betray the liturgical purposes which they served. From the oldest times much importance has been attached in India to Maṅgalas, *i.e.*, all sorts of objects and ceremonies which are regarded as good omens or are supposed to bring good luck. Such Maṅgalas as good wishes, benedictions, feeding of Brahmans, garlands of flowers, music, singing, etc., were never missing at any sacrificial feast, marriage celebration, birth ceremony, and so on. In the Maṅgala-Sutta¹ (No. 5) Buddha teaches what he regards as the best Maṅgalas. We read, for instance:

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² Edited and translated by *R. C. Childers*, in JRAS 1870, pp. 309-339; new edition by *Helmer Smith* and *Mabel Hunt*, London PTS 1915; translated by *F. L. Woodward*, Some Sayings of the Buddha, pp. 53 ff. He calls it "the Buddhist Layman's Prayer-Book." German translation by *K. Seidenstücker*, Breslau, 1910.

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¹ Copleston, Buddhism, p. 140, says of this Sutta: "It is constantly repeated now by the monks in Ceylon, and it is a great pity that nobody understands it." In Burma this Sutta is sung at times of epidemics by white-robed elderly men and women at cross-roads before images of Buddha. Ind. Ant. 8, 1879, pp. 82 and 329.

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"Honouring mother and father, cherishing of child and wife,
And a peaceful occupation: This is the best good omen.
Giving of alms and righteous life, to cherish kith and kin,
Doing deeds that bring no blame: This is the best good omen.
Ceasing and abstaining from sin, to shun intoxicating drinks,
Not neglecting religious duties: This is the best good omen."

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The other Suttas, too, are permeated by the same spirit of a higher code of ethics. Thus the Ratana-Sutta (No. 6) by which, according to ancient custom, the Bhūtas, spirits of the earth and air, together with the three Ratanas or "jewels,"² are worshipped. Of a similar nature is also Sutta 7, dedicated to the cult of the dead, a few verses of which are recited at cremations in Ceylon and Siam even at the present day. Sutta 8, of the "Hidden Treasure," in which it is demonstrated that a treasure of good works is the best treasure which the Buddhist can accumulate, and above all, the magnificent Metta-Sutta (No. 9), in which friendliness (mettā) towards all beings is praised as the true Buddhist cult, are on a still higher plane.

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² These are: Buddha, Dhamma (the religion) and Saṅgha (the monastic community).

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Seven of these nine texts are still used at the Buddhist Parittā-ceremony or “Pirit,” as the Buddhists of Ceylon call it. The word Parittā means “protection, warding off,” and already in the Tipiṭaka it is used in the sense of “Pirit” or “exorcism-formula, benediction.” “At the present day in Ceylon, Parittā (Singhal. Pirit) has come to mean the recitation (or reading) by the Bhikkhus, of some thirty texts belonging to the Canon, for the purpose of banishing the influence of evil powers. The Parittā-ceremony is performed on all possible occasions, *e.g.*, at the building of a new house, in cases of death, diseases and so on.”¹ I cannot help agreeing with K. *Seidenstücker* when he takes Suttas 5–9 to be old exorcism-songs, and, as the first four pieces also present a formula-like appearance, I do not regard it as unlikely that the Khuddakapāṭha was compiled for similar purposes as the Parittā-text-book still in use in Ceylon to-day.

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¹ *Seidenstücker*, l.c., p. 3. *Cf.*, M. *Grimblot* and Léon *Feer*, Extraits du Paritta in JA 1871, s. 6, t. XVIII, 225 ff. *Geiger*, Pali Literatur und Sprache, p. 16 f.; T. W. *Rhys Davids*, Dialogues III (SBB IV), p. 185 ff. The Milindapañha, p. 150 f., mentions Parittās as having been taught by Buddha. In Burma, too, there is a small collection of texts from the Suttapiṭaka, called Paritta or Mahā-Paritta, which is used for exorcisms, and is better known among the people than any other Pāli book (M. H. *Bode*, l.c., p. 3 f.).

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2. The Dhammapada,² (“Religious Sentences”³) is the best known and the longest known work of Buddhist

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² Edited with a Latin Translation by *V. Fausböll*, Hauniae, 1855; 2nd ed., London, 1900; new edition by *S. Sumangala Thera*, London PTS 1914; translated into English by *F. Max Müller*, SBE, Vol. 10, part 1; by *A. J. Edmunds*, Hymns of the Faith, Chicago, 1902; by *W. D. C. Wagiswara* and *K. J. Saunders*, Way of Virtue, London, 1912 (Wisdom of the East Series); into German by *L. v. Schroeder* (1892), by *K. E. Neumann* (1893), by *P. Dahlke* (1919), by *R. O. Franke* (1923); into French by *Fernando Hû* (Paris 1878) and *L. Feer* (Bibl. or. elzév.); into Italian by *P. E. Pavolini* (Milano 1908, and Testi di morale buddhistica, Lanciano 1912, pp. 1-80). *Pavolini* (JSAI 25, 1912, p. 324) also mentions a Russian translation by *N. Gerasimov*.

