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 88

THE VENERABLE.
97. The man who is free from credulity, but knows the uncreated, who has cut all ties, removed all temptations, renounced all desires, he is the greatest of men.
the Brahmans, has been proved against Dr. Weber by Professor Köppen in his Religion des Buddha,'I, p. 445. He particularly called attention to Manu XII, 4-8; and he might have added Mahâbh. XII, 4059, 6512, 6549, 6554; XIII, 5677, &c. Dr. Weber has himself afterwards brought forward a passage from the Atharvaveda, VI, 96, 3 (yak kakshushâ manasâ yak ka vâkâ upârima), which, however, has a different meaning. A better one was quoted by him from the Taitt. Ar. X, 1, 12 (yan me manasâ, vâkâ, karmanâ vâ dushkritam kritam). Similar expressions have been shown to exist in the Zend-avesta, and among the Manichæans (Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, III, p. 414; see also Boehtlingk's Dictionary, s. v. kâya, and Childers, s.v. kâyo). There was no ground, therefore, for supposing that this formula had found its way into the Christian liturgy from Persia, for, as Professor Cowell remarks (Journal of Philology, vol. vii. p. 215), Greek writers, such as Plato, employ very similar expressions, e.g. Protag. p. 348, 30, após drav έργον και λόγον και διανόημα. In fact, the opposition between words and deeds occurs in almost every writer, from Homer downwards ; and the further distinction between thoughts and words is clearly implied even in such expressions as, 'they say in their heart.' That the idea of sin committed by thought was not a new idea, even to the Jews, may be seen from Prov. xxiv. 9, the thought of foolishness is sin.' In the Âpastamba-sūtras, lately edited by Professor Bühler, we find the expression, atho yatkiñka manasâ vâkâ kakshushâ vâ sankalpayan dhyâyaty âhâbhivipasyati vâ tathaiva tad bhavatîtyupadisanti, 'they say that whatever a Brahman intending with his mind, voice, or eye, thinks, says, or looks, that will be.' This is clearly a very different division, and it is the same which is intended in the passage from the Atharva-veda, quoted above. In the mischief done by the eye, we have, perhaps, the first indication of the evil eye. (Mahâbh. XII, 3417. See Dhammapada, vv. 231-234.)
On the technical meaning of tâdi, see Childers, s.v. D'Alwis (p. 78) has evidently received the right interpretation, but has not understood it. Mâdrisa also is used very much like tâdrisa, and from it mâriso, a venerable person, in Sanskrit mârsha.
Digitized by Google