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viii
INTRODUCTION Note. This is said to have occured about 2 centuries B.C.
The above statement shows that there were Jains along with the Buddhists in Ceylon, but they were not in good terms. On reading this book it will be known that whatever philosophy is described in the old Pali books has been explained in details in the Jain Scriptures. On consulting the Jain literature, the glory of the Buddhist Scriptures can be realised better.
The present-day scholars also maintain that old Buddhism was somewhat different from the present Buddhism. Some of their statements are given below:
I. Sacred Books of the East Vol. XI (1881).
Translation by W. Rhys Davids from Pali edited by Max Muller :
Intro. Page XXI. “ It will be acknowledged that the suttas have preserved for us at least the belief of the earliest Buddhists--the Buddhists of India--as to what the original doctrines taught by the Buddha himself, had been.”
Page XXI. “ The first record we have of the Buddhist Scriptures being reduced into writing is the well-known passage in Dipa Vansa, which speaks of their being recorded in books in Ceylon towards the beginning of the first century before the commencement of our era.” The date of Dipavansa may be placed about the 4th century A.D.”
Buddhism of the Pali Pitakas is not only a different thing from Buddhism as hither-to commonly received, but is antagonistic to it.
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