XX. The so-called “Mahāpadāna” Suttanta and the Date of the Pāli Canon

L. A. Waddell

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00047055

XX. The so-called “Mahāpadāna” Suttanta and the Date of the Pāli Canon

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

L. A. Waddell

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To students of Buddhism and Comparative Religion desirous of knowing Buddha's own views and teaching from his own words, it is extremely disconcerting to find that the Pāli Canon can no longer be regarded as the actual “Word” and Doctrine of Buddha himself. It has been conclusively established by the researches of Kern, Minayef, Senart, Feer, Poussin, Lefmann, Winternitz, R. O. Franke, and others (including the writer) that the Pāli Canon is a mosaic of material belonging to different ages and stages in the development of Buddhism; and that the words and theories put into the mouth of Buddha therein are largely the composition of monks who lived several centuries after Buddha's death, and considerably later than was estimated by Professor H. Oldenberg. Embedded thus in this mass of heterogeneous material, with no outstanding distinctive marks, it seems almost hopeless to confidently detect and dig out therefrom the pieces containing unequivocally the true Buddha-Word.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , July 1914 , pp. 661 - 680

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00047055 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1914

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References

^{page 661 note 1} My “Evolution of the Buddhist Cult”: Asiat. Quart. Rev., 1912, 140, 158 fGoogle Scholar. “Buddha's Diadem”: Ostasiatischen Zeitschrift, ii, 1914.Google Scholar

^{page 661 note 2} Mahāvagga, Introd., xv ff.Google Scholar

^{page 662 note 1} Macdonell, , Hist. Sanskrit Lit., 1905, 306–7Google Scholar; Imp. Gaz. India, 1908, ii, 292.Google Scholar

^{page 662 note 2} Cf. also Bloomfield, , Atharva Veda, Strassburg, 1899, 27.Google Scholar

^{page 662 note 3} Macdonell, , op. cit., 306.Google Scholar

^{page 662 note 4} 1911, 1151.

^{page 663 note 1} Cf. Csoma, , “Analysis,” Asiatic Researches, xx, 413 f.Google Scholar; also Feer, 's translation, 250 f.Google Scholar

^{page 663 note 2} For details see after.

^{page 664 note 1} Dīgha Nīkāya, 2nd ed., Davids, Rhys & Carpenter, J. E., London, 1903, 1 f.Google Scholar

^{page 664 note 2} Fausböll, , Jātaka Index, 1897, 126Google Scholar; Neumann, K. E., Reden Gotamo Buddho Langern Sammlung, 1907Google Scholar; Encyc. Relig, and Ethics, i, 603, 1908Google Scholar; Warren, H. C., Buddhism in Transls., 1909, 56Google Scholar; Winternitz, , JRAS. 1911, 1146Google Scholar; Franke, R. O., Dīgha Nikāya, Göttingen, 1913, 179.Google Scholar

^{page 665 note 1} Childers, ' Pali Dict., 47Google Scholar; Winternitz, , Gesch. des Indischer Lit., ii, 128.Google Scholar

^{page 665 note 2} Cf. Sanskrit lexicons; also Childers, ' Dict., 47.Google Scholar

^{page 666 note 1} Cf. my article, JASB., pt. i, 1897, 76 ff.Google Scholar, and Proceedings, 1899, June.

^{page 666 note 2} Müller, E., Proc. Or. Congress, 1894, 167 f.Google Scholar

^{page 666 note 3} Macdonell, , Imp. Gaz. Ind., ii, 60, 1908.Google Scholar

^{page 666 note 4} Many of these tales have been translated or summarized by Burnouf, , Introd. Bud. Ind., 64 f.Google Scholar; Mitra, , Nepalese, Buddhist Lit., 318 f.Google Scholar; Schiefner, 's Tibet Tales, trs. Ralston, 1893.Google Scholar

^{page 666 note 5} Mitra, , op. cit., 318–98Google Scholar; Feer, , Analyse du Kandjour, Mus. Guimet, 557.Google Scholar

^{page 666 note 6} See former note, p. 664.

^{page 666 note 7} In the Nepalese Sanskrit version they are stated by Burnouf to represent the Vinaya. Introd. B. I., 2nd ed., 207.Google Scholar

^{page 667 note 1} Feer, , op. cit., 557–8.Google Scholar

^{page 667 note 2} Vol. iii, pp. 4 f.

^{page 667 note 3} See numerous examples in Mitra, , op. cit., 318–19Google Scholar; also Csoma, , Asiatic Researches, xx, 481 fGoogle Scholar. Burnouf, , Introd., 2nd ed., 424f.Google Scholar The “Avadāna Kalpalatā” is not really an exception.

^{page 668 note 1} Op. cit., 54.

^{page 668 note 2} The British Museum unfortunately does not possess a single manuscript copy.

^{page 668 note 3} The Burmese printed edition of 1900–8 spells the word ^opadāna, Dr. Barnett kindly informs me, but this may have been influenced by the Pali Text Society's edition, which was previously published.

^{page 669 note 1} Cf. Childers, ' Dict., 314Google Scholar. For details see later.

^{page 669 note 2} Wilson, , Sansk. Dict., 562Google Scholar; Apte, do., 563; St. Petersb. Lexicon (Greater), 4, 1026.

^{page 670 note 1} Childers, , Dict., 314Google Scholar, first part of definition of Padhānaṁ; also Padhāno and Samma-Padhānam.

