Questions of King Milinda Part 01

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

Page 42

INTRODUCTION.
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by which to explain the numerous and varied references and quotations it makes, as shown in the preceding lists, from the Pitakas as a whole, and from the various books contained in them, is that the Pâli Pitakas were known, in their entirety, and very nearly, if not quite, as we now have them, to our author. For out of the twenty-nine books of the Pitakas, we find in the lists of works referred to by him the three Pitakas as a whole, the Vinaya Pitaka as a whole, and all of its component books except the Parivâra (which was composed in Ceylon), the Sutta Pitaka and each of the four great Nikayas, the Abhidhamma Pitaka and each of its seven component books, and the Khuddaka Nikâya as a whole and several of its separate books. And when we further recollect the very large number of quotations appearing in my lists as not yet traced in the Pitakas, we see the necessity of being very chary in drawing any argument ex silentio with respect to those books not occurring in the lists.
To sum up.-It may be said generally that while the Sutta Vibhanga and the Khandhakas, the four great Nikâyas, and the Abhidhamma were certainly known to our author, he very likely had no knowledge of the Parivâra; and it remains to be seen how far his knowledge of the Khuddaka Nikaya, which he happens to mention once? as a whole by name, did actually extend. At present it is only clear that he knew the Khuddaka Pâtha, the Dhammapada collection of sacred verses, the Sutta Nipata, the Thera and Theri-gâthà, the Gatakas, and the Kariya Pitaka. I hope to return to this question in the Introduction to my second volume, only pointing out here that the doubtful books (those concerning which our author is apparently silent) would occupy about two thousand pages octavo, out of the ten thousand of which the three Pitakas would, if printed, consist : and that those two thousand pages belong, for the most part, precisely to that part of the Pitakas which have not yet been edited, so that there they may very likely, after all, be quoted in one or other
Page 342 of the printed text.
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