Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I. (of 3) by Charles Eliot

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Christian critics of Buddhism are apt to say that it has a paralyzing
effect on the nations who adopt it, but Asoka's edicts teem with words
like energy and strenuousness. "It is most necessary to make an effort
in this world," so he recounts the efforts which he has himself made and
wants everybody else to make an effort. "Work I must for the public
benefit--and the root of the matter is in exertion and despatch of
business than which nothing is more efficacious for the general
welfare." These sound like the words of a British utilitarian rather
than of a dreamy oriental emperor. He is far from pessimistic: indeed,
he almost ignores the Truth of Suffering. In describing the conquest of
Kalinga he speaks almost in the Buddha's words of the sorrow of death
and separation, but instead of saying that such things are inevitable he
wishes his subjects to be told that he regrets what has happened and
desires to give them security, peace and joy.

Asoka has been compared with Constantine but it has been justly observed
that the comparison is superficial, for Constantine (more like Kanishka
than Asoka) merely recognized and regulated a religion which had already
won its way in his empire. He has also been compared with St Paul and in
so far as both men transformed a provincial sect into a religion for all
mankind the parallel is just, but it ends there. St Paul was a
constructive theologian. For good or evil he greatly developed and
complicated the teaching of Christ, but the Edicts of Asoka if compared
with the Pitakas seem to curtail and simplify their doctrines. No
inscription has yet been found mentioning the four truths, the chain of
causation and other familiar formulae. Doubtless Asoka duly studied these
questions, but it was not theology nor metaphysics which drew him
towards religion. In the gallery of pious Emperors--a collection of
dubious moral and intellectual value--he stands isolated as perhaps the
one man whose only passion was for a sane, kindly and humane life,
neither too curious of great mysteries nor preoccupied with his own soul
but simply the friend of man and beast.

For the history of doctrine the inscription at Rummindei is particularly
important. It merely states that the King did honour or reverence to the
birthplace of the Buddha, who receives no titles except Sakyamuni and
Bhagavan here or elsewhere in the inscriptions. It is a simple record of
respect paid to a great human teacher who is not in any way deified nor
does Asoka's language show any trace of the doctrines afterwards known
under the name of Mahayana. He does not mention nirvana or even
transmigration, though doubtless what he says about paradise and rewards
hereafter should be read in the light of Indian doctrines about karma
and samsara.

CHAPTER XIII

THE CANON

1

There are extant in several languages large collections of Buddhist
scriptures described by some European writers as the Canon. The name is
convenient and not incorrect, but the various canons are not altogether
similar and the standard for the inclusion or exclusion of particular
works is not always clear. We know something of four or five canons.

(1) The Pali Canon, accepted by the Buddhists of Ceylon, Burma and Siam,
and rendered accessible to European students by the Pali Text Society.
It professes to contain the works recognized as canonical by the Council
of Asoka and it is reasonably homogeneous, that is to say, although some
ingenuity may be needed to harmonize the different strata of which it
consists, it does not include works composed by several schools.

(2) The Sanskrit Canon or Canons.

_(a)_ Nepalese scriptures. These do not correspond with any Pali texts
and all belong to the Mahayana. There appears to be no standard for
fixing the canonical character of Mahayanist works. Like the Upanishads
they are held to be revealed from time to time.

_(b)_ Buddhist texts discovered in Central Asia. Hitherto these have
been merely fragments, but the number of manuscripts found and not yet
published permits the hope that longer texts may be forthcoming. Those
already made known are partly Mahayanist and partly similar to the Pali
Canon though not a literal translation of it. It is not clear to what
extent the Buddhists of Central Asia regarded the Hina and Mahayanist
scriptures as separate and distinct. Probably each school selected for
itself a small collection of texts as authoritative[599].

_(3)_ The Chinese Canon. This is a gigantic collection of Buddhist works
made and revised by order of various Emperors. The imperial imprimatur
is the only standard of canonicity. The contents include translations of
works belonging to all schools made from the first to the thirteenth
century A.D. The originals were apparently all in Sanskrit and were
probably the texts of which fragments have been found in Central Asia.
This canon also includes some original Chinese works.

