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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1883.
Make not thy wife a darling, lest she destroy
thee with dalliance. She (the shadow) was at birth sixty yards, at
full youth four yards; Father and son both enjoyed the same wife.
The dog has taken away the brass bowl,
whither has he taken the sweet cake P The buffalo has swallowed the oil-maker;
(this is the transmigration of souls.
TRANSLATION OF TWO BRIEF BUDDHIST SUTRAS FROM THE TIBETAN."
BY W. W. ROCKHILL. The two Satras, of which I offer the follow- ' by the constant repetition of one word; but ing translation from the Tibetan, serve to show, generally he teaches them to repeat a few lines in a certain measure, that Buddhist literature which contain that portion of the doctrine best is in reality a comparatively meagre one, if suited to their intelligence. Frequently the we take into consideration the immense collec- triviality of the simile struck their untatored tion devoted to it extant at the present time. minds, and in every case the verses were so
I might have taken a hundred other Satras short that it required but little application to in the Tibetan Bkah-hgyur that would have commit them to memory. equally well served my purpose; but these are "He who, though he can only recite a few especially commendable, because they are short lines of the law), walks in the way of the law, It must have struck every one who has read and has forsaken passion, anger, and ignorance, any number of Baddhist works how the same he has a share in the priesthood" (Udánavarga, stereotyped phrases, the same similes, occur on iv, 23; Dhammapada, 20). every page, and that one Satra differs from It is these oft-repeated aphorisms that have another only by slight changes introduced into served as the basis of the greater part of the these stock phrases, and by a selection suited Sútras, which were set down in writing long to the text of the sermon. Take the Dham- after the death of the Buddha; and it is unmapada, the Sutta Nipáta, or the Tibetan questionably a proof of the estimation in which Udánavarga, and you will find the substance they were held, to find them everywhere of nearly every Sútra in the canon; these repeated, or so slightly altered that we cannot works have probably been used as compendiums help detecting the source from which they are from which the long diffuse sutras like the taken. Lalita Vistara, or the Prajná Páramita, have For these reasons, I think that wherever we been derived; but turn to whichever work one see these aphorisms, we may take them as the will, one finds the same sentiments, the same utterances of the Buddha, with much greater old precepts of the Dhammapada and other probability than any other part of the works like works.
we may have before us. The two following I do not claim that these works are in them. Sutras are therefore worth notice, for they are selves among the oldest of Buddhist literature; undoubtedly compilations. It is remarkable on the contrary, they cannot have been composed that, beside Stras like these, in which moral until after the Dharma had been taught for & virtues are so highly exalted, we find passages long while; but they certainly contain the like the following, taken from the Brahmdjála best authenticated versions of the sayings of Sútra: "Bhikshus, all those foolish beings the Buddha Gautama.
who have not heard (the law) speaking in praise The founder of Buddhism addressed himself of the Tathagata, only speak of trifles, such as to the masses of the people, to the learned and morality (sila), and of the removing of desires to the ignorant; and to all he taught, not an by seclusion" (Bkah-hgyur, Mdo, xxx. f. 110b). elaborate system, but a few irrefutable truths'; The explanation of this discrepancy seems to in some cases, even, he enables a hopelessly lie in the fact that morality, charity, good-will, stupid person to perceive the truth by the &c., were the foundation-indispensable, it is simple performance of some manual labour, or true-the preliminary steps, of him who would
From the Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, May 1883.
