Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c2.1

v1.c2.1

The scope of the present work as indicated by the title is "Early Monastic Buddhism" as distinguished from 'Early Buddhism', which is supposed to have been preached by Gotama the Buddha and his co-founders as Mrs. Rhys Davids would call them.¹ The Pāli Piṭakas undoubtedly passed through several redactions with accretions and omissions till the texts reached the form in which we have them now. The artificial and stereotyped form of each sutta takes away the original freshness of the sayings and distinctly reveals the clipping and shaping hands of the redactors of a time far away from the time of the Teacher. While recognising that Gotama Buddha's teaching might have been a little different from what is found in the Pāli Nikāyas, it appears to my mind to be beating about the bush to ascertain what Gotama Buddha had in mind and actually preached. All that is permissible at the present stage is to state what the Nikāyas and the Vinaya have got to say without confusing the already confused issues.