________________
90
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH, 1875.
that the wanting papers are several times referred to pages of Additions and corrections' prefixed. in this reprint. Mr. Hodgson's papers are of such The Index of three pages is also utterly inadequate sterling value that we cannot but look on the to enable the reader to refer with facility to the appearance of this volume with disappointment: | very minute and varied information in the volume. it must stand in the way of the publication of a We trust some worthier and more complete reprint more complete collection, and, besides the dis- of all the invaluable essays of the veteran who first advantage of a double pagination for the two parts, made available the Buddhistic literature of Nepal it is disfigured by very numerous press errors, and Tibet to European scholars, will yet be pub. only a portion of which are noticed in the three lished.
THE BUDDHIST WORKS IN CHINESE IN THE INDIA OFFICE LIBRARY..
BY Rev. SAMUEL BEAL. There are 72 distinct Buddhist compilations in it, and that the four characteristics of Nirvana 112 volumes among the Chinese books in the are these :-Personality, Purity, Happiness, and Library of the India Office. Of these 47 are Eternity. One chief peculiarity of this book translations from the Sanskrit.
is the particular stress it lays on the fact that 1. There are two copies of a work styled the it was the first made of all the V & ipuly a class Mo-ho pan-nyi-pan-king (i.e. the Mahaparinib. of Buddhist works, and for that reason it somebana Sutt.). I was anxious to determine whether times gives expression to doubts whether or no this work resembled the Sätra known by the it would be acknowledged as belonging to the same name in the Southern School (Ceylon, canon. The history of Buddha's controversies Burmah, &c.); and, if not, to investigate, so far with the heretical doctors Kasy apa, Basita, as possible, the degree and character of the and others, is of an interesting nature, the point divergence.
of the argument in every case being to prove The general outline is this; Buddha, on a that Nirvana is the one true and universal concertain occasion, proceeded to Kinsinagara, and dition of being, in opposition to all pre-existing entering a grove of sála trees, there reposed. theories respecting a future life in heaven, or He received a gift of food from Chanda, an that unintelligible state of existence supposed artizan of the neighbouring town. After par- to be enjoyed in the Arupa worlds. taking of the food he was seized with illness. From the consideration of this Sútra it seems He discoursed through the night with his likely that the plan adopted in the later disciples, and disputed with certain heretical (Northern) school of Buddhism, in the compositeachers. At early dawn he turned on his right tion of their works (the Mahayana and Vdipulya side, with his head to the north, and died. The Setras), was to take the shorter and more sála trees bent down to form a canopy over his ancient scriptures as a germ, and, by the interhead. The account then proceeds to relate the polation of dialogues and discussions, and at the circumstance of his cremation, and the subse- same time by tedious expansion of trivial events quent disputes, between the Mallas and others, occurring in the course of the narrative, to for his ashes.
produce a work under the same name of a totally In these main features the Northern sůtra is different character. This method of developin agreement with the Southern,t but when con- ment, I think, may be observed in nearly all the sidered in detail the divergence between the two works of which we possess both Northern and is great. The whole of the first and some Southern versions. portion of the second books of the Chinese 2. The above remarks apply with equal edition is occupied by the narrative of Chanda's force to the Fan-wang-king. This is a Northern offering; the details are most minute and weari- version of the Brahmajala Sutra, a work well some, consisting of sections of a regularly recur- known through the pages of the Ceylon Friend, ring order. In the subsequent books the narrative in which Mr. Gogerly published a brief translais occupied with laboured proofs that Nirvana istion of it. The Chinese version was made by not the cessation of being, but the perfection of Kuma rajiva about 420 A.D., but it has none
• Slightly abridged from Mr. Beal's official report. I nibbana Sutta, from the Peli, in the Asiatic Society † Mr. Turner published a brief outline of the Mahapari. Journal of Bengal.
