Indian Antiquary Vol 37

SR No.: 032529
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 454
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 7

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY,
A. JOURNAL OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH.
VOLUME XXXVII. — 1908.
THE BUDDHIST COUNCILS. BY PROFESSOR L. DE LA VALLÉE POUSSIN.
I.
THE FIRST TWO COUNCILS. T HE discoveries and the researches of recent years have, at least partially, confirmed the views
1 that Messrs. Oldenberg, Rhys Davids, and Windisch, not to mention others, had expressed oncerning the antiquity of the Buddhist Canons; they have, to a large extent, invalidated several of the objections of Minayeff. I am all the more bound in candour to recognise this, as I reproach myself with having formerly adhered on certain points to the scepticism, or, if the expression is preferred, to the agnosticism of the great Russian savant, one of the most penetrating intellects which have done honour to our studies, who, however, in his short and fruitful career, evidently had not the tinie to point and bring to maturity all his ideas, and who has given us in his Researches merely the outline or the first edition of the book to which his life was consecrated.
The moment seems to us to have arrived for resuming, in order to recapitulate it and perhaps advance it a little, a discussion which, at times, was almost impassioned ; to examine under what conditions and on what terrain it most be pursued at the present time; to determine what remains of the criticisms formulated by Minayeff. It will be seen that on some points where, according to Prof. Oldenberg, he was grievously mistaken, he sometimes was perfectly right, - notably in that which concerns the Councils; and that even where he was wrong - notably about the edict of Bhabra (Bairat ), - his work was useful and throws a singularly clear light on some of the problems of this old story.
There is scarcely need to gay that all the studies bearing on the origin of the Canons are necessarily provisional. The fault of this lies above all with the sinologues, 80 zealous when it is & question of problems which interest sinology only, but at times negligent when Buddhism is concerned. We ought to be the more grateful to the few scholars who have revealed to us some details concerning the literature of the sects of the Little Vehicle.
Recherches sur le Bouddhi me par I. P. Minayeff, translated from the Russian by R. H, Assier de Pompignan, Musée Guimet, Bibl. d'Etudes, t. IV. (1894). The original edition dates from 1887. H. Oldenberg, Buddhistische Studien, Z.D.M.G. LII. (1898), pp. 618-694.
1 Not to mention the older ones, Wassilioff, Beal. (The Vinaya of the Dharmaguptas according to the Chinese Version, Vhdl. of the 5 Or. Kongr., Ostasiat. Section, p. 17, Berlin, 1881, reprinted in Abstract of four Lectures, (1882), and the notes on the Mohicāsukas, ap. Oldenberg, Intr. to Vinaya Pitaka, I. p. xliv ), -I should mention the artiole of M. Suzuki, The First Buddhist Council (Monist, XIV., 27th January 1904, pp. 252-283, with
preface by A. J. Edmunds ) which is the most complete work we possess on the Chinese Sources.-Tibetan Bources for the First Counoil (Sarvaativadin School), Onoma Foer, Ann, du Musée Guimet, II. 196 ; Rookhill, Life of the Buddha, p. 159, Schiofaer (Lebongbeschreibung). Soe, also, Wassilieff, Buddhism, and the notes on Taranatha.