(18

AGGANNA SUTTA
The Discourse What is
on
Primary
(An Annotated Translation from Pali)

by
STEVEN CoLLINS

Sahitya Akademi
 General ntroduction

AS), No. 27 of the Digha

Ithough the Aggaäña Sutta (hereafter Buddhist
the best known early
Wik ya (D III 80-98), is one of I believe
scholars in various disciplines,
texts, cited and discussed by commented
not been
there are somecentral facts about it which have
here
on before. But I do not imagine
for a moment that what I say
intention is to encourage
exhausts the riches of this fascinating text; my
I aim to do three things:
rather than foreclose discussion.
analysis, that what
) to prove, by means of close linguistic
in AS is permeated by
I shall call the 'parable of origins'
references to Monastic
the Code, the Vinaya: this, Ithink,
must condition our understanding of the parable, and our
assessment of the spirit in which it was offered;

(ii) to provide in this General Introduction a context for reading

to world
and interpreting AS, on three levels: in relation
Buddhist
history, to ancient Indian society, and to other early
texts,

(iii) by this one case what I think is a more general

to illustrate
desideratum in Buddhist Studies: that the familiar and standard
translations of early Pali texts issued by the Pali Text Society,
mostly at the beginning of this century, should be treated
not as definitive guides to the original, as I suspect they are
in practice, even by some Buddhologists not specialising
in Pali, but as they were intended, pioneering attempts in
need of constant revision as knowledge progresses.

This is the case, I hope to show, with the Rhys Davids' translation
of AS (1921; hereafter RhD), sub-titled 'A Book of Genesis', which
has become a cultural object in its own right, canonised and immortalised
 2 AGGANNA SUTTA
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 3
on our
libraryshelves in one volume of The Sacred Books
of the
Buddhists. While I have not catalogued every
place where I have they encourage. My summary version of his argument will, of course,
disagreed with their version, I do refer to it often, since the
majority be unable to convey anything of its force and persuasiveness; and it
of those who have discussed AS have done so is true that, as a reviewer quoted on the back cover of the 1990 paperback
by reading it, rather
than the original. It was an admirable achievement in
its day, but I edition of Plough, Sword and Book, 'deductive history on this scale
would like to think that the
rendering given
here represents an cannot be proved right or wrong'. Nonetheless- and leaving aside
improvenment, in accuracy if not in elegance. (Other previous translations any problems which arise in relation
to the first and third of his stages
of AS are listed in the Introduction to -some things he says about agrarian society strike me as being plausible,
my own below [p. 338].)
Part I of this General Introduction offers some and very revealing as a background to the concerns and motifs of AS.
remarks, of varying The main advance made in moving from hunter-gatherer to agrarian
levels of generality, on the socio-historical contexts in relation to
which increased presence in the latter, and
I find it most helpful to read AS; modes, he says, is the greatly
part II discusses the text of AS, and virtual absence in the former, of the capacity to produce, accumulate
some other texts which I take to be relevant
to it, part IlI collects together and store food and wealth. As a result of this, a small surplus is produced
the evidence on the basis of which I
argue that the story of the Fall/
Evolution of Mankind in sections #10ff draws (small when compared to industrial society), but one which is stable
explicitly on themes enough such that 'agrarian societies tend to develop complex
social
from the life and ideals of the Monastic Order, and on
language from differentiation, elaborate division of labour. Two specialisms in
an
the Vinaya; part IV gives my view of the structure of the Sutta as a
of a
whole, citing occurrences of what I see as the keywords of the text. particular become of paramount importance: the emergence
I refer to the translation notes, which are found on specialised ruling class, and of a specialised clerisy (specialists in
pp. 349-78, by
section and note number; notes to this Introduction follow it on cognition, legitimation, salvation, ritual)' (p.17). These two groups he
pp. calls, variously, kings/warriors and clerisy/priests, or most simply thugs
334-37.The bibliography for both Introduction and Translation notes
and legitimators. Coercion can take two main forms, corresponding to
is at the end.
the two specialisms (which can sometimes be combined): sheer physical
Readers unfamiliar with AS might read through the translation at force, or the threat of it, and the imposition of social-ideological norms
this point, without notes (pp. 38-47); some acquaintance with the text (the latter significantly extended in the move to transcendentalist,
is necessary if the following Introduction is to be comprehensible. universalist ideologies of 'salvation').While in a direct
contest,in theis
it
absurd to think that the legitimators could overpower the thugs,
I. sOME REMARKS ON THE CONTEXT(S) OF AS normal course of settled ife social order and control are maintained
nore directly by the imposition and internalization of norms than by

(i) In world history: agrarian social order brute force.

Although he does not say so directly, I think GelIner is aware of
The first context I will provide for AS is a very general one indeed. the relevance of this analysis to two classic themes in the writing of
South Asian history. In the first place, given that the two specialisms
I draw on Ernest Gellner's vision of the whole of human history thus
are only possible because of agriculture and the surplus it produces,
far. For Gellner, mankind has passed through three main historical
much
stages, those of hunter-gatherers, agrarian society, and industrial society. a tripartite structure of workers, warriors and priests is not so
a special feature of Indo-European socicty, as Dumézil and his followers
These stages are defined in relation to the means (or their absence) of
claim, but a structural feature of any agrarian economy producing
a
producing, accumulating and storing food and wealth, to the forms of
coercion and legitimation which accompany them, and also, in the reliable but small surplus. (Note that according to Gellner the enormously
increased capacity to produce surplus wealth, and
the correspondingly
second and third stages, to the social distribution and varieties ofcognition and the division of labour, are among
great increase in specialisation
 4 AGGANNA SUTTA GENERAL INTAODUCTION 5

the main features of industrial society.) in general, this strikes me as a valuable

Secondly, thugs and legitimators, Two comments here: first,
where they are different, must, since
they both exercise related forms perspective from which to view South Asian (and other) religious values
of coercion, come to some sort of mutual modus
vivendi: thus the complex of non-violence (ahimsa), and their relation to the maintenance of social
and multivalent relations between
kings and priests, k_atriyas and order. To borrow a phrase from Gunawardana's discussion of Buddhist
brahmins? (which Louis Dumont saw in terms of a difference between monasticism in medieval Sri Lanka (79: 344), there must always be
power and status, a view which has occasioned much
'antagonistic symbiosis' between legitimators who expound non-
again not specific traits of Indian society and culture but discussion)
are an

general features violence, and the thugs whose (threat of) physical coercion maintains
of the agrarian order.
the social order which allows the legitimators to keep their economic
The legitimators, of course, are not and other resources, and to preserve an established role (which is, in
always of only one party (and ideological theory, outside the realm of production and reproduction).
this is one of the weaknesses of Dumont's
view, which over-privileges Second, in relation to AS in particular, not only is there an explicit
the Brahmanical vision of society: see
below). In the next two sections
I shall apply Gellner's model to
early South Asian history and cultural connection, in what I will call its parable of origins, between the
debate, and include Buddhism, as a sub-division of what he calls 'the cultivation and storage of food and the origins of violence and kingship
wider clerisy' (see quote on p. 6). Here I want to remain a (sections #17-21), but also the motif of 'making a store' is the central
little longer
with one aspect of the analysis which has figure around which I will group, on linguistic and semantic grounds,
special relevance to AS: the what I hope to show are a series of references to the Buddhist monastic
storage of food, and its relation to power. Although towns do exist in
code, the Vinaya. Monks, ideally, like the beings in the parable when
agrarian society, as the seats of market, military and administrative
in the 'paradisial' state before their 'Fall' into agriculture and ordered
activity,
society, neither produce nor store their food.
a
society with a small surplus cannot possibly become a generalized
I shall say more below on the place
market society. By contrast, in the
developed modern world, endowed of ascetic ideologies as hierarchical
with an enormous surplus, the individual hands over his models of society in South Asia. For the moment I will end this section
labour and
buys virtually all he needs with his wages. In the physical sense, by quoting a little more from Gellner on the issue. Although, as
there generally, isn't any thing to hand over: the individual mentioned,
takes part in a very complex
simply
activity. With his remuneration, he agrarian society is doomed to violence... it does not
always place
draws from the market what he needs for
survival, when he needs violence at the summit of excellence, though the Western
equation
it. An analogous procedure in agrarian of nobility with military vocation does so. Sometimes it
society would be absurd and places the
disastrous. If the agricultural producer handed over his entire scribes/legitimators above the swordsmen, though we must remember
output
and then relied on that it is the scribes who write the record and formulate the
purchasing what he needs, the first fluctuation principles...
in prices, occasioned let us say by shortages in a
neighbouring area, Agraria does on occasion invert values. They [i.e. values] may
would leave him starving. In
consequence, a very large part of conspicuously defy, rather than mirror, the social
hierarchy. It may
production is stored for safety. Agrarian society is, in effect, commend ascesis or humility rather than display
collection of protected storage units (p. 129).
a
conspicuous
consumption and assertiveness. These inversions of values, of the
Agricultural society is defined by the systematic production and utmost importance in the history of mankind, can be seen in
part as
storage of food, and in a lesser measure of other goods. The existence devices employed by rival elements within the wider clerisy. One
ofa stored surplus inevitably commits the way the legitimators gain influence and
society to some enforcement power is by being outside
the formal
of the division of that
surplus, and to its extermal defence. Hence system, by opting out, and ascesis or humility constitutes
a kind of
violence, merely contingent amongst hunters, becomes mandatory conspicuous self-exile. The logic of the agrarian world,
however, does not allow such values to be
amongst agriculturalists (p. 275).
and universally
implemented consistently
(pp.154, 155-6; cp. 225).
 6 AGGAÑNA SUTTA
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 7

