Dhammapada

SR No.: 007674
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2540
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 49

xlvi
DHAMMAPADA.
tality. Again, pamâdo makkuno padam' can hardly mean anything but that thoughtlessness is the path of death, is the path that leads to death. The commentator, too, rightly explains it here by amatasya adhigamupâya, the means of obtaining immortality, i. e. Nirvâna, or simply by upâyo, and even by maggo, the way. If we compare verses 92 and 93 of our text, and verses 254 and 255, we see that pada is used synonymously with gati, going. In the same manner dhammapada would mean the footstep or the footpath of virtue, i. e. the path that leads to virtue, and supply a very appropriate title for a collection of moral precepts. In verses 44 and 45'path of virtue' seems to be the most appropriate meaning for dhammapada', and it is hardly possible to assign any other meaning to it in the following verse (Kundasutta, v. 6):
Yo dhammapade sudesite Magge gîvati saññato satima, Anavagga-padâni sevamâno
Tatîyam bhikkhum âhu maggagîvim, 'He who lives restrained and attentive in the way that has been well pointed out, in the path of the law, cultivating blameless words, such a Bhikkhu they call a Maggagîvi (living in the way).'
I therefore think that'Path of Virtue,' or 'Footstep of the Law,' was the idea most prominent in the mind of those who originally framed the title of this collection of verses. It seems to me that Buddhaghosa also took the same view, for the verse which D’Alwis ? quotes from the introduction of Buddhaghosa's commentary,— Sampatta-saddhammapado satthâ dhammapadam subham
Desesi, and which he translates, 'The Teacher who had reached, the very depths (lit. bottom) of Saddhamma, preached this holy Dhammapada,'—lends itself far better to another translation, viz. 'The Teacher who had gained a firm
1 Cf. Dhammapada, v. 285, nibbânam sugaten 1 desitam.
Buddhist Nirvâna, p. 62.
Digitized by Google