(4) There is a somewhat similar collection of translations into Tibetan.
But whereas the Chinese Canon contains translations dated from 67 A.D.
onwards, the Tibetan translations were made mainly in the ninth and
eleventh centuries and represent the literature esteemed by the mediaeval
Buddhism of Bengal. Part at least of this Tibetan Canon has been
translated into Mongol.

Renderings of various books into Uigur, Sogdian, Kuchanese, "Nordarisch"
and other languages of Central Asia have been discovered by recent
explorers. It is probable that they are all derived from the Sanskrit
Canon and do not represent any independent tradition. The scriptures
used in Japan and Korea are simply special editions of the Chinese
Canon, not translations.

In the following pages I propose to consider the Pali Canon, postponing
until later an account of the others. It will be necessary, however, to
touch on the relations of Pali and Sanskrit texts.

The scriptures published by the Pali Text Society represent the canon of
the ancient sect called Vibhajjavadins and the particular recension of
it used at the monastery in Anuradhapura called Mahavihara. It is
therefore not incorrect to apply to this recension such epithets as
southern or Sinhalese, provided we remember that in its origin it was
neither one nor the other, for the major part of it was certainly
composed in India[600]. It was probably introduced into Ceylon in the
third century B.C. and it is also accepted in Burma, Siam and
Camboja[601]. Thus in a considerable area it is the sole and undisputed
version of the scriptures.

The canon is often known by the name of Tripitaka[602] or Three Baskets.
When an excavation was made in ancient India it was the custom to pass
up the earth in baskets along a line of workmen[603] and the
metaphorical use of the word seems to be taken from this practice and to
signify transmission by tradition.

The three Pitakas are known as Vinaya, Sutta, and Abhidhamma. Vinaya
means discipline and the works included in this division treat chiefly
of the rules to be observed by the members of the Sangha. The basis of
these rules is the Patimokkha, the ancient confessional formula
enumerating the offences which a monk can commit. It was read
periodically to a congregation of the order and those guilty of any sin
had to confess it. The text of the Patimokkha is in the Vinaya combined
with a very ancient commentary called the Sutta-vibhanga. The Vinaya
also contains two treatises known collectively as the Khandakas but more
frequently cited by their separate names as Mahavagga and Cullavagga.
The first deals with such topics as the rules for admission to the
order, and observance of fast days, and in treating of each rule it
describes the occasion on which the Buddha made it and to some extent
follows the order of chronology. For some parts of the master's life it
is almost a biography. The Cullavagga is similar in construction but
less connected in style[604]. The Vinaya contains several important and
curious narratives and is a mine of information about the social
conditions of ancient India, but much of it has the same literary value
as the book of Leviticus. Of greater general interest is the Sutta
Pitaka, in which the sermons and discourses of the Buddha are collected.
Sutta is equivalent to the Sanskrit word Sutra, literally a thread,
which signifies among the Brahmans a brief rule or aphorism but in Pali
a relatively short poem or narrative dealing with a single object. This
Sutta Pitaka is divided into five collections called Nikayas. The first
four are mainly in prose and contain discourses attributed to Gotama or
his disciples. The fifth is mostly in verse and more miscellaneous.

The four collections of discourses bear the names of Digha, Majjhima,
Samyutta and Anguttara. The first, meaning long, consists of thirty-four
narratives. They are not all sermons and are of varying character,
antiquity and interest, the reason why they are grouped together being
simply their length[605]. In some of them we may fancy that we catch an
echo of Gotama's own words, but in others the legendary character is
very marked. Thus the Mahasamaya and Atanatiya suttas are epitomes of
popular mythology tacked on to the history of the Buddha. But for all
that they are interesting and ancient.

Many of the suttas, especially the first thirteen, are rearrangements of
old materials put together by a considerable literary artist who lived
many generations after the Buddha. The account of the Buddha's last days
is an example of such a compilation which attains the proportions of a
Gospel and shows some dramatic power though it is marred by the
juxtaposition of passages composed in very different styles.