(ii) In early Indian history: towns and small-scale polities ofconduct. That rulers are now explicitly enjoined to enforce correct
An account such as Gellner's, of behaviour, signals a change in the orientation of government away
course, operates at a very great level from rituals and in the direction of secular administration based on
of generality, and describes socio-economic structures
very much of force'' The connection between early Buddhism and urban govemment
the historical longue durée. It is thus
reassuring when a specialist scholar and trade, as suggested in its texts, has long been known.'
Recently,
of early Indian archaeology and
history writes that by the 6th-4th centuries moreover, Olivelle has argued that the appearance within Brahmanism
B.C. 'the technological base
of the economy in this period [had] already of ascetic thought and practice at this time, as evident from the
reached a level not to be significantly exceeded until the 20th
that is, until the coming of industrialism.' In this section I
century', Upanisad-s, may be the result of urbanised Brahmins accommodating
give a brief a trend towards asceticism within their own tradition, as against the
summary of what I believe to be a scholarly consensus on some aspects
of the history of north India before the
continuing opposition oftheir (culturally-speaking) 'country cousins'
Mauryan empire, which began Although there is extensive evidence of urban centres at this time, and
in the 4th century B.C. and reached its
apogee under A[oka in the 3rd. of a more complex social differentiation than earlier, there is no evidence
The study of early Indian history continues to
struggle with the problem of the larger kind of imperial metropolis which arose from the time
of assessing the relative weight of textual and
archaeological evidence, of the Mauryan empire. There were a number of regional divisions,
but reasonably
a clear picture can be drawn, to the best of our available calledjanapada-s or mah janapada-s, whose names are given variously
knowledge.' I am not concerned with precise dating: so much depends in different texts but which are usually said to number sixteen. These
on the date of the Buddha, at present under much discussion. The were not at first equivalent to political units, but were areas which
most likely time for the Buddha and early Buddhism, it now seems, contained powerful clans, ruled by local chiefs grouped in tribal
is the Sth-4th centuries B.C. There are three main points in what follows: oligarchies. But the janapada-s gradually came to be political unit
first, during this period Brahmanism was more strongly established in particularly after the Kosalans conquered the Buddha's own clan, the
the countryside than in the rising urban centres, where a competing Säkyans (see #8 and #8.2); and the transition to monarchical rule was
plurality of ideologies was emerging; second, these urban centres, which in process during the Buddha's life. After the Buddha's death, the 16
arose from and encouraged a food surplus, were the market, military janapada-s were reduced to four main rivals; and eventually that of
and administrative centres of small-scale polities, not metropolitan Magadha became dominant, thus laying the foundation for the Mauryan
capitals of large empires; third, these polities were ruled, in the earlier empire, centred on Magadha.
part of the period, by oligarchies, and only gradually turned to monarchy,
. After such imperial formations were known, it became possible to
at the time of the Buddha himself and immediately thereafter. The
society appàrently presupposed by AS fits just this picture.
imagine imperial cities to have existed at any period. Erdosi
(88: 11-2) cites such a description of Ayodhy from the Ramyana,
At this time, then, as far as the evidence allows us to know, the
but adds that no such city existed in Ayodhy in the 7th century B.C.
countryside of north India was permeated by Brahmanical ideology;
(the date assigned to events described in the Ram yana) is clear from
more so in the west than the east, since it had been established there
the archaeological record; so is the fact that the author of the [passage
longer. This was suited to a rural society, where it makes sense to cited] used the impressive cities of the post-Mauryan period... as his
suggest that Brahmanical social hierarchy could be more easily stabilised models' (sic, without diacritics). To say this, of course, is not ipso
and social order more easily enforceable on the basis of ritul alone.
facto to criticise the Rmyana, since texts are not obliged to provide
Urban centres and state formations had begun to arise, especially
us with historical data, nor avoid anachronism. But to say this is to
strikingly in the north-east, along the Ganges. The later Vedic texts refute the suggestion that this passage of that text pre-dates the Mauryan
produced by brahmins, the dharma-s kira-s, show both an uneasiness empire. In this light, therefore, the absence of any depiction of imperial
about urban life and a concern with 'the laying down of explicit codes
cities and larger-scale political formations in those Pali texts usually
 8 AGGANÑA SUTTA GENERAL INTRODUCTION9

acccpted to be early'" renders it more plausible to trace them back to surplus of which was
aetiology of the cultivation of sali (Pali sli), a

the pre-Mauryan period used to create the institution of kings.

(though we will never be able to prove this).
The view of kingship in AS is not that of a
'universal emperor', the of this definitively proves that AS is pre-Mauryan,
cakkavatti, found in some canonical texts (although elements of the Although none
reasonable to
AS story were attached to that in the absence of positive reasons to doubt it, I think it
ideology by the later tradition).2 What assume so, since the society presupposed in AS's parable
fits so well
is perhaps the best-known
episode in AS does concern a single figure, with what else we know about that period. It is, of course, possible
the 'Great Appointee'
(mahsanmata I argue in #21.1 and Appendix
-

to remain sceptical; but in the present state

of knowledge, if we are
1 that in AS this was a title, not a
proper name as it became later); but seems the
this is no more than a narrative device, as with the first to locateAS in a historical context, the pre-Mauryan period
individual who best candidate.
eats the 'earth-essence' in #12, the first
couple to have sex in #16, the
series of individuals in #17 who store
food, the being in #19 who
originates theft, and the series of individuals from each class who give (iii) In early Indian cultural debate: competing hierarchical
birth to the 'ascetic-group' in #26. In each of these cases the narrative models
either states explicitly or implies by ellipsis that the
practice spreads The main point of the historical specification attempted in the previous
from the first individual to others. Likewise, after the first
king is milieu
described in #20-1, section #22 refers to rjadhniyo, section is to a richer sense of the cultural and ideological
give
'royal cities',
in the plural; in the text itself there is no hint of a in which AS was produced. The fact that it seems to presuppose,a
single territory ruled
by one 'universal' monarch, encompassing (ideally) the whole world; society like that we conjecture have existed in north-east India in
to

rather, power is held by a plurality of local chieftains (see # 22.3). As the Sth-4th centuries does not mean that it merely passively 'reflects'

Sharma says (68: 69), 'the closing passage [i.e. #21)... relates the its environment, rather, to place it there is to see it as an interlocutor
origin
of the khattiya-mandala, namely, the ruling oligarchy'. in an ongoing cultural debate, conducted by various groups within the

The rise of urban in this period and the production of a

centres ruling strata of the time. In section (i) above, I used Gellner's basic
surplus are obviously connected processes; it would scem that dichotomy of rulers and legitimators, albeit quoting from him on 'rival
food
the two were mutually encouraging." Although no doubt many factors
elements within the wider clerisy'; I wish now to specify more precisely
what those rival elements were in ancient India, and how they, and
behind the increase in food production, one plausible candidate is
lay
the increased growing of rice (a higher-yield erop than the earlier kings, produced different hierarchical models of society. I take this
dominant barley), and in particular the technique of transplanting rice phrase from Richard Burghart's 'Hierarchical Models of the Hindu
in wet-land cultivation. According to Sharma 'although the later Vedic Social System'.5 Restricting himself to the Hindu' world, Burghart
claims that kings, brahmins and ascetics each produced ideologies of
people grew rice, vrihi [the word then used] was a rainy season crop
whose yield was limited on account of its being sown in the field. the social world which hierarchised it, and, naturally, placed themselves
Obviously the people did not know the art of paddy transplantation, at the top of whatever value-scale the model embodied. Brahmins,
or wet paddy production, which appeared later as a winter
ascetics and the king each claimed their superiority in the particular
crop.
(83: 161-2). Rice grown by the latter method was known as sali (ibid. world in which they lived', and 'each person based his claim in terms
96). A number of motifs in AS are also found in later Brahmanical of a particular hierarchy which was the exhaustive and exclusive order
asceticism, which like Buddhism reverses the earlier Vedic celebration of social relations'. The Brahmanical hierarchy is expressed in terms
of food as a cosmogonic force;" they cannot therefore be linked to of ritual purity and "the sacrificial body of Brahma' (sic). Ascetic
any specific period of history. But if we locate AS in the pre-Mauryan hierarchy is expressed in terms of 'the cycle of confused wanderings";
that is, rebirth. (I would add in the Buddhist case a universal
period, it is then not coincidental that its 'origin myth' deals with the morality
 GENERAL INTROOUCTION 11
10 AcGANNA SUTTA

