The History of Buddhist Thought c15.40

c15.40

¹ Oldenberg himself refused to see the supposed references to several Upanishads, which Walleser finds in an old Buddhist text; cf. Walleser, Philos. Grundlage des alteren Buddhismus, p. 67. Oldenberg (Zur Gesch. des altind. Prosa, p. 40) held that the Sāmaññaphala-sutta was a direct imitation of a dialogue in Bṛhad. Up., iv, 1. In both cases there is a question between a king and a sage; in both the king tells what others have said; and in both cases these are six teachers. This has nothing to do with the origin of Buddhism, but with the literary form in which the editors put the dialogue. At that time literary contact may well have taken place.