Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The History of Buddhist Thought c28.s2: The Nine or Twelve Angas

The History of Buddhist Thought c28.s2

Language
English

The Nine or Twelve Angas

c28.s2.1

What we may conclude from the Angas throws an important light on the growth of the Sarvāstivāda Canon. In several places in the Pāli suttas² there is a list of nine divisions of

c28.s2.2

² Majjh. i, 130.

c28.s2.3

the Dhamma: *sutta*, *geyya*, *veyyākaraṇa*, *gāthā*, *udāna*, *itivuttaka*, *jātaka*, *abbhutadhamma*, *vedalla*. It does not appear to have been originally an actual classification of the works in the Scriptures, but a description of the respective types of *sutta*. Three of them, however, *udāna*, *itivuttaka*, and *jātaka* are the names of actual works. But the probability is that the terms were at first used generally like the rest to describe the character of the composition. There are still many *udānas* and *jātakas* in various parts of the Scriptures not included in the works of those names.

c28.s2.4

These nine are also included in an extended list of twelve *angas*, which have been quite arbitrarily called a *Mahāyāna* list. It is given in the *Mahāvyutpatti*, 62, and to the above list it adds *nidāna* and *avadāna* after *udāna*, and at the end *upadeśa*.¹ Also instead of *vedalla* it has *vaipulya*, which is placed after *jātaka*. As the *Mahāvyutpatti* contains much Sarvāstivāda material, it cannot be concluded that the list of twelve *angas* belongs to Mahāyāna. Several Mahāyāna works have lists of less than twelve. The *Lotus*, ii, 44 (p. 45), has a list of nine. So has the *Dharmasangraha* (62), and the *Kāraṇḍa-vyūha* has a list of ten and one of eleven. They all omit *avadāna*, which is a characteristic type of work of the Sarvāstivādins.

c28.s2.5

¹ It also reads *itivṛttaka* (thus-happened) for *itivuttaka*, doubtless a wrong sanskritization.

c28.s2.6

Buddhaghosa defines the *angas* more than once,² but it is evident that in the case of several of the items all he knows about them is a number of *suttas* which happen to bear the name of the *anga*. *Sutta* is said to include the Vinaya, certain *suttas* in verse, and “other utterance of the Tathāgata named *sutta*”. *Geyya* is *sutta* which contains *gāthās*, especially the first *vagga* of the Saṃyutta-nikāya. *Veyyākaraṇa* is the whole Abhidhamma-piṭaka and other utterances not among the other eight *angas*.³ *Gāthā*, “verses,” are the *Dhammapada*, *Thera-* and *Therī-gāthā* and those verses in the *Suttanipāta* not called *suttas*. *Udāna*, *itivuttaka*, and *jātaka* are the works so named. *Abbhutadhamma* consists of the *suttas* that describe “wonderful events”. *Vedalla* is described by giving a list of six *suttas*, two of which have the title *vedalla*. They are said to be in the form of question and answer and to give joy and satisfaction.¹

c28.s2.7

² Dīgha. com., p. 23.

c28.s2.8

³ For the Sarvāstivādins *vyākaraṇa* is a prophecy by Buddha about the future destiny of a person.

c28.s2.9

¹ The meaning is uncertain. In form vedalla (*vaidalya*) would be an abstract formed from vidala, like vaipulya from vipula. Skt. dala means a fragment, and it may be suggested that vidala, “ split open, expanded,” would mean fragmentary, and vedalla a sutta of fragments. This would suit the fact that those suttas are of a miscellaneous character and as it were made up of fragments. The term vaipulya is quite distinct, and appears to be a deliberate replacing of the earlier term. Although it is best known as a Mahāyāna term it was used, as will be seen, by the Dharmaguptas. It means abundance or fullness, and though the exact reason for its use cannot be proved, it was probably a term descriptive of the very extensive later suttas which were excluded from the four Āgamas.

c28.s2.10

The importance of the list of twelve angas lies in the fact that it shows the growth of other types of Scripture which could not be placed in the Piṭakas. That these types began not with Mahāyāna can be seen from the fact that they exist as Sarvāstivāda works. We cannot assume that the Sarvāstivādins borrowed a Mahāyāna form, for it is chiefly the Sarvāstivāda avadānas that were incorporated in the Mahāyāna Canon. We also find definite evidence for the Sarvāstivāda origin of avadāna and other additional terms in the Vinaya of the Dharmaguptas, a branch of the Sarvāstivādins. The passage is important enough to be quoted. It occurs in the account of the first Council, where Ānanda after reciting the Āgamas is said to have recited the Abhidharma Piṭaka.

c28.s2.11

So also he (Ānanda) replied concerning the Jātaka Sūtra, the “ good ” Nidāna Sūtra, the Vaipulya Sūtras, the Adbhuta (dharma) Sūtras, the Avadāna Sūtras, the Upadeśa Sūtras, the Ku-i Sūtra (Vyākaraṇa), the Dharmapada Sūtra, the Po-lo-yen Sūtra, the “ concourse of dangers ” Sūtra, the verses of the Holy One (Muni-gāthā), all these, composing the miscellaneous collection of Sūtras, he spoke of ; so also of others, in which difficulties and no difficulties in meaning were discussed, all these in their turns he spoke of, and so was collected the Abhidharma Piṭaka.²

c28.s2.12

² This is Beal’s version, *Abstract of four lectures*, p. 79, with the omission of some of his comments. The Po-lo-yen is probably the Pārāyaṇa of the Suttanipāta, and the “ Concourse of dangers ” (rather, “ dangers of intercourse ”) the Khaggavisāṇasutta.

c28.s2.13

It is not clear whether the “ miscellaneous collection of sūtras ” is a part of the Abhidhamma, or whether a fifth Āgama is implied, but the point is not here important. We find in it Nidāna, Avadāna, and Upadeśa, the three forms supposed to belong to Mahāyāna.

Linked texts (12)