which over-rides social hierarchy of all kinds at the same time as it equally difficult and pressing is the task of assessing how far these
upholds the Buddhist ascetic one: see pp.19-21 below.) Kingly hierarchy, various groups used similar concepts, narrative motifs, and the like,
which is found more in 'panegyrical and epigraphic sources' than in to say quite different things. Students of 'myth' have, of course, seen
the kind of text usually studied by historians of religion, is expressed this: O'Flaherty (76: 33; cp. 25) introduced a summary ofthe AS story
in terms of a 'tenurial hierarchy which was derived from [the king's] of origins by saying 'most cosmogonic myths in Buddhism are probably
lordship over the land', a lordship construed as a divine marriage between intended as satires on Hindu myths', both traditions drawing on a common
god-king and the earth (78: 520-1). We may add to the list of sources fund ofstories. Recentily Obeyesekere (90: 128; cp. 130ff.) has written
of 'the idea of debate [as] the hidden discourse that underlies myth
for kings' perspective texts like the Artha-s stra, redacted in its final
variations'. AS has much in common with other origin stories in India;
form not before the 3rd century A.D. but nonetheless usable for the
Gombrich (92) has shown that there are specific and pointed references
earlier period; and, from a later period still the whole tradition of
to Brahmanical motifs - in the form they are available to us, to specific
sophisticated court poetry (especially its erotic forms) drama (especially
Vedic texts, which he identifies. The target of the satire in AS is,
comedy), and the like." Of course kings would also use themes from
'religious' hierarchical models, particularly in their public simultaneously, Vedic cosmogony and the social claims of the Brahmin
class: as Smith (89), (92) has shown, the Veda as authoritative text
pronouncements (as did Asoka); but it is now clear that, for example,
and the social hierarchy were interrelated themes in pre-Buddhist
Dumont's vision ofa monolithic India, where everyone was agreed on
Brahmanical cosmogony. Here, as in so many early texts, the Buddha
the status inferiority of the (powerful) king compared to the Brahmin,
is represented as knowing very well indeed the Brahmanism he rejects.
is a reproduction of one Brahmanical hierarchical model rather than
a comprehensive historical account recognising a plurality of voices But it is not enough to position the authorial/redactorial voice of
within India. AS in a pluralist, contested milieu of debate, and to speak of it as
The ascetics to whoin Burghart refers are, in the 'Hindu' context, presenting a Buddhist-ascetic hierarchical model of society, nor is it
often though not always brahmins. The co-existence of ascetic and enough to say that Buddhists and Brahmins (to keep the two groups
non-ascetic ideologies within Brahmanism has been called by Olivelle relevant to AS) speak the same language but say different things in
an 'inner conflict of [that] tradition', consciously taking up Heesterman's it. For there may be differences in the tone of voice in which things
phrase referring to the relationship between kings and brahmins." In are said; differences not just of content and meaning but also of style.

the pre-Mauryan and Mauryan periods one of the most important facts The scholarly tradition of juxtaposing 'motifs' or 'themes', familiar
of society and culture in India as a whole was the existence and success in folklore, structuralist (and other) studies of myth, and elsewhere,
of what used to be called "heterodox' (F anti-Brahmanical) groups, may serve to hide from our view the particular qualities of a text which
Buddhists, Jains, and others. As we now know, in so far as we can derive from its tone, its style. But to discuss this is to move from the
context(s) of AS to the text itself; and for this I must stop and backtrack
speak of a 'Hindu orthodoxy', such a thing was developed, as a tension-
filled amalgam, precisely as a response to them. Speaking more generally a little.
for a moment, the most extensive evidence we have of non-Brahmanical
traditions throughout Indian history is of Buddhists and Jains: one of II. SOME REMARKS ON THE TEXT OF AS
the most difficult but most pressing tasks of Indology, it seems to me,
is to explore how far these traditions (which were obviously not
(i) Is the text as we have it a clumsy patchwork?
monolithic and without sub-divisions of their own) and Brahmanism
shared the same language, both on occasion in the literal sense (Sanskrit) Some previous scholarship on AS has taken the form ofa textual analysis
and in the wider sense of a shared cultural vocabulary, repertoire of which sees inconsistencies and illogicalities in it, and then attempts
stories, etc. To share a language is not to say the same things in it; and unattractive for
to separate out its 'earlier' form."I find this approach
 GENERAL INTAODUCTION 13
12 AGGANNA SUTTA
serious: its main aim
I think the sermon is
a priori reasons; I hope to show that it is inappropriate in relation to puns.. AS a debunking job invention'. He
is to show that the caste system
is nothing but a human
AS. It is true that the transition from #9 to #10 is sudden; and it is true I think that
here into all the r e a s o n s why
adds there that "I cannot go
that the 'origin myth', from #10 up to various points in #21, is found not meant to be
are satirical and
the positive statements in the myth
separately in later Buddhist texts, usually as a genealogy of the Sakyan taken literally'. In his (92)
article he does so.
family. But since early Buddhist texts were composed and transmitted issue? When Rhys
what exactly is at
If there is disagreement here,
orally, it is no more than common sense to assume that different tellings ofcourse speaking
text's 'historical accuracy', he
was
ofa tale, in different discursive contexts, would be different, use elements Davids wrote ofthe terms: the story in AS,
for us, cannot
from a repertoire differently, and so on. Given this, the mania-which in 19th century historiographical ist.
wie es eigentlich ge wesen
is what I think it is- for an 'Ur-text' is entirely be taken to be, in von Ranke's phrase, from
misplaced. Regardless (Even so, the quotation
of its origins in oral composition and transmission, the tradition has No one, I take it, would wish to disagree.
continues "but it reveals a sound and healthy
AS in a particular (written) form; we must, I think, in the Rhys Davids just given
preserved
first instance seek for meanings in it as it has been redacted to us.20 insight, and is much nearer to
the actual facts than the
Brahman legend

There would seem to be an equivocation

(I shall return to these issues in [iv] below.) We should approach the it was intended to replace'.)
over the word 'positive'.
Gombrich is using it partly in a historiographical
text as we have it respectfully, looking not to make hastý ánd superficial it seems to
Davids. Tambiah and Reynolds,
sense, much as did Rhys
judgements about its disunity, but to seek out principles of structure
ine, are using the word
in much the same sense that Gombrich intends
and sequence which can give us a sense of why this particular but they see the text, in
crystallization of meanings took the form it did. I think such principles when he says that the sermon is 'serious";
intended to provide a non-satirical
can be found: they are given in Parts II and IV below, and in the addition to satirising Brahmanism, as
then becomes one
translation notes. Buddhist charter for social arrangements. The issue
sense and motivation
of what, if anything, we can say about the original
I was
(1i) What is the nature of the 'satire' in AS? of AS. Tambiah explicitly eschews the question:
'I must con fess
nor was I able to ask
not there when the Buddha gave this discourse,

Let me return here to the question of the tone of voice in AS. Earlier him what he actually meant'; one should not, he thinks, "take an absolutist
and insist on asingle, unambiguous formulation of authorial
I cited O'Flaherty's description of it as satire. That there are hunmorous stand,
least, exactly what
intent' (89: 120; 102). (It is thus unclear, to me at
elements in the text has been accepted by all its modern readers. T.W.
own assertion that 'behind
Rhys Davids wrote of AS, before any translation of it had appeared exegetical status Tambiah accords to his
the mockery... there is a positive... account'.) Gombrich, on the contrary,
(1899: 107): 'we may not accept the historical accuracy ofthis legend.
Indeed, a continual note of good-humoured irony runs through the wants to 'discover the original meaning of the Buddha's sermons'
whole story, with its fanciful etymologies of the names of the four (92: 160). I do not accept that we have only two options, either finding
an 'original meaning' or abandoning ourselves to a free-for-all relativism,
vanna and the aroma of it would be lost on the hearer who took it au
in which a text "has no objective or inherent meaning' (ibid. 159).
grand sérieux'. Tambiah (89) quotes these words of Rhys Davids with
approval, and argues, as he had done in (76), that "behind the mockery Varying readings of any text are always possible, but I think we have
some of which must
directed at Brahmanical beliefs, there is a positive countervailing Buddhist a responsibility to argue for different readings,

account of the origins and evolution of the world, kingship and social be judged better than others. In this article I argue that AS was intended

by its earliest composer(s) and redactors to be a humorous parable: its

differentiation'. He follows here, as carlier, Reynolds (72: 18), who
scrious intent was as moral commentary rather than as a 'myth of origins
wrote of a 'positive interpretation of the nature and function of royal
= charter for society' or an account intended to be 'factually' or
authority' in AS. Gombrich (88: 85), seemingly to the contrary, writes
that AS is 'an extended satire on Brahminical ideas, full of parody and historically' accurate
 14 AGGANÑA SUTTA
GENERAL INTAOOUCTION 15