The Majjhima-Nikaya is a collection of 152 discourses of moderate
(majjhima) length. Taken as a whole it is perhaps the most profound and
impassioned of all the Nikayas and also the oldest. The sermons which it
contains, if not verbatim reports of Gotama's eloquence, have caught the
spirit of one who urged with insistent earnestness the importance of
certain difficult truths and the tremendous issues dependent on right
conduct and right knowledge. The remaining collections, the Samyutta and
Anguttara, classify the Buddha's utterances under various headings and
presuppose older documents which they sometimes quote[606]. The Samyutta
consists of a great number of suttas, mostly short, combined in groups
treating of a single subject which may be either a person or a topic.
The Anguttara, which is a still longer collection, is arranged in
numerical groups, a method of classification dear to the Hindus who
delight in such computations as the four meditations, the eightfold
path, the ten fetters. It takes such religious topics as can be counted
in this way and arranges them under the numbers from one to eleven. Thus
under three, it treats of thought, word and deed and the applications of
this division to morality; of the three messengers of the gods, old-age,
sickness and death; of the three great evils, lust, ill-will and
stupidity and so on.

The fifth or Khuddaka-Nikaya is perhaps the portion of the Pali
scriptures which has found most favour with Europeans, for the treatises
composing it are short and some of them of remarkable beauty. They are
in great part composed of verses, sometimes disconnected couplets,
sometimes short poems. The stanzas are only imperfectly intelligible
without an explanation of the occasion to which they refer. This is
generally forthcoming, but is sometimes a part of the accepted text and
sometimes regarded as merely a commentary. To this division of the
Pitaka belong the Dhammapada, a justly celebrated anthology of
devotional verses, and the Sutta-Nipata, a very ancient collection of
suttas chiefly in metre. Other important works included in it are the
Thera and Theri-gatha or poems written by monks and nuns respectively,
and the Jataka or stories about the Buddha's previous births[607]. Some
of the rather miscellaneous contents of this Nikaya are late and do not
belong to the same epoch of thought as the discourses attributed to
Gotama. Such are the Buddha-vamsa, or lives of Gotama and his
twenty-four predecessors, the Cariya-Pitaka, a selection of Jataka
stories about Gotama's previous births and the Vimana and Peta-vatthus,
accounts of celestial mansions and of the distressful existence led by
those who are condemned to be ghosts[608].

Though some works comprised in this Nikaya (e.g. the Suttanipata) are
very ancient, the collection, as it stands, is late and probably known
only to the southern Church. The contents of it are not quite the same
in Ceylon, Burma and Siam, and only a small portion of them has been
identified in the Chinese Tripitaka. Nevertheless the word
_pancanekayika_, one who knows the five Nikayas, is found in the
inscriptions of Sanchi and five Nikayas are mentioned in the last books
of the Cullavagga. Thus a fifth Nikaya of some kind must have been known
fairly early.

The third Pitaka is known by the name of Abhidhamma. Dhamma is the usual
designation for the doctrine of the Buddha and Buddhaghosa[609] explains
the prefix abhi as signifying excess and distinction, so that this
Pitaka is considered pre-eminent because it surpasses the others. This
pre-eminence consists solely in method and scope, not in novelty of
matter or charm of diction. The point of view of the Abhidhamma is
certainly later than that of the Sutta Pitaka and in some ways marks an
advance, for instead of professing to report the discourses of Gotama it
takes the various topics on which he touched, especially psychological
ethics, and treats them in a connected and systematic manner. The style
shows some resemblance to Sanskrit sutras for it is so technical both in
vocabulary and arrangement that it can hardly be understood without a
commentary[610]. According to tradition the Buddha recited the
Abhidhamma when he went to heaven to preach to the gods, and this seems
a polite way of hinting that it was more than any human congregation
could tolerate or understand. Still throughout the long history of
Buddhism it has always been respected as the most profound portion of
the scriptures and has not failed to find students. This Pitaka includes
the Katha-vatthu, attributed to Tissa Moggaliputta who is said to have
composed it about 250 B.C. in Asoka's reign[611].

There is another division of the Buddhist scriptures into nine _angas_
or members, namely: 1. Suttas. 2. Geyya: mixed prose and verse. 3.
Gatha: verse. 4. Udana: ecstatic utterances. 5. Veyyakarana:
explanation. 6. Itivuttaka: sayings beginning with the phrase "Thus said
the Buddha." 7. Jataka: stories of former births. 8. Abbhutadhamma:
stories of wonders. 9. Vedalla: a word of doubtful meaning, but perhaps
questions and answers. This enumeration is not to be understood as a
statement of the sections into which the whole body of scripture was
divided but as a description of the various styles of composition
recognized as being religious, just as the Old Testament might be said
to contain historical books, prophecies, canticles and so on.
Compositions in these various styles must have been current before the
work of collection began, as is proved by the fact that all the _angas_
are enumerated in the Majjhima-Nikaya[612].

