Questions of King Milinda Part 01

Author(s): T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford

Page 18

INTRODUCTION.
XV
pavattitassa kittassa sankham pi na upenti kalam pi na upenti kala-bhagam pi na upentîti.'
This passage of the Milinda, referred to by Buddhaghosa, will be found on p. 102 of Mr. Trenckner's edition, translated below at IV, 1, 19. But the question is not found there at all, and the answer, though much the same in the published text, still differs in the concluding words. Mr. Trenckner marks the passage in his text as corrupt, and it may well be that Buddhaghosa has preserved for us an older and better reading.
The other passage quoted by Dr. Morris (in the 'Academy of the 11th January, 1881) is from the Papanka Sudani, Buddhaghosa's still unedited Commentary on the Magghima Nikaya. It is in the comment on the Brahmâyu Suttanta, and as it is not accessible elsewhere I give this passage also in full here. With reference, oddly enough, to the same passage referred to above (pp. 168, 169 of the text, translated below at IV, 3, 11) Buddhaghosa there says :
Vuttam etam Nagasenattherena Milindarañña putthena: “Na mahârâga Bhagavâ guyham dasseti khayam Bhagavâ dassetîti.”
In this case, as in the other quotation of the same passage, the words quoted are not quite the same as those given in the published text, and on the other hand they agree with, though they are much shorter than, the words as given in the Sumangala Vilåsini.
It would be premature to attempt to arrive at the reason of this difference between Buddhaghosa's citations and Mr. Trenckner's edition of the text. It may be that Buddhaghosa is consciously summarising, or that he is quoting roughly from memory, or that he is himself translating or summarising from the original work, or that he is quoting from another Pali version, or that he is quoting from another recension of the text of the existing Pali version. We must have the full text of all his references to the Questions of Milinda' before us, before we try to choose between these, and possibly other, alternative explanations. What is at present certain is that when
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