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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1There is a difference of reading between the lines put into Sariputta’s mouth, at II, 2, 4, and those ascribed to Sariputta in the Thera Gatha (1002, 1003). If the Milinda reading is not found in some hitherto unpublished passage, we have here a real case of divergence. Perhaps the most important apparent variation between our author and the Pitaka texts is the statement put by him, in IV, 4, 9, into the mouth of the Buddha, that a deliberate lie is one of the offences called ParAgika, that is, involving exclusion from the Order. Now in the old Canon Law there are only four Paragika offences—breach of chastity, theft, murder, and a false claim to extraordinary spiritual powers (see my translation in vol. i, pp. 1-5 of the ‘ Vinaya Texts’); and falsehood is placed quite distinctly under another category, that of the Pa#ittiyas, offences requiring repentance (see p. 32 of the same translation). If our author was a member of the Order, as he almost certainly was, it would seem almost incredible that he should make an error in a matter of such common knowledge, and of such vital importance, as the number and nature of the Paragikas. And indeed, in the immediate context, he refers to the Pakittiya rule, though not in the exact words used in the text of the Patimokkha. I think that he must have known very well what he was talking about. And that a passage, not yet traced, will be found in the unpublished parts of the Pitakas, in which the Buddha is made to say that falsehood is a Paragika—just as a Christian might maintain that falsehood is forbidden in the Ten Commandments, and yet be perfectly aware of the exact phraseology of the Ten Words. In IV, 4, 26, our author identifies the learned pig in the Takkha-sikara Gataka with the Bodisat. He differs here from the Gataka Commentary, in which the Bodisat is identified with the tree-god, who acts as a kind of Greek chorus in the story. And the summaries in IV, 4, 28 of xlii TIE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. Ruru Gataka, and in IV, 4, 30 of the Sabba-datha GAtaka, do not exactly agree with Professor Fausbdll’s text. But the commentary is not the text; and it is well known that there are numerous such light variations in the different expansions of the verses, which latter alone form the actual text. In IV, 4, 44 we find our author giving a version of a well-known incident in the Buddhist Gospel story different from the oldest version of it in the Pisaka texts. This is another instance of an expansion of the original adopted from some unknown commentator, and does not argue an ignorance of the text as we have it.
2This is another instance of an expansion of the original adopted from some unknown commentator, and does not argue an ignorance of the text as we have it. I have noticed in the untranslated portion of our author, four or five cases of readings apparently different from the Pizaka texts he refers to. These I hope to deal with in my next volume. But I may notice here that two stanzas, given on p. 414 of the text, and said on p. 413 to be ‘in the Sutta Nipta, are not found in Professor Fausbdll’s edition of that work ; and we have there, in all probability, another case of real divergence. But the reading in the Milinda may possibly be found to be incorrect. The general result of this comparison, when we remember the very large number of passages quoted, will be held, I trust, to confirm the conclusion reached above, that our author knew the Pitakas practically as we now have them, that is as they have been handed down in Ceylon. Outside the Pi/akas there are unfortunately no references to actual books. But there are several references to countries and persons which are of importance, in as much as they show a knowledge in our author of places or occurrences not mentioned in the sacred books. It will be most convenient to arrange these passages first in an alphabetical list, and then to make a few remarks on the conclusions the list suggests. They are as follows :— Name. Page of the Pali Text. Anantakaya (Yonako) . . . . 