Trends in Buddhist Studies Amongst Western Scholars 1980-1999 VOL. 9 Compiled by Michael S. DrummondON THE VERY IDEA OF THE PALI CANON Inmemory of LB. Homer! nipped ne te mn lt a Cunha My pep thet unena seg man ern oe “scholarship, or at least to initiate an academic discussion ofthe iame: 1° ‘mas tp wean sano fey myn ban Tis esnby Reve ess See et Ce pt waste at te re ‘esters inde ad eo el aly foo he ely pedo Tenge, We mao ‘anes en el Cae = Baty ee ead ‘Sresory Gon mamta qs oh ein at Sou a oat fed nd alts Neral epee eerie Ten ole al fe st wre a wh sh pra Pal aon — 7 TRESS ce tn a pe pa et pe ‘hy are towed he pod oe Bld ang ‘Sot ent ph techn tp ese ot esinace ye maof er ape CanB Shy con ena AD. sees to me welt vide Thea Buddhist history nt tre periods, according to te diferent Kids of evidence which ae allbe tows The ft or ‘ery period ast from the ime of the ‘Buda (whenever hat was to hat of Afka. We have no evidence of any Kind which can be securely dated before Aka; to describe, speculatively, pre-AfokanBuchism, we mst make inferences fom is ‘nro, rom the tts (hot extn frm i eo he ter period) and pshap ali from he material ema of ater ines. Prom he ine ‘of oka onwards, in he second ot ‘idle period, in non tn oral ofthe Pali Text Soci, XV, 894263h increasing amount of textual materi we have inscriptions, ovis, ining, sculpture and ofr mel rein to supplement nd hen becessryconect whit the et tll uk Te hide "mode period refers to those eer cen in which we have i ia to materi sd terval primary sources, eons fom west vavelles fil of, ‘peril governments, andvoplogs andor, wells te made records py indigenous rand bres Math ofthe erence fore’, pe-Afokan Buh ito be found in the Pal Canon ‘exo some ofthe; but in assessing the mature of this evince we mst be much moc flly aware of tir roverance in headin” ‘Teervida coment ha has hitherto ben he cise. Tn the fit at of the paper sal atin wo sass ofthe word “ane, nd then lok for comparable terms ia Pl nthe cod, hal eth in road bith sks what [sea the cotext in wich he Pl Canon emerged and ‘onclasonT shall ask lly what rob in ft ben lye by tis Cano, and — more signiealy — by he ies of wach 4 Coo those lg cures we dent bythe sho hand em “Teri 0 Steven Coline 1 ‘The word cane, arent textual material can efally be taken in evo way is in general sense san euivaleat to "serie orl or writen, Used inthe way th em does not pci ‘hat the colleton of texts so designated consis closed lit, t merely assigns cerain auhoriy to them, without excluding the Possibility that hers coud be, oF may come to be ieloded in the callecon Inthe reson sen, however th es ofa canon” contains ‘reciely such an exclasivist specification tha Ii hi ted it of tents, and no other, which sre the Noundstional docimen'. The texece of some sr of sexpural or eanonicl materiale in th non- spec. nevis sensei surely a necesary condition fora elon be orave what antvoplogiss used teal “Gres Tradon. Bute ltece of canon in the Second, exclsvist sensei onthe contrary, & (On he very idea the Pl canon a on-sniveral ad entnget eau, depedent on he pcs of {given mln whic roduces the selection and eto of mach clo Tite When compared with other extant collection of serps in ‘Buds hin the Pl Caton ug in being a exceed Ti Way did ich anon develop in telidoral Theva Buddhism? i, wha Pal ems might comespond to ‘eon Ther are three main candles: the word pl et he nn ofthe Aika, "he ties basket” of tn, and moet nporanly, te concept of buddha. acon, Budd's Word) (Avis wellknown, te word pl was not ergy the name of Tanguage, but a erm