Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1Many Buddhist books, not incorporated in the canon, have been composed in different languages — Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, Sinhalese, Burmese, Siamese, &c. — but no new canon, in the European meaning of the phrase, has ever been formed. One meets occasionally, no doubt, in European books on Buddhism allusions or references to a later canon 1 * Transactions of the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists/ vol. i, p. 5i8. XVI QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES OF MILINDA THE KING. supposed to have been settled at the Council of Kanishka. The blunder originated, I believe, with Mr. Beal. But in the only account of that Council which we possess, that of Yuan Thsang1, there is no mention at all of any new canon having been settled. The account is long and detailed. An occurrence of so extreme an importance would scarcely have escaped the notice of the Chinese writer. But throughout the account the canonicity of the three Pi/akas is simply taken for granted. The members of the Council were chosen exclusively from those who knew the three Pi/akas, and the work they performed was the composition of three books — the Upadcra, the Vinaya Vibhasha, and the Abhidharma Vibhasha. The words which follow in the Chinese have been differently interpreted by the European translators. Julien says : ' They (the members of the Council) thoroughly explained the three Pi/akas, and thus placed them above all the books of antiquity V Beal, on the other hand, renders : 'Which (namely, which three books) thoroughly ex- plained the three Pi/akas. There was no work of antiquity to be compared with (placed above) their productions 3.' It is immaterial which version best conveys the meaning of the original. They both clearly show that, in the view of Yuan Thsang, the Council of Kanishka did not establish any new canon. Since that time the rulers of China, Japan, and Tibet have from time to time published collec- tions of Buddhist books. But none of these collections even purports to be a canon of the Scriptures. They contain works of very various, and some quite modern, ages and authors : and can no more be regarded as a canon of the Buddhist Scriptures than Migne's voluminous collection of Christian books can be called a new canon of the Christian Scriptures. 1 Julien's translation, vol. i, pp. 173-178, and Mr. Beal's own translation, i, 147-157. There are two or three incidental references to the Council in other works. See my ' Buddhism,' p. 239. 2 St. Julien, * Voyages des Pelerins Bouddhistes,' vol. i, pp. 177, 178. 3 Beal, « Buddhist Records of the Western World/ vol. i, p. 155. INTRODUCTION. XV11
2There are two or three incidental references to the Council in other works. See my ' Buddhism,' p. 239. 2 St. Julien, * Voyages des Pelerins Bouddhistes,' vol. i, pp. 177, 178. 3 Beal, « Buddhist Records of the Western World/ vol. i, p. 155. INTRODUCTION. XV11 This was already pointed out in my little manual, ' Bud- dhism/ published in 1877, an<3 it is a pity that references in subsequent books to a supposed canon settled at Kanishka's Council have still perpetuated the blunder. M. Sylvain LeVi, for whose genius and scholarship I have the pro- foundest respect, does not actually say that there was such a canon ; but his words must lead readers, ignorant of the facts, to imply that there was one. I have also to add that M. Barth has called attention x to the fact that M. Sylvain Levi has added another service to those already mentioned as rendered by him to the in- terpretation of the Milinda, by a discussion of the reference to our book in the Abhidharma-ko^a-vyakhya, referred to in my previous Introduction, p. xxvi. This discussion wras published in a periodical I have not seen2. But it seems that M. Levi, with the help of two Chinese translations, has been able to show that the citation is not only in the commentary, but also in the text, of Vasubandhu's work. M. L<£on Feer has been kind enough to send me the actual words of the reference, and they will be found published in the 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society ' for 1891, p. 476. Professor Serge d'Oldenbourg has also been good enough to point out to me that the two Cambridge MSS. of Kshe- mendra's Bodhisattvavadana-kalpalata read Milinda (not Millinda as given by Rajendra Lai Mitra3) as the name of the king referred to in the 57th Avadana, the Stupava- dana. I had not noticed this reference to the character in our historical romance. It comes in quite incidentally, the Buddha prophesying to Indra that a king Milinda would erect a stupa at Pa/aligrama. There is no allusion to our book, and the passage is only interesting as showing that the memory of king Milinda still survived in India at the time when Kshemendra wrote in the eleventh century A. D. Another reference to one of the characters in the Milinda 1 In the ' Revue de l'Histoire des Religions' for 1893 (which has only just reached me), p. 258. 2 The ' Comptes rendus des Seances de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres/ 1893, p. 232. 8 * Nepalese Buddhist Literature,' p. 60. [36] b XV111 QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES OF MILINDA THE KING. which has come to notice since the publication of part i, is in the closing words of the Attha-Salini-Atthayq^anct (a /ika on Buddhaghosa's first work, his commentary on the Dhamma Sanga/zi), which was written in Siam after the twelfth century by iVanakitti, and edited in 1890 at Galle, by Pa/Hasekhara Unnanse. On page %&$ we read : Vattaniya-senasane ti Vwg'/isLta.viyani Vattaniya-sena- sane. Tena vuttam Mahava;/zse:
