A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s5.98

Language: English

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[^1): The same tale also in the Therī-Gāthā commentary. Cf. Ed. *Müller* in AR 3, 1900, 217 ff. and S. *Singer* in ZVV 4, 1894, 71 ff. [^2): Translated by *Burlingame*, Buddhist Parables, p. 128 ff. The story is also to be found in the Dhammapada commentary (ed. *Norman*, 1, 168 ff., *Burlingame* in HOS 28, 252 ff.). Cf. E. *Hardy* in JRAS 1898, 741 ff.; J. *Schick*, Das Glückskind mit dem Todesbrief (Corpus Hamleticum I, 1), Berlin, 1912, pp. 15 ff., 45 ff., 66 ff. (Singhalese versions). See above, Vol. I, p. 585 (and *Grierson* in JRAS 1910, 292 ff.). In Kathā-Sarit-Sāgara, XX, 194 ff., we find only the last motif, namely the motif of the fate intended for the persecuted youth befalling the persecutor himself. [^3): E. *Hardy* (in JRAS, 1902, 951 ff.) compares with it a Christian legend, in which Satan assumes the form of Christ, in order to teach a false doctrine to a monk, and *Garbe* (Indien und das Christentum, p. 111 f.) holds that the Christian legend is Buddhist in origin. However, the resemblance seems to me not very striking. [^4): To Atthasālinī, Papañcasūdanī, and Manoratha-Pūraṇī. [^5): Edited by C. A. F. *Rhys Davids*, 2 vols., PTS 1920-1921. A short table of contents by J. E. *Carpenter* in JPTS 1890, p. 14 ff., a detailed analysis and considerable extracts in English translation by H. C. *Warren* in JPTS 1891-1893, pp. 76-164, and "Buddhism in Translations," pp. 285 ff., 291 ff., 315 ff., 376 ff., 384 ff.

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Bhikkhu *Nyāṇatiloka* has translated "the Reflection on Death" from Chapter 8, into German in ZB VII, 1926, author himself explains the title of the work, when he says: “Visuddhi here means the Nirvāṇa which is wholly and thoroughly purified, and freed from dirt of every description, and the path which leads to this purification is called Visuddhi-Magga.” He says that it is his intention to expound this “Path to Complete Purification” in accordance with the teachings of the Mahāvihāra, *i.e.*, the traditions preserved in the “great monastery” of Anurādhapura. For the present, however, it is impossible for us to decide whether he had some definite work before him, which he merely revised,¹ or whether we should give him credit for being the first to offer a systematic presentation of the entire doctrine of Buddha, on the basis of the interpretations and explanations which had been handed down in the Mahāvihāra. Should the latter theory be correct, the clear and systematic arrangement and classification of the subject-matter according to the three points of view, morals (sīla), meditation (samādhi) and wisdom (paññā), would be his own work, whilst generally he was content to collect together with great diligence and industry, all that had accumulated during the course of the centuries, by way of explanation of the doctrine and legendary traditions.

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His style is clear and lucid, and, as in his commentaries, in the Visuddhi-Magga, too, he frequently enlivens the dry elucidations by occasional parables and often by legends too. These last are not his own inventions, but he must have taken them from older sources. In style and contents, some of these legends are strongly reminiscent of the Tipiṭaka, and some do actually occur in canonical texts while most of the narratives, it is true, date from a later period, when Buddha worship was just as highly developed in the Hīnayāna as in the Mahāyāna. It is the spirit of the old Arhat ideal as it is illustrated, for instance, in the prose of the Udāna, by many legends; the same spirit is also found in narratives such as the legend of the Thera Mahā-Tissa, who is reminded of the impurity of the human body by the sight of the teeth of a beautiful woman while laughing, and by this thought, attains to the highest stage of holiness, that of an Arhat;¹ or that of the monk who lived for sixty years in his hermitage without noticing that the walls were covered with paintings; or of the monk who is so unworldly that for three months he goes daily begging for food and eating it in the house of his mother who is longing to see him but does not recognise him in his monk's robe, without once saying: "I am your son and you are my mother."² On the other hand, we find, especially in Part II, many legends which testify to a Buddha worship which recalls the Kṛṣṇa-Bhakti.

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For example, a frog hears the voice of Buddha who is preaching on the bank of the river, listens, and being trodden on by a shepherd, is literally translated to a better world; for he is immediately reborn as a god in a golden palace in the heaven of the thirty-three gods.³ In this work we also find numerous miracle tales intended to show how saints attain to miraculous and magic powers by meditation. A monk rescues a snake which is fleeing from a bird; he does this by quickly creating a hill, in which the snake disappears. The monk Bakkula is swallowed by a fish, but remains safe and sound, as he is destined to become an Arhat. Sañjīva was in the state of utter absorption, was taken for dead and laid on the pyre, but the flames could not burn him. The nun Uttarā, absorbed in meditation, was not even injured by boiling oil. The snake Nandopananda had wound herself around the mount Meru and stretched her heads up to the second heaven, then the holy Moggallāna came, transformed himself into a still larger snake, wound himself around Nandopananda and crushed her and the mount Meru into the bargain. Chapter 13¹ gives a long and circumstantial account of the ages of the world and the destruction and restoration of the worlds, reminiscent of the Purāṇas, fancies which would scarcely have come from Buddhaghosa's brain, but are most likely faithful reproductions of earlier traditions.