Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

A Concise History of Science in India c5.s7: Buddhist Literary Sources

A Concise History of Science in India c5.s7

Language
English

Contents

Buddhist Literary Sources

c5.s7.1

Unlike the Brāhmaṇic literary sources, those of the Buddhists are relatively of little importance in view of their philosophy of life centring round *nirvāṇa*, primary preoccupation with ethical considerations and a general lack of interest in positive sciences. Exceptions are, however, in the field of medicine, the Buddha himself being acclaimed as the greatest of physicians (*bhaiṣajyaguru*), in certain physical concepts such as atomism and the like. 'Amid the many allusions to human activities in the Canon,' writes Keith, 'we hear of practically nothing scientific, save the pseudo-science of astrology and the practical art of medicine, which unquestionably deeply coloured the outlook and method of the Buddha as the great healer of human evils.'d Nevertheless, there are enough indications of their interest in Brahmanical sciences which they adopted without little or no further development and transmitted to other countries along with the spread of Buddhism there. In this way we do come across the *Po-lo-mên* literature in China, dealing with Brahmanical astronomy, mathematics and pharmacy and the *nakṣatra* list in Uigur manuscripts in Central Asia.

The Pali Canon

c5.s7.t1.1

The Pali Canon represents the teachings of the oldest Buddhist sect called the *Thera* (Sanskrit *sthavira*), meaning the 'ancient', and constitutes, according to the Theravādins (also called the Vibhajyavādins), the most ancient and important source for the understanding of Buddhism. The Canon is called the *Tripiṭaka*, that is 'three baskets'. Its three divisions and subdivisions are:

c5.s7.t1.2

b Reinaud, p. 286.

c5.s7.t1.3

I. The *Vinayapiṭaka*, dealing with the discipline of the order, including monastic community, daily life of the monks, orders of discipline, etc.

c5.s7.t1.4

a Colebrooke (2), p. xxxiii.

c5.s7.t1.5

c Bhau Daji, p. 407.

c5.s7.t1.6

d Keith (5), p. 89.

c5.s7.t1.7

It is subdivided into (i) the *Suttavibhaṅga* consisting of *Mahāvibhaṅga* and *Bhikkunivibhaṅga*; (ii) the *Khandhakās* consisting of *Mahāvagga* and *Cullavagga*; and (iii) the *Parivāra* or *Parivārapāṭha*.

c5.s7.t1.8

II. The *Suttapiṭaka*, giving short rules, discourses or sermons often in the form of a dialogue. This *piṭaka* comprises five *Nikāyas* (collections), viz. *Dīghanikāya*, *Majjhimanikāya*, *Saṃyuktanikāya*, *Aṅguttaranikāya* and *Khuddakanikāya*.

c5.s7.t1.9

III. The *Abhidhammapiṭaka*, concerned with the higher subtilities of the religion and providing the psychological basis of the Buddhist ethics.a Its subdivisions are: *Dhammasaṅgāni*, *Vibhaṅga*, *Kathāvatthu*, *Puggalapannatti*, *Dhātukathā*, *Yamaka* and *Paṭṭhāna*.

c5.s7.t1.10

Several passages of the *Tripiṭaka* further indicate the division of the Canon into nine *aṅgas*, e.g. *Sutta* (discourses and sermons in prose), *Geyya* (sermons in prose and verse), *Veyyākaraṇa* (commentaries and explanations), *Gāthā* (stanzas), *Udāna* (pithy sayings), *Itivuttaka* (speeches beginning with ‘Thus has been said’), *Jātaka* (stories of former births of the Buddha), *Abbhuta* (miracle stories) and *Vedalla* (questions and answers). These *aṅgas* are indicative of the fact that some of them were certainly present at the time of compilation of the Canon.

c5.s7.t1.11

Scientific information of some importance is scattered throughout such canonical literature. The *Mahāvagga*, for instance, has a chapter dealing with diseases, their remedies, rules of hygiene, etc. A number of medical legends, including the famous legend of Jīvaka who used to cure diseases by surgery, trepanation and so on, are also found in these canonical works.

c5.s7.t1.12

According to the tradition, the *Tripiṭakas* were compiled at the first Council of Buddhists held in Rājagaha (modern Rajgir) shortly after the death of the Buddha (*c.* 485 B.C.). Much reliance is not placed on this tradition on the ground that such a voluminous Canon could not have been compiled in so short a time. More reliable is the tradition of a second Buddhist Council at Vesāli about a hundred years after the death of the Buddha, when the monks, faced with a great schism, assembled and rehearsed the *Vinayapiṭaka*. The Ceylonese tradition has it that in the time of Aśoka, about 236 years after the death of the Buddha (that is *c.* 249 B.C.), Tissa Moggaliputta convened a third Council of a thousand monks in Pāṭaliputra to compile the authoritative Canon of the Theravādins. Then there is the vital question of the Pali language of the *Tripiṭaka* as we have it today and the ancient Māgadhī dialect used by the monks of Pāṭaliputra. Winternitz remarks that the Pali *Vinaya* and the *Suttapiṭaka* correspond on the whole to the Māgadhī Canon of the third century B.C.b From a consideration of all factors, he concludes that a collection of Buddhist texts called the *Piṭakas*, divided into *Nikāyas*, existed before the second century B.C., probably as early as the time of Aśoka and that this Buddhist Canon closely resembles the Pali Canon we now have it.a In its present form, the *Tripiṭakas* have probably been in existence from the early centuries of the Christian era.

c5.s7.t1.13

a Winternitz, II, p. 9.

c5.s7.t1.14

b Winternitz, II, p. 15.

