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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s10: The Dynamics of Buddhist Thought

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s10

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The Dynamics of Buddhist Thought

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Like the *Saṃhitās* of Vedic texts the *Piṭakas* (Baskets) of Pali texts represent principles of classification, *i.e.*, grouping according to common subjects. In each group or *Piṭaka*, therefore, as we have to-day, are to be found works composed during diverse periods. In the present form the three “Baskets” are taken to have been finally closed in the last quarter of the first century B.C., when they were committed to writing in Ceylon during the reign of Vattagamani. And since some of the sermons and dialogues are supposed to contain the exact words of Śākya himself, the oldest portions of the Buddhist texts can be traced back to his life time (B.C. 563-483), say, *ca* 500 B.C. The entire literature then covers nearly half a millennium. The problem of dating the texts is therefore not a simple one.

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The canon in its entirety is being exhibited below :

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I. *Vinaya Piṭaka*²⁰ (Basket containing manuscripts of *Vinaya* or discipline and administration), rules alleged to have been declared by Śākya the Buddha himself and presented occasionally through the medium of legends, folklore etc.

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²⁰ Translations in the Sacred Books of the East Series (Oxford).

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1. *Sutta Vibhaṁga* i.e. explanations of the Rules : 227 rules of the *Pātimokkha* (440 B.C.) i. *Pārājika* : Offences for which the punishment is expulsion from the order. ii. *Pacittiya* : Offences for which the punishment is some expiation.
2. *Khandakas* i.e. Treatises in Set Fragments (250 B.C.). i. *Mahāvagga* : "larger division." ii. *Chullavagga* : "smaller division."
3. *Parivāra patta* : a digest of the other parts of the *Vinaya*.
4. *Pātimokkha*.

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II. *Sutta Piṭaka* (Basket of discourses concerning the Doctrine), mainly in the form of speeches or dialogues of Buddha.

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1. *Digha Nikāya*²¹ ("long discourses") : 34. i. *Silakkhandha* ii. *Mahāvagga* iii. *Patheya* or *Pātikavagga* 2. *Majjhima Nikāya*²² ("medium discourses": 152.
3. *Samyutta Nikāya* ("kindred sayings): 56. i. *Sagathavagga* ii. *Nidānavagga* iii. *Khandhavagga* iv. *Salayatana vagga* v. *Mahāvagga*
4. *Anguttara* or *Ekuttara Nikāya*²³: *Nipātas* i. *Eka nipāta* ii. *Duka nipāta* iii. *Tika nipāta* iv. *Chatukka nipāta* v. *Panchaka nipāta* vi. *Chhakka nipāta* vii. *Sattaka nipāta* viii. *Aṭṭhaka nipāta* ix. *Navaka nipāta* x. *Dasaka nipāta* xi. *Ekādasaka nipāta*
5. *Khuddaka Nikāya* (mostly in verse): 20 i. *Khuddakapāṭha* ii. *Dhammapada* (250 B.C.) iii. *Udāna* iv. *Itivuttaka* v. *Sutta nipāta* vi. *Vimāna vatthu* vii. *Peta vatthu* viii. *Thera gāthā* ix. *Therīgāthā* x. *Jātakas* (c 250 B.C.) xi. *Mahāniddesa* xii. *Chulla niddesa* xiii. *Patisambhida magga* xiv. *Apadāna* xv. *Buddhavamśa* xvi. *Chariyāpiṭaka* xvii. *Milindapañha* (150 A.C.) xviii. *Suttasamgha* xix. *Petakopadesa* xx. *Nettipakaraṇa*.

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²¹ Translation by T. W. and C. A. Rhys Davids in the Sacred Books of the Buddhists Series (London).

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²² Translations by Lord Chalmers in the Sacred Books of the Buddhists Series (London).

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²³ Translation of the first three sections by E. R. Gooneratna (1913). The fourth section has been translated by A. D. Jayasunder under the title of *The Book of the Numerical Sayings* (Anguttara Nikaya) or "Suttas According to Number," Madras 1925.

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III. *Abhidhamma Piṭaka* (Basket of Transcendental Doctrine) chiefly in the form of questions and answers, dealing with the topics of the *Suttapiṭaka*.

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| i | *Dhammasaṃgani* (350 B.C.). | iv | *Puggala pannati*. |
| | | v | *Dhātukathā*. |
| ii | *Vibhaṃga*. | vi | *Yamaka*. |
| iii | *Kathāvatthu*. | vii | *Patthana*. |

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During these four or five centuries six Buddhist Councils (three in India and three in Ceylon) were held. At each Council the texts were being settled. This fact ought to place the chronology of the Śākyan texts on a secure footing. But the reports of the Councils themselves are anything but uniform and fail to assure any precision, especially in regard to the Śākyan texts. The result is the emergence of a question in regard to each and every document of the Śākyan (Buddhist) Canon in Pali.²⁴ Like the authenticity of Plato's dialogues in the West the authenticity of Sākya's dialogues and sermons has long been the subject of controversy in indology.

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²⁴ B. C. Law: *A History of Pali Literature* (Calcutta 1933), Chapters on "Chronology of the Pali Canon" and "Canonical Pali Literature," pp. 11-15, 40-42, 46, 88, 274-275, 305, 326. See R. C. Majumdar: "Buddhist Councils" in *Buddhistic Studies*, Calcutta, 1931. For the evolution of the schools of Buddhism see the chart in N. Dutt: *Early History of the Spread of Buddhism and the Buddhist Schools* (London 1925) pp. 224-225.

