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

1 Samawa-brahmawa, which compound may possibly mean Samanas and Brahmanas as it has usually been rendered, but I think not necessarily. Not one of those here specified were brahmins by birth, as is apparent from the Sumangala Vilasini on the Samahna- Phala Suttanta, §§ 3-7. Compare the use of Kshatriya-brahmano, ' a soldier priest.' a Kshatriya who offered sacrifice ; and of Brahmawo, absolutely, as an epithet of an Arahant. In the use of the word samawa there seems to me to be a hopeless confusion between, a complete mingling of the meanings of, the two roots sram and sam (which, in Pali, would both become sam). It connotes both asceticismp. 1 disciples and students, teachers of students, well known, renowned, founders of schools of doctrine, esteemed as good men by the multitude — to wit, Pura^a Kassapa, Makkhali of the cattle-pen, A^ita of the garment of hair, KaMayana of the Pakudha tree, San^aya the son of the Bela/Mi slave-girl, and Niga?z//za of the Natha clan [l5l] — have they all, according to their own assertion, thoroughly understood things ? or have they not ? or are there some of them who have understood, and some who have not?'

' Enough, Subhadda ! Let this matter rest whether they, according to their own assertion, have thoroughly understood things, or whether they have not, or whether some of them have understood and some

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have not ! The truth, Ananda, will I teach you.
Listen well to that, and give ear attentively, and
I will speak ! '

' Even so, lord ! ' said the Wanderer Subhadda, in assent, to the Exalted One.

27. And the Exalted One spake: — ' In whatsoever doctrine and discipline, Subhadda, the Aryan eightfold path is not found, neither in it is there found a man of true saintliness of the first, or of the second, or of the third, or of the fourth degree. And in whatsoever doctrine and discipline, Subhadda, the Aryan eightfold path is found, in it is found the man of true saintliness of the first, and the second, and the third, and the fourth degree l. Now in this doctrine and discipline, Subhadda, is found the Aryan eightfold path, and in it and inward peace, and might best be rendered ' devotee,' were it not for the intellectual inferiority implied by that word in our language. A Sama;/a-brahmin should therefore mean a man of any birth, who bj his saintliness of life, by his renunciation of the world, and by his reputation as a religious thinker, had acquired the position of a quasi-brahmin and was looked up to by the people with as much respect as they looked up to a brahmin by birth. Compare further my ' Buddhist Birth Stories,' vol. I, p. 260; and see J. I, 57, 187 ; M. I. 285-6, 400 ; II, 54 ; A. I, 180 ; III, 228.

1 On these degrees in the religious life, see M. I, 63 ; A. II, 238.
They are described in my ' Buddhism' (21st ed., pp. 108 foil.).

D. ii. 152. THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. 1 67

too, are found, Subhadda, the men of true saintliness of all the four degrees. Void are the systems of other teachers — void of true saints. And in this one, Subhadda, may the brethren live the Life that's Right, so that the world be not bereft of Arahants 1.

' But twenty-nine was I when I renounced
The world, Subhadda, seeking after Good.
For fifty years and one year more, Subhadda,
Since I went out, a pilgrim have I been
Through the wide realm of System and of Law —
Outside of that no victory can be won ! 2

' Yea, not of the first, [152] nor of the third, nor of the fourth degree. Void are the systems of other teachers — void of true saints. But in this one, Subhadda, may the brethren live the perfect life, that the world be not bereft of Arahants.'