..续本文上一页a, at least as what were believed by the

　　[1. On the importance of oral tradition in the history of Sanskrit literature see the writer”s Ancient Sanskrit Literature, 1859, pp. 497-524.

　　2. Mahâvamsa, p. 207; Dîpavamsa XX, 20.

　　3. Mahâvamsa, p. 251.]

　　p. xxvi members of the Council under Asoka, in 242 B.C., to have been the utterances of the founder of their religion; nor can I see that Professor Minayeff has shaken the date of Buddhaghosa and the general credibility of the Ceylonese tradition, that he was the translator and editor of commentaries which had existed in the island for many centuries; whether from the time of Vattagâmani or from the time of Mahinda.

DATE OF THE BUDDHIST CANON.

　　 We now return to the question of the date of the Buddhist canon, which, as yet, we have only traced back to the first century before Christ, when it was reduced to writing in Ceylon under King Vattagâmani. The question is, how far beyond that date we may trace its existence in a collected form, or in the form of the three Pitakas or baskets. There may be, and we shall see that there is, some doubt as to the age of certain works, now incorporated in the Tipitaka. We are told, for instance, that some doubt attached to the canonicity of the Kariyâ-pitaka; the Apadâna, and the Buddhavamsa^[1], and there is another book of the Abhidhamma-pitaka, the Kathâvatthu, which was reported to be the work of Tissa Moggaliputta, the president of the Third Council. Childers, s.v., stated that it was composed by the apostle Moggaliputtatissa, and delivered by him at the Third Mahâsangîti. The same scholar, however, withdrew this opinion on p. 507 of his valuable Dictionary, where he says: ”It is a source of great regret to me that in my article on Kathâvatthuppakaranam I inadvertently followed James D”Alwis in the stupendous blunder of his assertion that the Kathâvatthu was added by Moggaliputtatissa at the Third Convocation. The Kathâvatthu is one of the Abhidhamma books, mentioned by Buddhaghosa as having been rehearsed at the First Convocation, immediately after Gotama”s death; and the passage in Mahâvamsa upon which D”Alwis rests his assertion is as follows, Kathâvatthuppakararanam paravâdappamaddanam abhâsi Tissatthero ka tasmim sangîtimandale, which simply means ”in that Convocation-assembly

　　[1. See Childers, s.v. Nikâya.]

　　p. xxvii the Thera Tissa also recited (Buddha”s) heresy-crushing Kathâvatthuppakarana.”

　　 This mistake, for I quite agree with Childers that it was a mistake, becomes however less stupendous than at first sight it would appear, when we read the account given in the Dîpavamsa. Here the impression is easily conveyed that Moggaliputta was the author of the Kathâvatthu, and that he recited it for the first time at the Third Council. ”Wise Moggaliputta,” we read^[1], ”the destroyer of the schismatic doctrines, firmly established the Theravâda, and held the Third Council. Having destroyed the different (heretical) doctrines, and subdued many shameless people, and restored splendour to the (true) faith, he proclaimed (pakâsayi) (the treatise called) Kathâvatthu.” And again: ”They all were sectarians^[2], opposed to the Theravâda; and in order to annihilate them and to make his own doctrine resplendent, the Thera set forth (desesi) the treatise belonging to the Abhidhamma, which is called Kathâvatthu^[3].”

　　 At present, however, w…

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