Fa Hsien And Buddhist Texts In Ceylon

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FA-HSIEN AND BUDDHIST TEXTS IN CEYLON In his Early History of Buddhism in Ceylon (2nd ed., Colombo, 1953, pp.94-5) E.W. Adikaram wrote: When Fa Hien left Ceylon he took with him a copy of the Vinaya Pitaka of the Mahisasaka School, the Dirghagama and the Samyuktagama (sutras) and also the Samyuktasanchaya-pitaka, all written in Sanskrit.' In a recent article K.R. Norman has pointed out that the word fan, as used by Fa-hsien himself, means 'Indian (language)' and that without further evidence there is no way of saying whether the language was Skt, Pkt, or Pali.' The only further evidence available is to be found in the Chinese translations of the Indian texts which Fa-hsien brought back to China. The dates of the birth and death of Fa-hsien are not known; and although he himself wrote an account of his travels, their exact chronology cannot be established (Demieville, 1953, pp. 402-3). According to his account he remained in Ceylon for two years (Legge, p. 111; Giles, 1923, p. 76), probably in the years 410-11. During his stay he obtained copies of the Vinaya of the Mahisasakas, the DTrghagama, the Samyuktagama and the 'Miscellaneous pitaka' (tsa-tsang, T.2085, p.865c24-25). Of these four texts the Tsa-tsang was translated by Fa-hsien himself (1.745). According to the oldest existing catalogue of Chinese translations, the Ch'u san-tsang chi chi (T.2145, p.12a2), compiled by Seng-yu (+ 518) at the beginning of the sixth century, the title is Miscellaneous pitaka' sutra' (tsa-tsang ching). It is published under this title in the Taisho edition of the Chinese canon, but it is probable that ching is a later addition. It is not possible to know the Sanskrit title. Different Sanskrit titles have been reconstructed as Samyuktasancayapitaka (Legge), Samyuktapitaka (Nanjio, no. 676; Kolmas, p. 95) and Ksudrakasutra (Repertoire du canon bouddhique sino-japonais, Paris-Tokyo, 1978, p. 72). Tsa is used to render both samyukta and ksudraka and it is possible that this text is a part of a Ksudrakapitaka.? The Tsa-tsang ching occupies less than four pages in the Taisho edition (vol. 17, pp.557b-560b). The first part tells how Maudgalyayana sees five hundred pretas on the bank of the 105