A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s5.39

v2.c19.s5.39

By far the major portion of non-canonical Pāli literature consists of commentaries. The monks in the monasteries of India and Ceylon, to whom we are indebted for the comparatively faithful transmission of the canonical texts, did not rest content with the study and teaching of these texts, but from the very outset endeavoured to explain them too. In the Suttas we find the earliest beginnings of exegetical activity, and there are a few commentaries in the canon itself.¹ Though we cannot believe the orthodox Buddhists of Ceylon, when they affirm that the Aṭṭhakathās, *i.e.*, the “explanations of the meaning” or “commentaries,” have been handed down since the first Council with the texts of the Tipiṭaka, were translated into Singhalese by Mahinda, written down under Vaṭṭagāmani, and translated into Pāli by Buddhaghosa (5th century A.D.),² yet we can have no doubt that the exegetical and literary activity of the monks began in India immediately after the compilation of the texts, and, that Pāli, the language of the canon, was used also for the early commentaries. These ancient teachers are often cited in the commentaries of the 5th century, as Porāṇā, “the ancient ones.”³ But when the Theravāda school in India itself was more and more superseded by other Buddhist sects and schools, it was the monasteries of Ceylon,⁴ which became permanent centres for the study of the Theravāda texts. Whatever Pāli commentaries were available were translated into Singhalese. Only the verses, partly memorial verses and partly verses of narrative passages, were left unchanged in Pāli. The monks of Ceylon worked on independently in this direction, wrote Singhalese commentaries, tried their hand at Pāli also, especially Pāli verses, and attained to such a degree of perfection in this, that in the 5th century it was already possible for Buddhaghosa to write in an elegant Pāli style, and to set about translating or retranslating the Singhalese commentaries into the sacred Pāli language.