________________
INTRODUCTION.
xlix
step by step, and it is therefore called patipadâ, lit. the step by step.
If we make allowance for these ambiguities, inherent in the name of Dhammapada, we may well understand how the Buddhists themselves play with the word pada (see V. 45). Thus we read in Mr. Beal's translation of a Chinese version of the Prâtimoksha 1:
* Let all those who desire such birth, Who now are living in the world, Guard and preserve these Precepts, as feet.'
TRANSLATION. In translating the verses of the Dhammapada, I have followed the edition of the Pâli text, published in 1855 by Dr. Fausböll, and I have derived great advantage from his Latin translation, his notes, and his copious extracts from Buddhaghosa's commentary. I have also consulted translations, either of the whole of the Dhammapada, or of portions of it, by Burnouf, Gogerly ?, Upham, Weber, and others. Though it will be seen that in many places my translation differs from those of my predecessors, I can only claim for myself the name of a very humble gleaner in this field of Pali literature. The greatest credit is due to Dr. Fausböll, whose editio princeps of the Dhammapada will mark for ever an important epoch in the history of Pâli scholarship; and though later critics have been able to point out some mistakes, both in his text and in his translation, the value of their labours is not to be compared with that of the work accomplished singlehanded by that eminent Danish scholar.
In revising my translation, first published in 18703, for
i Catena, p. 207.
9. Several of the chapters have been translated by Mr. Gogerly, and have appeared in The Friend, vol. iv, 1840.' (Spence Hardy, Eastern Monachism, p. 169.)
3 Buddhaghosha's Parables, translated from Burmese by Captain T. Rogers, R. E. With an Introduction, containing Buddha's Dhammapada, translated from Pali by F. Max Müller. London, 1870.
[10]
Digitized by Google