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1rick Court, Temple, August, 1880. MAHA-PARINIBBANA- SUTTANTA. INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. In translating this Sutta I have followed the text pub- lished by my friend the late Mr. Childers, first in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, and afterwards sepa- rately. In the former the text appeared in two instalments, the first two sheets, with many various readings in the foot- notes, in the volume for 1874; and the remainder, with much fewer various readings, in the volume for 1876. The reprinted text omits most of the various readings in the first two sheets, and differs therefore slightly in the paging. The letters D, S, Y, and Z, mentioned in the notes, refer to MSS. sent to Mr. Childers from Ceylon by myself, Subhtiti Unndnse, Y&tramulle Unn&nse, and Mud liar de Zoysa re- spectively. The MS. mentioned as P (in the first two sheets quoted only in the separate edition) is, no doubt, the Dtgha Nik&ya MS. of the Phayre collection in the India Office Library. The other four are now I believe in the British Museum. The Hon. George Tumour of the Ceylon Civil Service published an analysis of this work in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society for 1 839 ; but as he unfortunately skips, or only summarises, most of the difficult passages, his work, though a most valuable contribution for the time, now more than half a century ago, has not been of much service for the present purpose. Of much greater value was Buddhaghosa's commentary contained in the Su- mangala Vil&sini 1 ; but the great fifth-century commen- 1 I have used the copy made for Tumour, and now in the India Office Collection. XXxii THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. tator wrote of course for Buddhists, and not for foreign scholars ; and his edifying notes and long exegetical ex- pansions of the text (quite in the style of Matthew Henry) often fail to throw light on the very points which are most interesting, and most doubtful, to European readers. The Mdl&lank&ra-vatthu, a late P&li work by a Bur- mese author of the eighteenth century \ is based, in that part of it relating to the last days of the Buddha, almost exclusively on the Book of the Great Decease, and on Buddhaghosa's commentary upon it. Bishop Bigandet's translation into English of a Burmese translation of this work, well known under the title of 1 The Life or Legend of Gaudama the Budha of the Burmese,' affords evidence therefore of the traditional explanations of the text. In the course either of the original author's recasting, or of the double translation, so many changes have taken place, that its evidence is frequently ambiguous and not always quite trustworthy : but with due caution, it may be used as a second commentary. The exact meaning which was originally intended by the title of the book is open to doubt.
2sting, or of the double translation, so many changes have taken place, that its evidence is frequently ambiguous and not always quite trustworthy : but with due caution, it may be used as a second commentary. The exact meaning which was originally intended by the title of the book is open to doubt. ' Great-Decease-Book ' may as well mean * the Great Book of the Decease,' as ' the Book of the Great Decease.' This book is in fact longer than any other in the collection, and the epithet ' Great ' is often opposed in titles to a ' Short ' Sutta of (otherwise) the same name 2 . But the epithet is also frequently intended, without doubt, to qualify the immediately succeeding word in the title 3 ; and, though the phrase 1 Great Decease,' as applied to the death of the Buddha, has not been found elsewhere, it is, I think, meant to do so here 4 . 1 See * The Life or Legend,' &c, third edition, vol. ii. p. 149. The date there given (11 34 of the Burmese era = 1773 a.d.) is evidently the date of the original work, and not of the translation. Nothing is said in the book itself or in Bishop Bigandet's notes of the name of the author, or of the name or date of the Burmese translator. 2 There are several such pairs in the Ma^Aima Nik&ya; and the Mah&- Satippa/M&na-Sutta in the Digha is the same as the Satipa/M&na- Sutta in the Ma^Aima. 8 E. g. in the Maha-padhana-Sutta and Maha-sudassana-Sutta. . * Childers seems to have been of the same opinion, vide Diet. I, 268. INTRODUCTION. xxxiii The division of the Book into chapters, or rather Portions for Recitation, is found in the MSS. ; the division of these chapters into sections has been made by myself. It will be noticed that a very large number of the sections have already been traced, chiefly by Dr. Morris and myself, in various other parts of the Pclli Pi/akas : whole paragraphs or episodes, quite independent of the repetitions and stock phrases above referred to, recurring in two or more places. The question then arises whether (i) the Book of the Great Decease is the borrower, whether (2) it is the original source, or whether (3) these passages were taken over, both into it, and into the other places where they recur, from earlier sources. It will readily be understood that, in the present state of our knowledge, or rather ignorance, of the P&li Pi/akas, this question cannot as yet be answered with any certainty. But a few observations may even now be made. Generally speaking the third of the above possible ex- planations is not only more probable in itself, but is confirmed by parallel instances in literatures developed under similar conditions, both in the valley of the Ganges and in the basin of the Mediterranean.
