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SEPTEMBER, 1880.]
dialects of one and the same." And further, "the languages divide themselves into two large groups or two great forms of speech; the one extending over the Eastern half of North-India and comprising Eastern Hindi, Bangali and Oriya; the other covering its Western half and including Western Hindi, Panjabi, Gujarati, Sindhi." To the former group must also be added Marathi as representative of the Southern Gaudian speech, and to the latter Nepalf as representative of the Northern Gaudian. By endeavouring to trace the growth of these languages through its successive stages, be it of development or decay, back to the earlier Prakrits, the author has had to grapple with a most difficult problem. While, however, some of his views may perhaps appear hazardous and open to controversy, no one will for a moment question that his work is of sterling value as a solid contribution to Prakrit philology in its widest sense, trustworthy alike for the linguistic materials it communicates, and for the sound principles it applies in analysing them.
R. R.
BOOK NOTICES.
THE VINAYAPITAKAM, Edited by Dr. H. Oldenberg. Vol. I. The Mahavagga, 1879. Vol. II. The Cullavagga. 1880. (London: Williams and Norgate.)
Dr. Oldenberg did well in selecting the Vinayapitaka for publication in preference to any other portion of the sacred canon of the Southern Buddhists. No part of it had ever been published, and but few fragments were known from Gogerly's and Coles' translations. The Vinayapitaka besides, is important not only as containing the ecclesiastical code of the Buddhists, but also as furnishing an excellent insight into the state of Hindu society and civilization in the early centuries of Buddhism upwards of 2200 years ago: and for the history of that period it supplies more complete and more valuable data than may be found anywhere in the wide range of Buddhistio literature. The Editor defines, in the Introduction to the first volume, the peculiar character of the Vinayapitaka as distinct from the Suttapitaka, or ethical code, and discusses the leading questions as to the origin and historical position of the work. The result at which he arrives as to the date of its final revision is that that must have taken place some time before the council of Ves<, or about 400 B.C. His remarks on the school to which the existing Vinaya text belongs, and on the original seat of the Pali language, are certainly full of interest, and if his reasoning does not in every case carry conviction with it, it certainly leads on towards an eventual settlement of the various important questions under discussion. The work is to be completed in five volumes, two of which, comprising the Mahdvagga and the Chullavagga,
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have appeared. The various Indices, added to the second volume, are most valuable and the care with which the text has been edited reflects the greatest credit on the promising scholar who is making these authentic records of an ancient priestly organization available to his fellowstudents. R. R.
"ON SANSKRIT TEXTS DISCOVERED IN JAPAN." By Prof. F. Max Müller, 1880, pp. 36 and one plate (facsimile). This new pamphlet by Prof. Max Müller is a separate impression (from vol. XII., N. S., of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society) of a lecture lately delivered before the Society, and of which more or less incorrect notices appeared in the papers at the time.
It had long been known that Chinese pilgrims had, in the earlier centuries A. D., taken Sanskrit books to China and the farthest East, but all enquiries seemed fruitless, and the discovery now announced is entirely due to Prof. Max Müller's unwearied exertions: a Japanese pupil at last got him the text now published. All must hope that this is merely the first, and that many others will follow.
The text is of a Mahayana-sutra termed 'Sukhávatívyúha,' and belongs to that later stage of Indian Buddhism when the early simple and grand ideas of that religion had been modified after the usual Indian pattern. It is a mixture of frigid exaggeration with an Indian pretence at exactness, and contains a childish account of a heaven called Sukhâvati, which the Buddhist is supposed to reach by persistent and heartless formalities, and to live there for ever. This twaddle is, then, of no value, and every one will agree with Prof. Max Müller in hoping that the Japanese Buddhists will now begin to "purify and reform their religion, that is to bring it back to its original form, a work that must be done before anything else can be attempted."
Thus, the interest attaching to this tract depends on secondary inferences which may be safely drawn from it: these are important in their way.
:
The first is that these Buddhist treatises, even the latest, existed in recensions of very different lengths, as is the case with a large number of Hindu books even now. But this particular recension, recovered from Japan, seems not to exist now in Nepal.
Secondly, it may be inferred that in all probability it will be possible to find older MSS. in China and Japan than in India. It may safely be said that no MS. written one thousand years ago is now existent in India, and that it is almost impossible to find one written five hundred years ago, for
