Prakrit Dhammapada

SR No.: 020564
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Benimadhab Barua, Sailendranath Mitra
Publisher: Satguru Publications
Publication Year: 1988
Total Pages: 331
Language: Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 14 MB

Page 242

www.kobatirth.orgAcharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
( 163 ) Cf. Udanas., ch. ". (" Numbers "), vv29-31 :"He who for a luulisel year's makes a thonsand sacrifices
cach month, is not worth the sixteenth part of him who is mercifnl to sentient creatures" (varied in rs. 30, 31 hy 'animated creatures and beings respectively).
Cf. Vanu, V. 53 : varse varge 'svaneilhena yo yajeta satan sanāḥ
mārsăni ca na khaderyastavoh punyaphalar samam. Notes.--It is a strange fact that the parallel of none of these
verees (-11) is to be found in the Dhammapada or in any other canonical text. We nuust aclmit that the basic idea ont of which they had grown, is emboclied in a prose discourse, tie Kūţadanta-sutta of the Dighanikīra. A comparison of the Prakrit verses with their parallels in the Fa-kheipi-11 and other recensious of the Dhammapada makes it clear how easy it was for the Buddhists to multiply the number of this class of stanzas by merely changing a certain word or expression. It is also clear that the chief motive of these verses is to extol the principles of practical Buddhism, which are of far greater worth than the hundreds and thousands of sacrifices performed each month by the Brālman householders. The Buddhist principles empliasized herein are just three, riz., (1) faith in the Three Jewels, (2) observance of the moral precepts, and (3) compassion for the living beings.
Verses 6-8.- Masamasi, masamase=Pali and Sk. māse mūsr, each montli'. In colloquial Bengali the idiom mare māxe means quite the same thing, and māsāmāsi, which equates with the Prakrit form masamasi, means 'extending over a month'. In these verses there are numerous instances where i and ¢ are interchanged Sabasina satena, sahasena satina = Pali sahassena satena, which is as idiomatic as sahasrānäin satan sata'm of the Malavastu versee. Yaea = Pali yajeyga, Sk. yajeta; y and ; being inverted in jayeta of the Malāvastu verses quoted above. Neva (written neri in v. 6)= Pāli or Sk. námi, as M. Senart points out. The reading na ri or nu re would be the correct from ; wera may be regarded as an inversion for na re. But ne ra taken as Pāli r'era or Sk. naiva would free 118 from the risk of such conjectures as nera=nápi. Aveti= Prili anreli or appoti = Ski apuoti, attains', 1.C., deserves' (ogghali or arghati). We trust tbat it was not by mistake that the scribe vrote arti for aghati.
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