Saddharma Pundarika

Author(s): H Kern
Publisher: Oxford

Page 16

xiv
SADDHARMA-PUNDARÍKA.
Gina hi madrisa għeya ye praptà asravakshayam, gitâ me papaka dharmàs tenopa(ka) Gino [hy] aham.
The following verses, taken from Mahâvagga and Lalitavistara l. C., have likewise the same origin, notwithstanding some variations : dhammakakkam pavattetum gakkhami Kasinam puram, andhabhatasmi lokasmim ahañhi amatadudrabhim.
Compare: Vârânasîm gamishyami gatvà vai Kåsikâm purîm, andhabhūtasya lokasya kartásmy asadrisîmi prabham. Varanasim gamishyami gatvà vai Kåsikâm purîm, sabdahînasya lokasya tâdayishye 2 'mritadundubhim. Vârânasîm gamishyâmi gatvà vai Kasikam purîm, dharmakakram pravartishye lokeshv aprativartitam.
An important passage on the divine sight of the Buddha in Lalita-vistara, p. 439 seq., almost literally occurs in the Sâmaññaphala-Sutta, as has been pointed out by Burnoufs.
These few examples I have chosen will suffice to prove that the material of a Mahậvaipulya Satra is partly as old as that of any other sacred book of the Buddhists. The language of the prose part of those Satras does not differ from that used in the simple Satras of the Northern canon. Should the Sanskrit text prove to be younger than the Pâli text, then we may say that we do not possess the Northern tradition in its original shape. That result, however, affords no criterion for the distinction between the simple Satras and the Mahâvaipulya Satras, for both are written in the very same Sanskrit, if we except the Gathâs.
It would lead me too far, were I to enter into the heart of the question which of the three idioms, Sanskrit, Pâli, and the so-called Gåthâ dialect, was the oldest scriptural language of the Buddhists, and I will therefore confine myself to a few remarks. In the first place it will be granted
1 The reading a ham sadrisim of the Calc. ed. is clearly a corrupt reading.
* This word, which spoils the metre, has manifestly replaced an older expression, not unlikely âhanhi, or a similar form of the future tense of a han (Sansk, âhanishye).
9 Lotus de la bonne Loi, p. 864.
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