Text of Confucianism Part 02

SR No.: 007676
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Legge
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 2405
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 43 MB

Page 624

130
MAHAVAGGA.
VI, 35, 2.
lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely in its consummation. The higher life doth he proclaim, in all its purity and all its perfectness. Blessed is the sight of Arahats like that?!' And Keniya the ascetic thought : What now should I have taken to the Samana Gotama.'
2. And Keniya the ascetic thought: 'They who are the ancient Rishis of the Brâhmans, the authors of the sacred verses, the utterers of the sacred verses, whose ancient form of words, so uttered chaunted or composed, the Brâhmans of to-day chaunt over again and repeat, intoning or reciting exactly as had been intoned or recited-to wit, Atthaka, Vâmaka, Vamadeva, Vessâmitta, Yamataggi, Angirasa, Bhâradväga, Vâsettha, and Bhagu—they were abstainers from food at night, and abstainers from food at the wrong time, yet they used to receive such things as drinks. (3.) Now the Samana Gotama is also an abstainer from food
1 This is a stock phrase. Compare above VI, 34, 11, and the Tevigga Sutta I, 7, 46, and the passages quoted on the last by Rh. D., 'Buddhist Suttas,' p. 287.
? That is, as a present, the usual tribute of respect.
$ The names of these Rishis, and the above phrases from 'They who' &c. downwards, recur several times in the Tevigga Sutta. See Rh.D., Buddhist Suttas,' p. 172, &c. Most of these names are easily to be identified, being in Sanskrit Vamadeva, Visvamitra, Gamadagni (who is only mentioned in this list in reference to Rig-veda III, 62, quoted from below. See also Oldenberg's note to Sânkhâyana's Grihya-sätra IV, 10 in Indische Studien XV, 153), Ângirasa, Bharadvâga, Vasishtha, Kasyapa, and Bhrigu. The only doubtful names are Vâmaka and Althaka. The latter must be Ashtaka, mentioned as the author of Rig-veda X, 104, unless it be supposed to be a corrupt reading under which some representation of Atri may lurk. Vâmaka is the only unintelligible form, for it would be difficult to see how that word could come to stand for the Vamra to whom Rig-veda X, 99 is ascribed.
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