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³ According to the different meanings of *pada* and of *dhamma*, the title has been translated variously by “Footsteps of Religion,” “Path of Religion,” “Path of Virtue,” “Sentences of Religion,” “Worte der Wahrheit,” etc. *Cf.* *R. C. Childers*, Dictionary, p. 117 f.; *Max Müller*, SBE, Vol. 10, part 1, p. xlv ff.; L. v. *Schroeder*, Transl., p. 131 ff.; R. O. Franke, ZDMG 46, 1892, 734 f.; WZKM 15, 1901, p. 396; PTS Dic., s. v. I have no doubt that "Dhammapada" is used in a collective sense, like "Udāna," "Itivuttaka," etc., and that it means "Collection of Words or Verses on Religion," "Dhamma Words," or "Religious sentences."

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literature, which has been repeatedly translated into European languages, is much quoted in all works on Buddhism, and has always been held in high esteem owing to its profound moral value. In Ceylon the book has been used for centuries down to our own times by the novices as a text-book which they must have studied before they can receive the higher orders (upasampadā). For this reason there is not a monk in Ceylon who cannot recite his Dhammapada from beginning to end from memory. Buddhist preachers often take verses from the Dhammapada as the text of their sermons.¹ It is an anthology of sayings which chiefly refer to the ethical doctrines of Buddhism. Of the 423 verses, every 10-20 are formed into a section (Vagga), as they deal with the same subject, or as a simile (*e.g.*, of the flower in Vagga 4, the "flower-section"), or sometimes a refrain runs through the verses of such a section. The formation and arrangement into Vaggas is probably the work of the compiler. In many cases, however, several verses together actually form a little poem, as, for instance the verses of the "Elephant-section," a few of which I quote from the translation by F. L. *Woodward*.²

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¹ Cf. *Sumangala Thera* in the Foreword to his edition.

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² Some Sayings of the Buddha, p. 258 ff. (verses 320-322, 328-330).

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"As the elephant in battle bears the arrows at him hurled,
I must bear men's bitter tongues, for very evil is the world.

Tamed, they lead him into battle; tamed, the king his back ascends;
Tamed is he the best of beings, whom no bitter speech offends.

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Good are well-tamed mules, and good are Scindian steeds of lineage famed;
Good indeed the mighty tusker; best of all the man self-tamed."

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"Hast thou found a fellow-traveller, upright, firm, intelligent?
Leaving all thy cares behind thee, gladly walk with him intent.

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Hast thou found no fellow-traveller, upright, firm, intelligent?
As a king deserts his borders, by the enemy pursued,
Like the tusker in the forest, go thy way in solitude.

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Better is the lonely life, for fools companions cannot be.
Live alone and do no evil, live alone with scanty needs,
Lonely, as the mighty tusker in the forest lonely feeds."

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Couplets which together form a whole, are especially frequent, *e.g.*, verses 141 f.

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"Not nakedness, nor matted hair, nor filth,
Nor fasting long, nor lying on the ground,
Not dust and dirt, nor squatting on the heels,
Can cleanse the mortal that is full of doubt.

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But one that lives a calm and tranquil life,
Though gaily decked,—if tamed, restrained he live,
Walking the holy path in righteousness,
Laying aside all harm to living things,—
True mendicant, ascetic, Brāhmin he."[^1)

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Many of the most famous Buddhist sayings are in the Dhammapada. Thus the beautiful verses (153 f.), which Buddha is said to have uttered after he had gained enlightenment:

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[^1): Translation by Woodward, 1.c., p. 26.

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“Thro’ many a round of birth and death I ran,
Nor found the builder that I sought. Life’s stream
Is birth and death and birth, with sorrow filled.
Now, house-builder, thou’rt seen ! No more shalt build !
Broken are all thy rafters, split thy beam !
All that made up this mortal self is gone :
Mind hath slain craving. I have crossed the stream.” [^1)

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A simple and yet splendid metaphor : lust, worldly desire, is the “builder of houses,” who again and again constructs a new house, *i. e.*, a new body in a new rebirth. We repeatedly come across such simple but impressive metaphors and similes in the sayings. Thus the equanimity of the sage is compared with a deep lake, smooth as a mirror, or with an unshakable rock (81 f.). Or it says : As the spoon gets nothing of the flavour of the soup, so the fool derives no benefit from intercourse with the sage; it is only the sage who gains through intercourse with sages, as only the tongue enjoys the flavour of the soup (65 f.). Whoever speaks or acts with an impure mind, is pursued by suffering, as the wheel follows the foot of the draught-ox ; whoever speaks or acts with a pure mind, is pursued by joy, as by his own shadow (1 f.). Or (“Not quickly, as milk curdles, does the bad deed which one has committed, resolve itself into its consequences ; burning, it follows the fool like fire which is covered with ashes”) (71). We constantly meet with such images, and often they appear in pairs. We also find more elaborate verses with those plays on words (*e.g.*, 344) for which the Indians have always had a predilection.

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More than half of all the verses of the Dhammapada have also been traced in other texts of the Pāli Canon, and there is scarcely any doubt that, generally speaking, the compiler of the anthology took them from the settings where we still

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[^1): Translation by Woodward, l.c., p. xi.

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find them to-day.¹ However, the collection has come to include some sayings which were originally not Buddhist at all, but were drawn from that inexhaustible source of Indian gnomic wisdom, from which they also found their way into Manu's law-book, into the Mahābhārata, the texts of the Jains, and into narrative works such as the Pañcatantra, etc. It is, in general, impossible to decide where such sayings first appeared.²

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¹ Cf. *Rhys Davids* in JRAS 1900, 559 f., and the concordance by *R. O. Franke*, the appendix to his Translation, p. 93 ff.

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² Brahmanical sources may occasionally be assumed. Thus, verse 108 is probably a citation from a Brahmanical text, which is given only to connect the following verses with it (109-115).