29, 30. Alasando (dipo) . . . . . 82, 327, 331, 359- Asoka (dhamma-rag4) . ns o2 0 1 See my notes to the passages quoted. INTRODUCTION. xliti Name. Page of the Pali Text. Asokarama (near Patna) 16, 17. Assagutta (A4yasm4) 6,7, 14. Ayupala (4yasm4) 19. Uha (nadf) . 70. Kalasi (gimo) 83. Kasmira (raf/ham) 82, 327, 331. Kola-pa//ana (seaport) 359. Gandhfra (raftham) 327, 331. Kandagutto (rag4) 292. Kina (? China) 121, 327, 331, 359- Takkola (? =K arko/a) 359. Tissatthera (lekha fariyo) WI. Devamantiya (Yonako) 22-24, 29, 30. Dhamma-rakkhita (A4yasmé) . 16, 18. Nikumba (ra//Zam) 327- Bindumatt (gamik4) 121. Bhaddas4la (sen 4pati-putto) 292. Bharukaékha (men of) . 331. Mankura (Yonako) 29, 30. Madhura (nigamo) 331. Yonaka (the tribe) I, 4, 20, 68. Rakkhita-tala (in the HimAlay: ss) 6, 7, 12, 18. Rohama (4yasm4) 7, 10. Vanga (Bengal) . 359: Vattaniya (sendsanam) 10, 12, 14-16. Vigamba-vatthu (sendsanam) 12. Vilata (rattham) . 327, 331. Saka-yavana (the countries of) ) 327, 331- Sankheyya (parivenam) 1g, 22. Sabbadinna or Dinna (Y onako) 29, 56. Sagala (nagaram) . I, 3) 5) 14, 22. Sura/ha (nigamo) 359, men of, 331. Suvazna-bhimi (? Burma) 359- Sonuttara (brdhmano) . 9. It will be noticed that the only names of persons, besides
3Saka-yavana (the countries of) ) 327, 331- Sankheyya (parivenam) 1g, 22. Sabbadinna or Dinna (Y onako) 29, 56. Sagala (nagaram) . I, 3) 5) 14, 22. Sura/ha (nigamo) 359, men of, 331. Suvazna-bhimi (? Burma) 359- Sonuttara (brdhmano) . 9. It will be noticed that the only names of persons, besides those occurring in the story itself, are, in one passage, Asoka and Bindumati the courtesan, and in another Kandragupta and Bhaddasila who fought against him. Of places, besides those in the story, we have a considerable number of names | referring to the Panj4éb, and adjacent countries; and besides these the names only of a few places or countries on xliv THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. the sea coast. The island Alasanda in the Indus, and the town of Kalasi situated in that island, have been discussed above. The country of the Sakas and Yavanas, Gandhara, Kashmir, Bharukaké/a, Surat, and Madhura, explain themselves. Nikumba and Viléta were probably in the same neighbourhood, but these names have not been met with elsewhere, and I can suggest no identification of them. The places on the sea coast, to which a merchant ship could sail, mentioned on p. 359, are mostly well known. Kolapattana must, I think, be some place on the Koromandel coast, and Suvaz#a-bhimi be meant for the seaboard of Burma and Siam. The author mentions no places in the interior south of the Ganges. At four places he gives lists of famous rivers. In three out of the four he simply repeats the list of five—Gang4, Yamuna, A&iravati, SarabhQ, and Mahi—so often enumerated together in the Pifakas'. In the fourth passage (p. 114) he adds five others—the Sindhu, the Sarassati, the Vetravati, the Vitaszs4, and the Kandabh4g4. Of these the first two are well known. Professor Eduard Miiller suggests” that the Vitawsa is the same as the Vitast4 (the Hydaspes of the Greeks and the modern Bihat). The Vetravati is one of the principal affluents of the Jumna; and the Kandrabhaga rises in the North-West Himalayas, and is not unfrequently referred to as the Asikni of the Vedas, the Akesines of the Greek geographers, the modern Kinab ’. The list is meagre enough. An ethical treatise is scarcely the place to look for much geographical or historical matter. But unless our author deliberately concealed his knowledge, and made all the remarks he put into the mouth of Nagasena correspond with what that teacher might fairly be expected to have known, the whole list points to the definite conclusion that the writer of the ‘Questions of Milinda’ resided in the far North-West of 1 See pp. 70, 87, 380 of the Pali text. * « Journal of the Pali Text Society,’ 1888, p. 87. * See Lassen, ‘Indische Alterthumskunde,’ vol. i, p. 43 (first edition, p. 55 of the second edition), and the passages there quoted. INTRODUCTION. xlv
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.
