________________
VI-THE GITA AND BUDDHISTIC LITERATURE 819
the reference made in it to the city of Pataliputra; and it is stated in the Vinayapitaka, at the end of the Cullavagga, that there had been a second conference of Buddhistic monks a 100 years after the death of Buddha. From this it follows, that the Vinayapitaka and other Buddhistic Pali works found in Ceylon, had been written after the date of this conference.* It is stated by Buddhist writers themselves that these works were taken there by Mahendra, the son of Asoka, when he started the preaching of the Buddhistic religion in the Simhaladvipa (Ceylon) about 241 B C.: and that they must first have appeared in book-form about 100 to 150 years after that date. It was usual in those times to learn these books by heart, and therefore, even if one assumes that there was no change in them on that account after the date of Mahendra, yet, one cannot say that nothing was added to these treatises from the then available Vedic treatises when they were first prepared, after the death of Buddha, or after that, upto the date of Mahendra or Asoka. Therefore, as it is proved by other evidence also, that the Mahabharata was certainly in existence at any rate before King Alexander, that is to say, 325 B. C. though it may have been written after the date of Buddha, it is not impossible to find some stanzas from the Mahabharata in the books taken into Ceylon by Mahendra, as other stanzas are found taken into them from the Manu-Smrti. It is seen, in short, that seeing that the Buddhistic religion was being propagated after the death of Buddha, ancient Vedic Gathas and traditions came to be collected together in the Mahabharata; that the stanzas from that work which appear in Buddhistic treatises have been taken by the Buddhist writers from the Mahabharata; and that the writer of the Mahabharata did not take those stanzas from Buddhistic works. But even if one assumes for the sake of argument that (a) these stanzas were not taken by the Buddhist writers from the Mahabharata, but were taken from some other Vedic treatises, which were the basis of the Mahabharata, but which are not now to be found, and that, (b) on that account, the date of the Mahabharata cannot be fixed from this similarity of stanzas, yet, the following four facts, namely, (1) principles of Activism and Devotion
See S, B. E. Vol. XI. Intro. pp. xv-xx, and p. 58.