3observations may even now be made. Generally speaking the third of the above possible ex- planations is not only more probable in itself, but is confirmed by parallel instances in literatures developed under similar conditions, both in the valley of the Ganges and in the basin of the Mediterranean. It is quite possible that while some books — such as the Mahd-vagga, the iTulla-vagga, and the Dlgha Nikiya — usually owe their resemblances to older sources now lost or absorbed ; others — such as the Sawyutta and the Anguttara — are always in such cases simply borrowers from sources still existing. At the time when our Book of the Great Decease was put into its present shape, and still more so when a Book of the Great Decease was first drawn up, there may well have been some reliable tradition as to the events that took place, and as to the subjects of his various discourses, on the Buddha's last journey. He had then been a public Teacher for forty-five years ; and his system of doctrine, which is really, on the whole, a very simple one, had already been long ago elaborated, and applied in numerous dis- courses to almost every conceivable variety of circumstances. What he then said would most naturally be, as it is repre- sented to have been, a final recapitulation of the most [11] c XXxiv THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. important and characteristic tenets of his religion. But these are, of course, precisely those subjects which are most fully and most frequently dealt with in other parts of the P&li Pi/iakas* No record of his actual words could have been preserved. It is quite evident that the speeches placed in the Teacher's mouth, though formulated in the first person, in direct narrative, are only intended to be sum- maries, and very short summaries, of what was said on these occasions. Now if corresponding summaries of his previous teaching had been handed down in the Order, and were in constant use among them, at the time when the Book of the Great Decease was put together, it would be a safe and easy method to insert such previously existing summaries in the historical account as having been spoken at the places where the Teacher was traditionally believed to have spoken on the corresponding doctrines. In the historical book the simple summaries would sufficiently answer every purpose ; but when each particular matter became the subject of a separate book or division of a book, the same summaries would be included, but would be amplified and elucidated. And this is in fact the relation in which several of the recurring passages, as found in the Book of the Great Decease, stand to the same passages when found elsewhere. On the other hand, some of the recurring passages do not consist of such summaries, but are actual episodes in the history. As an instance of these we may take the long extract at the end of the first, and the beginning of the second chapter (I, 20-II, 3, and again II, 16-II, 24), which is found also in the Mah&-vagga.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1rick Court, Temple, August, 1880. MAHA-PARINIBBANA- SUTTANTA. INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. In translating this Sutta I have followed the text pub- lished by my friend the late Mr. Childers, first in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, and afterwards sepa- rately. In the former the text appeared in two instalments, the first two sheets, with many various readings in the foot- notes, in the volume for 1874; and the remainder, with much fewer various readings, in the volume for 1876. The reprinted text omits most of the various readings in the first two sheets, and differs therefore slightly in the paging. The letters D, S, Y, and Z, mentioned in the notes, refer to MSS. sent to Mr. Childers from Ceylon by myself, Subhtiti Unndnse, Y&tramulle Unn&nse, and Mud liar de Zoysa re- spectively. The MS. mentioned as P (in the first two sheets quoted only in the separate edition) is, no doubt, the Dtgha Nik&ya MS. of the Phayre collection in the India Office Library. The other four are now I believe in the British Museum. The Hon. George Tumour of the Ceylon Civil Service published an analysis of this work in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society for 1 839 ; but as he unfortunately skips, or only summarises, most of the difficult passages, his work, though a most valuable contribution for the time, now more than half a century ago, has not been of much service for the present purpose. Of much greater value was Buddhaghosa's commentary contained in the Su- mangala Vil&sini 1 ; but the great fifth-century commen- 1 I have used the copy made for Tumour, and now in the India Office Collection. XXxii THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. tator wrote of course for Buddhists, and not for foreign scholars ; and his edifying notes and long exegetical ex- pansions of the text (quite in the style of Matthew Henry) often fail to throw light on the very points which are most interesting, and most doubtful, to European readers. The Mdl&lank&ra-vatthu, a late P&li work by a Bur- mese author of the eighteenth century \ is based, in that part of it relating to the last days of the Buddha, almost exclusively on the Book of the Great Decease, and on Buddhaghosa's commentary upon it. Bishop Bigandet's translation into English of a Burmese translation of this work, well known under the title of 1 The Life or Legend of Gaudama the Budha of the Burmese,' affords evidence therefore of the traditional explanations of the text. In the course either of the original author's recasting, or of the double translation, so many changes have taken place, that its evidence is frequently ambiguous and not always quite trustworthy : but with due caution, it may be used as a second commentary. The exact meaning which was originally intended by the title of the book is open to doubt.