2

This Tripitaka is written in Pali[613] which is regarded by Buddhist
tradition as the language spoken by the Master. In the time of Asoka the
dialect of Magadha must have been understood over the greater part of
India, like Hindustani in modern times, but in some details of grammar
and phonetics Pali differs from Magadhi Prakrit and seems to have been
influenced by Sanskrit and by western dialects. Being a literary rather
than a popular language it was probably a mixed form of speech and it
has been conjectured that it was elaborated in Avanti or in Gandhara
where was the great Buddhist University of Takshasila. Subsequently it
died out as a literary language in India[614] but in Ceylon, Burma, Siam
and Camboja it became the vehicle of a considerable religious and
scholastic literature. The language of Asoka's inscriptions in the third
century B.C. is a parallel dialect, but only half stereotyped. The
language of the Mahavastu and some Mahayanist texts, often called the
language of the Gathas, seems to be another vernacular brought more or
less into conformity with Sanskrit. It is probable that in preaching the
Buddha used not Pali in the strict sense but the spoken dialect of
Magadha[615], and that this dialect did not differ from Pali more than
Scotch or Yorkshire from standard English, and if for other reasons we
are satisfied that some of the suttas have preserved the phrases which
he employed, we may consider that apart from possible deviations in
pronunciation or inflexion they are his _ipsissima verba_. Even as we
have it, the text of the canon contains some anomalous forms which are
generally considered to be Magadhisms[616].

The Cullavagga relates how two monks who were Brahmans represented to
the Buddha that "monks of different lineage ... corrupt the word of the
Buddha by repeating it in their own dialect. Let us put the word of the
Buddhas into _chandas_[617]." No doubt Sanskrit verse is meant,
_chandas_ being a name applied to the language of the Vedic verses.
Gotama refused: "You are not to put the word of the Buddhas into
_chandas_. Whoever does so shall be guilty of an offence. I allow you to
learn the word of the Buddhas each in his own dialect." Subsequent
generations forgot this prohibition, but it probably has a historical
basis and it indicates the Buddha's desire to make his teaching popular.
It is not likely that he contemplated the composition of a body of
scriptures. He would have been afraid that it might resemble the hymns
of the Brahmans which he valued so little and he wished all men to hear
his teaching in the language they understood best. But when after his
death his disciples collected his sayings it was natural that they
should make at least one version of them in the dialect most widely
spoken and that this version should be gradually elaborated in what was
considered the best literary form of that dialect[618]. It is probable
that the text underwent several linguistic revisions before it reached
its present state.

Pali is a sonorous and harmonious language which avoids combinations of
consonants and several difficult sounds found in Sanskrit. Its
excellence lies chiefly in its vocabulary and its weakness in its
syntax. Its inflexions are heavy and monotonous and the sentences lack
concentration and variety. Compound words do not assume such monstrous
proportions as in later Sanskrit, but there is the same tendency to make
the process of composition do duty for syntax. These faults have been
intensified by the fact that the language has been used chiefly for
theological discussion. The vocabulary on the other hand is copious and
for special purposes admirable. The translator has to struggle
continually with the difficulty of finding equivalents for words which,
though apparently synonymous, really involve nice distinctions and much
misunderstanding has arisen from the impossibility of adequately
rendering philosophical terms, which, though their European equivalents
sound vague, have themselves a precise significance. On the other hand
some words (e.g. _dhamma_ and _attho_) show an inconveniently wide range
of meaning. But the force of the language is best seen in its power of
gathering up in a single word, generally a short compound, an idea which
though possessing a real unity requires in European languages a whole
phrase for its expression. Thus the Buddha bids his disciples be
_attadipa atta-sarana, ananna-sarana: dhammadipa dhammasarana_[619]. "Be
ye lamps unto yourselves. Be ye a refuge unto yourselves. Betake
yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the truth as a lamp. Hold
fast to the truth as a refuge." This is Rhys Davids' translation and
excellent both as English and as giving the meaning. But the five Pali
words compel attention and inscribe themselves on the memory in virtue
of a monumental simplicity which the five English sentences do not
possess.