But what, again, is

issue here? One of the most discussed
at
aspects the world is always up for discussion. It seems reasonable to assume
of AS is its apparent proposal
of a Social Contract theory of kingship not only that the ambiguities of that reference are not necessarily a
(see Appendix 2). In western political thought, it is still an uncertain, matter of explicit concern to a text and its users, but also that they
and in some ways now
unimportant question how far social contract might offer-as in the case of western Social Contract and Utopian
theorists believed their accounts of 'the
Original Contract' to be traditions - an opportunity for creativity." I would suggest that AS
historically factual descriptions of an event or allegories giving the emains a lively and interesting textjust because of this question (amongst
justification for legal sanctions.2" If western political thinkers in the other reasons), not in spite of it.
last few centuries can be
equivocal on the issue or unconcerned with
it, why should we assume that the redactors of an ancient Indian narrative One last point needs to be dealt with here: that of what Rhys Davids
of the kind found in AS either did, or would have wanted to called the fanciful etymologies' in AS. He was referring to the eight
distinguish terms for social classes given in #21-5, and also by implication to the
in the modern manner between 'empirical
history' and "legitimatory
allegory'? I am certainly not saying that such a distinction would have other things (surprisingly see notes #13.4, 16.6 and Appendix 1)
been in all circumstances impossible: I am saying that it is not called akkhara-s; that is, the phrases 'oh the taste!' (#13) and 'we've
important had it, it's given out on us!' (#15), and the custom of throwing dirt
in the interpretation of AS. Some words of T.S. Eliot seem
apposite
here: "this alliance of levity and seriousness (by which the seriousness etc., at weddings (#16). In the case ofthe aetiologies given for the two
phrases and the non-linguistic custom, I think there is clearly deliberate
is intensified) is a characteristic of the wit we are trying to identify'4
One might adduce another analogy from the history of ideas in Europe. humour; and likewise with the derivations given for two of the terms
The utopian fables of Lucian seem to modern scholars to have been for the brahmin class in #22-3 (see notes ad loc.). I argue (#21.1 and
intended as satires; but later utopian writers regularly used themes Appendix 1) that there are associations of the term sammata which
from them non-satirically.25 But here again, the distinction between render the choice of the title mah sammata witty. But with the other
literal' and 'allegorical' intent is often difficult to draw, and often five terms there is no humour obvious on the surface indeed the
unnecessary. The founder of the modern genre, Thomas More, seemns etymology given for raja in #21 also occurs in the Sanskrit Mahbhrata,
to have intended the title of his Uiopia specifically as an ambiguous without overt humour, and the last two are now rather opaque. Similar
word-derivations are found in Pali canonical and commentarial texts
(Greek) pun on ou-topia, 'No-place', and eu-topia, Good Place'. The
ambiguity, both intended and not, between utopian texts as descriptions where there is no humorous intent.28 Such word-derivations were a
of real (actual or possible) societies and as fictions whose purpose is long and established tradition in both Sanskrit and Pali; they are called
to criticise the writer's actual society runs throughout the utopian tradition. nirukti-s in Sanskrit (the Pali sub-commentary to the first use of akkhara
Many texts may be counted as much part of the tradition of (serious) in AS # 21 explains it as niruti, DAT-III 59-60). For modern historical
political thought as of 'utopianism', Simpliciter,26 linguistics, these are
indeed 'fanciful etymologies'; but the tradition
of nirukti existed alongside that of vy karana, which we can recognise
Indeed- to bring this discussion to a close-it seens to me that as very un-fanciful, indeed as 'scientific' grammar. Both of these
this issue can be seen to arise, in its most general form, from the nature traditions, however, two of the traditional six kinds of Vedic study, are
of AS as a text. It is commonplace nowadays to say that a text by equally ahistorical: one might say that, for us, vykarana grammar
definition presents us with a world, which cannot be the world. is a-historical but scientific, nirukti etymology neither historical nor
(I leave aside the difficult issue of how we can have cognitive access scientific. Myconclusion in relation to AS is that while such word-
to the world outside textual representations of it.) If this is so, if the derivations intrinsically humorous or 'fanciful", they are
are not
offered
world of any text is necessarily ou-topia, a 'No-place', in relation to in this text, along with the three aetiologies, in such a way as to
the rcal places of the material-historical world, then any composer/
add
from the
to the tone of ironic and polemical wit. But the wit arises
redactor/ recounter of a text must present a world whose reference to content of the aetiologies and 'etymologies', not their form.
 16 AGGANNA SuTTA GENERAL INTRODUCTION 17

(ii) AS in relation to other early texts others:

interpreted them in the light of
we
Buddhist texts would have
references to
must argue from internal evidence. I think that the
I want in this section to discuss some other Gombrich argues, and
texts, which like AS we Brahmanical ideas and texts for whose prescnce
have no reason to deny are carly, and which seem was composed in

its meaning and style. First let me

to me to help
clarify those the Vinayal adducc here, suggest that AS
to
summarise my approach to AS. I both styles of thought, one
take it to be a story whose raison d'étre is to and for an educated milieu familiar with
present a Buddhist-ascetic serious intention. If
hierarchical model of society, offered with satirical and ironic which could smile at its wit, and appreciate its
wit in not that other texts
that were the case, then may suppose,
perhaps we
the manner of moral
commentary, and with the discursive form of an were automatically in the
minds of its audience in an academic-
aetiology. (For this reason I prefer to call its story of origins a parable commentarial manner, but that certain lines of interpretation
would be
rather than a myth.) Buddhist monasticism and
of values and social rclations: Brahmanical
morality order the logic made possible (or impossible) by what is
found in other texts on

values are satirized and which educated Buddhist audience

kingly values subordinatcd, albeit that neither the Brahmanical comparable themes, and with an

hierarchy texts are directly relevant

of discrete social classes nor might also be expected to be familiar. That such
kingship are contested as 'social facts to AS must be shown not merely by
thematic resemblance, but by
(in the Durkheimian sense). This is the overall theme which structures shared characters, etc. On
the whole of AS as we have it, and which specific textual cues: similarity of phrasing,
gives it unityand coherence. texts from the Sutta
this assumption, then, I will describe briefly some
Brahmanical social classcs are seen not as a
cosmogonic 'success story Nipta and Majjhima Nikya which I think help
us to appreciate the
but as a 'Fall': this Fall/Evolution
of Mankind is expressed in language nature of the ascetic hierarchy presented in AS, and
to get closer to
and values derived from the Monastic Order. The
earliest Community read.
of Beings, what one might call the earliest assessing the spirit in which its parable of origins should be
Samgha, falls from 'glorious,
nind-made' celibacy to the contemporary, embodied Brahmanical social The Buddhd's discussion in AS is said to have taken place with
order, by series of deeds which are described in the
a two young brahmins, 'aspiring to become monks', who bear the names
for the corresponding contraventions of the Monastic
language used of two famous old Brahmanical families, Vsettha (Sanskrit Vsi_tha)
Rule, the Vinaya.
Thus social classes and kings constitute 'Fall' from and Bhäradvja. They appear in two other well-known texts in which
a an
originally
Buddhistic community (aggañña in the temporal sense of 'what is Brahmanism is criticised, the Tevija Sutta ofthe Digha Nikya (No.13),
primary'); Buddhist moral values, which are laid out systematically and the Vasetha Sutta, redacted in both the Sutta Nipta (Sn. pp.115
in AS twice, before and after the 123) and the Majjhima Nikya (No.98). (This very fact suggests that
story of origins, in #5-7 and #27-30,
are 'what is
primary' (aggañña in the evaluative sense). There are the Vasettha Sutta might be wel1-known to Buddhist audiences.) At
references to Brahmanical texts and practices in all the start of the latter, before their conversion to Buddhism, they declare
parts of the text,
and the story of king Pasenadi in #8 is themselves 'adept in the three Vedas... philologists, grammarians, like
thematically continuous with
the understanding
of kingship and the k_atriya class given in the parable. our teachers in (Vedic) recitation'," but in disagreement as to whether
Leaving aside whatever general value these introductory remarks a person becomes a brahmin by birth j ti: cp. AS #3-4) or by action
might have, I hope that what I take to be my discovery of references (karma, Pali kamma) The Buddha's reply first states that although
to the Vinaya in AS manifold indeed are [t:e] species of living beings' (the word for 'species
represents a genuine contribution to knowledge.
But if it is accepted that these references exist, one here is also jti, which is in addition the usual word for "caste'), there
might then raise
the general issue of what such 'reference' means: how far, and in what are no such sub-divisions among human beings: 'among men difference
ways, can we useother texts to elucidate AS? Overall, there seems to is spoken of as a matter of designation' (samaññ: cf. Appendix 1 for
me no a solution to the question of inter-textuality. There can
this as a commentarial gloss on akkhara in AS, and below on the
priori
be no way of proving that all, most or Discourse at Madhur). Thereafter, as ubiquitously in early texts, the
any audiences for individual
Buddha uses the designation 'brahmin' to refer to one who lives according
 18 AGGANNA SUTTA
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 19

