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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.orgAcharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
(lii)
or Avadana class came to be included in the Vinaya Pitaka of a certain Buddhist school, such as the Mabasangbika or the Sarvâstivada, since from the very beginning, as the Mahāpadāua Suttanta of the Digha Nikaya goes to prove, these three classes of work were closely connected with one another. As a matter of fact, in this important discourse, called an Avadana but classed as a Jātaka in the Cullaniddesa, two typical Dhammapada verses are intended to serve as model for the Patimokkha par excellence (patimokkha-uddesa). In going through this discourse one cannot but be struck by the fact that the Dhammapada as a type of literary composition, like the Jātaka and Avadana, grew up in the Buddhist literature by way of a protest against the orthodox code of morality-the Pätimokkha.
Among other important points, we have sought to show that the existing Pāli Tripitaka incorporates counterparts of several doctrines and treatises which had originated with other Buddhist schools and sects. It is not so much important in a discussion of the relative position of Pali, Mixed Sanskrit, Prakrit and Sanskrit within the Ancient Buddhist literature of India to ascertain the dialect or dialects which the Buddha or his disciples generally used as the medium of instruction as to determine the language in which the original materials of the Buddhist canon were prepared during the life-time of the Buddha. We have specified throughout Part II of this work that Dhammapada verses lead us ultimately back to a number of prose discourses in the Digha or in the Majjhima Nikaya, constituted of some stock passages or highly crystallised exegetical fragments, which, as their names, Vibhanga, Niddesa and Khandha imply, appear as so many solid pieces of brick or blocks of stone with which the first fabric of the canon was constructed. Those who have ever cared to be acquainted with the language and phraseology of these fragments will always shrug their shoulders at the slightest suggestion that Pali was derived from a Pallibhaga or popular dialect locally current in Magadha or
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