A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.76

v2.c19.s3.t2.76

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: