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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.orgAcharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
( xvii)
of the Dhammapada'. Vasubandhu's Gūthūsangraha may be regarded as the prototype of the same. There are two Chinese versions of this Gātbāsangraha, besides two Tibetan versions, in one of which the text is reproduced with the commentary, The collectiou consists of just ?4 stanzas, and what these stanzas are like can be ascertained from Rockhill's English translation of them, appended to his 'Udānavarga.' With regard to this Gathāsarigraha, Mr. Nariman says: “It is a collection of maxims with an intelligent commentary, excerpts from which have been cited by A. Schiefner .... the commentary shows us the philosopher Vasubandhu also as a humourous evangelist."! Vasubandhu, who flourished in the 4th century A.D. is famous in the history of Buddhism 'not only as a compiler of a standard Saryāstivāda work, the Abbidharma-koşa, but also as the writer of a standard manual of Yogācāra philosophy. But we must reme'nber that the compilation of such a Gáthân sangraha was in no way peculiar to Vasubandhu, or new in Sarvāstivāda tradition of Vasabandhu's time. It appears from Takakusu's analysis of the Jñana-prasthāna-sastra (which is the most authoritative of the seren Abhidharma books of Sarvāstivāda, and dated 2nd century B.C.) that its closing section was a collection of similar maxims, composed in a Mlecchablāşā, say, Tāmil. Similar isolated collections of maxims can equally be traced within the four corners of the Pali Nikāyas.
4. Chronology of the Dhammapada Texts.-The Pali Dhammapada is one of the recognised books of the Khuddaka. Nikāya which represents one of the five divisions of the existing Sutta Pitaka. The oldest known Pāli work in which the Dhammapada is expressly referred to is the Milindapañho. The traditional date of this work is placed 500 years after Buddba's demise?, i.e., in 43 B.C., while Professor Rhys Davids places the
Literary History, p. 268, ? Milinda, p. 3.
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