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.BUDDHIST SUTTAS,
TRANSLATED FROM PALI BY
T. W. Rhys Davids
mahA-parinibbAna suttanta
Dhamma-A'akka-Ppavattana Sutta
Tevigga Suttanta
Akankheyya Sutta
£Etokhila Sutta
Maha-Sudassana Suttanta
fe7.
jSABBASAVA SUTTA
[All rights reserved}
HARVARD
COLLEGE
LIBRARY
Translated
By Various Oriental Scholars
F. MAX MOLLER VOL. XI
[All rights reserved]
-r, ! fi «
Jun 7 1904
Oxford
Printed At the Clarendon Press
BY HORACE HART, M.A. PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
HENRY FROWDE, M.A.
Publisher to the University of Oxford
London, Edinburgh, and New York
Translated
By Various Oriental Scholars
F. Max Moller
Vol. Xi
[All rights reserved]
X Buddhist Suttas
TRANSLATED FROM PALI BY
T. W. Rhys Davids
O 1. THE mahA-parinibbAna suttanta
o ',! THE DHAMMA-A'AKKA-PPAVATTANA SUTTA
The Tevigga Suttanta
& i. THE AKANKHEYYA SUTTA
ofj. THE £ETOKHILA SUTTA
C«. the Maha-Sudassana Suttanta
5,7. the Sabbasava Sutta
[All rights reserved]
Contents
Page
General Introduction to the Buddhist Suttas . . ix
1. The Book of the Great Decease (Maha-parinibbana
Suttanta) . xxix
Introduction xxxi
Translation i
2. The Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness
(DHAMMA-ZirAKKA-PPAVATTANA SuTTa) . . . 1 37
Introduction 139
Translation 146
3. On Knowledge of the Vedas (Tevigga Suttanta) . 157
Introduction 1 59
Translation 167
(The Silas, pp. 189-200.)
4. If he should desire (Akankheyya Sutta) . . 205
Introduction 207
Translation . . . . . . .210
5. Barrenness and Bondage (A!etokhila Sutta) . . 219
Introduction .221
Translation 223
6. Legend of the Great King of Glory (Maha-Sudas-
sana Suttanta) 235
Introduction 237
(MaM-Sudassana (rataka, pp. 238-241.) Translation .247
7. All the Asavas (Sabbasava Sutta) . . . .291
Introduction 293
Translation ........ 296
Index 309
Transliteration of Oriental Alphabets adopted for the
Translations of the Sacred Books of the East . -317
General Introduction
BUDDHIST SUTTAS.
On being asked to contribute a volume of translations from the P&li Suttas to the important series of which this work forms a part, the contributor has to face the difficulty of choosing from the stores of a nearly unknown literature — a difficulty arising from the embarrassment, not of poverty, but of wealth. I have endeavoured to make such a choice as would enable me to bring together into one volume a collection of texts which should be as complete a sample as one volume could afford of what the Buddhist scriptures, on the whole, contain. With this object in view I have re- frained from confining myself to the most interesting books — those, namely, which deal with the Noble Eightfold Path, the most essential, the most original, and the most attractive part of Gotama's teaching ; and I have chosen accordingly, besides the Sutta of the Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness (the Dh amma - £akka - ppavattana- Sutta), which treats of the Noble Path, six others which treat of other sides of the Buddhist system ; less interesting perhaps in their subject matter, but of no less historical value.
These are —
1. The Book of the Great Decease (the Mah£-
parinibbdna-Suttanta), which is the Buddhist repre-
sentative of what, among the Christians, is called a Gospel.
2. The Foundation of the Kingdom of Righte-
ousness (the Dhamma-^akka-ppavattana- Sutta),
containing the Four Noble Truths, and the Noble Eight-
fold Path which ends in Arahatship.
3. The Discussion on Knowledge of the Three
Vedas (the Tevi^a - Suttanta), which is a controversial
dialogue on the right method of attaining to a state of
union with Brahmd.
4. The Sutta entitled 4 If he should desire— '(Akah-
kheyya-Sutta), which shows in the course of a very
beautiful argument some curious sides of early Buddhist
mysticism and of curiously unjustified belief.
5. The Treatise on Barrenness and Bondage
(the ATetokhila-Sutta), which treats of the Buddhist
Order of Mendicants, from the moral, as distinguished from
the disciplinary, point of view.
6. The Legend of the Great King of Glory (the
Mahd-sudassana-Suttanta), which is an example of
the way in which previously existing legends were dealt
with by the early Buddhists.
