Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1The oldest account of this episode has been already translated in vol. xiii of the ' Sacred Books of the East/ in 'Vinaya Texts/ part i, pp. 84-88. IV, 6, i. OF MILINDA THE KING. Book IV. Chapter 6. [dilemma the fifty-first, contradictory statements as to the buddhas TEACHER.] i. [235] 'Venerable Nagasena, this too has been said by the Blessed One : " I have no teacher, and the man Equal to me does not exist. No rival to me can be found In the whole world of gods and men1.,, ' But on the other hand he said : " Thus then, O brethren, A/ara Kalama, when he was my teacher and I was his pupil, placed me on an equality with himself, and honoured me with exceeding great honour 2." 1 This verse is found three times in the Pi/akas — in the Maha- vagga I, 6, 8, in the Ariya-pariyesana Sutta (Maggfiima. Nikaya I, 171), and in the Arigulimala Sutta (Ma^gVHma Nikaya, No. 86). It occurs with other stanzas of a similar tendency, and many of the lines in those stanzas are repeated, but with variations and in a different order, by the author of the Lalita Vistara (pp. 526, 527 of Ra^-endra Lai Mitras edition). One verse is found there in two detached lines which run thus in the Sanskrit : — A/£aryyo na hi me kaj&t, sadwo me na vidyate and Sadevasuragandharvvo nasti me pratipudgala^. Hina/i-kumbure renders pa/ipuggalo, not by ' rival,' but by ' superior/ 2 Mr. Trenckner has pointed out that this quotation is found in two Suttas, Nos. 85 and 100 in the Maxima Nikaya. 44 THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES IV, 6, 2. ' Now if the former of these statements be right, then the second must be wrong. But if the second be right, then the first must be wrong. This too is a double-edged problem, now put to you, which you have to solve.' 2. ' Both the quotations you have made, O king, are accurate. But when he spoke of A/ara Kalama as his teacher, that was a statement made with refer- ence to the fact of his having been his teacher while he (Gotama) was still a Bodisat and before he had at- tained to insight and to Buddhahood ; and there were five such teachers, O king, under whose tuition the Bodisat spent his time in various places — his teachers when he was still a Bodisat, before he had attained to insight and to Buddhahood. And who were these five ? 3. ' Those eight Brahmans who, just after the birth of the Bodisat, took note of the marks on his body — [236] Rama, and Dha^a, and Lakkha/za, and Manti \ and Ya/ma 2, and Suyama, and Su- bho^a3, and Sudatta 4 — they who then made known his future glory, and marked him out as one to be carefully guarded — these were first his teachers 5. 1 Hina/i-kumbur6 reads Gatimanti. It may be noted that Hardy (Manual of Buddhism, p. 149), who omits Ya##a, gives Gati and Manta as two separate names, and spells the last two names Bhogu Sudanta. 2 So also the Sinhalese, p. 329. But the Gataka Commentary (verse 270 at vol. i, p. 50) has kondazHa. 3 The Gataka Introduction (loc. cit.) has Bho^a. The Sinhalese has Subho^a.
2149), who omits Ya##a, gives Gati and Manta as two separate names, and spells the last two names Bhogu Sudanta. 2 So also the Sinhalese, p. 329. But the Gataka Commentary (verse 270 at vol. i, p. 50) has kondazHa. 3 The Gataka Introduction (loc. cit.) has Bho^a. The Sinhalese has Subho^a. 4 Hma/i-kumbure agrees here with Hardy in reading Sudanta. 5 This episode has not been traced in the Pi/akas. The Sin- halese here gives also the detail of the one and two fingers, found in the Gataka, and translated in my ' Buddhist Birth Stories/ p. 72. IV, 6, 3- OF MILINDA THE KING. 45 * And again, O king, the Brahman Sabbamitta of distinguished descent, who was of high lineage in the land of Udi/£/£a\ a philologist and grammarian, well read in the six Vedangas2, whom Suddhodana the king, the Bodisat's father, sent for, and having poured out the water of dedication from a golden vase, handed over the boy to his charge, to be taught — this was his second teacher 3. * And again, O king, the god who raised the agitation in the Bodisat's heart, at the sound of whose speech the Bodisat, moved and anxious, that very moment went out from the world in his Great Renunciation — this was his third teacher 4. 1 In the North-West. See Gataka I, 140, &c. 2 .Oa/angavanta#2. These are phonetics, prosody, grammar, exegesis, astronomy, and ritual. I was wrong in taking Childers's interpretation of this word at 'Buddhist Birth Stories,' p. 72. 