..續本文上一頁mmapadam actually occurs in the sense of a ”religious sentence.” Thus we read in verse 102, ”Though a man recite a hundred Gâthâs made up of senseless words, one dhammapadam, i.e. one single word or line of the law, is better, which if a man hears, he becomes quiet.” But here we see at once the difficulty of translating the title of ”dhammapadam” by ”religious sentences.” Dhammapadam means one law verse, or wise saw, not many. Professor Fausböll, who in his excellent edition of the Dhammapada translated that title by ”a collection of verses on religion,” appeals to such passages as verses 44 and 102 in support of his interpretation. But in verse 42 dhammapadam sudesitam, even if it does not mean the path of the law, could never mean ”versus legis bene enarratos,” but only versum legis bene enarratum, as Dr. Fausböll himself renders ekam dhammapadam, in verse 102, by unus legis versus. Buddhaghosa, too, when he speaks of many law verses uses the plural, for instance^[2], ”Be it known that the Gâthâ consists of the Dhammapadâni, Theragâthâ, Therîgâthâ, and those unmixed (detached) Gâthâ not comprehended in any of the above-named Suttânta.”

　　[1. Revue Critique, 1870, p. 378.

　　2. D”Alwis, Pâli Grammar, p. 61.]

　　p. xlviii

　　 The only way in which Dhammapada could be defended in the sense of ”Collection of Verses of the Law,” would be if we took it for an aggregate compound. But such aggregate compounds, in Sanskrit at least, are possible with numerals only; for instance, tribhuvanam, the three worlds; katuryugam, the four ages^[1]. It might therefore be possible in Pâli, too, to form such compounds as dasapadam, a collection of ten padas, a work consisting of ten padas, a decamerone, but it would in no wise follow that we could in that language attempt such a compound as Dhammapadam, in order to express a collection of law verses^[2]. Mr. Beal^[3] informs us that the Chinese seem to have taken Dhammapada in the sense of ”stanzas of law,” ”law texts,” or ”scripture texts.”

　　 It should be remembered, also, that the idea of representing life, and particularly the life of the faithful, as a path of duty or virtue leading to deliverance, (in Sanskrit dharmapatha,) is very familiar to Buddhists. The four great truths of their religion^[4] consist in the recognition of the following principles: 1. that there is suffering; 2. that there is a cause of that suffering; 3. that such cause can be removed; 4. that there is a way of deliverance, viz. the doctrine of Buddha. This way is the ashtânga-mârga, the eightfold way^[5], taught by Buddha, and leading to Nirvâna^[6]. The faithful advances on that road, padât padam,

　　[1. See M. M.”s Sanskrit Grammar, § 519.

　　2. Mr. D”Alwis” arguments (Buddhist Nirvâna, pp. 63-67) in support of this view, viz. the dhammapada may be a collective term, do not seem to me to strengthen my own conjecture.

　　3. Dhammapada from Chinese, p. 4.

　　4. Spence Hardy, Manual, p. 496.

　　5. Burnouf, Lotus, p. 520, ”Ajoutons, pour terminer ce que nous trouvons à dire sur le mot magga, quelque commentaire qu”on en donne d”ailleurs, que suivant une définition rapportée par Turnour, le magga renferme une sous-pision que l”on nomme patipadâ, en sanscrit pratipad. Le magga, dit Tumour, est la voie qui conduit au Nibbâna, la patipadâ, littéralement "la marche pas à pas, ou le degré," est la vie de rectitude qu”on doit suivre, quand on marche dans la voie du magga.”

　　6. See Spence Hardy, Manual, p. 496. Should not katurvid…

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