to Buddhist values, not to the members of

he says that 'whoever particular group." First,
a
between the Buddha and wealthy brahmins, but this time, as the text
among men makes his living by keeping cows.. insists, they were 'aged, old, elderly, advanced in years, in their old age'.
is a farmer not a
brahmin'; then the same thing is said of various With the sense of passing time perhaps characteristic of old age, they
occupations': craftsman, merchant, servant, thief, fighting man,
sacrificer (one who lives by porohicca, a reference to the ask the Buddha whether "brahmans now... live in conformity with the
Brahmanical Brahmanical lore of the brahmans of old' (porFnam brhmannm
office of purohita) and king. 'Nor do I call
(him) a brahmin (who is)
born in a (particular) womb, and has his brhmaFadhamme; cp. #4.1 and #13.4 on porFa). He replies in the
origin in a (particular) mother"
vonija... matrisambhava; cf. AS #4). After a long and lyrical evocation negative, and paints a picture of such old Brahmanical lore which blends
of the values which define a motifs from both Buddhist and Brahmanical asceticism. They had no
(true, Buddhist) brahmin, each of these
occupations is said to be a matter of 'action', 'the supreme state of wealth, but begged their food from door to door; they lived as celibate
being a brahman' is said to be attained by the religious life of celibacy; students for forty-eight years, and then married within their own group
any person who has reached liberation (in Buddhist without bride-price; those who were married had sex only at the right
terms) 'is Brahm
(and) Sakka [i.e. the Brahmanical gods Brahm and Indra]
to those time, while 'the supreme brahman... did not indulge in sexual intercourse
who know'. even in a dream5; their sacrifices did not involve killing cows. However,

In this text the two youths are first they began to covet, inter alia, the wealth and 'excellent women' of
presented as pupils of kings, and so began composing hymns'6 to acquire them. 'And they,
distinguished and wealthy brahmins', in dispute over an issue central
to Brahmanism; at the end receiving wealth there, found pleasure in hoarding it up' (Sn 306, dhanam
they declare themselves lay-followers of laddh sannidhim samarocayum: see below on 'storing up [objects of]
the Buddha. Exactly the same thing is true of the
Tevijj Sutta, in which desire ); they began the 'ancient mean practice' of cow-sacrifice. Because
the dispute concerns their respective Brahmin teachers, and where the
closing refrain is identical to that of the Vsetha Sutta. In AS they are of this, the other three social classes were 'split up' (the commentary,
presented as living with the monks at Svatthi, and aspiring to become Pj 1I 324, interprets this to mean that they no longer lived in harmony).
monks (themselves). The commentaries to both the Tevijja Sutta and This text, like AS, criticises Brahmins by saying that they have forgotten
AS (Sv 406, 860) connect the three stories about the two youths into the past; both recount a narrative of their degeneration from an ideal.
The two narratives are, on the surface level of a temporal sequence of
a continuous narrative: after the Vsetha Sutta they declared themselves
actual events, quite different; but when read as parables using stories of
lay-followers; after the Tevijj they did so again, but thereafter (after
the past to make a contemporary moral point, they complement each
a few days according to Sv 406) took the Minor Ordination to become
other perfectly well.
Buddhist novices. At the start of AS they are aspiring to become monks,
hoping to take the Major Ordination. (Sv 406 says that after AS they
I have said that AS (and related texts) presents a Buddhist ascetic-
did so, and attained liberation; cp. Sv 872.) Being formerly 'adept in
hierarchical model of society: but it is a complex one with an inner
the three Vedas... philologists,grammarians, like our teachers in (Vedic)
would thus the references dynamic of its own. The moral values on which the hierarchy is based
recitation, they be a good audience
bothfor
to Vedic hymns and for the 'etymologies' in AS; as novices they would are often, indeed normally, correlated with social status: monks and
nuns are 'above' all laity, including Brahmins and kings. But this
presumably be becoming familiar with the Vinaya rules, and thus
correlation is not held to be automatic or intrinsic. AS #21-6, concluding
also a good audience for the references to it in the parable of origins.
the story of origins, tells of the birth of five social 'groups' (mandal:
(Obviously, in a historical sense, the 'audience' for AS was much wider;
the four Brahmanical 'classes' and ascetics, samana). Immediately
but if that wider audience were familiar with the characters of Vsettha
and Bhäradvja, they would be appropriate as the represented audience.) thereafter, sections #27-30 teach that anyone in any of five social groups
rebirth. Although the
can go to hell, heaven, or attain liberation from
In another text of the Sutta Nipta, the Discourse on 'Brahmanical ascetic is in a very much better position to practise the 'right conduct
Lore' (Brahmanadhammika-sutta) there is a discussion at Savatthi for liberation, that goal neither follows automatically
from
necessary
 GENERAL INTAODUCTION 21
20 AGGANNA SUTTA

the Discourse with Assal yana,

the social status of 'the ascetic-group' nor is it confined to it. This In Majhima Sutta 93 (MII 147-157),
Brahmin to agree that purity
does not, I think, make a great difference in
practice. Although monastic the Buddha persuades the eponymous to the
status is not a necessary condition for suddhi), in opposition
liberation, the celibate life is: belongs to (all) four classes' (ctuvai this by means of
it is quite impossible to conceive of the notion that Brahmins are the
best class etc. He does
religious life described in early relevant here.
Pali texts being practised fully by those the first three are
sexually active. But it does a series of arguments, of which
long
make a difference in interpretation, in what the women give birth in
the normal way, and
representation of 'society' The first is that that Brahmin
is trying to achieve. Thus as AS #4: see #4.2).
although AS states twice (#7, #31) that 'of so Brahinins are not
"born of Brahm ' (the same
above,
these four classes.. the arahant is what is called in the Discourse at Madhur
primary', the ascetic The third is exactly the same as (ii) The second
sections #5, #6, #27 and #28 in
AS.
hierarchy is not itself a social hierarchy with intrinsic valucs, despite blending language from
the fact that, as #8 shows, even
kings do honour to ascetics. neighbouring areas' there are only
is that 'in Yona, Kan1boj and other reversed
and that these positions can be
This point is, I think, supported by the only other texts in the Pali two classes, masters and slaves,
assume that the
narrative
If we can
Canon where the sentiments attributed to Brahmins in AS #3 and #4 (a striking anticipation of Hegel). points
the same language to make the same
are found. In Sutta 84 of the voice in texts which use
Majhima Nikya (M II 83-90), the Discourse cannot be thougint to offer a myth
at Madhur, a king hears that Buddhist monk whom he calls 'the
a is homogenous, it follows that AS
ascetic (samana) Mahkaccna' is living nearby; he goes to him and of cosmogony and society which takes forgranted the universal existence
are specifically said in the
asks what he thinks of the sentiments
expressed by Brahmins (as in of the four Brahmanical classes, when they
arrangements. When the
AS #3, from 'Brahmins are the best class' down to 'heirs of
Brahm'). Assalyana Sutta to be local and contingent in AS
Mahkaccna must take the story. of origins
replies that this is just 'something people say' (lit. 'an two texts are taken together, we
utterance in the world, ghoso yeva... lokasmi); and in elucidation he truth rather than an account intended
to be a parable exemplifying a moral
gives four arguments to persuade the king that the four classes are to convey a simple (and single) historical truth.
exactly the same' (samasam). They are: (i) individuals from any of
the four classes can, with enough money, have someone from
any of Notes on the status of my interpretation
the four classes as a servant; (ii) good and bad behaviour lead to heaven (iv)
and hell, for anyone from any class (this passage blends elements from
the
AS #5, #6, #27 and #28); (ii) if an individual from
any of the four
It might be useful to offer some remarks on the status of interpretation
classes commits crimes such as burglary or adultery, the king offered here. As mentioned earlier, the story of origins, from section
punishes #10 to some or all of #21, circulated separately elsewhere in the Buddhist
him, by execution, banishment, etc. (cp. AS #20): in such a case 'the
previous designation (samaññ) "k_atriya" (etc.) has disappeared, and tradition, from at least the time of the Mah vastu and the
Mklasarvstivda Vinaya. The Pali commentarial tradition seems not
he is reckoned simply as "thief"; (iv) if an individual from
any class if it has said
leaves home for homelessness, and lives virtuously, the king 'salutes to have understood the text in the way I do,
or did, not