But the feature in the Pali scriptures which is most prominent and most
tiresome to the unsympathetic reader is the repetition of words,
sentences and whole paragraphs. This is partly the result of grammar or
at least of style. The simplicity of Pali syntax and the small use made
of dependent sentences, lead to the regular alignment of similar phrases
side by side like boards in a floor. When anything is predicated of
several subjects, for instance the five Skandhas, it is rare to find a
single sentence containing a combined statement. As a rule what has to
be said is predicated first of the first Skandha and then repeated
_totidem verbis_ of the others. But there is another cause for this
tedious peculiarity, namely that for a long period the Pitakas were
handed down by oral tradition only. They were first reduced to writing
in Ceylon about 20 B.C. in the reign of Vattagamani, more than a century
and a half after their first importation in an oral form. This
circumstance need not throw doubt on the authenticity of the text, for
the whole ancient literature of India, prose as well as verse, was
handed down by word of mouth and even in the present day most of it
could be recovered if all manuscripts and books were lost. The Buddhists
did not, like the Brahmans, make minute regulations for preserving and
memorizing their sacred texts, and in the early ages of the faith were
impressed with the idea that their teaching was not a charm to be learnt
by heart but something to be understood and practised. They nevertheless
endeavoured, and probably with success, to learn by heart the words of
the Buddha, converting them into the dialect most widely understood. It
was then a common thing (and the phenomenon may still be seen in India)
for a man of learning to commit to memory a whole Veda together with
subsidiary treatises on ritual, metre, grammar and genealogy. For such
memories it was not difficult to retain the principal points in a series
of sermons. The Buddha had preached day by day for about forty-five
years. Though he sometimes spoke with reference to special events he no
doubt had a set of discourses which he regularly repeated. There was the
less objection to such repetition because he was continually moving
about and addressing new audiences. There were trained Brahman students
among his disciples, and at his death many persons, probably hundreds,
must have had by heart summaries of his principal sermons.

But a sermon is less easy to remember than a poem or matter arranged by
some method of _memoria technica_. An obvious aid to recollection is to
divide the discourse into numbered heads and attach to each certain
striking phrases. If the phrases can be made to recur, so much the
better, for there is a guarantee of correctness when an expected formula
appears at appropriate points.

It may be too that the wearisome and mechanical iteration of the Pali
Canon is partly due to the desire of the Sinhalese to lose nothing of
the sacred word imparted to them by missionaries from a foreign country,
for repetition to this extent is not characteristic of Indian
compositions. It is less noticeable in Sanskrit Buddhist sutras than in
the Pali but is very marked in Jain literature. A moderate use of it is
a feature of the Upanishads. In these we find recurring formulae and also
successive phrases constructed on one plan and varying only in a few
words[620].

But still I suspect that repetition characterized not only the reports
of the discourses but the discourses themselves. No doubt the versions
which we have are the result of compressing a free discourse into
numbered paragraphs and repetitions: the living word of the Buddha was
surely more vivacious and plastic than these stiff tabulations. But the
peculiarities of scholars can often be traced to the master and the
Buddha had much the same need of mnemonics as his hearers. For he had
excogitated complicated doctrines and he imparted them without the aid
of notes and though his natural wit enabled him to adapt his words to
the capacity of his hearers and to meet argument, still his wish was to
formulate a consistent statement of his thoughts. In the earliest
discourse ascribed to him, the sermon at Benares, we see these habits of
numbering and repetition already fully developed. The next discourse, on
the absence of a soul, consists in enumerating the five words, form,
sensation, perception, sankharas, and consciousness three times, and
applying to each of them consecutively three statements or arguments,
the whole concluding with a phrase which is used as a finale in many
other places. Artificial as this arrangement sounds when analyzed, it is
a natural procedure for one who wished to impress on his hearers a
series of philosophic propositions without the aid of writing, and I can
imagine that these rhythmical formulae uttered in that grave and pleasant
voice which the Buddha is said to have possessed, seemed to the
leisurely yet eager groups who sat round him under some wayside banyan
or in the monastery park, to be not tedious iteration but a gradual
revelation of truth growing clearer with each repetition.