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**3.** While the Dhammapada is merely a collection of verses, and it was only at a later period that narratives were added in the form of a commentary no longer belonging to the canon, relating on what occasion the single verses were uttered, the Udāna,³ the collection of "pithy sayings," consists of verses and narratives. The work is divided into 8 Vaggas or "sections," each of which contains 10 Suttas. These Suttas are generally quite short narratives recounting some event of the time of Buddha, and ending with a pithy utterance which the Buddha, inspired by this event, is said to have "breathed out," *i.e.*, to which he gave vigorous expression. The standing phrase which introduced the actual Udāna, *i.e.*, "exhalation," generally a verse (Śloka, Triṣṭubh or Jagatī) and rarely a prose saying, reads: "Now when the Lord had gained knowledge of this matter, he uttered the following pithy saying on this occasion." Most of these utterances serve to glorify the Buddhist ideal of life, the deep blissful repose of mind of the saint (Arhat) torn away from all earthly things, the endless bliss of Nirvāṇa.

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³ Edited by P. *Steinthal*, London, PTS 1885; translated (rather imperfectly) into English by D. M. *Strong*, London 1902; into German by K. *Seidenstücker* (1920). See also E. *Windisch* in JPTS 1890, p. 91 ff.; K. *Seidenstücker*, Das Udāna, I. Teil: Allgemeine Einleitung, Leipzig 1913; B. C. *Mazumdar*, JRAS 1911, p. 197 ff.

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The book of the Udānas contains only a selection of the "pithy sayings" ascribed to Buddha. In other books of the Tipiṭaka also, there are utterances of this kind, called "Udāna," which are not always attributed to Buddha, but sometimes to a king, a deity or some other personage.¹ Quite a number of Suttas as well as of separate Udānas (without the Suttas belonging to them) are common to the Udāna and other collections.² In particular, it contains several Suttas relating to the life of Buddha, which are in agreement with the biographical texts of the Vinayapiṭaka and the Mahā-Parinibbāna-Sutta. However, they were probably not borrowed from these collections, but were based on earlier traditions on which the various collections have drawn.

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¹ For instance, Vinayap. Mahāv. 1, 1, 5; Dīghanikāya XVI, 3, 10; Saṁyuttanik 1, 3; III, 3; VII, 1; XXII, 55.

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² Cf. *Seidenstücker*, Allg. Einleitung, p. 62 f.

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It is an open question whether, as *Seidenstücker* thinks,³ the majority of the Udānas in this collection are really "authentic words of the Master." We are safe, however, in granting that most of these short⁴ and beautiful utterances certainly bear the stamp of antiquity, and that many of them are possibly the actual words of Buddha himself or of his most prominent disciples. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that the utterances themselves are, as a rule, older than the narratives into which they are inserted. Though a few of them may have come down from the very beginning in association with an introductory story, yet in the majority of cases it was the compiler who appended such a story to an old Udāna. This is why many of the Suttas only contain very simple, in fact sometimes silly stories, inappropriate to the pathos of the utterances themselves. For instance, in one pithy saying (III, 7) we are told that even the gods envy the saint who is free from desire. To illustrate this, a story is told how Sakka and the other gods actually envy the Arhat Mahākassapa. Another pithy saying (VI. 9) compares people who are engrossed in worldly life and do not strive after that which is essential, with moths rushing into a flame. The corresponding story relates that Buddha once sojourned in Sāvatthi, and noticed a number of moths flying into the burning oil-lamps and being burnt. Or, again, Buddha sees the venerable Sāriputta teaching another monk by means of a sermon. This is sufficient pretext for his being made to utter the following pithy saying (VII, 2) :

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³ l.c., p. 36. *Seidenstücker* is probably right in saying that the metrical irregularities which Mr. *Mazumdar* (l.c.) has pointed out in some of the Udānas, must not be corrected, but are rather a sign of antiquity.

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⁴ Only I'II, 10 and VI, 8 are not short sayings, but short homilies.

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"The wheel is broken, since he has become desireless ;
The river is dried up and flows no more,
No longer does the broken wheel roll on : [^1)
The end of sorrow is attained."

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In Section VIII we find a series of significant sayings, which are of great importance as bearing on the much discussed question of the true meaning of Nirvāṇa. Yet only one single, short, and insignificant story is given in illustration of the first four sayings. VIII, 10 repeats the legend of VIII, 9 : A monk who has attained complete Nirvāṇa, flies up into the air, where he is burnt so entirely that nothing is left of him, not even soot or ashes. What pathos to attach this childish legend to the beautiful and profound "pithy saying" :

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"As the fiery sparks from a forge, one by one are extinguished,
And no one knows whither they have gone ;

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[^1): The "wheel" is the wheel of recurring rebirths; the "stream" means sensual desires. These similes are so familiar to the Buddhists that they have become inherent in the vocabulary of the language. Cf. above, p. 74.

