The History of Buddhist Thought c19.58

c19.58

The *Mahāparinibbāna-sutta* underwent much elaboration in other schools. Several forms of it exist in Tibetan and Chinese. The latter have been discussed by Dr. Przyluski without reaching any definite conclusion as to the historicity.² A shorter form occurs in the Canon itself (*Samy.*, i, 157), but this may be an extract and not an earlier form. That the Pāli cannot be an early record is shown by the references to the practice of pilgrimages to the places of Buddha’s birth, his enlightenment, his first preaching, and his complete Nirvāṇa.