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

On the other hand, some of the recurring passages do not consist of such summaries, but are actual episodes in the history. As an instance of these we may take the long extract at the end of the first, and the beginning of the second chapter (I, 20-II, 3, and again II, 16-II, 24), which is found also in the Mahâ-vagga. The words are (nearly[1]) identical in both places, but in the Book of the Great Decease the account occurs in its proper place in the middle of a connected narrative, whereas in the Mahâ-vagga, a treatise on the Rules and Regulations of the Order, it seems strangely out of place. So the passage, also a long one, with which the Book of the Great [1. On the difference see the note at II, 16. It affects only a few localising phrases in a narrative occupying (in the translation) thirteen pages.] p. xxxv Decease commences (on the Seven Conditions of Welfare), seems to have been actually borrowed by the Anguttara Nikâya from our work. The question of these summaries and parallel passages cannot be adequately treated by a discussion of the instances found in any one particular book. It must be considered as a whole, and quite apart from the allied question of the 'stock phrases' above alluded to, in a discussion of all the instances that can be found in the Pâli Pitakas. For this purpose tabulated statements are essential, and as a mere beginning such a statement is here annexed (including the passages, marked with an asterisk, which have every appearance of belonging to the same category).