3On page %&$ we read : Vattaniya-senasane ti Vwg'/isLta.viyani Vattaniya-sena- sane. Tena vuttam Mahava;/zse: Assagutta-mahathero pabhinna-Parisambhido Sa//^i-bhikkhu sahassani Vi^/za^/aviyam adiya Vattaniya-senasana nabhasa tattha-m-otariti. c The words Vattaniya-senasane mean, " in the Vattaniya Hermitage in the Vindhya Desert." Therefore it is said in the Mahava^sa : 6 " The great Thera Assagutta, who knew so well the Pa/isambhida, bringing sixty thousand brethren from the Vattaniya Hermitage in the Vindhya Desert through the sky, descended there." ' This quotation is very interesting. It follows that in the original text of the Attha Salini there is something about the Vattaniya Hermitage. And also that the author of this Tika. must have had before him some text of our Mahavamsa differing from ours, or perhaps some other Mahava/^sa. For the lines quoted do not occur in our text. The nearest approach to them is one line in the description of the assembly that came together at the con- secration of the Mah& Thupa at Anuradhapura in the year 157 B.C. It runs1: Vi/l^M/avi-Vattaniya-senasana 2 tu Uttaro Thero sa^i-sahassani bhikkhu adaya agama. 'The thera Uttara came up bringing with him sixty thousand Bhikshus from the Vattaniya Hermitage [not Uttania Temple as Tumour translates] in the Vindhya Desert/ The resemblance of the passages is striking. But all 1 Chapter XXIX, p. 171, of Tumour's edition. 2 Tumour has Vattaniya-senasanu. INTRODUCTION. XIX that can be concluded is that the author of our Mahavawsa, Mahanama, who wrote in the middle of the fifth century, knew of the Vattaniya Hermitage; and that the author of the text quoted by iVanakitti (in a passage probably describing the same event) mentions an Assagutta as having come to the festival from his hermitage at Vattaniya.
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.
1Many Buddhist books, not incorporated in the canon, have been composed in different languages — Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, Sinhalese, Burmese, Siamese, &c. — but no new canon, in the European meaning of the phrase, has ever been formed. One meets occasionally, no doubt, in European books on Buddhism allusions or references to a later canon 1 * Transactions of the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists/ vol. i, p. 5i8. XVI QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES OF MILINDA THE KING. supposed to have been settled at the Council of Kanishka. The blunder originated, I believe, with Mr. Beal. But in the only account of that Council which we possess, that of Yuan Thsang1, there is no mention at all of any new canon having been settled. The account is long and detailed. An occurrence of so extreme an importance would scarcely have escaped the notice of the Chinese writer. But throughout the account the canonicity of the three Pi/akas is simply taken for granted. The members of the Council were chosen exclusively from those who knew the three Pi/akas, and the work they performed was the composition of three books — the Upadcra, the Vinaya Vibhasha, and the Abhidharma Vibhasha. The words which follow in the Chinese have been differently interpreted by the European translators. Julien says : ' They (the members of the Council) thoroughly explained the three Pi/akas, and thus placed them above all the books of antiquity V Beal, on the other hand, renders : 'Which (namely, which three books) thoroughly ex- plained the three Pi/akas. There was no work of antiquity to be compared with (placed above) their productions 3.' It is immaterial which version best conveys the meaning of the original. They both clearly show that, in the view of Yuan Thsang, the Council of Kanishka did not establish any new canon. Since that time the rulers of China, Japan, and Tibet have from time to time published collec- tions of Buddhist books. But none of these collections even purports to be a canon of the Scriptures. They contain works of very various, and some quite modern, ages and authors : and can no more be regarded as a canon of the Buddhist Scriptures than Migne's voluminous collection of Christian books can be called a new canon of the Christian Scriptures. 1 Julien's translation, vol. i, pp. 173-178, and Mr. Beal's own translation, i, 147-157. There are two or three incidental references to the Council in other works. See my ' Buddhism,' p. 239. 2 St. Julien, * Voyages des Pelerins Bouddhistes,' vol. i, pp. 177, 178. 3 Beal, « Buddhist Records of the Western World/ vol. i, p. 155. INTRODUCTION. XV11
