A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s5.9

v2.c19.s5.9

It is true that this praise, as well as the date I have assumed, cannot be applied to the entire work as we have it in the Pāli text, but only to the work in its original form; for there can scarcely be any doubt that, of the seven books which go to form the text, only a small part of the first introductory book and Books II and III are ancient and authentic. Even in Book III, later additions already appear to have crept in. By far the major portion of the work was not added until a later time, and probably not all at once. As it is the purpose of the work to dispel doubts of all kinds, which it does in somewhat incoherent fashion, it is, by its very nature, an eminently suitable receptacle for interpolation and additions. The most striking evidence of the spuriousness of Books IV-VII is the fact that they are absent in the Chinese translation, which is supposed to have originated between 317 and 420 A.D.¹ In contents, too, Books IV-VII differ from Book I in character. Moreover, the last chapter of Book III forms a fitting conclusion to the work, and Book IV begins with a new introduction.²