History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c23.s4.1

c23.s4.1

The Tibetan version of the Sāmañña-phala Sutta categories, according to Rockhill’s translation,³ differs somewhat from the Pāli. The list contains seven senses (sañjña), seven modes of existence as asuras, seven and seven hundred “kinds of writing”, seven and seven hundred “proofs”, 49,000 “of the garuḍa species”, ten “kinds of ranks”, and eight mahāpuruṣas. Of these the asura existences replace the nigaṇṭhi-gabbhā of the Pāli, which in Rockhill’s version become 49,000 of the nirgrantha species. It is possible that the obscure paṭuvā of the Pāli list are represented by the Tibetan “kinds of writing” or “proofs”, but neither of these is helpful in the elucidation of the Pāli term. The mahāpuruṣas evidently represent the purisa-bhūmiyo of the Pāli, which do not occur in the Tibetan list. The Tibetan totals sometimes differ from the Pāli, as does the order in which the items occur. The list seems to be even more corrupt than the Pāli version, and throws little fresh light upon it.