1There is a difference of reading between the lines put into Sariputta’s mouth, at II, 2, 4, and those ascribed to Sariputta in the Thera Gatha (1002, 1003). If the Milinda reading is not found in some hitherto unpublished passage, we have here a real case of divergence. Perhaps the most important apparent variation between our author and the Pitaka texts is the statement put by him, in IV, 4, 9, into the mouth of the Buddha, that a deliberate lie is one of the offences called ParAgika, that is, involving exclusion from the Order. Now in the old Canon Law there are only four Paragika offences—breach of chastity, theft, murder, and a false claim to extraordinary spiritual powers (see my translation in vol. i, pp. 1-5 of the ‘ Vinaya Texts’); and falsehood is placed quite distinctly under another category, that of the Pa#ittiyas, offences requiring repentance (see p. 32 of the same translation). If our author was a member of the Order, as he almost certainly was, it would seem almost incredible that he should make an error in a matter of such common knowledge, and of such vital importance, as the number and nature of the Paragikas. And indeed, in the immediate context, he refers to the Pakittiya rule, though not in the exact words used in the text of the Patimokkha. I think that he must have known very well what he was talking about. And that a passage, not yet traced, will be found in the unpublished parts of the Pitakas, in which the Buddha is made to say that falsehood is a Paragika—just as a Christian might maintain that falsehood is forbidden in the Ten Commandments, and yet be perfectly aware of the exact phraseology of the Ten Words. In IV, 4, 26, our author identifies the learned pig in the Takkha-sikara Gataka with the Bodisat. He differs here from the Gataka Commentary, in which the Bodisat is identified with the tree-god, who acts as a kind of Greek chorus in the story. And the summaries in IV, 4, 28 of xlii TIE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. Ruru Gataka, and in IV, 4, 30 of the Sabba-datha GAtaka, do not exactly agree with Professor Fausbdll’s text. But the commentary is not the text; and it is well known that there are numerous such light variations in the different expansions of the verses, which latter alone form the actual text. In IV, 4, 44 we find our author giving a version of a well-known incident in the Buddhist Gospel story different from the oldest version of it in the Pisaka texts. This is another instance of an expansion of the original adopted from some unknown commentator, and does not argue an ignorance of the text as we have it.
2This is another instance of an expansion of the original adopted from some unknown commentator, and does not argue an ignorance of the text as we have it. I have noticed in the untranslated portion of our author, four or five cases of readings apparently different from the Pizaka texts he refers to. These I hope to deal with in my next volume. But I may notice here that two stanzas, given on p. 414 of the text, and said on p. 413 to be ‘in the Sutta Nipta, are not found in Professor Fausbdll’s edition of that work ; and we have there, in all probability, another case of real divergence. But the reading in the Milinda may possibly be found to be incorrect. The general result of this comparison, when we remember the very large number of passages quoted, will be held, I trust, to confirm the conclusion reached above, that our author knew the Pitakas practically as we now have them, that is as they have been handed down in Ceylon. Outside the Pi/akas there are unfortunately no references to actual books. But there are several references to countries and persons which are of importance, in as much as they show a knowledge in our author of places or occurrences not mentioned in the sacred books. It will be most convenient to arrange these passages first in an alphabetical list, and then to make a few remarks on the conclusions the list suggests. They are as follows :— Name. Page of the Pali Text. Anantakaya (Yonako) . . . . 29, 30. Alasando (dipo) . . . . . 