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BUDDHIST INDIA
ranged in four Cantos; and then sixteen others, as a fifth Canto, strung together by a framework of story. The last Canto (called the Pārāyana) had evidently once existed as a separate poem. It is so treated by the commentator, who calls it a Suttanta; and it is in fact about as long as one of those Sut. tantas in the Dīgha Nikāya which consist of verses strung together by a framework of story in prose. It is six times quoted or referred to by name, as a separate poem, in the Nikāyas.'
The preceding Canto, the fourth, is called “The Eights," most of the lyrics in it containing eight stanzas apiece. This Canto is also referred to by name as a separate work, in other parts of the Canon.? And it must in very earlier times have been already closely associated in thought with the fifth Canto, for the two together are the subject of a curious old commentary, the only work of the kind included in the Nikāyas. That this cominentary, the Niddesa, takes no notice of the other three Cantos would seem to show that, when it was composed, the whole of the five Cantos had not yet been brought together into a single book.
Of the thirty-eight poems in the earlier three Cantos no less than six are found also in other parts of the Canon. They had existed as separate hymns, popular in the community, before they were incor
Samyutta, 2. 49: Anguttara, 1. 144; 2. 45 ; 3. 399; 4. 63. ? Samyutta, 3. 12; Vinaya, I. 196: Udana, 5. 6.
3 Poem No. 4=S. 1. 172; No. S=Kh. P. No. 9 : Vo. 13=Kh. P. No. 5: No. 15=Jāt. 3. 196: No. 16=Kh. P. So, 6; No. 33 = M. No. 92.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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