A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.69

v2.c19.s3.t2.69

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.