meaning Sy line, beige or canon, and thence "ext i often found in sposion to aphakarh, which s ‘ly trend ‘commenty’, nds same scholar have tke palo ‘ean ‘canon’ woud ot wat disgee with hi ifthe erm wed {ne gene td inhasvst sense of "sit otned bo. Bat the primary we ofthe dataction between pl and ahaha is ot © ‘sey docuens no iret ategorie(aaug id came to have ‘hat neon eg. Sp 49, Sy 51), and sil les to dent explicit & ote list of et, athe ferme “ago” and ‘cometary’ igh py rater, it wat to dingich eteen the procs wording of text, in the textes sna, andthe more eile kof 'syng wat team’, hich i te eral uanliton of ahaha? Pal and hae relly ple textsin hie way (eg. Mp IV 187, Tha 135-6 erie these ters ae cen given in comment exgeis of he pal dhamma nd ath (eg B 33,606, Jn 381, VI 223 compar the “ourfold ‘prfniy’ at Sp 22 and Sv 20, tb owner sing pal he ater tt). all can be used syaoaymouly with path, “text in the sense of “yeadag fen when dcusing vans. S49, Uda 105-6, Tha 11203), Quotsions canbe nradacetby prse such as advan pal, “on ths ater here his tex (eg. Sp 13,395, Spe 120, Tha IT 105) en pill-vaqean, ex commentary’ canbe wed in he eaeoly 2 Sten Cats say poevenpan, wor cms 792M 1306, awh a connect, ps” ‘Semon prin aig Va 9, Vn 160) TE fo) Pa er fer te eno sieve or aap Ub opty P20), 23). Te pss yon ig ae" ded oa ‘cee nering seal ages mpc ener fee oe Speen vy, pte I ea 299 Be plinth ef ees ‘Sonat scaned we Cdr tener 9, Ua isan op S68 6 19) so Dain Seo tet gs ie yo meen tt ne i et ot aap at 294 nse of te ower et temiectngy or soendi ne ined (4) The tr plat is sally ken to ean “asker his in fet the same word as plaka meaning “basket. hen i is iniguing 0 speculate cn what could be the meuphorundeying ts we to mean ‘radon, given tat one canot erly pa oral "ex in baskets: ‘Treneke (1908, p. 19-121 el rasta in excavations or ging wok in ancient Ini, baskets of earth were pated along a row of Inbowrers, so the Buddhist tation was passed along line of transmis, in pata, om eacher opi Winer (1933, pp. 89 oe 3) suggested tat the ie is of Yecepaks in which ges, fly tases, were presered from generation generat’ In any case mas are, ink, with Rs Davids (who aeceped Tencne view, (1894), . 28) tat dhe tem spat refers to “hee odie of orl radon af handed dow fom teacher to pup His, perp nt necessary 1 Sea matiporunderjig he rm: jst a the em ama, nth Suk sn Pall mes colors ‘sahing whic as cane howe’, *a ea an sai in Sask means puta ogee, 2 sequence, collation (of words ease) and ence ‘ax 0 pak can singly mean calecton (of words, sores, ee) and bce (pat (nthe vr idea te Pl canon ” of) aon’ "The word wed in cnoicl aso mean ‘uo’ or ‘customary fom of religions teaching: but interestingly, erative sense as poor second-best oprsna sprinal experience snd knowledge The eats extant se of he word dak ae fom fnserpions and eof the It ceatary A.D Ath pero, Think it ‘ould be ken to denote not thee coed lists of docaens, but aber fhe different genres within te tno; and 1 pont to genele lerece in sl nd content i te Dicpinary Rules Vinyo pt). he Discus (Sepia) and he Furr Teachings Abhihamma lat). Tis part division conus anor, din th caon 10 Inve exis ring the Bud's fete: he division of abourberween inayat, snd maja dhara, “ote who bese (a menor) the ‘Geir elerte wacing and he mere at’. Charly ring ‘te Budd's Letine, ere canhave bean dosed cane! and Tage wi Laoae (38, p. 16), when he sys tht ‘all tthe essai of sei it te bases does isto aes othe exisince within tbe religious community of tree diferent pci, bavig for their object the doctrine the dsiptin and scholastic mates soastqw) ipectivey. Eventually of coun, he tn eta dined eae 2 ave sere of closed nd fed Cana (Gi) Orga, te, ner il nr tpt fered a sed canon “This ie tre alto ofthe third term buddha-vocana, "Tae Word of he Buddha’ but ere we do begin approschsmhng Ike ores of “canoo’ and ‘canoe athority.