c5.s7.t1.15

*The non-Canonical Pali Literature*

c5.s7.t1.16

Of the extensive non-Canonical Pali literature, mention may be made of *Milindapañha* (Questions of Milinda) written in the dialogue form which reminds one of the *Upaniṣads*. The work was in all probability composed during the first century A.D. The bulk of the non-Canonical Pali literature consists of commentaries, that is *aṭṭhakathās* in which Ceylonese monks excelled. The *Milindapañha* was written somewhere in North-West India.

c5.s7.t1.17

As to other Indian Pali commentators, we should specially mention Buddhaghoṣa who flourished in the fifth century A.D. Born of a Brahmin family of Magadha and exceedingly well read in the *Vedas*, he embraced Buddhism, spent some time in the Anurādhāpur monastery of Ceylon and wrote several works and commentaries. His works include the *Atthasālinī* (a commentary on the *Dhammasaṅgāni*), the *Viśuddhi-Magga*, a systematic treatise containing a clear exposition of the Buddhistic doctrine, and a number of commentaries on the *Vinayapiṭaka*, *Dīghanikāya*, *Majjhimanikāya*, *Aṅguttaranikāya* and *Abhidhammapiṭaka*.

c5.s7.t1.18

*The Buddhist Sanskrit Literature*

c5.s7.t1.19

The Pali literature on Buddhism briefly referred to above represents by and large the view of the Theravādins. Other schools and sects, particularly the Mahāyānists, wrote in pure and mixed Sanskrit. This Buddhist Sanskrit literature has come down to us in a rather scattered, sporadic and fragmentary manner as also in translations in Tibetan and Chinese, which are very important for an understanding of this type of literature. A large number of these texts have turned up in Central Asia, Kashmir (ruins of Gilgit), Nepal and Afghanistan (Bāmiyan). A few important ones will be noticed here.

c5.s7.t1.20

The *Divyāvadāna* (divine exploits) is a non-canonical collection containing at the same time several elements of the *Vinayapiṭaka* of the Mūlasarvāstivādins. It contains elements characteristic of the Buddhist literature at the beginning of the Christian era and is important for its references to many matters of secular interest, including astronomy.b The *Lalitavistāra* (narration of the sport) is concerned with the legend of the Buddha up to the time of his famous sermon at Banaras and is a work intermediate between the Hīnayāna and the Mahāyāna texts. The language is Sanskrit prose sufficiently regular, but sometimes also mixed, more or less resembling another Sanskrit Buddhist text, the *Mahāvastu*. The work was composed before the Christian era and was translated into Chinese for the first time in a.d. 308.a

c5.s7.t1.21

a * Winternitz, II, p. 18.

c5.s7.t1.22

b *b* Renou and Filliozat, p. 364.

c5.s7.t1.23

The *Laṅkāvatārasūtra*, also called the *Saddharmalaṅkāvatārasūtra*, is one of the important Mahāyāna *sūtras*. The work is important from the point of view of Buddhist physical concepts, at least of the Mahāyāna school, inasmuch as it teaches the *Vijñānavāda*, the doctrine of consciousness and also a modified view of the *śūnyavāda*. It refutes the philosophies of the *Sāṃkhya*, the *Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika* and the sophists. The text was translated into Chinese in a.d. 443 and probably existed between 50 and 100 years before that time.b The philosophy of *Vijñānavāda* played an important part during the fourth and sixth century a.d.

c5.s7.t1.24

The importance of Nāgārjuna in the history of Indian science need hardly be overestimated. Apart from being the founder of the Mādhyamika system of the Mahāyāna, Nāgārjuna, we have it on the authority of Kumārajīva (*c.* a.d. 405), was well versed in astronomy, medicine, production of precious stones and alchemy. Samuel Beal records that he practised the art of converting inferior substances into gold and also discovered an elixir of life. He was the author of the *Mūlamādhyamakakārikā* containing one of the best accounts of the *śūnyavāda* and of several other works. Nāgārjuna's date is debatable. Keith places him around *c.* a.d. 200, Winternitz in the latter half of the second century a.d., and, according to Renou and Filliozat, he lived towards the end of the first century and the first part of the second century a.d.

c5.s7.t1.25

The *Abhidharmakoṣa* of Vasubandhu who flourished in the fourth century a.d. is an important source book on Buddhist atomism. The Sanskrit original has long since been lost, but the work has survived in the form of a commentary, the *Abhidharmakoṣavyākhyā* by Yaśomitra, and also in Tibetan and Chinese versions. The work was written from the standpoint of the Sarvāstivādins and also dealt with the debates between the Vaibhāṣikas and the Sautrāntikas—Buddhist schools who believed in the atomic constitution of matter. The atomism of these Buddhist schools appears to have been borrowed from the Vaiśeṣikas. Another Buddhist work of uncertain date, but translated into Chinese, is *Abhidharmahṛdaya* in which a much fuller treatment of the atomic theory is met with. The earlier and classical Yogācārins appear to have accepted the theory provisionally, but the later ones led by Dignāga (fifth century a.d.), the famous logician, found no use of it in their system of logic, in which, in consequence, the theory was refuted. Nevertheless Dignāga's *Pramāṇasamuccaya*, *Hetucakranirṇaya*, *Nyāyamukha*, *Nyāyapraveśa* and other works throw important light on the subject. Considerable importance also attaches to the works *Nyāyavindu* and *Sambandhaparīkṣā* by Dharmakīrti (seventh century a.d.), the celebrated successor in the Dignāga school of logic.

c5.s7.t1.26

a Renou and Filliozat, p. 368.

c5.s7.t1.27

b Winternitz, ii, p. 337.

Cites (33)