3 This episode is also not in the Pi/akas. On onogeti see Mahavagga I, 22, 18. Sabbamitra is given in the Thera Gatha, I, 150, as the name of a Thera, and in the Divyavadana, p. 420, as the name of Asoka's herald or court crier. 4 There is nothing about any such devata in the Pi/akas. Hina/i-kumbure takes it to mean the god who took the outward appearance of the four visions — an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a recluse. But in that story — which is not related in the Pi/akas of the Buddha, though it is referred to in connection with him at Buddhavazrcsa XXVI, p. 16— the god does not speak. The only god whose words are said, in any of the later Pali legends, to have agitated the Bodisat's heart at that moment, was the Evil One himself ; and that only in one version of the legend, the Pali authority for which I cannot give. It is in Hardy's ' Manual/ p. 157, where the speech of the Evil One, placed at Gataka I, 63 at a later time, is said to have been made at the moment of the Renunciation. Even if it be not a mere blunder of Hardy's to put it at that time, still it cannot be the speech referred to by our author. For the startling doctrine that the Evil One himself was one of the Bodisat's teachers would never have been smuggled in, as it were, by concealing the identity of the spirit referred to under 46 THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES IV, 6, 3. * And again, O king, A/ara Kalama — he was his fourth teacher. 6 And again, O king, Uddaka the son of Rama — he was his fifth teacher.
3* And again, O king, A/ara Kalama — he was his fourth teacher. 6 And again, O king, Uddaka the son of Rama — he was his fifth teacher. ' These, O king, are the five who were his teachers when he was still a Bodisat, before he had attained to insight and to Buddhahood. But they were teach- ers in worldly wisdom. And in this Doctrine that is transcendental, in the penetrating into the wisdom of the omniscient ones — in that there is no one who is above the TatMgata to teach him. Self-dependent for his knowledge is the Tathagata, without a master, and that is why it was said by the Tathagata : " I have no teacher, and the man Equal to me does not exist. No rival to me can be found In the whole world of gods and men." ' * Very good, Nagasena ! That is so, and I accept it as you say/ [Here ends the dilemma as to the Buddha's teachers.] the generic term of devata. Now in the Fo-pan-hin-tsi-/£in (Nanjio, No. 680), a Chinese work of the beginning of the seventh century a. d., we find in the sixteenth kwuen or chapter (if one may trust the abstract given in Beal's ' Romantic Legend/ p. 131) that a Devaputra named Tsao-ping is said to have spoken to the Bodisat at the moment of the Renunciation. It is scarcely open to doubt that our author had in his mind an earlier form of that episode. But if so it is the only proved case of his having Sanskrit, and not Pali works, as his authority. IV, 6, 4. OF MILINDA THE KING. 47 [dilemma THE FIFTY-SECOND. WHY MUST THERE BE ONLY ONE BUDDHA AT A TIME ?] 4. ' Venerable Nagasena, this too was said by the Blessed One : " This is an impossibility, an occurrence for which there can be no cause, that in one world two Arahat Buddhas supreme should arise at one and the same time [237] — such a thing can in no wise be1." ' But, Nagasena, when they are preaching, all the Tath&gatas preach (the Doctrine as to) the thirty- seven constituent elements of insight 2 ; when they are talking, it is of the Four Noble Truths that they talk; when they are instructing, it is in the three Trainings 3 that they instruct ; when they are teach- ing, it is the practice of zeal 4 that they teach. If, Nagasena, the preaching of all the Tathagatas is one, and their talk of the same thing, and their train- ing the same, and their teaching one, why then should not two Tathagatas arise at the same time ? Already by the appearance of one Buddha has this world become flooded with light. If there should be a second Buddha the world would be still more illuminated by the glory of them both. When they were exhorting two Tathagatas would exhort at ease ; when they were instructing two Tathagatas would instruct at ease. Tell me the reason of this, that I may put away my doubt/ 1 Ahguttara Nikaya I, 15, 10. 2 These divisions of the seven 'Jewels of the Law' of Arahatship are set out in my ' Buddhist Suttas/ pp. 62-63. 3 Adhisila, adhi^itta, and adhipa##a. 4 Appamada. 48 THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES IV, 6, 5-
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.
