Mahâ-Parinibbâna-Suttanta: The Book of the Great Decease

[1. See 'The Life or Legend,' &c., third edition, vol. ii. p. 149. The date there given (1134 of the Burmese era = 1773 A.D.) is evidently the date of the original work, and not of the translation. Nothing is said in the book itself or in Bishop Bigandet's notes of the name of the author, or of the name or date of the Burmese translator. 2. There are several such pairs in the Magghimâ Nikâya; and the Mahâ-Satippaitthâna-Sutta in the Dîgha is the same as the Satipatthâna-Sutta in the Magghima. 3. E.g. in the Mahâ-padhâna-Sutta and Mahâ-sudassana-Sutta. 4. Childers seems to have been of the same opinion, vide Dict. I, 268.] p. xxxiii The division of the Book into chapters, or rather Portions for Recitation, is found in the MSS.; the division of these chapters into sections has been made by myself. It will be noticed that a very large number of the sections have already been traced, chiefly by Dr. Morris and myself, in various other parts of the Pâli Pitakas: whole paragraphs or episodes, quite independent of the repetitions and stock phrases above referred to, recurring in two or more places. The question then arises whether (1) the Book of the Great Decease is the borrower, whether (2) it is the original source, or whether (3) these passages were taken over, both into it, and into the other places where they recur, from earlier sources. It will readily be understood that, in the present state of our knowledge, or rather ignorance, of the Pâli Pitakas, this question cannot as yet be answered with any certainty. But a few observations may even now be made.