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The relative chronology of the above texts between *c.* 500 B.C. and *c.* 100 A.C. can be made out from the following scheme :

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1. The simple statements of Śākya the Buddha's doctrine now found are identical words in paragraphs or verses recurring in all the books (*c.* B.C. 500).

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2. Episodes found in identical words in two or more of the existing books.

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3. The *Sīlas*, the *Pārāyana* groups of sixteen poems without the prologue, the *Aṭṭhaka* group of four or sixteen poems, the *Sikkhāpadas*.

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4. The *Dīgha*, Vol. I., the *Majjhima*, the *Saṃyutta*, the *Aṅguttara*, and the earlier *Pātimokkha* code of 152 rules.

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5. The *Dīgha*, Vols. II and III., the *Thera-Therī-gāthā*, the collection of 500 *Jātakas*, the *Suttavibhaṅga*, the *Paṭisambhidāmagga*, the *Puggalapaññatti* and the *Vibhaṅga* (c. 400 B.C.).

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6. The *Mahāvagga* and the *Chullavagga*, the *Pātimokkha* code now complete in 227 rules, the *Vimānavatthu* and the *Petavatthu*, the *Dhammapada*, and the *Kathāvatthu* (c. 250 B.C.).

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7. The *Chullaniddesa*, the *Mahāniddesa*, the *Udāna*, the *Itivuttaka*, the *Sutta Nipāta*, the *Dhātukathā*, the *Yamaka* and the *Paṭṭhāna*.

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8. The *Buddhavamsa*, the *Cariyāpiṭaka* and the *Apadāna*.

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9. The *Pettakopadesa*.

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10. The *Khuddakapāṭha*.

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Evidently the question of chronology, relative although, is open in regard to many treatises as well as parts of treatises.²⁵

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²⁵ T. W. Rhys Davids: *Buddhist India* (London 1911) Appendix to Ch. X. Chronological Table of Buddhist Literature from the Buddha's Time to the Time of Aśoka, p. 188. This has been modified in B. C. Law: *History of Pali Literature* (Calcutta 1933) Vol. I. p. 42, which is followed in the present work.

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Śākyaism was all the time moving from region to region and race to race. In the process of these mobilizations it gradually lost sight of the very language in which Śākya and the Śākyan apostles had taught, namely, Pali. The Pan-Indian language of culture, Sanskrit, was accepted by the Śākyans and Buddhists of the new epochs on account of the exigencies of their propaganda and annexed to their conquests. And so Buddhist philosophy, moral, social or political, came to have a vast literature in Sanskrit. Nothing demonstrates the vitality and strenuousness of the Buddhistic ideologies more than this Sanskritization of Śākyaism and the utilization of the "Hindu" (Brāhmaṇical) paraphernalia in order to maintain its usefulness under altered conditions.

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The diverse strands of Buddhism may be followed easily in the following, rather wide and elastic chronological scheme:²⁶

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²⁶ N. Dutt: *Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism in its Relation to Hinayana* (London 1930), ch. I. pp. 6, 11, 16, 36, 43, 45.

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1. Early or Pure *Hīnayāna* Buddhism (c. B.C. 450-350). This Buddhism has for its records the *Vinaya* and the *Nikāyas* (*Sūtras*) in Pali.
2. Mixed *Hīnayāna* Buddhism (c. B.C. 350-100). This is the Buddhism held in solution among the diverse leaders or cholars such as arose about a century after Śākya the Buddha's death. This pluralistic development of Buddhism took place during the epoch of the Mauryas. It is during this period that the third *Piṭaka* of the orthodox Buddhists, the *Abhidhamma*, was mainly compiled. This is the epoch *par excellence* of the *Jātakas* and *Avadānas*, brought into existence, as they were, for the purpose of democratizing and popularizing the teachings of Śākya.

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These two strands constitute not so much Buddhism as Śākyaism in the present author’s terminology.

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3. Early *Mahāyāna* Buddhism (c. B.C. 100-300 A.C.). This is the Buddhism of the ideals associated with the *Bodhisattva* and the *Pāramitā* which had been initiated in the *Avadānas*. The *Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajnāpāramitā* is taken to have been compiled some time in the first century B.C. The *Kulturkampf* or the conflict of cultures between the old and the new is the chief feature of this period. Nāgārjuna, Aśvaghoṣa and Asaṃga are some of the leading exponents of the new as against the old in the evolution of “social metabolism.”

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In this the third strand we have Buddhism proper; and the texts of this Buddhism are to be found not in Pali but in Sanskrit.

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The sociological data in the Buddhist, like those in the other “Hindu,” documents introduce us therefore to the wealth of categories in the subversion of “social determinism,” closed systems or absolutism of monists as prevalent, for instance, in modern times from Hegel to Durkheim. It is essentially the atmosphere of “social mobility” and the “perpetual increment of life upon itself,” such as is engendered by the “initiatives of the will,” the creative urges of the individuals and *le volontà individuali*, in which we move about in the midst of Pali (as well as Sanskrit-Buddhist) texts. The fundamental

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