The History of Buddhist Thought c22.11

c22.11

The sūtra begins by stating in exactly the same phraseology as the oldest discourses that the Lord was staying at Vulture hill with twelve hundred arhats. But instead of the two or three who are usually mentioned, the names of nearly thirty are given. They are the most famous personages in the older legend, and the first five are the five disciples. Here is already a great difference from the Pāli suttas, for in these the five never appear as hearers. What we have here is a deliberate use of legend. The fact that the names are never so used in the Pāli suttas implies that in these suttas there was a real tradition. They did not deliberately manufacture history. If there had been a tendency to invention, the five would have been the first to be introduced.