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So it is with those who have attained to complete emancipation,
Who have crossed the flood of desire,
Who have entered upon the tranquil joy (of Nirvāṇa)—
Of these no trace remains." [^1)

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In some cases there is not much more than a thread to connect the "pithy saying" with the corresponding story. On the other hand, there are a few Suttas, in which the narrative is more interesting and more significant than the "pithy saying." For instance, III, 2, tells the story of Nanda, the half-brother of Buddha, who, though a monk, still harbours thoughts of the wife he has left behind, and is taken by the Lord to Indra's heaven, where he sees the heavenly nymphs, and observes that, beside these, his wife only looks like a wretched she-ape. Then Nanda only practises his monastic vow so as to gain possession of the beautiful heavenly women, but finally Buddha puts him on the right path.[^2) The story in II, 8, is of interest, because it shows that in comparatively olden times loving devotion (bhakti) to Buddha was regarded as productive of miracles. The parable of the blind men and the elephant, in VI, 4, is famous:

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Some ascetics and Brahmans once met together, and began to quarrel. Some said: "The world is eternal," and the others: "The world is not eternal;" some declared: "The world is finite," and the others: "The world is infinite;" again some taught: "Body and soul are separate," and others: "Body and soul are but one." Some said: "The perfect man *is* after death," others maintained: "The perfect man *is not* after death" and so forth. Finally all this leads to a quarrel, and to harsh and insulting words. The monks tell Buddha of this quarrel, and then he tells them the following parable:

There was once a king, who had all those who had been born blind, brought together. When they were all assembled, the king commanded

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[^1): Translation (rather free) by D. M. Strong, p. 129. [^2): This theme later became the subject of an epic (Saundarananda-kāvya) by Aśvaghoṣa.

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an elephant to be shown to them. An elephant was brought, and they made some feel his head, others his ear, others his tusk, others his trunk, etc., and the last one the elephant's tail.¹ Then the king asked them: "How does an elephant look?" Then those who had touched the elephant's head, said: "An elephant is like a pot;" those who had touched the ear, said: "An elephant is like a winnowing basket;" those who had touched the tusk, declared: "An elephant is like a plough-share;" those who had touched the trunk, said: "An elephant is like the pole of a plough," etc.; and those who had felt the tail, maintained: "An elephant is like a broom." A great tumult now arose. Each one maintained: "An elephant is like this, and not otherwise; he is not like that, he is like this," until at last they came to blows, at which the king was mightily amused.

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¹ The text reads: "*He showed* them the head," etc., but the meaning is, of course, that he told them to feel the elephant's head, etc.

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Even so, concluded Buddha, is the case of the ascetics and Brahmans, each of whom has only seen a portion of the truth, and who then maintain: "Thus is truth, and not otherwise; truth is not thus, but thus."²

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² The parable was also familiar to the Brahmanical philosophers, among whom "the rule of the blind men and the elephant" (andhagajanyāya) has become proverbial. Cf. G. A. *Jacob*, A Second Handful of Popular Maxims, Bombay 1902, p. 53, and JRAS 1902, p. 174; T. W. *Rhys Davids*, JRAS 1911, p. 200 f. It occurs also in the Jaina Syādvādamañjarī, see V. S. *Ghate*, Ind. Ant. 42, 1913, p. 251.

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4. Like most portions of the Udāna, the Itivuttaka,³ ("'Thus spake Buddha" sayings⁴) also consists of prose and verse. Yet here the relationship between the two is essentially different. The prose is not narrative prose, but the same idea, whether it is a doctrine or an admonition, is presented partly in prose, partly in verse. In many cases, in about 50 of the 112 short pieces of which the work consists, an idea is first briefly expressed in prose and then repeated in verse, only deviating so far as the metrical form¹ demands. In a few cases only one verse has a counterpart in the prose, while several verses follow, to which nothing in the prose corresponds. In addition to these there are the numerous cases in which prose and verses supplement each other, whether the prose forms only a short introduction to the ideas expressed in the verses, or whether one aspect of an idea is treated in prose and the other in verse. In all these cases the spirit of the verses and of the prose is, on the whole, the same, and not infrequently an idea is expressed more clearly and more pointedly, and even more beautifully, in the prose than in the verses. Though here, too, there is no lack of formula-like phrases and repetitions so characteristic of the Buddhist Suttas, yet the style is, on the whole, free from excessive verbosity. Almost all the pieces are short. Both in the prose and the verses, the language is simple, natural and not excessively flowery. Elaborate similes are rare, but some beautiful metaphors occur. Thus the generous man, who gives liberally to pious beggars, is compared with the rain-cloud, which pours its water over hill and vale (No. 75). Bad company is avoided by the sage, as even the spotless quiver is defiled by the poisoned arrow (No. 76). The senses are the gates which must be well guarded (Nos. 28 and 29). Buddha calls himself the incomparable healer and surgeon, and the monks his children and heirs (No. 100). The language of the prose rises to the most lofty flights in the piece (No. 27) about friendliness towards all beings (mettā) :

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³ Edited by E. *Windisch*, London PTS 1889. Translated into English (Sayings of Buddha, with an Introduction and Notes) by J. H. *Moore*, New York 1908 (rather faulty); into German by K. *Seidenstücker*, Leipzig, 1922; into Italian by *Pavolini*, Testi di morale buddhistica, Lanciano 1912, pp. 97-111.

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⁴ The title means "Sayings beginning with the words 'Thus was said (by the Lord).'" Every paragraph begins with the words: "This was said by the Lord."

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¹ The metre of the Itivuttaka is dealt with by J. H. Moore in JAOS, Vol. 28, 317-330.