^{page 670 note 2} StPetersb, . ed., 1911, 39; also 63²⁰¹.Google Scholar

^{page 670 note 3} Abhidharma-kośa, cf. Burnouf, , Introd., 2nd ed., 510.Google Scholar

^{page 670 note 4} Tibetan transl, in Tan-gyur, Mdo-Val Ś (27), India Off. ed., ff. 214, etc. Translated from the Sanskrit by Atiśa (eleventh century a.d.) and others. Cf. also Poussin, , Études, 1898, 127 f.Google Scholar, for commentary on same; also Mitra, Raj. L., Nepal. Buddhist Lit., 47 f., for abstract.Google Scholar

^{page 670 note 5} Childers, , Dict., 314.Google Scholar

^{page 670 note 6} Id., 314.

^{page 670 note 7} Id., 314.

^{page 671 note 1} Childers, , Dict., 157, 312, 314Google Scholar; Hardy, 's Man. Buddhism.Google Scholar

^{page 672 note 1} See above, also Dict., 157, 314.Google Scholar

^{page 672 note 2} It is remarkable that Mahāyānists (as noted by Burnouf, , Introd. Bud. Ind., 625Google Scholar; Lotus, 310 f.)Google Scholar have replaced the padhāna here by prahāṇa (= abandonment). Cf. also Mahāvyutpatti, St. Pet. ed., 1911, 16⁴⁰.

^{page 672 note 3} Cf. Aṅga-pradhāna-Bheda, Kātyayāna, Śrauta-sūtrāṇi, 1, 2, 18; 417; also Manu, , 9, 121Google Scholar; Pānini, , 1, 2, 56Google Scholar, quoted by St. Petersb. Lexicon. Cf. also Pradhāna guṇabhuta in Rig Veda, v. 96.

^{page 673 note 1} In Tibetan 'Dsaṅs-blun, i.e. “The Wise Man and the Foolish”. Cf. Csoma, , Asiatic Researches, xx, 480Google Scholar, translated by Schmidt, , 1843Google Scholar. The Sanskrit for this Prakrit title is evidently Dharmat-muka.

^{page 673 note 2} Jaeschke, , Tibetan Dict., 434.Google Scholar

^{page 673 note 3} Id., 434.

^{page 673 note 4} For his form in Indian Buddhism see my Buddhism of Tibet, 15, 35–2.Google Scholar

^{page 673 note 5} Csoma, , Asiatic Researches, xx, 549.Google Scholar

^{page 674 note 1} Notably in the translation of this text in the “Sacred Books of Buddhists”, vol. iii, 13 f.Google Scholar

^{page 674 note 2} For full evidence see my “Buddha's Diadem”, loc. cit. Mahā-Puruṣa is the title of Viṣṇu both in the Mahābhārata (12, 12864)Google Scholar and Rāmāyaṇa (6, 102).Google Scholar

^{page 674 note 3} JRAS. 1894, 386Google Scholar, with reference to paragraphs 17–30 of this first part of this Suttanta, which recur in the Acchariyabhuta Sutta, No. 123 of the Majjhima Nikāya.

^{page 675 note 1} Mahābhārata, 13, 939.Google Scholar

^{page 675 note 2} Mahā-Pradhāna is probably the Buddhist form, as it is not found in the greater St. Petersburg Lexicon.

^{page 676 note 1} Abstracted by Csoma, , As. Res., xx, 418–16Google Scholar. It has nothing to do with the Bhadra-Kalpa Avadāna of the Nepalese, which seems mostly a re-arrangement of tales from the Asokāvadāna. Cf. Mitra, R. L., Nep. Budd. Lit., 42.Google Scholar

^{page 677 note 1} Cunningham, , Stupa Bharhut, pl. 29, 1, 2, 3Google Scholar; 30, 1–3; Inscriptions, liv, 67, liii, 3, c, etc. Hultzsch, , Ind. Ant., 1892, p. 234Google Scholar, Nos. 24, 64, 81, 84, 88.

^{page 677 note 2} These “seven” Buddhas (i.e. by including the historical Buddha with the six) are invoked by Buddha in the Cullā Vagga (v. 6)Google Scholar in connexion with a snake-charm, Buddha being made to say “I revere the Blessed One and the Seven Supreme Buddhas” (Warren, , Buddh. in Transls., 1909, 303)Google Scholar. It is incredible that Śākya Muni would invoke himself, yet Oldenberg places the Cullā Vagga to near Buddhaās own day.

^{page 677 note 3} Its bulk is also increased by a list of one thousand fanciful successors of Maitreya, the future Buddha.

^{page 678 note 1} Not Pabhāvatī, in error in “Sacred Books of the Buddhists”, iii, 7Google Scholar. Cf. text, p. 7.

^{page 678 note 2} Cf. Csoma, , xx, 413 f.Google Scholar, with “Sacred Books of the Buddhists”, iii, 5–7.Google Scholar

^{page 679 note 1} Dowson, , Hind. Mythology, 382–3Google Scholar; Hastings, , Encycl. Religion Ethics, i, 188, 202.Google Scholar

^{page 679 note 2} Later Pāli texts extend number to 125,000(!), Hardy, , Man. Buddhism, 95.Google Scholar

^{page 679 note 3} Cf. Muller, , “Apadāna of South,” Proc. Orient. Cong., 1894, 167.Google Scholar

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