Studies in the Origins of Buddhism c8.62

c8.62

But whereas the whole of the first sub-sutta of DN. 11 belongs to the same early stratum, the second one consists of some very ancient verses at the end preceded by a late mythological preface (which describes an ascending hierarchy of fourteen classes of Buddhist gods) belonging to the class of “Tendenzschriften”, its purpose being to make the gods confess their own inferiority to Buddha and themselves stress the folly of seeking refuge in anybody else except in him.