1The oldest account of this episode has been already translated in vol. xiii of the ' Sacred Books of the East/ in 'Vinaya Texts/ part i, pp. 84-88. IV, 6, i. OF MILINDA THE KING. Book IV. Chapter 6. [dilemma the fifty-first, contradictory statements as to the buddhas TEACHER.] i. [235] 'Venerable Nagasena, this too has been said by the Blessed One : " I have no teacher, and the man Equal to me does not exist. No rival to me can be found In the whole world of gods and men1.,, ' But on the other hand he said : " Thus then, O brethren, A/ara Kalama, when he was my teacher and I was his pupil, placed me on an equality with himself, and honoured me with exceeding great honour 2." 1 This verse is found three times in the Pi/akas — in the Maha- vagga I, 6, 8, in the Ariya-pariyesana Sutta (Maggfiima. Nikaya I, 171), and in the Arigulimala Sutta (Ma^gVHma Nikaya, No. 86). It occurs with other stanzas of a similar tendency, and many of the lines in those stanzas are repeated, but with variations and in a different order, by the author of the Lalita Vistara (pp. 526, 527 of Ra^-endra Lai Mitras edition). One verse is found there in two detached lines which run thus in the Sanskrit : — A/£aryyo na hi me kaj&t, sadwo me na vidyate and Sadevasuragandharvvo nasti me pratipudgala^. Hina/i-kumbure renders pa/ipuggalo, not by ' rival,' but by ' superior/ 2 Mr. Trenckner has pointed out that this quotation is found in two Suttas, Nos. 85 and 100 in the Maxima Nikaya. 44 THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES IV, 6, 2. ' Now if the former of these statements be right, then the second must be wrong. But if the second be right, then the first must be wrong. This too is a double-edged problem, now put to you, which you have to solve.' 2. ' Both the quotations you have made, O king, are accurate. But when he spoke of A/ara Kalama as his teacher, that was a statement made with refer- ence to the fact of his having been his teacher while he (Gotama) was still a Bodisat and before he had at- tained to insight and to Buddhahood ; and there were five such teachers, O king, under whose tuition the Bodisat spent his time in various places — his teachers when he was still a Bodisat, before he had attained to insight and to Buddhahood. And who were these five ? 3. ' Those eight Brahmans who, just after the birth of the Bodisat, took note of the marks on his body — [236] Rama, and Dha^a, and Lakkha/za, and Manti \ and Ya/ma 2, and Suyama, and Su- bho^a3, and Sudatta 4 — they who then made known his future glory, and marked him out as one to be carefully guarded — these were first his teachers 5. 1 Hina/i-kumbur6 reads Gatimanti. It may be noted that Hardy (Manual of Buddhism, p. 149), who omits Ya##a, gives Gati and Manta as two separate names, and spells the last two names Bhogu Sudanta. 2 So also the Sinhalese, p. 329. But the Gataka Commentary (verse 270 at vol. i, p. 50) has kondazHa. 3 The Gataka Introduction (loc. cit.) has Bho^a. The Sinhalese has Subho^a.
2149), who omits Ya##a, gives Gati and Manta as two separate names, and spells the last two names Bhogu Sudanta. 2 So also the Sinhalese, p. 329. But the Gataka Commentary (verse 270 at vol. i, p. 50) has kondazHa. 3 The Gataka Introduction (loc. cit.) has Bho^a. The Sinhalese has Subho^a. 4 Hma/i-kumbure agrees here with Hardy in reading Sudanta. 5 This episode has not been traced in the Pi/akas. The Sin- halese here gives also the detail of the one and two fingers, found in the Gataka, and translated in my ' Buddhist Birth Stories/ p. 72. IV, 6, 3- OF MILINDA THE KING. 45 * And again, O king, the Brahman Sabbamitta of distinguished descent, who was of high lineage in the land of Udi/£/£a\ a philologist and grammarian, well read in the six Vedangas2, whom Suddhodana the king, the Bodisat's father, sent for, and having poured out the water of dedication from a golden vase, handed over the boy to his charge, to be taught — this was his second teacher 3. * And again, O king, the god who raised the agitation in the Bodisat's heart, at the sound of whose speech the Bodisat, moved and anxious, that very moment went out from the world in his Great Renunciation — this was his third teacher 4. 1 In the North-West. See Gataka I, 140, &c. 2 .Oa/angavanta#2. These are phonetics, prosody, grammar, exegesis, astronomy, and ritual. I was wrong in taking Childers's interpretation of this word at 'Buddhist Birth Stories,' p. 72. 