Rhys Davids makes a large aesthetic claim and hedges it in the next breath, which is the honest way to make one. The Milinda, he says, "is the only prose work composed in ancient India which would be considered, from the modern point of view, as a successful work of art" — and then: "The external evidence for these statements is, at present, both very slight and, for the most part, late." The judgement is his; he tells you what it rests on.
The Questions of King Milinda, Part I — SBE Vol. 35 (trans. Rhys Davids, 1890)
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The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
page 1
The translator’s English as printed (T. W. Rhys Davids). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
. . - 60
Continued identity and Te- -individualisation . . 63-77
Wisdom and intelligence distinguished . . - 66
Time . . . . . 47
Origin and development of qualities . . . . 82
Is there a soul? . . . . . . . . 86
Thought and sight. . . . . . . 89
Contact, sensation, and idea . . . . . 92
Book III. The Removal of Difficulties . . - 100 Rich and poor . . . . oe . . . 100 Renunciation again. . . . . . 101 Nirvana and Karma . . . . 106 Difficulties of various kinds as to > transmigration, individuality, and the Buddha. . . . . 120
Book IV. The Solving of Dilemmas . . . 137 Milinda finds dilemmas in the Holy Writ. . - 137 And takes the Buddhist vows. . . . . 138 Third meeting between him and Nagasena . . 140 rst Dilemma. If the Buddha has really quite passed away, what is the good of paying honour to his relics? . . 144 2nd Dilemma. How can the Buddha be omniscient, when it is said that he reflects? . . 154
3rd Dilemma. Why did he admit Devadatta to the Order, if he knew of the schism he would create?. 162
CONTENTS. 1X PAGE 4th Dilemma, Vessantara’s earthquake 170 5th Dilemma. King Sivi 179 7th Dilemma. Difference in prophecies as to the duration of the faith 185 8th Dilemma. The Buddha’s sinlessness and his sufferings 190 gth Dilemma. Why should the Buddha have meditated? 196 roth Dilemma. Why did the Buddha boast? 198 11th Dilemma. How could the Buddha revoke regulations he had made? . 202 12th Dilemma. Why did the Buddha refuse to answer certain questions? . 204 13th Dilemma. Contradictory statements by the Buddha as to fear 206 14th Dilemma. How can Pirit cure disease ? 213 15th Dilemma. How could the evil one turn people against the Buddha? . . 219 16th Dilemma. Contradiction as to conscious crime 224 17th Dilemma. Contradiction as to the Buddha’s wish to be the chief. . : . 225 18th Dilemma. How could a schism have a arisen in the Buddha's life? 227 1gth Dilemma. Why do members of the Order accept reverence? . : 232 20th Dilemma. The evil results of preaching 234 22nd Dilemma. Was not the Buddha once angry with Sudinna? . . . . 237 23rd Dilemma. The tree talking 241 24th Dilemma. The Buddha’s last meal 242 25th Dilemma. Adoration of relics 246 26th Dilemma. The splinter of rock 248 27th Dilemma. Contradictory description of the Samana 251 28th Dilemma. Buddha’s boasting . 253 29th Dilemma. How can the kind punish others ? 254 3oth Dilemma. Was not the Buddha angry at Katum4? 257 31st Dilemma. How could Moggallana have had miraculous powers seeing that he was murdered? 261 32nd Dilemma. Why should the rules of the Order be kept secret? . . . 264 33rd Dilemma. Contradictions about falsehood 268 x CONTENTS.
34th Dilemma. Did not the Omniscient One once doubt?
35th Dilemma. Suicide
36th Dilemma. Love to all beings
37th Dilemma. Wickedness and prosperity .
38th Dilemma. Women’s wiles .
39th Dilemma. Did not the Arahats once show fear? .
4oth Dilemma. Did not the Omniscient One once change his mind? .
The contents are a philosophy syllabus rather than a scripture's: "Is there a soul?", "Continued identity and Re-individualisation", "Wisdom and intelligence distinguished", "Thought and sight", "Contact, sensation, and idea", "Time". A reader who comes to Buddhist texts expecting devotion or narrative should look at this table of contents first — the book is a Greek-king-and-monk dialogue conducted as analysis.
Book IV is a numbered list of difficulties the tradition sets for itself, and the titles are unusually direct: "Did not the Omniscient One once doubt?", "Did not the Arahats once show fear?", "Did not the Omniscient One once change his mind?", alongside dilemmas on suicide, on "Wickedness and prosperity", and on "Love to all beings". These are not an outsider's objections. They are the questions the tradition put to itself and answered in its own literature.
He dates his principal witness by the Buddhist era and gives the Christian year beside it: "There appeared at Colombo in the year of Buddha 2420 (1877 A.D.) a volume of 650 pages ... entitled MILINDA PRASNAYA", noting it was the largest book yet issued from the Sinhalese press. A small thing, and a useful one: the edition a Victorian translator worked from was itself a recent product of a living tradition, not a manuscript recovered from silence.