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INTRODUCTION.
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Siggava died in the fourteenth year of Kandragupta, i.e. 315-14=301 B.C.
Tishya died in the twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh year of Asoka, i.e. 259-27=233 B.C.
This general and more than general agreement between dates taken from the history of the kings and the history of the patriarchs leaves on my mind a decided impression of a tradition which, though not strictly historical, in our sense of the word, represents at all events the result of such enquiries as could be made into the past ages of Buddhism at the time of Asoka. There are difficulties in that tradition which would certainly have been avoided, if the whole chronology had been simply made up: but there is no doubt a certain method too perceptible throughout, which warns us that we must not mistake a smooth chronology for solid history.
THE TITLE OF DHAMMAPADA. The title of Dhammapa da has been interpreted in various ways. It is an ambiguous word, and has been accepted as such by the Buddhists themselves. Dhamma has many meanings. Under one aspect it means religion, particularly the religion taught by Buddha, the law which every Buddhist should accept and observe. Under another aspect dhamma is virtue, or the realisation of the law.
Pada also has many meanings. In the Abhidhânapadîpikâ it is explained by place, protection, Nirvana, cause, word, thing, portion, foot, footstep.
Hence dhammapada may mean 'footstep of religion,' and thus the title was first rendered by Gogerly, only that he used the plural instead of the singular, and called it.The Footsteps of Religion,' while Spence Hardy still more freely called it 'The Paths of Religion.' It may be quite true, as pointed out by Childers, that pada by itself never means path. But it means footstep, and the footstep towards a thing is much the same as what we call the path to a thing. Thus we read, verse 21, 'appamado amatapadam,' earnestness is the step, i.e. the path that leads to immor
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