Studies in the Origins of Buddhism c8.89

c8.89

DN. 16 —A veritable mosaic.—Of the mosaic character of the Mahāparinibbāna° there can hardly be any doubt. According to Winternitz,²⁸ very early there must have been a “sutta of the perfect Nirvāṇa” which in course of time, through interpolations and additions, became the present “Great sutta of Pari°”. According to him those sections in which Buddha appears as a human being represent the authentic and earlier portion. Such are: the narrative of the illness which befell Buddha at Beluvagrāma; or the grief of Ānanda in the fifth section. The verses, too, which are scattered in the Sutta bear, according to him, “the stamp of the greatest antiquity”. On the other hand, where Buddha works miracles like a demigod or a magician, and the concluding section which mentions the relics of Buddha and the erections of stūpas, are regarded as late.