Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 36 — The Questions of King Milinda, Part II (page scans)

There is little doubt that this is what they, in fact, were. Actual remembrance of the Buddha, and of his time, could have sufficed only in the rarest instances to give a correct historical basis for the Rules or Ceremonies, which had to be explained. We find a precisely similar

1 Mr. Dickson has given us an excellent text of the Upasampada-kammava£a ; and it were much to be wished that the rest of them should also be published. Mr. Clough has given a. translation of six others in 'Miscellaneous Translations from Oriental Languages,' London, 1834 ; and the Liverpool Free Library has MSS. of others.

Introduction. Xxi

state of things leading, in the Introductions to the Cataka Stories, to what were unquestionably inventions : and it must be acknowledged that the compilers have not taken the slightest trouble to conceal the evidently unsubstantial character of most of these summary introductions. But it does not follow that they were invented at the time when the Sutta-vibhanga and the Khandhakas were compiled. They may possibly have formed part of the traditional explanatory teaching of the schools.

As to the time when the Sutta-vibhanga and the
Khandhakas were compiled, we have important evidence
in their silence regarding the well-known Ten Points.

1 Singilowa, dvangula, &c. (-STullavagga XII, I, 10).

2 That is, as war-cries ; g-ataruparag-ata occurs in the sense of the precious metals.

3 In the present division of the Khandhakas into two parts, called the Larger and Smaller Divisions (Maha- and Zulla-vagga), there are ten Khandhakas in the first Division, and ten, apart from this appendix, in the second Division. Without the appended two last Khandhakas the so-called smaller Division is really considerably smaller than the larger Division ; and there is therefore a good reason for the name which was given to it. With the two last Khan- dhakas the difference in length of the two Divisions as a whole is not sufficiently striking to account satisfactorily for the choice of their names ; and the smaller

XX11 VINAYA TEXTS FROM THE PALI.

But the Ten Points in dispute were all matters of ecclesi- astical law, they all related to observances of the brother- hood, they were in fact questions as to whether or not the ancient Rules should be relaxed or not in these ten re- spects. Is it possible that in a collection of works like the Vibhanga and the Khandhakas, which seek to set forth, down to the minutest detail, and even with hair-splitting diffuseness, all that has any relation to the daily life of the Brethren, and the regulations of the Buddhist Order — is it possible that in such a collection, if, when it was compiled, the struggle on the Ten Points had already burst into flame, there should be no reference at all, even in interpolations, to any one of these ten disputes ? That the difference of opinion on the Ten Points remains altogether unnoticed in those parts of the collection where, in the natural order of things, it would be obviously referred to, and that it is only mentioned in an appendix where the Council held on its account is described, shows clearly, in our opinion, that the Vibhanga and the Khandhakas (save the two last) are older than the Council of Vesali — and, of course, a for- tiori that the Patimokkha and the Kammava^as are so too.

The Council of Vesali is said in the Xllth Khandhaka
of the iTullavagga to have taken place a hundred years
after the Buddha's death. This is no doubt a round
number ; and the exact year of the date of the Buddha's
death is open to question. If it be placed, according to
the Ceylon chronicles, at exactly 218 years before Asoka's
coronation, it will fall in or about 483 B.C.

But the expression ' 218 years' can in no case be re- garded as an absolutely reliable statement of actual fact, and the date of 483 B.C. must therefore be taken subject to a marginal allowance of some decades. And it appears to one of us, for various reasons which he has elsewhere stated at length, that the balance of probability leads to the con- clusion that the date of the Buddha's Parinibbana must be

Division actually contains two more Khandhakas than the larger. We lay no stress upon these facts, but it confirms the general argument to find little points of this kind tending in the same direction.

Introduction. Xx111

brought down to the period from 420-400 B. C.1 We do not enter upon that question here, as the details are intricate, and the result uncertain ; and it is sufficient for our present purpose to be able to fix the Council of Vesali, even after making allowance for all possibilities, at within thirty years of 350 B.C.

We would only point out that there is really no ground for discontent with a result which can be fixed, after all, within a few decades. For what difference does that make in this case ? If we had to deal with Grecian history, such a result might well be deemed unsatisfactory. There are differences, both personal and political, between Greece in 480, in 440, and in 400 — differences well known to us. But whether we fix the date of an event in India in 480, or in 440, what does it, at present, matter ? Who would be bold enough to say that the mention of India in 480 B. C. calls up to his mind a condition of things different from that suggested by the mention of India in 440 B. C, or even in 400 B.C.? We need not therefore take too much to heart the uncertainty of this chronological result ; though we may regret that our comfort is drawn from no better source than our want of knowledge.

The Vibhanga and the Twenty Khandhakas were at that time (circa 350 B.C.) already held in such high repute that no one ventured to alter them ; a sanctity of this kind is not acquired without the lapse of a considerable time : and we think it is not going too far to say, Firstly, that these books must have been in existence, as we now have them, within thirty years, earlier or later, of, at least, 360 or 370 B.C.; Secondly, that the Old Commentary they have pre- served must be considerably, perhaps fifty years, older ; and Thirdly, that the KammavaHs and the Patimokkha must be older still.

The reader will notice that in the foregoing discussion no mention has been made of the Fifth Book in the present

1 See the dissertation on this subject in Rhys Davids's ' Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon;' and, more shortly, the close of the Introduction to his ' Buddhist Suttas from the Pali.'