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"O Monks, all actions serving as the substratum of a new rebirth, by which one acquires merit, are not worth the sixteenth part of friendliness (mettā), which is the emancipation of mind; for friendliness radiates, shines and illumines, surpassing those actions as the emancipation of mind. O monks, just as all the lights of the stars are not worth the sixteenth

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part of the moon-light, for the moonlight, surpassing them all, radiates, shines and illumines—so, O monks, all actions serving as the substratum of a new rebirth, by which one acquires merit, are not worth the sixteenth part of friendliness, which is the emancipation of mind; for friendliness radiates, shines and illumines, surpassing those actions as the emancipation of mind. Just as when, O monks, in the last month of the rainy season, in autumn the sky is clear and cloudless, the sun rises over the heavens, and, driving away the darkness which fills the atmosphere, radiates, shines and illumines, so, O monks, all etc., ......the emancipation of mind. And O monks, just as in the early morning, when the night is past, the morning star radiates, shines and illumines, so O monks, all etc., the emancipation of mind."[^1)

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Sometimes the prose adopts a personal note, which is missing in the verses. Thus, in No. 30f., Buddha says that two things cause him pain, namely, when a man has done no good, and when a man has done evil; and that two things give him pleasure, namely, when a man has done no evil, and when a man has done good. But the verses say only that he who has done evil in deeds, words and thoughts, shall descend to hell after death, while the virtuous one, who does good in deeds, words and thoughts, shall go to heaven after death. In the prose of No. 92 Buddha says very beautifully: Even if a monk takes hold of the hem of my garment and follows me step by step, but at the same time is greedy, passionate, malicious, etc., he is still far from me and I far from him. But if a monk dwells a hundred miles distant from me and is not greedy, not passionate, not malicious, etc., he is near me and I am near him. Then come the feeble, commonplace verses, in which it is said that the greedy man, the evil-doer, the malcontent, is far removed from the sage, who has attained calmness; while the good man, the calm man, the selfless man, is very near to the good one, the calm one, the selfless one. It seems almost as if a commentator had here welded together two texts, the one in prose, the other

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[^1): Cf. Pischel, Leben und Lehre des Buddha, p. 77 f.

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in verse, though they have nothing in common but the words “near” and “far.”

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Indeed, cases are not rare in which the prose represents an independent Sutta, and the verses which follow it are only distantly connected with the prose, sometimes only by word consonances. Moreover, there are a few pieces in which the prose and the verse portions are entirely unconnected or even contradict each other. In all these cases we are probably dealing with later additions. Expressing an idea first in prose and then garbing it in verse, or commencing the presentation of a doctrine in prose and then continuing it in verse, seems to be an old form of Buddhist composition. Then when texts having this form were collected in the Itivuttaka, even prose texts and verses which were taken from elsewhere, were combined on the same pattern and inserted into the collection, possibly already by the first compiler, but perhaps not till later. It is a fact that in the Chinese translation of the Itivuttaka by Hsüan-Tsang many of the last pieces of our collection are missing,¹ and that a few of these last pieces are to be found in the Aṅguttaranikāya. It is very probable that they were taken thence. Furthermore, when we consider that a number of verses, combined with different prose pieces, appear twice, it may be regarded as indubitable that even in this very small collection earlier and later matters are combined. The additions include a few passages in which the prose only looks like a kind of commentary on the verse. In the old and authentic pieces,² however, the prose does not lag behind the verse either in value or in antiquity. In the later additions, too, it may happen that an old piece of prose has been combined with later verses.

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¹ Cf. *Watanabe*, Chinese Collection of Itivuttakas, in JPTS 1907, p. 44 ff.; A. J. *Edmunds*, Buddhist and Christian Gospels, I, 209 ff. On the other hand the Chinese Ityukta has 137 Suttas against 112 in the Pāli text. Cf. *Seidenstücker*, l.c., p. xvi ff.

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² *Moore*, wrongly regards the prose in general as a later ingredient. *Seidenstücker*, on the contrary, sees in the prose the nucleus of the work. It is probable that in the oldest passages of the Itivuttaka there is much which can be traced back to Buddha himself. However, A. J. *Edmunds* is far too optimistic in saying that: “If the Itivuttaka be not the words of Buddha, nothing is” (Buddhist and Christian Gospels, I, p. 83).

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5. If many pieces of the very oldest Buddhist poetry have been preserved in all the books of the Khuddakanikāya hitherto mentioned, this may be maintained with far greater certainty of the Suttanipāta¹ (the "Section of Discourses");² for, though the whole collection as such cannot be proved as belonging to the very earliest of what ancient Buddhist poetry we have, yet certain of the essential parts of the collection can put forward this claim. The Suttanipāta is a collection of poetical Suttas in 5 sections. The first four sections (Uragavagga, Cūlavagga, Mahāvagga, Aṭṭhakavagga) contain 54 short poems, while section 5 (Pārāyana) is a long, independent poem, consisting of 16 shorter parts. Of these 5 sections, two, Aṭṭhakavagga and Pārāyana, are mentioned by their titles or quoted, both in other texts of the Pāli-Canon and in Sanskrit Buddhist texts.³ There is an old commentary on these two sections, which has been included in the Canon (as Book 11 of the Khuddakanikāya) under the title of Niddesa. Moreover, single Suttas and numerous Gāthās, from all the five sections, can be traced in other texts of the Canon.⁴ Among the texts especially recommended for study by King Aśoka in his Bhābrū edict, there are three which probably belong to the Suttanipāta.¹ Reasons, both of language and of subject-matter, also speak in favour of some of these Suttas reaching back to the time of the beginning of Buddhism and of many of them having originated at least in the circles of the first disciples of Buddha, not long after his death.