7. The Sutta entitled « All the Asavas' (the Sabbd-
sava -Sutta), which explains the signification of a con-
stantly recurring technical term, and lays down the essen-
tial principles of Buddhist Agnosticism.
The Discipline of the Buddhist Mendicants, the Rules of their Order — probably the most influential, as it is the oldest, in the world — will be fully described, down to its minutest details, in the translation of the Vinaya Pifoka, which will appropriately form a subsequent part of this Series of Translations of the Sacred Books of the East. There was therefore no need to include any Sutta on this subject in the present volume : but of the rest of the matters discussed in the Buddhist Sacred Books — of Buddhist le- gend, gospel, controversial theology, and ethics — the works selected will I trust give a correct and adequate, if necessa- rily a somewhat fragmentary, idea.
The age of these writings can be fixed, without much
uncertainty, at about the latter end of the fourth or the
beginning of the third century before the commencement
of the Christian era. This is the only hypothesis which
seems, at present, to account for the facts known about
them. It should not however be looked upon as anything
more than a good working hypothesis to be accepted until all the texts of the Buddhist P&li Suttas shall have been properly edited. For it depends only on the fact that one of the texts now translated contains several statements, and one very significant silence, which afford ground for chronological argument. That argument amounts only to probability, not to certainty ; and it might scarcely be worth while to put it forward were it not that the course of the enquiry will be found to raise several questions of very considerable interest.
The significant silence to which I refer occurs in the
account of the death of Gotama at the end of the MahcL-
parinibbina-Sutta 1 ; and I cannot do better than quote
Dr. Oldenberg's remarks upon it at p. xxvi of the able
Introduction to his edition of the text of the Mah&-vagga.
* The Tradition regarding the Councils takes up the thread of the story where the accounts of the life and work of Buddha, given in the Sutta Pi/aka, end. After the death of the Master — so it is related in the A'ulla-vagga — Su- bhadda, the last disciple converted by Buddha shortly before his death 2 , proclaimed views which threatened the dissolution of the community.
4 " Do not grieve, do not lament," he is said to have said to the believers. " It is well that we have been relieved of the Great Master's presence. We were oppressed by him when he said, 'This is permitted to you, this is not per- mitted.' In future we can do as we like, and not do as we do not like."
4 In opposition to Subhadda, — the tradition goes on to relate, — there came forward one of the most distinguished and oldest of Buddha's disciples, the great Kassapa, who proposed that five hundred of the most eminent members of the community should assemble at Rdg-agaha, the royal residence of the ruler of Magadha, in order to collect the Masters precepts in an authentic form. It has already been said above, how, during the seven months' sitting of
1 Translated below, pp. 112-135.
* This is a mistake. The Subhadda referred to is quite a different person from the last convert. See my note below, p. 127.
the assembly, Kassapa as president fixed the Vinaya with
the assistance of Updli, and the Dhamma with the assist-
ance of Ananda.
* This is the story as it has come down to us. What we have here before us is not history, but pure invention ; and, moreover, an invention of no very recent date. Apart from internal reasons that might be adduced to support this, we are able to prove it by comparing another text which is older than this story, and the author of which cannot yet have known it. I allude to the highly important Sutta, which gives an account of the death of Buddha, and the Pdli text of which has recently been printed by Professor Childers. This Sutta gives 1 the story — in long passages word for word the same, as in the jfifulla-vagga — of the irreverent conduct of Subhadda, which Kassapa opposes by briefly pointing to the true con- solation that should support the disciples in their separation from the Master. Then follows the account of the burning of Buddha's corpse, of the distribution of his relics among the various princes and cities, and of the festivals which were instituted in honour of these relics. Everything that the legend of the First Council alleges as a motive for, and as the background to, the story about Kassapa's proposal for holding the Council, is found here altogether, except that there is no allusion to the proposal itself, or to the Council. We hear of those speeches of Subhadda, which, according to the later tradition, led Kassapa to make his proposal, but we do not hear anything of the proposal itself. We hear of the great assembly that meets for the distribution of Buddha's relics, in which — according to the later tradition — Kassapa's proposal was agreed to, but we do not hear anything of these transactions. It may be added that we hear in this same Sutta 2 of the precepts which Buddha delivered to his followers shortly before his death, concerning doubts and differences of opinion that might arise, among the members of the community, with
regard to the Dhamma and the Vinaya, and with regard to
1 Pages 67, 68 in the edition of Childers. 8 Pages 39, 60, 61, ibid.