him respectfully, rises up from his seat for him' (as in AS #8), supports so: the commentary does notice some jokes (see #4.3)
and both
and are aware of one of the references
him materially and affords him protection: in such a case, "the commentary sub-commentary
previous
designation "k_atriya" (etc.) has disappeared, and he is reckoned simply to Vedic ideas (see #3.3), but neither mention the Vinaya. For some
readers, perhaps, this in itself might be enough to render what I say
as
"ascetic" (yahi 'ssa... pubbe khatiyo ti samaäh, s ssa antarahit worth
samano t'eva saikhamgacchati). Two things are worthy ofcomment an over-speculative and purely modern reading. Ultimately, the

first, it is a condition ofsuch respect that the ascetic be virtuous; second, of my interpretation must be judged on its own merits, according to
as in the Vasettha Sutta, the
designation 'ascetic' is no more an ascribed the weight of the detailed evidence and arguments adduced. Modern
social status than is 'thief. Both can be acquired by behaviour, by any scholars of Classical Greek texts are not necessarily concerned if their
individual from any of the four ascribed Brahmanical classes. interpretations of them were not shared by commentators in the
 GENERAL INTAODUCTION 23
22 AGGAÑNA SUTTA

continuous whole, with lexical, semantic and thematic elements common

intervening centuries. I do think that, in the Pali Buddhist case, there
to both the parable of origins and its frame, there would seem no reason
are reasons for paying great attention to the commentarial tradition
to deny that some comparable story of origins could have existed
when considering the development of systematic and context-free
religious doctrine, and the way the later tradition understood (and separately in the oral culture of early Buddhism. If so, and if later
composers wished to use it in other ways, they may have adopted the
redacted) its canonical texts from that point of view. But with a text
as context-sensitive as I believe AS to be, perhaps we might accord version redacted in AS, without worrying that the connexions between
the origin-story and its frame therein would be lost. Once the frame-
ourselves greater interpretive autonomy. I do not wish merely to say
that, as a reader, I have the privilege to respond in any way I like to story had been excised, and with it what I have called the aspect of
a text, and so my interpretation is self-justificatory. I want my reading
moral commentary in AS, there would remain little significance in the
to be accorded historical value, to be seen as discovering motifs and references to the Vinaya, and so they too would have been ignored.
intentions genuinely present in the text and in the minds of its original What of the commentarial texts, redacted as we have them in Sri
composer(s) and (at least some of) its original audience(s). If this is Lanka in the second half of the 1st millennium A.D.? Gombrich (92a:
so, how can I explain the fact that other texts present versions of #10- 160-1) has argued that the composition of the commentaries was
21 with apparently straightforward seriousness, and that the commentarial 'separated from that of the suttas not only in time but also in space'
tradition has failed either to notice or to mention the references to the (that is, in South India and/or Sri Lanka centuries later); this is
Vinaya I see in A$? I will sketch out an answer to these questions, but undoubtedly true of their present redaction, but it may be that some
I do not expect to close the issue decisively- I am content to leave commentaries preserve much earlier material. In the case of the
the matter open for discussion. commentaries on AS, I must simply argue that the fact that they
If I am right, AS (that is, some oral ancestor of our written text) misunderstand and/or ignore many of the references and meanings
was originally composed in the pre-Mauryan period in Northeast India, that allege it contains, is in itself evidence that they were not composed
in the socio-economic and political circumstances described in
I
in close and spatial-cultural proximity to it. (In the case of
Part I (i) and (ii), circumstances discovered by modem historiography.
temporal
resonances with the Vinaya rules, perhaps they were too obvious to
Although it would be wrong to allege that ancient South Asians had need mention?) Certainly the cultural circumstances of Theravda
no 'historical consciousness', it is hardly surprising that memories and Buddhism in Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia were very different
narratives of the past were then deployed, in texts, in ways very different from those of early (and, indeed, later) Buddhism in India. Indian
from those of modern socio-political history. So perhaps it is no surprise Buddhist texts were produced in a milieu of constant and endemic
that the picture which modern historians reconstruct, and which I have ideological plurality: kings, Brahmins, Jains and others all had their
used to elucidate AS, was not of concern to the Buddhist tradition. own hierarchical models of social relations. In Sri Lanka, however,
Both the Mah vastu and the Mklasarvstivda Vinaya, in the form we although it would be severely mistaken to assume that the Mahvihrin
have them, are without doubt post-Mauryan (although they may preserve version of Theravda which survives was ever the only and
unchallenged
some materials from earlier times)," and are contemporary with what version of Buddhism," and although there were
periodically kings who
I called earlier the 'tension-filled amalgam' of Hindu orthodoxy, favoured some version of what is now called 'Hinduism', by and
large
which evolved as a successful response to the challenge posed by Pali commentaries were produced in a cultural situation where articulated
non- altemative visions of society
Brahmanical groups during the Mauryan empire. Perhaps in such changed were very much less powerful. Accordingly
socio-political and cultural circumstances the situational relevance of here, as in Southeast Asia after Theravda had been 'established"' there
AS was lost. I cited earlier the fact of Lucian's 'satires' being treated by kings, given that Brahmanical ideology was not a significant
non-satirically by later writers in Europe. AS may be a parallel case. competitor, Buddhist intellectuals had merely to work out some modus
Furthermore, while I hold that AS as we have it is a coherent and vivendi with kings. Thus as a system of thought Buddhism became
 I G. N. C. A.

24 AGGANNA SUTTA
-67148
Acc.No. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 25

a technical term
for
more concerned with cosmology and cosmogony, in the sense that it (nassa asuci): recalls use of n seti as
and 5).
more concerned to give its own expulsion from the monkhood (see #16.4
became ideological grounding of the
existing social 'world' than it ever was in India, where it could preserve houses (agini.. knu): contradicts the fundamental
#17. Making
life, 'going forth from home
to
its stance of moral commentary on Brahmanism. It would, indeed, also symbol of monastic
Such
be severely mistaken to see such later Buddhist texts as proffering a homelessness' (agrasm anag riyam pabbajj).
whole and complete legitimation of social and political life: no pabbajj constitutes the (first) change of status from
ordination'. Houses
transcendental salvation system can ever be without some tension with layperson to (novice) monk, the 'lower
mundane matters, and I prefer to speak, as earlier, of an antagonistic are said to be made for the purpose of concealing/covering
in a house
symbiosis between king-thugs and Buddhist-legitimators. Both the immorality; cp. the ubiquitous motif 'dwelling
life'."
antagonism and the symbiosis could fuctuate in different times and is a constriction... going-forth is an open-air
places. But it becomes less surprising in such a context that the story #17. Storing food for eight days: contravenes Nissagiya Pcittiya
of origins in AS should no longer be read as a parable, aFd that, since 23 and Pcittiya 38. Note the grammatical peculiarity of
elements from it were now detached from their original context in sannidhi-krakam (see below pp. 26-7).
AS,0 it should take on the force of a legitimatory myth-charter. Here
#18. 'Setting a limit' (mariyda): may recall monastic boundaries
again, once the references to Brahmanical ideology and the socio-moral
context of AS had been lost, it is plausible to assume that the allusions
(sima) (see #18.2).
to other Buddhist texts I adduce here would also have been lost, or #20. The verb khiyati, 'become angry': found standardly in this
sense only as a formulaic expression in the Vinaya (see #20.1).
ignored.
# 21. The term mahsammata: modelled on monastic appointments
I. THE STORY OF ORIGINS, MONASTIC LIFE AND IDEALS, (see Appendix 1).
AND THE VINAYA
(ii) The five impossible things
(i) Individual verbal reminiscences of the Monastic Code
These verbal reminiscences are already enough to suggest that AS is
(Vinaya)
deliberately alluding to the Vinaya; this is proven, I think, by the
Here I simply list the relevant places: the translation notes contain the semantic and lexical paraliels between AS, the Vinaya code, and a list
textual and linguistic details. of ascetic ideals found in a number of texts, which give five 'impossible
#11ff. The first food-stuffs likened to ghee(sappi),cream (navanita) things' (abhabba-(thn ni),five things which an enlightened monk
cannot commit (so abhabbo pañca thanni ajh caritum). The similarities
and honey (madhu): three of the five "medicines' allowed
to monks and nuns (Nissaggiya Pãcitiya 23, et freq.; see are striking, albeit that many of the phrases are common in other texts.
The five things are listed, in only very slightly differing forms, at
below).
D-III 133 (in a list of nine), 235, M-I 523 and A-IV 370; I cite the
#12. Tasting the 'earth-essence' with the finger: contravenesS version at M-I 523. The first four are similar in coptent, though not
Sekhiya rules 52 and 53 (see #12.2). in language, to the first Four of the Five Precepts, incumbent on all
#12. Taking (big) mouthfuls with the hands: contravenes Sekhiya Buddhists; the specific wording ofall five recalls directly various rules
rules 39, 40, and (possibly) 42 and 46 (see #12.3). from the Pinaya code:

1. Note the use of apajati It is impossible that a monk who is an Arahant, in whom the
#16. Having sex: contravenes Prjik
corruptions have wasted away, who has lived the (holy) life, done what
in #17 (see #17.3). 'Away with you and your impurity!
 26 AGGAÑÑA SUTTA
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 277

has to be done, laid down the burden, attained

the true goal, in whom
the fetters of existence are the psychological propensity to desire them. The form of the word
destroyed, who is released by right wisdom,
sannidhi-k rakam is of particular importance here. The suffix -k rakam
should commit the five erimes.'
(This list of epithets is found very is usually used to refer to a person or process which makes something,
frequently, and appears in AS #7, 31] They are or to the act of making. Here neither sense is syntactically appropriate,
1. "He cannot intentionally deprive a living thing of life' and the word seems to agree with nothing in the sentence. The
(sañcicca pnama jivit voropetum). The wording here commentary to the passage cited (Ps III 234) glosses it as an absolutive
is identical to or gerund, sannidhim katv, '"having made a store', and states that
Pcittiya 61, and almost identical to
Parajik 3, against killing human beings (sañcicca such a monk cannot eat foods such as sesamc, husked rice, ghee, cream,
manussaviggahamn jivit voropeyya). etc., which he has stored for present consumption, as he did when a
2. He cannot take what is not
layman enjoying material pleasures (yath pubbe gihibh üto sannidhim
given, intending to steal it' katv vatthukme paribhuñjati evam tila-tandula-sappi-navanitdini
(adinnam theyyasamkhtam dtum). This is identical to sannidhim katv idni paribhuijitum abhabbo)." The explanation of
Pärajik 2. The texts explain theyyasamkhta mas referring sannidhik rakam as a gerund is found in most of the relevant
to the intention steal
to (Vin 1 46, Kkh
26-7) (but see #20.2). commentaries, and seems to be historically correct. Edgerton, in BHS
3. He cannot have sex'
(methunam dhammam patisevitum). Grammar #22.5 and #35.5 describes what he calls 'quasi-gerunds' in
This is identical to Pärjik 1. -akam, and adds that some are found in the Pali P timokkha. Examples
He cannot tell a conscious
in the Patimokkha are Nissaggiya Pacittiya 23, Pacittiya 38 (both with
lie (sampajnanus exactly this phrase; see below), and Sekhiya 18-28. Gerunds in -am
bhsitum). This is identical to Pcittiya 1 (the first ten
are called adverbial by Whitney (1989: 359-60), namul in the terminology
Pãcittiyas are called the 'chapter on lying', mksvdavaggo); of Painian grammar; they are even rarer in Pali than in Sanskrit, but
it also recalls Pärjika 4, against falsely claiming higher they are found." AS contains two, in #12 alumpa-k rakam (see #12.3),
spiritual achievements. and in #17 this word, sannidhi-k rakarF.
5. He cannot enjoy (objects of) desire,
making a store (of Nissaggiya Pcittiya 23 forbids storing the five medicines for longer
them) as he formerly did when living in a house" than 7 days: ...sappi, navanitam, telam, madhu, ph nitam: tni
(sannidhikraka m kme paribhuijitum seyyath pi pubbe patiggahetv satt haparamam sannidhik raka paribhuijitabb ni; tam
agriyabhuto). This recalls both Nissagiya Pãcittiya 23 and atikkäanayato, nissaggiyam pcituiyam, 'after ghee, cream, oil, honey
Pacittiya 38: the similarity calls for extended comment. and molasses have been accepted, they can be eaten after keeping them
in store for seven days at most, if someone lets (seven days) pass, this is
an offence requiring expiation with forfeiture'. P ciiya 38 forbids
(ii) Making a store': the Fall of Mankind and
Vinaya
infractions storing all foods: yo pana bhikkhu sannidhik rakam kh daniyam va
bhojaniyam v khdeyya v bhuijeyya v, pcitiyam, 'if a monk eats
The word kma can be both subjective and hard or soft food which he has stored, there is an offence requiring
objective, referring to desire expiation'; an amendment given immediately after the rule (Vin IV 87)
and its objects. While it stands for attachnent to
anything and everything states that storing food for up to seven days (here using a standard gerund
in Buddhist psychology, there is clearly an
emphasis on sensual and
sexual pleasure. The verb bhuj, used here, can mean to nidahitva) is allowable (cp. also Vin I 209, with the gerund form
eat, and also
to consume or enjoy in any and every sense. In this context krakam). The motifof the ideal monk not storing food was well1-known;
all these
connotations of the word are in play, with the idea that the householder it appears, for example, at Sn 924, in one of the earliest Buddhist poems
stores both the actual objects of his known to us: 'having received (something) he would not make a hoard
enjoyment (from food to wife)
and
na sannidhim kayir] of food and drink, eatables and clothes'. (Cp. Sn
 GENERAL INTAODUCTION 29
28 AGGAÑÑA SUTTA

sannidhik rakam slim upakkamimsu

306 concerning the [true] Brahmin, cited on yato te.. satt
p.19.) Note that the pariyonandhi, thuso
commentary cited above, Ps III 234, used 'husked rice' (tandula) to paribhuijitum, atho kano pi tandula
exemplify the things an ideal monk cannot store. Monks, of course, are pi tandulam pariyonandhi.
presented with husked rice by their donors, cooked or uncooked- it is 2:
#19. Theft: (Impossible Thing No. 2) contravenes Prjika
one of the foods which monks are adinnam
allowed to accept and take into the bhgam
sakam bhägam parirakkhanto aññataram
monastery to be kept and cooked up to a week later at Vin I 211- as Note that the text specifies that he kept
were the beings in AS before
diyitv paribhuiji.
storing began. In AS #17, it is after storing another's, which had
has reached eight days that his own portion (ofrice) while taking
'powder and husk covered the grain' ('grain' not been given; this underscores that it
counts as an intentional
tandula). Thusstoring rice in the
parable has no consequences until
one being goes over the seven days Vinaya limit. Storing theft, not simple carelessness about ownership.
food beyond 1:
that time, of course, is allowable for a contravenes P cittiya
layperson; the fifth impossible #19. lying: (Impossible Thing No.4)
thing specifically states that the monk cannot now make a store musvdo paññayati.
of) desire 'as he formerly did when living in a house'. In ASof #16fobjects
and
Impossible Thing No.1 (cf. Pacittiya 61 against killing
#17, two sections which could be separated any
#19-20.
differently, as does Walshe's 1, against murder) is not described
(87) translation, or run together to form a single section, there is a close living thing, and Pärjika
It is first adumbrated
connexion between sex, living in houses, storing food, and the
subsequent directly in AS, but may be inferred.
and t h e n - by
need for rice-cultivation.
by the violence of the beings in #19,
the
The conclusion seems to me implication- by the legitimate punishment given by
inescapable that both the 'five impossible first king in #20. The text does not specify that capital
things' and AS are deliberately recalling the Vinaya rules, both in
language and content. The rules should have been familiar to all monks punishment is involved, but this is assumed by the
and nuns, as the Pätimokkha was commentarial tradition: Sv 870 glosses the phrase khyitabbam
(supposed to be)
in the presence of all members of each monastic recited
every fortnight
coommunity. The five khiyeyya, inter alia, as hretabbam hreyya, simply 'remove
infractions of the Vinaya impossible for an ideal ascetic are thus precisely (whoever) has to be removed; the sub-commentary, DA
the stages in the Fall of III 59) explains, somewhat gingerly, sattan ik yato
Mankind from celibacy to civilisation, in sections
#16-20. Each and every event in the nihretabbam, (whoever) is to be removed from the world
degeneration of beings is in some
way related to the monastic order, its ideals and its Code: of beings'. It has almost always, been an accepted part of
a king's function throughout Buddhist and Indian history
#12. eating with a finger and then in handfuls: contravenes Sekhiya to execute criminals, and this, of course, makes Buddhist
rules (as above, p.24).
moral ambiguity about them automatic and unavoidable.
#13-5. pride in appearance' (vaanna): cp. the class- In AS, sex and storing rice are calied in #18papak akusal
(vaanna-)pride
and related denigration of Buddhist monks attributed to
dhamm, 'bad, unwholesome things'; in #19 and #20
Brahmins at the start of the sutta, which had been abandoned
theft, lying and violence are called 'bad"; the term
by Vasetha and Bhradvja in their intention to become danddnam, 'taking up the stick', refers here to the beings
monks (cf. IV below on keywords).
violence in #19, but danda is also a standard term for royal
#16. having sex:(Impossible Thing No. 3) contravenes Prjika punishment; in #22 these three things, and the now apparently
1:] methunam dhammam patisevimsu; beings 'expelled legitimate royal activity of pabbjana, 'banishing', are called
from the samgha' because of this: nassa (referring to
nsana). bad, unwholesome things', seemingly with the approval
#17. of the narrative voice (see #20.2 on royal punishment for
storing rice for more than seven days: (Impossible
Thing theft, and #22.1).
No.5) contravenes issaggiya Pcittiya 23, Päcittiya 38):
 30 AGGANNA SUTTA GENERAL INTRODUCTION 31