82, 327, 331, 359- Asoka (dhamma-rag4) . ns o2 0 1 See my notes to the passages quoted. INTRODUCTION. xliti Name. Page of the Pali Text. Asokarama (near Patna) 16, 17. Assagutta (A4yasm4) 6,7, 14. Ayupala (4yasm4) 19. Uha (nadf) . 70. Kalasi (gimo) 83. Kasmira (raf/ham) 82, 327, 331. Kola-pa//ana (seaport) 359. Gandhfra (raftham) 327, 331. Kandagutto (rag4) 292. Kina (? China) 121, 327, 331, 359- Takkola (? =K arko/a) 359. Tissatthera (lekha fariyo) WI. Devamantiya (Yonako) 22-24, 29, 30. Dhamma-rakkhita (A4yasmé) . 16, 18. Nikumba (ra//Zam) 327- Bindumatt (gamik4) 121. Bhaddas4la (sen 4pati-putto) 292. Bharukaékha (men of) . 331. Mankura (Yonako) 29, 30. Madhura (nigamo) 331. Yonaka (the tribe) I, 4, 20, 68. Rakkhita-tala (in the HimAlay: ss) 6, 7, 12, 18. Rohama (4yasm4) 7, 10. Vanga (Bengal) . 359: Vattaniya (sendsanam) 10, 12, 14-16. Vigamba-vatthu (sendsanam) 12. Vilata (rattham) . 327, 331. Saka-yavana (the countries of) ) 327, 331- Sankheyya (parivenam) 1g, 22. Sabbadinna or Dinna (Y onako) 29, 56. Sagala (nagaram) . I, 3) 5) 14, 22. Sura/ha (nigamo) 359, men of, 331. Suvazna-bhimi (? Burma) 359- Sonuttara (brdhmano) . 9. It will be noticed that the only names of persons, besides
3Saka-yavana (the countries of) ) 327, 331- Sankheyya (parivenam) 1g, 22. Sabbadinna or Dinna (Y onako) 29, 56. Sagala (nagaram) . I, 3) 5) 14, 22. Sura/ha (nigamo) 359, men of, 331. Suvazna-bhimi (? Burma) 359- Sonuttara (brdhmano) . 9. It will be noticed that the only names of persons, besides those occurring in the story itself, are, in one passage, Asoka and Bindumati the courtesan, and in another Kandragupta and Bhaddasila who fought against him. Of places, besides those in the story, we have a considerable number of names | referring to the Panj4éb, and adjacent countries; and besides these the names only of a few places or countries on xliv THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. the sea coast. The island Alasanda in the Indus, and the town of Kalasi situated in that island, have been discussed above. The country of the Sakas and Yavanas, Gandhara, Kashmir, Bharukaké/a, Surat, and Madhura, explain themselves. Nikumba and Viléta were probably in the same neighbourhood, but these names have not been met with elsewhere, and I can suggest no identification of them. The places on the sea coast, to which a merchant ship could sail, mentioned on p. 359, are mostly well known. Kolapattana must, I think, be some place on the Koromandel coast, and Suvaz#a-bhimi be meant for the seaboard of Burma and Siam. The author mentions no places in the interior south of the Ganges. At four places he gives lists of famous rivers. In three out of the four he simply repeats the list of five—Gang4, Yamuna, A&iravati, SarabhQ, and Mahi—so often enumerated together in the Pifakas'. In the fourth passage (p. 114) he adds five others—the Sindhu, the Sarassati, the Vetravati, the Vitaszs4, and the Kandabh4g4. Of these the first two are well known. Professor Eduard Miiller suggests” that the Vitawsa is the same as the Vitast4 (the Hydaspes of the Greeks and the modern Bihat). The Vetravati is one of the principal affluents of the Jumna; and the Kandrabhaga rises in the North-West Himalayas, and is not unfrequently referred to as the Asikni of the Vedas, the Akesines of the Greek geographers, the modern Kinab ’. The list is meagre enough. An ethical treatise is scarcely the place to look for much geographical or historical matter. But unless our author deliberately concealed his knowledge, and made all the remarks he put into the mouth of Nagasena correspond with what that teacher might fairly be expected to have known, the whole list points to the definite conclusion that the writer of the ‘Questions of Milinda’ resided in the far North-West of 1 See pp. 70, 87, 380 of the Pali text. * « Journal of the Pali Text Society,’ 1888, p. 87. * See Lassen, ‘Indische Alterthumskunde,’ vol. i, p. 43 (first edition, p. 55 of the second edition), and the passages there quoted. INTRODUCTION. xlv
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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