The History of Buddhist Thought c9.s1.13

c9.s1.13

The word for “ part ” is *kalā*, properly a digit, the sixteenth part by which the moon increases daily between new and full moon, and the phrase “ not worth a sixteenth part ” was proverbial.² The compiler wanted a list of sixteen countries, and he has evidently made it up from an earlier list, for the first eight names down to the Sūrasenas occur in the *Janavasabha-sutta*, Dīgha, ii, 200). In that sutta Buddha is said to have explained the destinies of persons in these countries who had recently died, stating whether they had attained Nirvāṇa or in what stage of spiritual progress they were reborn. It is this list of twelve to which four others have here been added, the Asakas of south India, the Avantis of the west, and the Gandhāras and Kambojas of the extreme north-west. These names are frequent enough in later literature, but their almost complete absence from the four Nikāyas, and the fact that the list is preceded by a shorter one, makes it unlikely that it is due to someone who had a knowledge of the political divisions of India before Buddha’s time.