Studies in the Origins of Buddhism c8.28

c8.28

Sutta 2.—The various versions.—The second of the suttas mentioned explicitly in the conciliar tradition already referred to, was also translated into Chinese independently as well of the Dīrghāgama.¹³ From a perusal of the English rendering of part of these in an appendix to Rockhill’s Life of the Buddha (pp. 255-259) it appears that these show a confusion of names, which is comparable to that in similar reports in the Aṅguttara.¹⁴ As to the Tibetan version in the Dulva, Rockhill states that it is very similar to the Pali sutta; only it looks much confused on doctrinal points.¹⁵ This growth of confusion about the names of the rival teachers contemporaneous with Buddha, which is evidenced not only in the Chinese and Tibetan translations but also within the Pali Nikāya itself (e.g., in the AN), seems to have resulted from the indifference of latter-day monks to the merely historical data contained in the reports of the "Diṭṭhis". It may be this tendency which cuts out all such encumbrances from the Brahmajālasutta, and, instead, treats us with a merely logically constructed "net" of sixty-two "views".