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the Four Noble Truths. One may find it surprising or even significant that none of the specialists quoted until now thought it, if not necessary then at least, desirable to adduce the reasons, too, that could convince their readers that what they have to do with is not an arbitrary and fanciful assumption, but a well-founded hypothesis. Yet, it is by no means a peculiar feature of Indology that an allegedly true and certain piece of knowledge is handed down from generation to generation, not because of a general lack of the critical faculty, but simply because nobody happened to take a second look at it, and in the present case it is but fair to admit that the assumption is in fact suggestive to such an extent that one is easily lulled into a sense of absolute security. Nevertheless, it bears renewed discussion.
4.1. The first question to be asked, then, is this: Who was the first scholar to make this assumption and what gave him this idea? By a note of Oldenberg's 65 one is referred to the original source, viz. H. Kern's « Geschiedenis van het Buddhisme in Indië » 66 that was translated into German by H. Jacobi in 1882 67. It is there that for the first time in a foot-note it is apodictically stated that the Four Truths are borrowed from the art of healing » 68. In the text itself of Kern's book a statement to the same effect is found at p. 367 (=469 in the German translation), and surprisingly enough followed by a reference to the YBhāsya on YS 2.15 from which the relevant passage is quoted in translation. Though it is not expressly stated one cannot but draw the conclusion that it was precisely this passage that gave Kern the idea of the Four Noble Truths having been borrowed from the art of healing. This conclusion is in fact corroborated by Kern's « Manual of Indian Buddhism » 69 where it is said: « It is not difficult to see that these four Satyas are nothing else but the four cardinal articles of Indian medical science, applied to the spiritual healing of mankind, exactly as in the Yoga doctrine » (in a footnote a portion of the text of the YBh on YS 2.15 is given), and two passages from the Lalitavistara are quoted to vindicate the assertion that « this connection of the Aryasatyas with medical science was apparently not unknown to the Buddhists themselves » 70. The Lalitavistara,
65. Viz. in his: Buddha, Sein Leben, seine Lehre, seine Gemeinde, 1923, p. 236. It should be noted that J. Filliozat in the article mentioned in fn. 99 below arrives at the same conclusion.
66. Haarlem, 1882 (Eerste deel), 1884 (Tweede deel).
67. Der Buddhismus und seine Geschichte in Indien. Eine Darstellung der Lehren und Geschichte der buddhistischen Kirche, 2 Bde., Leipzig, 1882-84.
68. Viz. fn. 4 on p. 207 of the first part (corresponding to p. 265 in the German translation).
69. (Grundriss d. Indo-Arischen Philologie u. Altertumskunde III.8) Strassburg, 1896; the quotation is from p. 46 f.
70. The expression « applied to >> and the reference to the YBhāşya preclude, I think, the possibility of taking Kern's remarks as meant to point out a systematic similarity only.