® The tenn and oer words and Pass refering to ‘what was sai by the Buddha’ canbe found nthe Canonical texts! One of Aloka inseipios reds het ham hago hens Bhai ave esubhlse ‘varying which vas ssi bythe Blessed One, th Buddha, was wel The ea beblad tes tems can be, and hasbeen ken in Buddhinm in wo esi fret ways. On the one hand ican be wed ait most commonly as teen inthe exant Maiviirin raion of Tei, oer he ca words ofthe historical Budcha Gouna — despite the fact that it has” Steven Cols says been vide hat the the colton of tts 0 esignated ices ‘mary which cannot ave been ely spoken by him (Bose spoken by ‘er monks before nd ater death fr eam. For his aso and tes, on he other hand, thes alo an istosealyunspecie ease of| the enn, which fra general the — tes and cal renewable avi cone of Bust Teaching wea pase ubiquios in he (Cann, i ffers tote “epic” (aha) rater than the mee "nee (yao te Bud's aw (dha). ‘This non-istorcit pprosch wo seer autor hough not absent frm Theravda, smach more chances of Mabiyina radions, where te etemal wth ofthe Dharma may be evel inex of any and every itor provennce. The aude nize captured in the pre ‘winteveriswell-poken i apken by the Buddha’. A uta from the Adgutara Nips (ATV 162-66), conn his phase, and is ot ooking ata mae dea 1 esrbes a conversation between tbe ‘ook Una and te Ring of he ods, Saka Gn), Indra is impesed with 2a he hasbeen tol of, gven by Urara to some monks be descends from heaven sd asks Uuara wheter what he said was vm ‘sspnaion (tam parbhina) or he word of te Budcha Bhagavao ‘acanam), Una eps wid simi‘ jut sf thre wera great bea of gra near some vile o town, and people weet take grin fom itn bukes or baskets (nal) in tee ps or kas oe wee to go upto thet pope and ak them "wher ae you ringing thi gain from "how woul thy propery explain enseves "Ind epi that they would do osinply by saying hat hy got the grain om heap ‘Ura expains “nse same way, King ofthe gods, whatever i well spoken is all he word ofthe Blessed One... Whenever Hor ober preach, what we say is eve from te” (am Kt mba abbr tam mise Bhagavao vaca. to wp’ wpa mayoh' ate cabana) Che coc of banat bere ot ecient: bhatt -ervmives ae regularly asd bth fer semons and fe he rein of usages fom he anni texts) Clay te pin f the remake is 4h (On the very ie the Pel canon 95 simply tht Uses ayng tht what he each comes oe the Bad, tut grammatically dee would be nothing woag with inept hit rem nthe Mabiydns seen contrast, the isrpon of Aloka ed above ls unambiguasly nor the Mabiyins sentiment, sine it ‘erveta urfucton to his Is of commended tis (eto and ‘ots 2,27 he ogi of tet ta ‘renin sald by the Bd ‘var well, br these wets ar eapeckly good. ") Why then id ‘what bas become Thravids ‘orthodoxy choot to emphasise an istorii a exlasivist aot "Canon, "heBadha's Word 0 For the sake of brevity, Iwill present my argument schematically. Belo te It eau B.C, al Buddhist tet are ad to ave ben preserved only: ther is large amount of evidene frm ‘de variety of sources, mull contador forthe mst part, which gests ht a sere of meeings were be aly clled “Cone fa Enplsh but more pressly ‘Communal Recaton”(shgi, one of whowe functions was for monk to recite together the seripnre, ‘whose hy wer > Apa rm Afos's