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

It is perhaps as well to repeat the caution that it would not follow that the Jana-vasabha, as we have it, is younger than the Maha-parinibbana, as we have it. The Nadika paragraph may have been in existence, as a separate episode, before both of them. The collection (Nikaya) containing both may have been put together, from older material of varying dates, at the same time l. And this is, in point of fact, what seems, in the present state of our knowledge to have been, most probably, the case.

After the prologue, here discussed, the story turns into a fairy tale, quite well told, and very edifying, and full of subtle humour 2. The manner in which the gods, even the highest, give themselves away, must have been quite satisfactory to the adherents of the new doctrine, and is quite on a par with the famous passage in the Kevaddha3. Just as the supreme being of the priestly speculation is there raised to the highest pinnacle of power and glory that words are able to express, only to be then described as confessing ignorance ; so here, after his imposing entry into the Council Hall of the gods, he materializes himself into the form of a Gandharva only to propagate among them the new gospel. Just previously the gods have been rejoiced to find that adherents of the new Teacher, who have died and been reborn among them, outshine them all in radiance and glory ; and Sakka, the king of the gods, has voiced their satisfaction in a hymn of praise to the Teacher, and his doctrine of the reign (not of the gods but) of Law.

The irony of it all falls rather flat now. Brahma and Sakka are mere names to us, void of vitality or power. So confident are we that there are no beings in the universe, worth considering, except human beings, that the whole story seems simply absurd ; and so strange to us is a narrative composed, not to be read, but to be recited, that however clearly the necessity for them is explained, the repetitions continue to jar upon our sense of literary fitness.

It was far different then. Having no books (in our sense of the word) they liked and looked for the repetitions. The mixture of irony and earnestness appealed to their literary

1 See above, p. 73.

2 Compare above, Vol. I, pp. 160-63.

3 Translated above, Vol. I, pp. 280 ff.

taste. And they all accepted as a matter of course the existence of gods and fairies, and ethereal beings of varied character and radiance. We cannot therefore be surprised to find that this group of Suttantas all directed to the one purpose of persuading the people that the gods were on the side of the reforming party, attained a lasting success. Even when the Buddhists, some centuries after the death of the Buddha, began to write in Sanskrit, they still quoted from these Pali mythological legends, and from those passages of them which seem to our taste the most bizarre *.

There are two expressions in our Suttanta which merit a longer discussion than is possible in a note. These are kenacid eva kara;ziyena and yavad eva manussehi suppakasitaw

In each case the question arises whether the d is to be taken as added for euphony, or whether it should be taken with the following eva to form the word deva, god.