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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1890.
[commentary) as applied by Buddhaghôsa in the passage cited. ... Taking this wider sense of the word as a basis for the solution of the problem... it must be admitted that no actual commentary, in the sense that the Westerns attach to that term, like that which has been handed down to us by Buddhaghôsa, existed either in the lifetime of Buddha or immediately after his death. The reasons adduced by Mr. Childers, apart from others that can easily be added, against such a supposition, are overwhelmingly convincing." And then the solution proposed by them is this; -“Buddhaghôsa only meant to convey the idea that at the various councils held for the purpose of collecting the discourses and sayings of Buddha, the meanings to be attached to different terme ... were discussed and properly defined." The statement of Baddhaghósa's commentary, however, to which they proposed to apply this solution is as follows:-" The commentary ... praised by Buddha and his apostles . . . upon this scripture was at the first council rehearsed by five hundred holy elders, and in later times rehearsed again and yet again. And it was carried by the saintly Mahendra to the island of Ceylon, and for the sake of the dwellers in that isle translated by him into the Sinhalese language. And now, rejecting the Simhalese tongae, adopting the graceful language that accords so well with the order of scripture, ... 1 proceed to expound the meaning of my text, 129...”
The time has not yet arrived when any final solution of the Buddhaghosa paradoxes can be properly attempted; it inust await a fuller acquaintance with the whole range of the literature of the Buddhists, and a fair critical examination of the words attributed to Buddhaghôsa. It may be that any important additions to the main facts of the Buddhaghỏsa legend now in our hands, are not to be expected; but at the same time some important light may naturally be expected to be thrown upon some of the details of the legend from the works in the library of the late king of Burma recently transferred to the India Office, as well as from other Bources in Burma which have not hitherto been explored.
It may be that the personality of the legendary Buddhaghosa is destined to recede from view, gradually dissolving before new facts and under the increasing light of the new criticism. It may be that the name of Buddhaghôsa, when it had once become famons, was attached as a matter of literary policy to the works which have hitherto been regarded as of his own composition, as in the instances referred to above, of the Burmese Grammar and the Burmese Code of Manu. It may be that one of the old sects of the Southern Buddhists utilized a similar policy as an effective instrument of controversy in building up the orthodoxy of its own school in the face of its adversaries. Or it may even be that, as a counterpart of the Avalokitesvara of the Northern Buddhists, emanating from the Buddha and manifesting him to the world, 130 this “Voice of Buddha" may have been incorporated by some far-seeing old ascetic of the Mahâvihara of Anuradhapura in the spirit of the prophecy ascribed to Gautama Buddha, 130_"When I have passed away and am no longer with you, do not think that the Buddha has left you. You have my words, my explanations of the deep things of truth, the laws which I have laid down for the society ; let them be your guide; the Buddha has not left you."
TEXTS OF THE ASOKA EDICTS ON THE DELHI MIRAT PILLAR AND OF THE
SEPARATE EDICTS ON THE ALLAHABAD PILLAR.
BY G. BÜHLER, PH.D., LL.D., C.I.E. The subjoined transcripts of the fragments on the Delhi Xirat Pillar and of the two small edicts on the Allahabad Pillar have been made according to Mr. Fleet's impressions, of which the accompanying facsimiles are very faithful reproductions. The impressions are really excellent. One complete set is mounted on cloth, and for the small edicts there is a Bocond, not mounted.
13 Jour. R. As. Soc., Vol. V. (N. 8.)., p. 296.
Encyc. Brit., vol. IV. P. 482.
in Encyc. Brit., Vol. IV. p. 458.
