Note 35 — Chapter V

It is much to be regretted that no details concerning that third assembly of the Buddhists in Pataliputra could be found by the writer in the manuscript he has in his possession. The cause that occasioned the holding of the council was the desire to establish a perfect unity in the practices of discipline among the religious, and to come to an agreement on the subject of the genuineness of the scriptures.

During the period of 236 years that elapsed from the death of Gaudama, Buddhism seems to have remained confined within the limits of Magatha, that is to say, north and south Behar. Its hold over the mind of the people within those limits appears to have been very imperfect and uncertain, particularly in the parts north of the Ganges. It is from the reign of King Athoka that the propagation of Buddhism in every direction dates. The uninterrupted successes which attended his arms enabled him to afford a powerful support to the propagators of the new religion in the remotest parts which they visited. But we have no reason to suspect that he had recourse to violence in order to gain proselytes. No doubt he protected them, and supplied all their wants on a liberal scale. He does not appear to have extended farther the effects of the countenance he lent to the heralds of the new religion. He built monasteries and dzedis throughout the length and breadth of his immense dominions; he erected stone pillars, which he covered with inscriptions commemorative of his piety and zeal, a few of which exist up to this day. Athoka may be looked upon as a monarch who did more for the propagation of Buddhism in foreign parts than any of those who preceded him or came after him.

The establishment of Buddhism in Ceylon is mentioned at great length in the writer’s manuscript, but he has thought it unnecessary to relate all that he has found on this subject, as being foreign to the purpose he has had in view in the publication of this book. In a foregoing note it has been stated how extraordinary is the fact that during more than two hundred years Buddhism was propagated in Ceylon solely by means of oral tradition without writing. The Cingalese authors are so unanimous on this point that it cannot be doubted. But in the Burmese manuscript we have found stated, in unmistakable expressions, that the religious who assembled in the village of Malliya wrote the Pitagat in Sanscrit, and with the Sanscrit characters. The word made use of is Sanskarain, which surely is designed to mean Sanscrit. How can this be reconciled with the undoubted fact that all the southern Buddhists have the scriptures in Pali and not in Sanscrit, whilst the northern nations that have embraced Buddhism possess the scriptures in Sanscrit? Until we can obtain further information on the subject, I have no hesitation in stating that the Burmans, ignorant of the existence of the two distinct languages—the Pali and the Sanscrit—are very apt to mistake the one for the other, and that in their opinion what they call the language of Magatha, Pali, and Sanscrit are but one and the same language, to which different names have been given by ancient authors. As the translator of a manuscript, the writer was bound to render into English what he has found written in Burmese. This is the reason why he has, against his intimate conviction, made use of the word Sanscrit, applied to the first compilation of scriptures made in Ceylon under the reign of King Watakamani.