cic which mentions by name some text stil extant” however, we simply have no idea hich tent ia fct pede Aloka, and which might ve been thas ‘evi, The wadonal count has that Pl texts were tani © Ceylon in the Seder B.C, log with omnes, and tee asin tohave ben pesved oly (ie commenurs blag wnsaed into and labored in Saale). Boh wus and commentaries were then wit down dsing te (cond) rig of King Veaginap betwen 292 17 B.C (ee below). The following two statements, toh writen by sHaunehlyonbodox modem Ther iing make lear that we ema ‘now therein betwen he canon at we ao have ta he canon sas twas being ans a hs ine il lens an we know Dat his ‘anon was thoaghe of inthe closed, excutvist sage, Malankara ‘woes, ahi standed work The al iterate of Ceylon (1928, p48),96 Steven Cols "wow farhe Tp and is comment eon o wring at Alvin resemble them 5 hey have come down ous ody o-one can y° In ac, te eaist date which we can asin the Canon in the peiic nd inl fom in which we now bavi ithe ine of Budehaghoss. As ‘Wialpols Raila oberves in hs History of Buddhism in Ceylon (1986 peak “atough ther is evidence prove the growth of be Pal Serpures during the el ens of Bude a Ii and Ceylon, there i no reson to doubt that their grows was amesed and he text mas ally fied inthe Sth cenry A.C. when the Sinhalese Commentaries oo the Tipitaka were ‘alte ina Pali by Batthaghosa™? ‘Tae Pai Canon, ike mast ther lio Canons, was peaduced ina context of dispute, hee sectarian monastic svar. King ‘Varagls supponed the ral of be Mahivibiria monks, seo the reeeny founded Abiayagi monastery (Inthe th ey tee aoe a ‘hid subset, the Jsvana group, but my fous bare wil be onthe Mahivihir-Abbayapit ivaly.%) Bah groupe existed throughout te frst ileum, up ui ing Prlamabiba I supresied te others in favour ofthe Mahavira inte 120 emu (he extant Mahivirin ‘ex cal his his “nifleton’ ofthe monkood): and at certain peseds Abhuyagi was clearly the more muerous and dominat. With some spud exceptions." no Abhay texts survive alliough texts and comments are aeribed to them (dee or indirect) in extant, Mabivisin wos We ean sce, tlk, a signifier iferene ‘bernen Mahivn exes writen before Perakamabih's ‘reform’ those write afer that is abe dection ofan ineeasigly tuple re-weng of ere history. (One es wher this changes paral evens in accounts of the wring doom of the ano te east versions ae remarkably 5/9. (nthe very idea the Pal canon a” ‘bref and ressaned, giving lite dea of the real reasons for this evelopment, 0 ut #0 significant The Dipevansa (XX 20-1) and Makivoys XXII 100-1) have exact te same saras: taka ap cats ahah pica ‘mubhapphen cum publ Bi makina, ni eva satiny ad AAG sags iraghirathan hammasapotkakesu IANS, “Previously, ineligent monks Cx) preserved the txt ofthe tee pias and its commenary eal; bt (bow) when the ‘monks saw the Ain of beings they came togetier and had them™ wten in books, in oer thatthe Teaching shold cnr for og tine” ‘The word hii, which have lft uta, mean ow“ “diminwon,“hundonmen’ ec. Te ise bere show to take iti context. The Dpvansa account places hese stanzas inthe mit of what ismore or ss ist of kings, wth inal arativeemelisment It ‘eons Vegapian but simply gives te bare deals fis ceaions to the throne (he was king ce), and the length of his reign (ldener's wasn (1879.21) has esy’, Law's (1959, 9.28) "los nether of which amps vo erp he em. The Mahdvansa laces the stars immedialy afer its account ofthe secesion ofthe ‘monk Mais, and the subsequent spit betwen the two monastic frames. Mindful ofthis perhaps, Geiger (191.237) rasa hint 