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

2 It is admitted there were no reporters present. There were at the time of the Buddha's death no mechanical means available for writing anything beyond the most meagre notes.

and later material. The Buddhist Pi/akas form no exception. As regards the Nikayas I have shown this elsewhere in considerable detail l. Now the record, as we have it, presupposes the existence, already at the time of the Buddha's death, of the Five Nikayas in their present arrangement !

It follows that both on general principles of comparative criticism, and on consideration of a particular instance in this special case, the details given us in the Vinaya about the First Council cannot be trusted. But it does not follow, as a matter of certainty, that there was no Council at all. It is quite possible, and even probable, that the Order held a ' General Chapter,' as we should call it, soon after the Buddha's death. They kept no proper minutes of the meeting. We may conjecture what happened at it, but it would be only conjecture. And we must continue patiently, from the incidental references in the books themselves, to formulate a probable theory as to the method in which the literature gradually sprang up. The record handed down to us in the Vinaya is authentic enough ; but only in the only ivay in zvliicJi any stick record can be considered authentic, that is, as evidence of beliefs held at the date at which it was composed.

1 ' Dialogues,' I, x-xx ; ' Buddhist India/ 161-208.

[XVI. MAHA PARINIBBANA SUTTANTA.

The Book of the Great Decease.
CHAPTER I.]

i. [72] Thus have I heard. The Exalted One was once dwelling in Rajagaha, on the hill called the Vulture's Peak. Now at that time Ajatasattu, the son of the queen-consort of the Videha clan \ the king of Magadha, had made up his mind to attack the Vajjians ; and he said to himself, ' I will strike at these Vajjians, mighty and powerful- though they be, I will root out these Vajjians, I will destroy these Vajjians, I will bring these Vajjians to utter ruin ! '

2. So he spake to the brahmin Vassakara (the Rainmaker), prime-minister of Magadha, and said : —

1 Ajatasattu Vcdehiputto. The first word is not a personal name but an official epithet, ' he against whom there has arisen no (worthy or equal) foe' (so already in the Rig Veda but Sum. 131 different). The second gives us the maiden family, or tribal (not personal) name of his mother. Her name, according to a Tibetan authority quoted by Rockhill, ' Life of the Buddha,' p. 63, was Vasavi.

Persons of distinction are scarcely ever mentioned by name in Indian Buddhist books, a rule applying more especially to kings, but extended not unfiequently to private persons. Thus Upatissa, the disciple whom the Buddha himself declared to be ' the second founder of the kingdom of righteousness,' is referred to either as Dhammasenapati or as Sariputta ; epithets of corresponding origin to those in the text. See above, Vol. 1, pp. 193-5.

By the Jains Ajatasattu is called Ku/rika or Komka, which again is probably not the name given to him at the rice-eating (the ceremony corresponding to infant baptism), but a nickname acquired in after-life.

2 Evammahiddihike evammahanubhave. There is nothing magical or supernatural about the iddhi here referred to. Etena tesaw samagga-bhavaw kathesi says the commentator simply: thus referring the former adjective to the power of union, as he does the second to the power derived from practice in military tactics (hatthisippadihi). See above, Vol. I, p. 273.

D. ii. 73- TIIE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. 79

4 Come now, brahmin, do you go to the Exalted One, and bow down in adoration at his feet on my behalf, and inquire in my name whether he is free from illness and suffering, and in the enjoyment of ease and comfort and vigorous health. Then tell him that Ajatasattu, son of the Vedehi, the king of Magadha, in his eagerness to attack the Vajjians, has resolved, " I will strike at these Vajjians, mighty and powerful though they be, I will root out these Vajjians, I will destroy these Vajjians, I will bring these Vajjians to utter ruin ! " And bear carefully in mind whatever the Exalted One may predict, and repeat it to me. For the Buddhas speak nothing untrue ! '