A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s6.t1.12

v2.c19.s6.t1.12

The Nikāyas of the Pāli Canon find their parallel in the Āgamas of the Sanskrit Canon; the Dīrghāgama corresponding to the Dīghanikāya, the Madhyamāgama to the Majjhimanikāya, the Saṃyuktāgama to the Saṃyuttanikāya, and the Ekottarāgama to the Aṅguttaranikāya. Fragments of various Sūtras of the Dīrghāgama (Saṃgīti-Sūtra, Āṭanātiya-Sūtra), of the Madhyamāgama (Upāli-Sūtra, Śuka-Sūtra), of the Saṃyuktāgama and the Ekottarāgama, have been found in Central Asia.³ These fragments are not always in agreement with the corresponding Pāli texts. The comparison of the Chinese Āgamas with the corresponding Pāli Nikāyas, has also shown both agreement to a considerable extent, and notable divergences.¹ In the first place there is no agreement as regards the order of the Sūtras in the separate Āgamas. In the Saṃyuktāgama the division into Vargas and Saṃyuktasa is totally different, and there are Saṃyuktas in the Pāli which are missing in the Chinese version; on the other hand, there are some in the Chinese which do not occur in the Pāli.² The greatest differences are those which we find between the Ekottarāgama and the Aṅguttaranikāya. On the whole it may be said that the points of agreement and the divergences prove that the Sanskrit Āgamas and the Pāli Nikāyas were compiled from the same materials, but were arranged in different ways in the different schools. Now in the Chinese Tripiṭaka there are also texts which, though bearing the same titles as the corresponding Pāli texts, are nevertheless essentially different. Thus there is a Brahmajāla-Sūtra, which was translated into Chinese by Kumārajīva, and is held in high esteem in China and Japan but which teaches Buddhist ethics in the spirit of the Mahāyāna. On the other hand, there are in the Abhidharma-Kośa-Vyākhyā, several quotations from a Brahmajāla-Sūtra, which must have corresponded to the Pāli text.³ The Chinese Tripiṭaka contains ten different translations of the Mahā-Parinirvāṇa-Sūtra. Three of these translations belong to the Hīnayāna and seven to the Mahāyāna; and the only thing they have in common is the external form, inasmuch as they contain speeches which the Buddha is supposed to have uttered prior to his death (parinirvāṇa).¹