28 fling away (om religion)’ In moder secondary works, ther as ie a endeney to asda the wring of he ex moat tly wih codons of war and foe and sow waste Ain a ‘decrease (2 umber)’ of more generally ‘clsasos sae This seems fst 10 have Ben suggested by Adam (1946, Chap. 2: Rabul's acount (0956, pp. 81-2 157-8) is very fequeny ced in ter secondary ‘vk, Tee autor reoant toes concerning war between Sinhaleseos Stover Callie ‘and Tamil Rings, and amine associated witha babnin tamed bandit called Tiesa The Mahdvansa mention Ta briefly eer i the (Chapter OCXXI, 37-41, but ot the famine. Although it quite plas wo connec the decison 0 commit the txts 0 writing with te woubled conditions of he tine, itis wort ‘noting thar hi i or given as a eso in any ofthe primary sources, nly or late” Adar himself suggest (pp. 115) at codons | Rha in the south af the san may not ave been stad as inthe sort and 5 Gnswardan (1982) as shown, tis anchronis thik of he island at this prod a singe ste centred at AnrBcapur. | sugges. ot acess a replacement for hi acount but perhaps 2 onplemen ott we follow he MakBvama and ntact the ‘wrtng ofthe texts and commentaries with he contemporay svaly becwen the Mahivibiea and Abhay monasteries and T woud argue ‘hat east one ofthe motes forthe decision as th ation, dough tng of define is of serps, ata tne when the posiion of the Mahivibie assole legate cutdine of Buddhism was under heat Ceri ate folowing centres, one ofthe major themes in “Mahivibrin weiag abou its vals concers tee use of “heterodox ‘erprares, a adaon tothe Pali tet shared by all three roast ‘ems tha at leat rom he 3d cearury A.D. and perhaps before, te Abhayagl monks wed what we would pw call Maiyina exis tis revealing thet this is sundarély refered to by their Mabivibsin opponets asthe embracing be vrlo- vada. The em ved, Sassi ‘aia or vapuia, esning ‘extended or eclage’ fer oe peat ‘xen of cerain Mahtyna scrures Laur wlunphalstclvosices ‘condemn with nceaing veeomence he heey of hse unacceptable ‘ex and el of epented bookings by pro Mavi Kings" In the St centr the great Indian monk Budahaphosa spent some tne in Ceylon tthe Mabivhis, writing what ae now the andard Pl commentaral works, on he basis of he eater Sinhalese %s (On the very eae the Pal canon ~ ‘exe! This ali ok lice droge ign of king who supped the ‘Abaya, Mania (49-481). Ths Adkaram (1946.94 ply remus: "1s wordy of noice thatthe two most iporant event, namely, he wring down of he Pal ext at Ankara and ‘he tnsaon of he Commentaries into Pall, both ook place during he reigas of ngs who were nat fevourbly disposed towards the Mabiviia and who acl Nlped the oppoting camp, be Abuja ‘The accoun inthe Calvan, writen afer Paka {ann ps sa panezricon him, es ws at when Badthaghoea a proce hit ‘ies of Therava claim, be Vizuddhimagaa, te Mavis ders exclaimed “assuredly, he Is Meueyys (Qe fee Bude) (nissemsayom sa Metteyyo then when he bad rendered thei formes to Pal, ey a sido have esived tem pin vga, erly just as (or ‘aif they were) Canonical ex or mor loosely “ashe suhriaive version’ The parlor obvioue: he Bust Gotama produced the Text (pai) as buddha-vacane, “he Bodths “Meta poduces a autoriaive reaction of comments, pie voor Finally Tink we should ee he wea ad ing of cloed an in lao othe cretion of historical cries in Ceylon the ‘ans ton The term vasa (Sassi van) wat wed nadia fo A arety of fos of historia text, pinay genealogies, fom the tne of the Bthmaes, Another meaning of th trai “bbe and ike we may se some significance ia hs. Banboo grows by veadng ote, sndonly oe, hoo