The History of Buddhist Thought c28.s5.15

c28.s5.15

(5) *Sūtra*. This is the largest section, and includes all the sūtras, about 300, not elsewhere classified. The first is the *Bhadrakalpika-sūtra*, giving a list of all the Buddhas who have appeared and will appear in this “good cycle” (*bhadrakalpa*). Usually there are five including Maitreya, but according to this doctrine there are to be 1,000.² Then follows the well-known *Lalita-vistara* (p. 282), and among them are also the *Laṅkāvatāra* (p. 230), the *Lotus* (p. 179), the *Sukhāvatī-vyūha* (p. 193), the *Kāraṇḍa-vyūha* (p. 190), and the *Mahāmegha-sūtra*, a spell for obtaining rain. The list closes with a number of Sarvāstivāda works, several collections of avadānas, and single avadānas contained in the *Avadāna-śataka*. Last come thirteen sūtras translated, Feer says, from the Pāli, but the titles are Sanskrit, and the source is more like Sarvāstivāda. Two are not identifiable in the Pāli. It is significant that four of them are spells: the *Mahāsamaya-sūtra* (*Dīgha*, ii, 253), the *Aṭānāṭiya-sūtra* (*Dīgha*, iii, 194), and the two for removing eclipses, *Sūrya-* and *Candra-sūtra* (*Saṃy.*, i, 50). They all occur in the collection of spells used in Ceylon known as the *Paritta* or *Pirit-pota*.