INTRODUCTION TO THE MAHAPADANA SUTTANTA. By T. W. Rhys Davids
We find in this tract the root of that Birana-weed which, growing up along with the rest of Buddhism, went on spreading so luxuriantly that it gradually covered up much that was of value in the earlier teaching, and finally led to the down-fall, in its home in India, of the ancient faith. The doctrine of the Bodhisatta, of the Wisdom-Being, drove out the doctrine of the Aryan Path. A gorgeous hierarchy of mythological wonder-workers filled men's minds, and the older system of self-training and self-control became forgotten.
Even at its first appearance here the weed is not attractive. The craving for edification is more manifest in it than the desire for truth. We have legends of six forerunners of the historical Buddha, each constructed with wearisome iteration, in imitation of the then accepted beliefs as to the life of Gotama. So exactly do these six legends follow one pattern that it has been possible, without the omission of any detail, to arrange them in parallel columns.
The main motive of this parallelism is revealed in the constantly repeated refrain Ayam ettha dhammata: 'That, in such a case, is the rule,' the Norm, the natural order of things, according to the reign of law in the moral and physical world. Precisely the same idea is emphasized in the doctrine of dependent origination, the Padcca-samuppada, placed here in the mouth of Vipassi, the most ancient of these six teachers of old. The fact that it is so placed shows that the early
Buddhists, when our Suttanta was composed, believed this doctrine to have been pre-Buddhistic.
It is probable that all the great religious teachers of antiquity appealed, in support of their views, to the wise men of still older times. It is so recorded of most of them; and where it is not recorded, as in the cases of Lao Tsii and Zarathustra, that is probably due to the meagreness of the extant records. In every country where the level of intelligence was sufficient to produce a great leader of men in matters of religion, it was sufficient also to bear in remembrance the
names at least, and a vague notion as to some of the doctrines, of former, if perhaps less successful and famous, reformers.
But a Wisdom-Being, appearing from aeon to aeon under similar circumstances to propound a similar faith! This is an exclusively Indian conception; in Indian literature it is mainly Buddhist; and in Buddhist literature its first appearance is in documents of the date of our Suttanta. Did
the Buddha himself know anything of this theory? Possibly not. The theory of a number of successive Buddhas pre-supposes the conception of a Buddha as a different and more exalted personage than an Arahant. Now in our oldest documents these two conceptions are still in a state of fusion. The word Buddha does not occur in its later, special, technical sense. It occurs often enough in ambiguous phrases, where it may be translated by 'Converted One, Awakened One.' Thus at Sutta Nipata 48 it is said, of Gotama, 'The Awakened One (Buddho) came to Rajagaha'; but the time referred to is some years before he had become a Buddha in the later technical sense. And at Sutta Nipata 167 it is said: ' Let us ask Gotama, the awakened one who has passed beyond anger and fear '; but the very same adjectives are used at Itivuttaka, No. 68, of any ordinary Arahant. So the phrases used to describe the mental crises in Gotama's career are invariably precisely the same as those used under similar circumstances of his disciples; and this holds good both of his going forth, and of his victory and attainment of Nirvana under the Tree of Wisdom. Further than that, in long descriptions of Gotama — such for instance as that in Sutta Nipata, verses 153 to 167 — all the epithets used are found elsewhere applied to one or other of his disciples. The teacher never called himself a Buddha (as distinct from an Arahant). When addressed as Buddha, or spoken of as such, by his followers, it is always doubtful whether anything more is meant than an enlightened Arahant.
It is needless to state that this does hot in the least imply any sense of equality between the teacher and his disciples. The very oldest documents represent the difference as im-measurable; but as a difference of degree, not of kind. The question is as to the manner of the gVowth and hardening of this sense of difference; and as to the consequent gradual change in the connotation of words. In the episode of the events between the Wisdom Tree and
the First Discourse, in which — for the first time perhaps — we twice have the epithet Sammasambuddha1, it is in a similar way associated both times on equal terms with Araha. So the word Bodhisatta has gradually changed its meaning and implication. First used of Gotama between the Going Forth and the Nirvana, it is then used of him from the moment of conception; then of all the Buddhas from conception to Arahantship; then of those beings on earth — men or animals — who were eventually to become Buddhas; then of gods; and finally it became a sort of degree in theology, and was used as a term of respect for any learned and able Mahayanist doctor.
The word Apadana, used in the title of this Suttanta for the legend or life-story of a Buddha, is also used as a title of a book in the supplementary Nikaya. There it has come generally to mean the legend or life-story of an Arahant, male or female, though the older connotation is also found.
In later books it is never used, I think, for the legend of a Buddha. The full title may mean the Story of the Great Ones — that is the Seven Buddhas — or the Great (the important) Story — that is the Story of the Dhamma, and its bearers and promulgators. The last is probably what is meant, as in the corresponding title of the Mahavastu.
1 Majjhima I, 171; Vinaya I, 8, 9; Katha Vatthu 289; compare
D' v y» 393; Mahavastu III, 326; Jataka II, 284.
1. [1] Thus have I heard. The Exalted One was once staying at Savatthi, in Anatha Pindika's pleasaunce in the Jeta Wood, at the Kareri-tree cottage 1 Now among many bhikkhus who had returned from their alms-tour and were assembled, sitting- together after their meal, in the pavilion in the Kareri grounds 2 , a religious conversation bearing on previous births arose, to the effect that thus and thus were previous births 3 .
2. And the Exalted One, with clear and Heavenly Ear surpassing the hearing of men, overheard this conversation among the bhikkhus 4 . And arising from
1 Kareri, according to Childers, is Capparis trifoliata. The Cy. states that this tree which stood by the entrance to the cottage was a Varuwa-tree, suggestive, if true, of the superseded tree-cult into which Varuwa-worship had declined. See Rhys Davids's 'BuddhistIndia,' p. 235; Jat. IV, 8. There were four principal buildings in the Jeta Wood : the cottage or chamber in question, the Kosamba-tree cottage, a perfumed chamber, and the fir-tree house (sala/a = sarala-ghara). According to the commentator each cost 100,000 [? kahapawas] to build, but the ancient bas-relief on the Bharahat Tope shows clearly cottages, and apparently cottages of only one room each. In § 12 below this cottage is called a vihara; and the latter word, in the ancient texts, always means a single room or lodging-place. Anatha-pindika had built the first three, King Pasenadi the last.
2 Ma/o. Buddhaghosa describes this as a nisidana-sa la, or sitting- room, built near the cottage. At the time when this Suttanta was composed it meant a thatched roof supported by wooden pillars. There were no walls to it.