2sting, or of the double translation, so many changes have taken place, that its evidence is frequently ambiguous and not always quite trustworthy : but with due caution, it may be used as a second commentary. The exact meaning which was originally intended by the title of the book is open to doubt. ' Great-Decease-Book ' may as well mean * the Great Book of the Decease,' as ' the Book of the Great Decease.' This book is in fact longer than any other in the collection, and the epithet ' Great ' is often opposed in titles to a ' Short ' Sutta of (otherwise) the same name 2 . But the epithet is also frequently intended, without doubt, to qualify the immediately succeeding word in the title 3 ; and, though the phrase 1 Great Decease,' as applied to the death of the Buddha, has not been found elsewhere, it is, I think, meant to do so here 4 . 1 See * The Life or Legend,' &c, third edition, vol. ii. p. 149. The date there given (11 34 of the Burmese era = 1773 a.d.) is evidently the date of the original work, and not of the translation. Nothing is said in the book itself or in Bishop Bigandet's notes of the name of the author, or of the name or date of the Burmese translator. 2 There are several such pairs in the Ma^Aima Nik&ya; and the Mah&- Satippa/M&na-Sutta in the Digha is the same as the Satipa/M&na- Sutta in the Ma^Aima. 8 E. g. in the Maha-padhana-Sutta and Maha-sudassana-Sutta. . * Childers seems to have been of the same opinion, vide Diet. I, 268. INTRODUCTION. xxxiii The division of the Book into chapters, or rather Portions for Recitation, is found in the MSS. ; the division of these chapters into sections has been made by myself. It will be noticed that a very large number of the sections have already been traced, chiefly by Dr. Morris and myself, in various other parts of the Pclli Pi/akas : whole paragraphs or episodes, quite independent of the repetitions and stock phrases above referred to, recurring in two or more places. The question then arises whether (i) the Book of the Great Decease is the borrower, whether (2) it is the original source, or whether (3) these passages were taken over, both into it, and into the other places where they recur, from earlier sources. It will readily be understood that, in the present state of our knowledge, or rather ignorance, of the P&li Pi/akas, this question cannot as yet be answered with any certainty. But a few observations may even now be made. Generally speaking the third of the above possible ex- planations is not only more probable in itself, but is confirmed by parallel instances in literatures developed under similar conditions, both in the valley of the Ganges and in the basin of the Mediterranean.
3observations may even now be made. Generally speaking the third of the above possible ex- planations is not only more probable in itself, but is confirmed by parallel instances in literatures developed under similar conditions, both in the valley of the Ganges and in the basin of the Mediterranean. It is quite possible that while some books — such as the Mahd-vagga, the iTulla-vagga, and the Dlgha Nikiya — usually owe their resemblances to older sources now lost or absorbed ; others — such as the Sawyutta and the Anguttara — are always in such cases simply borrowers from sources still existing. At the time when our Book of the Great Decease was put into its present shape, and still more so when a Book of the Great Decease was first drawn up, there may well have been some reliable tradition as to the events that took place, and as to the subjects of his various discourses, on the Buddha's last journey. He had then been a public Teacher for forty-five years ; and his system of doctrine, which is really, on the whole, a very simple one, had already been long ago elaborated, and applied in numerous dis- courses to almost every conceivable variety of circumstances. What he then said would most naturally be, as it is repre- sented to have been, a final recapitulation of the most [11] c XXxiv THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. important and characteristic tenets of his religion. But these are, of course, precisely those subjects which are most fully and most frequently dealt with in other parts of the P&li Pi/iakas* No record of his actual words could have been preserved. It is quite evident that the speeches placed in the Teacher's mouth, though formulated in the first person, in direct narrative, are only intended to be sum- maries, and very short summaries, of what was said on these occasions. Now if corresponding summaries of his previous teaching had been handed down in the Order, and were in constant use among them, at the time when the Book of the Great Decease was put together, it would be a safe and easy method to insert such previously existing summaries in the historical account as having been spoken at the places where the Teacher was traditionally believed to have spoken on the corresponding doctrines. In the historical book the simple summaries would sufficiently answer every purpose ; but when each particular matter became the subject of a separate book or division of a book, the same summaries would be included, but would be amplified and elucidated. And this is in fact the relation in which several of the recurring passages, as found in the Book of the Great Decease, stand to the same passages when found elsewhere. On the other hand, some of the recurring passages do not consist of such summaries, but are actual episodes in the history. As an instance of these we may take the long extract at the end of the first, and the beginning of the second chapter (I, 20-II, 3, and again II, 16-II, 24), which is found also in the Mah&-vagga.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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