Note 612 — Chapter XIII

The Abhidhamma of the Sarvâstivâdins was entirely different. It seems probable that the Abhidhamma books of all schools consisted almost entirely of explanatory matter and added very little to the doctrine laid down in the suttas. It would appear that the only new topic introduced in the Pali Abhidhamma is the theory of relations (paccaya).] [Footnote 612: Maj. Nik. XXII. and Angut. Nik. IV. 6.] [Footnote 613: Pali means primarily a line or row and then a text as distinguished from the commentary. Thus Pâlimattam means the text without the commentary and Palibhâsâ is the language of the text or what we call Pali. See Pali and Sanskrit, R.O. Franke, 1902. Windisch, "Ueber den sprachlichen Character des Pali," in Actes du XIV'me Congrès des Orientalistes, 1905. Grierson, "Home of Pali" in Bhandarkar Commemorative Essays, 1917.] [Footnote 614: It is not easy to say how late or to what extent Pali was used in India. The Milinda-Pañha (or at least books II. and III.) was probably composed in North Western India about the time of our era. Dharmapâla wrote his commentaries (c. 500 A.D.) in the extreme south, probably at Conjeevaram. Pali inscriptions of the second or third century A.D. have been discovered at Sarnath but contain mistakes which show that the engraver did not understand the language (Epig. Ind. 1908, p. 391). Bendall found Pali MSS. in Nepal, J.R.A.S. 1899, p. 422.] [Footnote 615: Magadha of course was not his birth-place and the dialect of Kosala must have been his native language. But it is not hinted that he had any difficulty in making himself understood in Magadha and elsewhere.] [Footnote 616: E.g. nominatives singular in e. For the possible existence of scriptures anterior to the Pali version and in another dialect, see S. Lévi, J.A. 1912, II. p. 495.] [Footnote 617: Cullavag. V. 33, chandaso âropema.] [Footnote 618: Although Pali became a sacred language in the South, yet in China, Tibet and Central Asia the scriptures were translated into the idioms of the various countries which accepted Buddhism.] [Footnote 619: Mahâparinibbâna-sutta, II. 26. Another expressive compound is Dhûmakâ-likam (Cullav. XI. 1. 9) literally smoke-timed. The disciples were afraid that the discipline of the Buddha might last only as long as the smoke of his funeral pyre.] [Footnote 620: Winternitz has acutely remarked that the Pali Pitaka resembles the Upanishads in style. See also Keith, Ait. Ar. p. 55. For repetitions in the Upanishads, see Chând. v. 3. 4 ff., v. 12 ff. and much in VII. and VIII., Brihad. Âr. III. ix. 9 ff., VI. iii. 2, etc. This Upanishad relates the incident of Yâjñavalkya and Maîtreyî twice. So far as style goes, I see no reason why the earliest parts of the Vinaya and Sutta Pitaka should not have been composed immediately after the Buddha's death.] [Footnote 621: E.g. Mahâv. 1. 49, Dig. Nik. I. 14, Sut. Vib. Bhikkhunî, LXIX., Sut. Vib. Pârâj. III. 4. 4.] [Footnote 622: Cullav. IV. 15. 4.] [Footnote 623: Ang. Nik. IV. 100. 5, ib. v. lxxiv. 5.] [Footnote 624: See Bühler in Epigraphia Indica, vol. II. p. 93.] [Footnote 625: Even at the time of Fa Hsien's visit to India (c. 400 A.D.) the Vinaya of the Sarvâstivâdin school was preserved orally and not written. See Legge's trans, p. 99.] [Footnote 626: Ang. Nik. IV. 160. 5, Bhikkhû bahussutâ ... mâtikâdhârâ monks who carry in memory the indices.] [Footnote 627: Cullavag. XI., XII. ] [Footnote 628: Dig. Nik. 1.] [Footnote 629: It is remarkable that this account contemplates five Nikâyas (of which the fifth is believed to be late) but only two Pitakas, the Abhidhamma not being mentioned.] [Footnote 630: It refers to a king Pingalaka, said to have reigned two hundred years after the Buddha's time.] [Footnote 631: Mahâv XI. 3.] [Footnote 632: Mahâv. II. 17.] [Footnote 633: Cullav. IX. 5.] [Footnote 634: The passages are: