Dialogues of the Buddha, Part II — trans. T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids (1910)

6 This paragraph, too, is omitted in the Suttanta.

O 2

I96 INTRODUCTION.

in English. ' Production ' would often be very nearly correct, although it fails entirely to give the force of the preposition sam ; but a greater objection to that word is the fact that it is generally used, not of things that have come into being of themselves, but of things that have been produced by some one else. It suggests, if it does not imply, a producer ; which is contrary to the whole spirit of the Buddhist passages in which the word sankhara occurs. In this important respect the word ' compound ' is a much more accurate translation, though it lays somewhat too much stress on the sam.

The term Confections (to coin a rendering) is sometimes used to denote all things which have been brought together, made up, by pre-existing causes ; phenomena in general. In this sense it includes, as the commentator here points out, all those material or mental qualities which unite to form an individual, a separate thing or being, whether conscious or unconscious.

It is more usually used, (with special reference to their origin from pre-existing causes, and with allusion to the wider meanings just above explained), of the mental confections only, the mental constituents, of all sentient beings generally, or of man alone. In this sense it forms by itself one of the five classes or aggregates (khan d ha) into which the material and mental qualities of each separate individual are divided in Buddhist writings— the class of dispositions, capabilities, and all that goes together to make what we call character. This class has naturally enough been again divided and subdivided ; and a full list of the Confections in this sense, as now acknowledged by orthodox Buddhists, will be found in my manual 'Buddhism' (pp. 91, 92). At the time when the Five Nikayas reached their present form, no such elaborate list of Confections in detail seems to have been made ; but the general sense of the word was, as is quite clear from the passages in which it occurs, the idea which these details together convey. It is this second and more usual meaning of the term which is more especially emphasized in the concluding verse of the above stanza.

Turning now to the Suttanta itself, we find that the portion of the legend omitted in the Jataka throws an unexpected light upon the tale ; for it commences with a long description of the riches and glory of Maha-Sudassana, and reveals in its details the instructive fact that the legend is nothing more nor less than a spiritualized sun-myth.

It cannot be disputed that the sun-myth theory has become greatly discredited, and with reason, by having been used tooINTRODUCTION. 1 97 carelessly and freely as an explanation of religious legends of different times and countries which have really no historical connexion with the earlier awe and reverence inspired by the sun. The very mention of the word sun-myth is apt to call forth a smile of incredulity, and the indubitable truth which s the basis of the theory has not sufficed to protect it from the shafts of ridicule. The ' Book of the Great King of Glory ' .seems to afford a useful example both of the extent to which the theory may be accepted, and of the limitations under which it should always be applied.

It must at once be admitted that whether the whole story is based on a sun-story, or whether certain parts or details of it are derived from things first spoken about the sun, or not, it is still essentially Buddhistic. A large proportion of its contents has nothing at all to do with the worship of the sun ; and even that which has, had not, in the mind of the author, when the book was put together. Whether indebted to a sun-myth or not, it is therefore perfectly true and valid evidence of the religious belief of the people among whom it was current ; and no more shows that the Buddhists were unconscious sun-worshippers than the story of Samson, under any theory of its possible origin, would prove the same of the Jews.