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¹ Edited by *V. Fausböll*, London PTS 1885 and 1893, and translated by the same scholar in SBE, Vol. 10, part 2, 1881. New edition of the text by Dines Andersen and Helmer Smith, London PTS 1913. Translated into German by *K. E. Neumann* (Reden Gotamo Buddho's IV, 1911). Cf. *Rhys Davids*, Buddhist India, p. 177 ff.; *H. Oldenberg*, Aus dem alten Indien, Berlin 1910, p. 25 ff.

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² Nipāta is a short section of a larger collection; thus the sections of the Aṅguttaranikāya are called Nipātas. *Neumann* translates it by "fragments," *Oldenberg* (l.c., p. 25) by "perhaps the isolated, occasional speeches."

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³ The same two texts also occur in the Chinese Tipiṭaka, while the Suttanipāta as a whole has not been translated into Chinese. For this, see *M. Anesaki* in JPTS 1906-7, p. 50f.; Le Muséon, N. S., VII, 1906, p. 33 ff., and Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, XXXV, 1908, part 3, p. 8 ff. Fragments of an Arthavargīya-Sūtra in Sanskrit have been discovered in Central Asia, s. A. F. R. Hoernle, JRAS 1916, 709 ff.

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⁴ Cf. *R. Otto Franke*, in ZDMG 63, 1909, p. 1 ff., 23 ff., 255 ff., 551 ff.; 64, 1910, 1 ff., 760 ff.; 66, 1912, 204, ff., 699 ff. *Franke* (WZKM 28, 1914, 261 ff.) endeavours to prove that the Suttanipāta has borrowed the Sela-Sutta (III, 7) and the Vāseṭṭha-Sutta (III, 9) from the Majjhimanikāya (No. 92 and No. 98). I do not believe that this proof is conclusive. But even if it were, it would only follow that the collection of the Suttanipāta is later than the collection of the Majjhimanikāya. As neither the Majjhimanikāya nor the Suttanipāta is a unified work, it does not follow that all the separate portions of the Suttanipāta are later than the Majjhimanikāya.

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¹ Cf. *Neumann*, Reden Gotamo Buddho's I, 567; IV, 71 f., 226, and *Dharmananda Kosambi*, Ind. Ant. 41, 1912, p. 37 ff.

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The significance of these compositions for the knowledge of the old doctrine of Buddha is just as generally acknowledged as their great antiquity, and next to the Dhammapada, the Suttanipāta is probably the most frequently quoted text in all works on Buddhism. Lastly, the high esteem in which the Suttas of this collection are held as works of poetic art is also general.

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We find now shorter, now longer groups of verses, which are combined into a poem by the same idea and often also by the same refrain running through them. Side by side with prose sermons into which occasional verses are inserted, or sermons in verse but with a prose framework,² we also find the forms, popular from time immemorial, both of pure dialogue and of the ākhyāna or the ballad, in which dialogue-stanzas alternate with narrative-stanzas, and lastly of the ākhyāna composed of a mixture of prose and verse³—all forms with which we are familiar from the ancient Brahmanical and epic poetry. In many cases there are still references or allusions to Brahmanical ideas. The Brāhmaṇa-Dhammika-Sutta (II, 7), the "Sutta of the Pious among the Brahmans," would be equally appropriate in an old Purāṇa. It describes how the Ṛṣis of olden days were the "true Brahmans," and lived abstemiously in every respect; how they were later allured by the wealth and the luxurious life of the kings, how they aspired after the same enjoyments, and were presented with beautiful women and wealth by King Ikṣvāku, and how all this led to the bloody animal sacrifices, at which even the innocent cow was killed. Intermingling of castes and deterioration of morals were the result of this. Here, then, Buddhism is represented as a return to the ancient true "Brahmanism." In the Sela-Sutta, too (III, 7), which relates the conversion of the Brahman Sela, there are passages which are quite in accord with verses of the Bhagavadgītā and Anugītā.¹ Thus the Buddhist monk who is faithful to his vow, is also held up as the "true Muni,"² in several poems. The idea which we already met with in an old portion of the Mahābhārata,³ that true Brahmanhood does not consist in birth, but in good conduct, is beautifully elaborated in the Vāseṭṭha-Sutta (III, 9), in 63 verses with the refrain "Him do I call a true Brahman." In other poems, again, in refined polemics, the Buddhist ideal of life is contrasted with the Brahmanic ideal, and presented as the higher one. Thus in the Āmagandha-Sutta (II, 2), where a Brahman who regards the observance of the dietary laws as the highest moral law and the tasting of forbidden meat as the most reprehensible impurity, is told by Buddha that true impurity does not consist in the eating of meat, but:

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² E.g. Sundarikabhāradvāja-Sutta, Sela-Sutta, and others. Cf. *Oldenberg*, Zur Geschichte der altindischen Prosa, p. 77 ff.

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³ I see no reason why we should use the expression "ākhyāna" only for the latter form of narrative poetry, and not for the ballad in general. According to Buddhaghosa the Suttanipāta consists of Gāthā, Geyya and Vyākaraṇa. (Paramatthajotikā, Introd.)

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¹ *Cf.* Suttanipāta 558 f. with Bhagavadg. IX, 18; X, 30 and Anug. 28, 2; 29, 1.

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² Muni, the ascetic, who has taken the vow of silence, is primarily a term applied to Brahmanical ascetics.