3 This episode is also not in the Pi/akas. On onogeti see Mahavagga I, 22, 18. Sabbamitra is given in the Thera Gatha, I, 150, as the name of a Thera, and in the Divyavadana, p. 420, as the name of Asoka's herald or court crier. 4 There is nothing about any such devata in the Pi/akas. Hina/i-kumbure takes it to mean the god who took the outward appearance of the four visions — an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a recluse. But in that story — which is not related in the Pi/akas of the Buddha, though it is referred to in connection with him at Buddhavazrcsa XXVI, p. 16— the god does not speak. The only god whose words are said, in any of the later Pali legends, to have agitated the Bodisat's heart at that moment, was the Evil One himself ; and that only in one version of the legend, the Pali authority for which I cannot give. It is in Hardy's ' Manual/ p. 157, where the speech of the Evil One, placed at Gataka I, 63 at a later time, is said to have been made at the moment of the Renunciation. Even if it be not a mere blunder of Hardy's to put it at that time, still it cannot be the speech referred to by our author. For the startling doctrine that the Evil One himself was one of the Bodisat's teachers would never have been smuggled in, as it were, by concealing the identity of the spirit referred to under 46 THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES IV, 6, 3. * And again, O king, A/ara Kalama — he was his fourth teacher. 6 And again, O king, Uddaka the son of Rama — he was his fifth teacher.
3* And again, O king, A/ara Kalama — he was his fourth teacher. 6 And again, O king, Uddaka the son of Rama — he was his fifth teacher. ' These, O king, are the five who were his teachers when he was still a Bodisat, before he had attained to insight and to Buddhahood. But they were teach- ers in worldly wisdom. And in this Doctrine that is transcendental, in the penetrating into the wisdom of the omniscient ones — in that there is no one who is above the TatMgata to teach him. Self-dependent for his knowledge is the Tathagata, without a master, and that is why it was said by the Tathagata : " I have no teacher, and the man Equal to me does not exist. No rival to me can be found In the whole world of gods and men." ' * Very good, Nagasena ! That is so, and I accept it as you say/ [Here ends the dilemma as to the Buddha's teachers.] the generic term of devata. Now in the Fo-pan-hin-tsi-/£in (Nanjio, No. 680), a Chinese work of the beginning of the seventh century a. d., we find in the sixteenth kwuen or chapter (if one may trust the abstract given in Beal's ' Romantic Legend/ p. 131) that a Devaputra named Tsao-ping is said to have spoken to the Bodisat at the moment of the Renunciation. It is scarcely open to doubt that our author had in his mind an earlier form of that episode. But if so it is the only proved case of his having Sanskrit, and not Pali works, as his authority. IV, 6, 4. OF MILINDA THE KING. 47 [dilemma THE FIFTY-SECOND. WHY MUST THERE BE ONLY ONE BUDDHA AT A TIME ?] 4. ' Venerable Nagasena, this too was said by the Blessed One : " This is an impossibility, an occurrence for which there can be no cause, that in one world two Arahat Buddhas supreme should arise at one and the same time [237] — such a thing can in no wise be1." ' But, Nagasena, when they are preaching, all the Tath&gatas preach (the Doctrine as to) the thirty- seven constituent elements of insight 2 ; when they are talking, it is of the Four Noble Truths that they talk; when they are instructing, it is in the three Trainings 3 that they instruct ; when they are teach- ing, it is the practice of zeal 4 that they teach. If, Nagasena, the preaching of all the Tathagatas is one, and their talk of the same thing, and their train- ing the same, and their teaching one, why then should not two Tathagatas arise at the same time ? Already by the appearance of one Buddha has this world become flooded with light. If there should be a second Buddha the world would be still more illuminated by the glory of them both. When they were exhorting two Tathagatas would exhort at ease ; when they were instructing two Tathagatas would instruct at ease. Tell me the reason of this, that I may put away my doubt/ 1 Ahguttara Nikaya I, 15, 10. 2 These divisions of the seven 'Jewels of the Law' of Arahatship are set out in my ' Buddhist Suttas/ pp. 62-63. 3 Adhisila, adhi^itta, and adhipa##a. 4 Appamada. 48 THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES IV, 6, 5-
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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