unlike our concep of enelogia ee, eee, | and peoelogy allows only on lena ucesor at ane. Ts ‘the tem no only describes line of transmission, ba these tie scribes to the members of the vandaa specifi sta and aul at100 Steven Coline leptin hiro tat aan Inthe ato of purine wing, to of he wadional five characteristics (patcalatyopa) aged be ‘priest in any sch ent ar wanda an vamdnucars he forme em reer a geesogy of gods, pres, kings and great amis, be lane wo the eed fs a vada. (How far ase five chances scualy do aply othe ext pads i comple sue.) The txts in ‘gueston hee are not only the get compendi of myhoogytecogy. , concemig varios great gods suchas Vig and Sv: hy ined ls, amongst others, 2 Hie suid ens of ginal, case purines, shou which Lao Rocher syn it ecent bok o he abet (1986, pm Eventhough his typeof ees ett single cates in ined seas ofthe subcontinent, they are again not fundamentally teen from pari Herat generally then, quoting other writer The cast-purnas may be consdre 10 be he textecslon of Vamdnucaria inthe sence tat hey devote ‘temueles othe bistory of ome Vanda in he boa ese 1 ggest hat we sete Pall hones in this erpective ap of ‘he erry gee ofthe pure in te widest ese, iting he poealogy and deds ofthe lneageof the Budd ahs erage In dion, both byte ver exten an by sch eas oftheir commen a the sores of visit by the Bada othe diferent Theravia nds, the vances produced in Ceylon and Inter in maland Southeast Asi served the elpeshichlice purpose of eoaecing tes ress with Indi. More special, as Hens Becher bas aqud (1978), he ely examples in Ceylon miy have served the polcal purpose of emhancng and encouraging Sinhalese nator, thas long ben ecogased that he ‘Melogy ofthese vans texts is tat ofthe dharma be sand which ‘he Buddha proptesied woud be the historical vehicle of hi sting smh Ont very ea the Pal con 101 thas often been noted hat he dominant Theravi atin fo ‘serge, ule oter Buds rps, i an Bitar ooes but as not been nce, I ink, tat this development coincides with the producon by Tava mons of what Becbert calls the only “aol ‘erate fa he set sense of te word (a Sout Asi) peor ote riod ofthe Muslim invasions The ear Siatlee commensal. ‘teil, dared by bod Mahivia and ADbyag group, conned Von sects, and there may have been atleast ne specially Aluyagi vans bts parla character of the devlopnent of ‘the Mabiviira tdton ss ich and ved eallcon of thse et, ‘sully called “Chronicle ia English. There were probably many diterent easons for hei being produced, andi is ue that ender ‘Sanit and Pall works with vorza sections were preserved rly. Nonetheless 1 suggest ht areveling perspective on the ise can be ‘sed from the comparative historical and anthropologialsudy of Tiemey, whee cs widely recnglsed tat oe ofthe east unctions of wring waste making of iss T sugges hat bo be ie oie sd closed Cano sd the vans gene may be sen ngebier a members ofthe same clas th ‘eT vam ger dexcendel rm names (gress) nd ovens aa) he asd aoe’ ilo descended from name-es and worst, bas othe simple ea fs of texts (arin concer, intel) he eral politcal element of lsu ating canbe aed or taken away. In bre ten argue thatthe flowing four developments in the Thervida tion, aking place over the ft bal ofthe ft nile A.D. are reed ot only conepally and sorely, bat tlso a connected pas of & teateny of self-definition and self legimaton byte Make nis: (Otte weting dao canon ant commentaries (ip protection of chted and history specie ane of erp: (te suadrdsaon of aoe comments, and (i) he developent of be histriograpical non of vas texts,