Zend Avesta Part 03

SR No.: 007673
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: L H Mills
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1887
Total Pages: 2618
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 2226

INTRODUCTION.
xxxvii
23. The Dhanıma Sangani . 260* 24. The Vibhanga . . . . 325 25. The Katha Vatthu . . 440 26. The Puggala Paññatti . 75 27. The Dhấtu Kathâ... 100 28. The Yamakas.... 400 29. The Patthana .... 600 Total Abhidhamma. - 2 200
10,211
THE ABHIDHAMMA
PITAKA.
This shows the total extent of the three Pitakas to be about 10,000 pages 8vo. as printed, or to be printed, by the Pali Text Society 1. If our English Bible, in the older authorised version, were to be printed in the same manner and type and on the same size of page, it would occupy about 5,000 pages. So that the Buddhist Bible without its repetitions (some of which are very frequent, and others very long), would only occupy about double the space of the English Bible. This would not have been a literature too large to be familiarly known to our author. What is the conclusion which can fairly be drawn, from a comparison of the last list with those preceding it, as
o his knowledge of those books now held, by living Buddhists, to be canonical?
The answer to this question will be of some importance for another reason beyond the help it will afford towards settling the date of the original Questions of Milinda.' As is well known, Asoka, in the only one of his edicts, addressed specially to the members of the Buddhist Order of mendicants, selects seven portions of the Buddhist Scriptures, which he mentions by name, and expresses his desire that not only the brethren and sisters of the Order, but also the laity, should constantly learn by heart and reflect upon those seven. Now not one of the seven titles which occur in the edict is identical with any of the twenty-nine in the last list. Whereupon certain Indianists have rejoiced at being able to score a point, as they think, against these
This estimate excludes the space occupied by notes. The books marked with an asterisk in the foregoing list have already been printed.
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