2There are two or three incidental references to the Council in other works. See my ' Buddhism,' p. 239. 2 St. Julien, * Voyages des Pelerins Bouddhistes,' vol. i, pp. 177, 178. 3 Beal, « Buddhist Records of the Western World/ vol. i, p. 155. INTRODUCTION. XV11 This was already pointed out in my little manual, ' Bud- dhism/ published in 1877, an<3 it is a pity that references in subsequent books to a supposed canon settled at Kanishka's Council have still perpetuated the blunder. M. Sylvain LeVi, for whose genius and scholarship I have the pro- foundest respect, does not actually say that there was such a canon ; but his words must lead readers, ignorant of the facts, to imply that there was one. I have also to add that M. Barth has called attention x to the fact that M. Sylvain Levi has added another service to those already mentioned as rendered by him to the in- terpretation of the Milinda, by a discussion of the reference to our book in the Abhidharma-ko^a-vyakhya, referred to in my previous Introduction, p. xxvi. This discussion wras published in a periodical I have not seen2. But it seems that M. Levi, with the help of two Chinese translations, has been able to show that the citation is not only in the commentary, but also in the text, of Vasubandhu's work. M. L<£on Feer has been kind enough to send me the actual words of the reference, and they will be found published in the 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society ' for 1891, p. 476. Professor Serge d'Oldenbourg has also been good enough to point out to me that the two Cambridge MSS. of Kshe- mendra's Bodhisattvavadana-kalpalata read Milinda (not Millinda as given by Rajendra Lai Mitra3) as the name of the king referred to in the 57th Avadana, the Stupava- dana. I had not noticed this reference to the character in our historical romance. It comes in quite incidentally, the Buddha prophesying to Indra that a king Milinda would erect a stupa at Pa/aligrama. There is no allusion to our book, and the passage is only interesting as showing that the memory of king Milinda still survived in India at the time when Kshemendra wrote in the eleventh century A. D. Another reference to one of the characters in the Milinda 1 In the ' Revue de l'Histoire des Religions' for 1893 (which has only just reached me), p. 258. 2 The ' Comptes rendus des Seances de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres/ 1893, p. 232. 8 * Nepalese Buddhist Literature,' p. 60. [36] b XV111 QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES OF MILINDA THE KING. which has come to notice since the publication of part i, is in the closing words of the Attha-Salini-Atthayq^anct (a /ika on Buddhaghosa's first work, his commentary on the Dhamma Sanga/zi), which was written in Siam after the twelfth century by iVanakitti, and edited in 1890 at Galle, by Pa/Hasekhara Unnanse. On page %&$ we read : Vattaniya-senasane ti Vwg'/isLta.viyani Vattaniya-sena- sane. Tena vuttam Mahava;/zse:
3On page %&$ we read : Vattaniya-senasane ti Vwg'/isLta.viyani Vattaniya-sena- sane. Tena vuttam Mahava;/zse: Assagutta-mahathero pabhinna-Parisambhido Sa//^i-bhikkhu sahassani Vi^/za^/aviyam adiya Vattaniya-senasana nabhasa tattha-m-otariti. c The words Vattaniya-senasane mean, " in the Vattaniya Hermitage in the Vindhya Desert." Therefore it is said in the Mahava^sa : 6 " The great Thera Assagutta, who knew so well the Pa/isambhida, bringing sixty thousand brethren from the Vattaniya Hermitage in the Vindhya Desert through the sky, descended there." ' This quotation is very interesting. It follows that in the original text of the Attha Salini there is something about the Vattaniya Hermitage. And also that the author of this Tika. must have had before him some text of our Mahavamsa differing from ours, or perhaps some other Mahava/^sa. For the lines quoted do not occur in our text. The nearest approach to them is one line in the description of the assembly that came together at the con- secration of the Mah& Thupa at Anuradhapura in the year 157 B.C. It runs1: Vi/l^M/avi-Vattaniya-senasana 2 tu Uttaro Thero sa^i-sahassani bhikkhu adaya agama. 'The thera Uttara came up bringing with him sixty thousand Bhikshus from the Vattaniya Hermitage [not Uttania Temple as Tumour translates] in the Vindhya Desert/ The resemblance of the passages is striking. But all 1 Chapter XXIX, p. 171, of Tumour's edition. 2 Tumour has Vattaniya-senasanu. INTRODUCTION. XIX that can be concluded is that the author of our Mahavawsa, Mahanama, who wrote in the middle of the fifth century, knew of the Vattaniya Hermitage; and that the author of the text quoted by iVanakitti (in a passage probably describing the same event) mentions an Assagutta as having come to the festival from his hermitage at Vattaniya.
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.
No commentary for this page.