Sacred Books of the Buddhists, Vol. 4: Translated by Various Oriental Scholars (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

Excerpt from Sacred Books of the Buddhists, Vol. 4: Translated by Various Oriental Scholars

It is now twenty years since the first volume of this translation of the Digha was published. Other work, infirmities and old age have contributed to the delay, and the work would never have been finished if it had not received the co-operation of my wife, who in spite of much other work to do, found time to assist me so often and so much.

In the opening pages of the first volume eight facts were referred to as evidence of the age of the Digha, and incidentally of the rest of that part of the Pali literature which belonged to the same period. The conclusions drawn from these facts were that the books in question were North Indian in origin; that they belonged to a period before the time of Asoka, and before South India and Ceylon were well known in the North of India; and that they contained good evidence for the 5th century, and indeed, in parts of them, for the 6th century B.C.

Since these conclusions were drawn the Pali Text Society has published nearly fifty volumes of Pali texts. They belong to all periods. But so far as they throw light on the subject, they confirm the above conclusions. Two valuable treatises on Pali Literature have also appeared - the one by Professor Winternitz in the 2nd vol. of his Geschichte der Indischen Litteratur, and the other by Professor Geiger in his Pali Literatur und Sprache.

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