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³ See above, Vol. I, p. 353. The theme of "the true Brahman" is also dealt with in the Dhammapada (Chapt. 26 = 383-423), in the Udāna I, and similarly in the Jinistic Uttarajjhayaṇa XXV. *Cf.* *Charpentier*, WZKM 24. 1910, 62 ff.

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“ Torturing living creatures, murder, killing, tyrannizing,

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Theft, lies and frauds, intercourse with a neighbour’s wife, This is impurity, and not the eating of meat.”

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“ Being cruel and hard, slandering, betraying,

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Being unmerciful, proud and covetous, giving nothing— This is impurity, and not the eating of meat.”

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A poem like the Kasibhāradvāja-Sutta (I, 4) seems to carry us back to the early days of Buddhism, when the monk was probably looked askance as an idler by the labouring people, by farmers and shepherds. Here the Brahman farmer Bhāradvāja scornfully repels the begging Buddha, giving him to understand that he who will not work, neither shall he eat. Thereupon Buddha shows him that he too is working, and wherein his “ploughing” consists. In one of the most beautiful of these old poems, the Dhaniya-Sutta (I, 2), the comfort and happiness of the rich owner of herds, who rejoices in his prosperity and his domestic happiness, is contrasted with the quiet joy of the Buddha, without possessions, homeless, but free from all earthly bonds. In a magnificent dialogue the wealthy Dhaniya and the Buddha alternately utter a verse each with the same refrain, “Rain, O heaven, if thou wilt.”

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These poets find ever new methods of singing the same old song, that it is only the monk, removed from the world, who knows nothing and desires to know nothing of wife and child, of the joys and sorrows of this world, who is truly happy. What is said in the Dhaniya-Sutta in the form of a lively dialogue, we find again in the Khaggavisāṇa-Sutta (I, 3), the “rhinoceros-poem,” in 41 vigorous stanzas with the refrain “He shall wander lonely as the rhinoceros,” expressed with an earnestness and pathos, the impression of which cannot fail to affect even him who is far removed from this monkish conception of life.

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The dialogue form is sometimes combined, as in the Āḷavaka-Sutta (I, 10) and the Sūciloma-Sutta (II, 5), with the old riddle-poetry form which we have already met with in the Veda and the epic. Just as in the Mahābhārata,¹ here too, a Yakṣa appears as the questioner, and a sage replies to the questions by presenting the ethical doctrines of Buddhism.

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¹ See above, Vol. I, p. 352 f.

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The Suttanipāta contains not only didactic dialogues, but also a few narrative dialogues. Of these there are three, the Nālaka-Sutta (III, 11), the Pabbajjā-Sutta (III, 1), and the Padhāna-Sutta (III, 2), which are of special importance; for, they are precious remnants of that ancient sacred ballad-poetry from which the later epic version of the life of Buddha grew, in the same way as the heroic epic grew out of the secular ballads or Ākhyānas.² The chief peculiarity of these ballads is the conversational form. The dialogue was usually sufficient to bring the course of a narrative before the mind of the hearer. Where this was not the case, however, brief prose formulæ, a short introduction and a few short prose sentences were often inserted. The insertion of narrative-stanzas between the conversational stanzas was a further step in the development. We find this final step in the development of the ancient Indian Ākhyāna, which really formed the preliminary step to the epic, in the three Suttanipāta ballads above-mentioned, dealing with scenes from the history of Buddha's youth. We find here the chief features of the later Buddha-legend already prepared. The Nālaka-Sutta deals with the events immediately after the birth of the Buddha-child:

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² See above, p. 40, note 1, p. 59, and Vol. I, p. 312 ff. Cf. also *Windisch*, Māra und Buddha, p. 3 ff., 222 f., 245 ff. and *Oldenberg*, Aus dem alten Indien, 45 ff.

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The gods in heaven are in a state of pleasurable excitement. The divine seer Asita hears their outbursts of joy, and in answer to his question, receives the reply that in the Lumbinī-grove in the town of the Sakyas the Buddha has just been born for the salvation of the world. Then the sage descends from heaven to the palace of Suddhodana and desires to see the newly born boy. When he sees the boy, who is "radiant as fire, as the brightest of the stars, as the autumnal sun in the cloudless sky," being fanned by divine beings, he takes the child in his arms, and cries: "This is the incomparable one, the highest of men." At the same instant, however, he thinks of his own imminent end, and bursts into tears. In consternation the Sakyas ask whether any evil threatens the boy. The sage reassures them, and tells them that the boy will attain to the summit of complete enlightenment, but that he is sorrowful because he himself will not live to hear the preaching of the Lord. Before he departs, he exhorts his nephew Nālaka to follow the Buddha as soon as his call is heard.¹)

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¹ This legend has often been compared with that of Simeon, St. Luke 2, 25 ff., and it is indeed one of the most striking Buddhist parallels to the Gospels. *Cf.* especially Pischel, Leben und Lehre des Buddha, p. 23 ff. E. Windisch (in Festschrift Kuhn, p. 6 ff.) has discussed the variants of the legend, and traced Asita Devala back to Brahmanical literature. Windisch regards it as "not absolutely proved that the Simeon of St. Luke owes his existence to the Asita of the Buddhist legend."