XXIV VINAYA TEXTS FROM THE PALI.

division of the Vinaya Pi/aka — the Parivara-pa//za. The reason is that this work, an abstract of the other parts of the Vinaya, is in fact a very much later compilation, and pro- bably the work of a Ceylonese Thera. In some stanzas, which are found at the end of the Parivara-pa^a, it is stated to have been composed by ' the highly wise, learned, and skilful Dipa, after he had inquired here and there into the methods (literally, the way) followed by former teachers1.'

We have every hope that the foregoing argument will commend itself to our fellow workers as being, in the main, well founded. We now propose to test it by applying it in explanation of several difficult terms and phrases found in the Vinaya Pi/aka, which seem to have been hitherto incorrectly interpreted.

It has been pointed out that, in the Patimokkha, the
offences are arranged in certain classes, called, with refer-
ence to the heinousness of the act committed, Para^ika,
Sa//zghadisesa, Pa^ittiya, Pa/idesaniya, and Se-
khiya. In other parts of the Vinaya, other offences are
called Thulla££aya and Dukka/a. On this nomen-
clature the Rev. S. Coles has founded a trenchant attack
upon Buddhist morality. He says :

' Beside the Parajikas there are lesser faults, the nature of which is determined by various causes, as will subse- quently appear. These are Sanghadisesa, Thullaccaya, and Dukka/a faults, and can all be easily remedied, the two latter especially ; as, after a fault of this kind has been committed, the culprit has only to confess to his Upaj- jhaya (ordaining priest) without much delay, and is then exempted from all evil consequences ; but the Sangha- disesa being more serious (about half a Parajika), a course of penance has to be submitted to, and confession without delay made to twenty-five superior Bhikkhus. The nature

1 Pubbaiariyamaggaw ka. pu£Mitva £a tahira tahim
Dipo nama mahapa/mo sutadharo vi£akkha«o
Imam vittharasarakhepam sag-g-^amaggena maggkimQ
£mtayitva likhapesi sissakanam sukhavaham.

Introduction. Xxv

and extent of these penances are not defined in the first book of the Vinaya Pitaka, but in others, to which reference will be made when these books are brought under con- sideration. Suffice it to say, that they can possibly have no deterring effect on crime, but rather form loop-holes through which most enormous and disgusting misdeeds may be committed, and yet the perpetrator may remain not only as a Buddhist, but as a BhikkhuV

Mr. Coles then applies this argument to show that many offences against morality, being only called Dukka/a and not P&ra^-ika, must have been looked upon very leniently, not only by the Buddhists, but by Gotama himself; and that therefore his system of morality was not of the lofty kind it has usually been supposed to be, but was, in fact, a mere cloak and encouragement to wickedness and crime !

If Mr. Coles had looked at the Pi/aka he was discussing from a historical, instead of from a controversial, point of view, he would scarcely have advanced this argument. The use of the term Dukka^a does not arise from, nor is it evidence of, a weakness in moral feeling ; but merely of a difference in point of time. It occurs only in what we have ventured above to call the Notes : that is to say, in the latest portion of the Pi/aka. When the author or authors of the final recension of the Vinaya had to speak of an offence not actually mentioned, though implied, in the text before them, they did not presume to call it by any of the names applied in the Patimokkha itself to the classifi- cation of offences. They no more dared to add to the number of Para^ikas, for instance, than a clergyman would now venture seriously to propose an addition to the Ten Commandments. They made use of two technical terms (both entirely new ones), namely, Thulla^aya and Duk- ka&i (literally, Serious Transgression and Bad-deed), using the former more sparingly, and for graver misdemeanours. No argument based on passages where the word Dukka/a occurs can therefore have any force as to the teaching of Gotama himself; and the Bhikkhus, who did use the

1 Journal of the Ceylon Asiatic Society, 1867-1870, p. 155.

XXVI VINAYA TEXTS FROM THE PALI.

word, were restrained from using the older term Para£*ika by a feeling of reverence towards their sacred books — a feeling surely deserving, not of censure, but of sympathy.

Again, there are certain terms applied to various parts of the Vinaya itself on which the above historical analysis may throw some light. When Asoka, in the Edict of Bhabra, addressed to the Buddhist Order, exhorted them to take as their authority, among other works, the Vinaya- Samukase, or Abstract of the Vinaya, he may fairly be supposed to have referred to the Patimokkha, which that epithet would very appropriately describe. If it be asked why he did not then call it the Patimokkha, the ex- planation may be either that that word is more especially a term for the act to be performed, than for the liturgy which shows the way to perform it (though it was also undoubtedly used as a name of the liturgy), or else that the work was known under both designations.

We would just add, in passing, that, in the passage in question, the reading samukase (samutkarsha), instead of the formerly accepted samakase, is quite clear in General Cunningham's lithograph * ; and the generally accepted view that the Edict was addressed to a council, and is therefore an authoritative confirmation of the Ceylon traditions regarding the Council of Patna, ought to be re- considered. The Edict merely says : 'King Devanampiya of Magadha salutes the Sangria' (that is, the Order, or the Community, of Bhikkhus)2. Without desiring to throw any doubt upon the reality of the Council of Patna, we are driven to the conclusion that such an expression as cthe Sangria' could not have been meant to describe a formal

1 * Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum,' pi. xv.