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Art. XII.—Tathāgata

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Robert Chalmers
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Extract

The precise meaning of this familiar title of the Buddha is still unsettled. As the word tathāgata is not used either in. the Upanishads or (so far as I am aware) in older Sanskrit writings, there exists no available evidence earlier than the Pāli Pitakas; and there its use is so common as to merit special investigation. Before submitting my own interpretation to the judgment of scholars, I propose to state the views already advanced by others, including the great scholar Buddhaghosa, and next to examine Pitaka passages in which the title tathāgata occurs.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , January 1898 , pp. 103 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1898

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References

Page 104 note 1 In a note to p. 147 of his “Buddhist Suttas” Rhys Davids does not appear to adopt for himself the view advanced in the Vinaya translation.

Page 104 note 2 But see infra, pp. 108–9, where this passage is discussed.

Page 106 note 1 So far as I know, these words are never used by Buddhaghosa except in quoting from a Piṛaka utterance attributed to the Buddha; but I cannot trace the reference.

Page 109 note 1 As noted above in Part I (ii), Buddhaghosa at Sum. Vil., i, 118, says: “Satto tathāgato ti adhippeto.” If this be read in the light of lines 3–9 of Majjh., i, 140, the meaning is clear. It is not affirmed that all creatures are tathāgatas. Rather the position is that the tathāgata is regarded, for the time being, from the general point of view of a creature, which every tathāgata of course is—though he is also much more. Thus it is as though a Christian commentator, dealing with the words “Christ died upon the Cross,” were to say “Christ, i.e. the man (in Christ).” Cf. Part 1, v, et infra.

Page 115 note 1 Dhammapada, p. 49.