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The second of these poems, the Pabbajjā-Sutta, describes the "departure" (pabbajjā) of the youthful Gotama from his home, and the meeting which, on his wanderings as a begging ascetic, he had with the king of Rājagaha. The third ballad, the Padhāna-Sutta,²) describes a still later episode, how Māra, the evil one, after he has followed close on Gotama's heels for seven years, resumes the fight once again and endeavours to dissuade him from his struggle for knowledge, and to bring him back to the worldly life, and how Māra is ignominiously defeated. Though these ballads, as can be seen, are already rich in legendary features and mythical accessories, they may nevertheless be called simple and sober in comparison with the exaggeration of the later biographies of Buddha.

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² This has often been compared with the Christian legend of the temptation of Christ.

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Nevertheless, even in the form in which they stand in the ballads of the Suttanipāta, these legends cannot belong to the oldest stratum of Buddhist tradition. They already pre-suppose a fairly long history of the Buddha legend. Among the latest parts of the Suttanipāta, however, are some of the prose narratives forming the framework for poems which in themselves bear the stamp of antiquity. *Fausböll*¹ indeed, has declared all the prose passages to be later additions. This can hardly be accepted. But K. E. *Neumann* is probably not far wrong when, in his translation, he simply omits some of the prose passages, regarding them, as he says using rather strong language, as "commentatorial priestly trash." When for instance, often in an entirely superfluous and clumsy manner, some Yakṣa or deity appears in order to introduce a dialogue, we are doubtless justified in calling such passages commentatorial additions.² At all events, the Suttanipāta, too, is a collection made up of earlier and later texts, and is certainly not a unified work,³ even though a few of the poems included in the Suttanipāta, such as perhaps the 12 Suttas of the Uragavagga, may be the work of the same author.

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¹ Preface, p. vii to his editio princeps of the text.

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² See, for example, I, 6; 10; II, 4; 5; III, 10.

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³ *Cf.* R. O. *Franke* in Festschrift Windisch, p. 196 ff.

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6, 7. The two short works, Vimānavatthu and Petavatthu,⁴ the "Stories of the Divine Palaces" and the "Ghost Stories," probably belong to the latest stratum of literature assembled in the Pāli-Canon. The truly great and profound doctrine of Karman, which has found expression in Brahmanical as well as Buddhist texts in so many beautiful sayings and legends,⁵ is most clumsily explained by means of examples in these little stories, whose metrical form is their only poetical attribute. The stories, no doubt chiefly intended for laymen, are all made after one model. In the Vimānavatthu some divine being or other is asked by Moggallāna how he has gained possession of this or the other divine palace (vimāna) with all its splendours.[^1) In reply the deity briefly recounts the good action which he had performed in one of his former existences, in consequence of which he gained this heavenly joy. In the Petavatthu a Peta (Sanskrit Preta, spirit of a dead person, which, restless and tormented, roams about in the neighbourhood of the earth as a ghost) appears, and is asked by Nārada, and sometimes by another person also, what action has brought about his unhappy lot, whereupon he relates it in a few brief words. One example (Petavatthu I, 2) will suffice:

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⁴ The Vimānavatthu, edited by *E. R. Gooneratne*, London PTS 1886. Petavatthu, ed. by *J. Minayeff*, London PTS 1888. *Cf.* L. *Scherman*, Visionslitteratur, p. 53 ff. ; L. *Feer* in *JA*, s. 8, t. III, 1884, pp. 109 ff., 138 ff.; *Oldenberg*, Buddha, p. 345 note; *W. Stede*, Die Gespenstergeschichten des Peta' Vatthu, Leipzig 1914, and *Bimala Charan Law*, The Buddhist Conception of Spirits, Calcutta 1923 (Calcutta Oriental Series).

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⁵ *Cf.* above, Vol. I, pp. 258 f., 411 f., 441, 562 f.

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(The wise Nārada says to a ghost :)
All golden is thy body, shining far through the wide world,
But thy mouth is that of a pig: what is the deed which thou
hast done?

(Thereupon the ghost replies :)
Well curbed was I in deeds, unbridled only in words,
That is the reason why thou, Nārada, seest me in such dis-
figurement.
Therefore I tell thee, Nārada, as thou thyself hast seen it,
Do no evil with thy mouth, that thou may'st not acquire a
pig's mouth.

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The fact that in the Petavatthu (IV, 3) a king Piṅgalaka appears, who, according to the commentary of Dhammapāla, is supposed to have ruled in Surat 200 years after Buddha, proves that even the commentators of a later time place these texts at a considerable interval from the life-time

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[^1): According to E. *Kuhn* and R. *Garbe* (Indien und das Christentum, p. 142) the Vimānavatthu is the source for the palace in the legend of Saint Thomas.

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of Buddha. Even if we admit that the ideas of heaven and hell already existed in ancient Buddhism beside the ideal of Arhat and Nirvāṇa, and that the conceptions of the Petas may be traced back, in part, to very ancient popular superstition, we cannot ascribe great antiquity to these "poems."¹ Notwithstanding, even in these late books also, some ancient materials, Itihāsa-dialogues and ballads, have been incorporated.

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¹ According to E. *Hardy*, ZDMG 53, 1899, 25 ff., the Petavatthu and the Vimānavatthu borrowed material which was useful for their purposes, from other works of the Khuddakanikāya, such as the Jātakas. See also E. *Hardy* in the preface to the edition of the commentary on the Vimānavatthu, London PTS 1901, p. xi. Nevertheless it is equally possible that the contrary was the case, and that the Jātaka-book borrowed from the Petavatthu and the Vimānavatthu; in fact the Jātaka commentary, No. 243, directly quotes from the Vimānavatthu.

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