Studies in the Origins of Buddhism c9.2

c9.2

The grouping and order of suttas in the MN “unhistorical”.—The authenticity of the groupings and arrangement of suttas in the MN is rendered suspect by the great difference which the Pāli and Chinese versions¹ show in this respect. The fact that in the Pali text each “vagga” contains just ten suttas (with the exception of the vibhaṅga, which has twelve) and each “Paṇṇāsa” just five “vaggas” argues strongly for the mechanical, unhistorical character of its divisions and sub-divisions.² As to its arrangement of the suttas, it is clearly mechanical in the whole of the middle “Paṇṇāsa”. The suttas have been here divided into “Vaggas” according to the class of persons who figure predominantly in them, which they do principally by playing the role of the addressee. Thus, the suttas in the “Gahapativagga” contain sermons and dialogues in which Buddha addresses householders, sutta 57 alone being exceptional. And it is similar with the following ‘vaggas’ in this “Paṇṇāsa”. In the previous “Paṇṇāsa” too a similarly systematic grouping occurs in vaggas 3–4, the first containing only such suttas as are centred round an “upamā”, and the next such as are in pairs, e.g., Cūḷagosiṅga and Mahā°. The Vibhaṅgavagga in the third “Paṇṇāsa” forms a distinct unity in the sense that it contains suttas having a common characteristic form.