IV. THE STRUCTURE OF AS AND KEYWORDS 1. Story of the Present (#1-9)

Part of the unity and coherence of AS is achieved by the repetition of #1-7. Conversation with Brahmins about Brahmins
certain keywords, often with deliberate plays on their various senses.
settha "best', in #3, #4, #7, used by Brahmins of their
=

The words are agga, aggañña, settha, the prefix brahma-, and vanna. class (vanna); used by the Buddha of the Dhamma in #7.
(For the close relationship between the first four of these terms, see
agga "best' (°what is primary') used by the Buddha of
=

#*7.2, 7.3, and *9.2.) I accept Gombrich's (92a: 169-70) analysis of the Arahant in #7. (The . of #7 proves there to be a
aggañia as an adjective formed by the ending -ña added to agga in close link between settha and agga: see #7.3.)
the sense of first'; aggaiña thus means, in his rendering, 'primeval"
Brahmæ: used as the name ofa god in #3, #4, #7.
or 'original'. I think there is also a deliberate play on words here with
agga in the sense of best', found in #7 and #31 (see # 7.2). Fortunately #8. King Pasenadi and the Buddha.
for a translator, the Eng!ish 'primary' can also have the same two senses: settha = "best' used by the Buddha of the Dhamma (twice).
the first two meanings listed in the Oxford English Dictionary are 'of Note the epithets used for the Buddha and Pasenadi (see
the first order in time or temporal sequence; earliest, primitive, original' #8.1 and 3).
and 'of the first or highest rank or importance; that claims the first #9. Buddhist ascetics superordinate to kings and Brahmins. (For
consideration; principal; chief. In the title of the sutta I render the continuity with #8 re: kings, see #9.1 on Sakyaputtiy.)
word 'what is primary', as I see it deliberately catching both senses;
Brahma: used both as the name ofa god and, punningly, as
the grammatical nature of the phrase aggam akkhyati in #7 and #31
a prefix in the sense of 'best' (see #9.2).
suggests the English 'what is primary' there too (see #7.2), albeit that
to refer to a person as 'what is primary' is a little ungainly in English. Dhamma, said to be "best' in #7, #8, replaces god Brahm
in the series of epithets used of the Buddha.
The word settha means 'best', and is used repeatedly in the text
by various people of various things (see below); the prefix brahma-
can be used with the same meaning in Pali, and this allows puns on 2. Story of the Past (#10-26)
the name of the Brahmanical god Brahm (see #9.2, #32. 1). It is not
#10-17. From immaterial celibacy to household life, food-storage
surprising, in a text proposing an (ascetic) hierarchy, that there should and agriculture.
be so many words, so often repeated, for 'best' etc. The most polyvalent
aggañna = 'primary' (agga = 'first') in #13, #15, #16.
term in AS, and the most frequently repeated, is vanna. On its first
appearance it is used by Brahmins to refer to their social class; as vanna= colour' (of foodstuffs) in #11, #12, #14.
Gombrich (92: 163, cf. 168) points out, it can also mean 'colour,
2. 'appearance' (by itself and in compounds) in #12, #13,
complexion', 'good looks'; I have sometimes rendered it 'appearance' #14, #15, #16 (total of 29 times): echoes of 'class' as used
(see #11.3 and 13.1). All these senses are used as the text goes along; in #3, #4, #7.
but in each case cchoes of the other senses are also in play.
#18. Recapitulation, and appearance of private property.
I set out here the structure of AS as I see it, showing where and #19-20. From private property to crime and punishment tadagge
how the keywords occur. I label the first two parts 'Story ofthe Present from this beginning' (agga = 'first').

and 'Story of the Past' to evoke the use of the same terms in the structure
# 21-26. Etymologies for the four Brahmanical classes, called 'groups
of Jataka narratives. I see the organisation of AS as in this sense analogous
mandala); renouncer-Brahmins, royal cities, the ascetic
to that of a Jätaka tale, although it is not, of course, presented as such group.
32 AcGANRA SUTTA GENERAL INTAODUCTION 33

[aggañia = 'primary', used eight times in #21-25.

NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION
settha: used of the Dhamma in #21, #24, #25, #26, and
grateful to various friends and colleagues for helpful
comments
I am
(pejoratively) of Brahmins in #23. Griffiths and
on an carlier draft: at Chicago, Wendy Doniger, Paul
#27-32. Conclusion. Sheldon Pollock made both minor and major suggestions for revision;
Norman
#27-30. Morality, Rebirth and Release the Phyllis Granoff provided additional data and suggestions. Roy
for all social groups of
read it with characteristically generous care, making a number
same
(repeats sentiments of #5-7).
corrections and useful remarks. I am especially grateful to Patrick Olivelle
#31. The Arahant is what is
for forcing me to think much harder about the issue of
how to treat
primary (repeats end of #7 verbatim).
the 'satire' in AS than I had done, and for patiently discussing at length
agga =
"best' (perhaps a hint of the other sense: see #31.2).
settha = "best', used of the Dhamma. with me a number of other questions. Anyone who reads Richard
Gombrich's (88) book and (92) article will see how much I have learned
#32. Brahm Sanamkumra's (the Ever-Virgin's: see #32.1) Verse from him, despite differences of emphasis in our readings of AS. I
of what
settha= 'best', used of k_atriyas vis-à-vis the human world, imagine they would all still disagree with some, perhaps much
interpretation given here is entirely mine.
of "the person endowed with wisdom and I say. Responsibility for the
right conduct'
vis-à-vis the universe as a whole. Since I present this work as an improvement on the Rhys Davids
translation, I should like to dedicate it to the memory of T.W. Rhys
Brahma: used in a characteristically Buddhist sense (see
Davids, a giant on whose shoulders we stand.
#32.1).
This outline can show the overall structure of the text, and the
continuity of vocabulary; it cannot give a feel for the logic of the narrative
as it moves along in a coherent
sequence. The story of origins, then,
far from being an extraneous and disconnected insertion, as has been
alleged, is intimately tied to the focus of the text as a whole. The
immediate transition from #9 to #10 is effected by the replacement of
the Vedas by the Dhamma (the word of the Buddha) and of Brahmä
by the Buddha, who "has the best body', and 'is the best' (brahma-
kyo, brahma-bhuto) (see #9.2).
I shall not take space here to recapitulate the argument of the
Introduction as a whole, nor to set out in detail the correspondences
between Gellner's vision of agrarian society and the themes of AS. If
they are not obvious already, they will become so on re-reading.

In the translation which follows, as said earlier, I have aimed at

accuracy rather than elegance. I have omitted some, but not all repetitions
in the text, in deference to modern English prose style. This does, of
course, slightly alter the flavour and pace of the narrative, but this will
not matter for my purpose hero, which is exegetical.
34 AGGANNA SuTTA GENERAL INTRODUCTION 35

END NOTES writes 'the representation of one's own king as a world-ruler of

untrammelled power is a commonplace of the ideology informing
The argument is stated at
greatest length in Vedic ritual. It was an institutionalised fantasy'; therefore, it could
references are given in the text; versions of it (88), in a
from which page
appear number of have existed before the realisation of large-scale empires. In either
Gellner's works: see, e.g., the casc, such passages cannot be read as containing depictions
of the
summary versions in (83) Chapter 2,
Culture in Agrarian Society'. historical world. This is not the case with AS.
pre-Mauryan
2. In this article I use Sanskrit rather
than Pali terr for t 13. See Olivelle (93: Chapter 2.2 note 85) who cites Ghosh (73: 19-21)
social classes, as they are best known
Brahmanical
in English in that
form; I used and Erdosi (88: 126).
the angliciscd 'brahmin(s)'
except when quoting from others, where and other literature cited there.
I retain their spelling. 14. See Olivelle (91),
3. Gellner's phrase 15. (78); see also Burghart (85).
'conspicuous self-exile' recalls Peter Browns's work
on the late antique 'holy man', and the See Erdosi (88: 17-8, 118).
'rituals of disengagement' 16.
which make possible his particular social
role(s). See Brown (71))
and (78). I have tried before, in Collins 17. Such literature was in large part written by brahmins. Indecd, as Patrick
to (88), apply this analytical Olivelle reminds me, we should note another ambiguity, or divergence
perspective to Buddhist monasticism.
of emphasis within Brahmanism, in addition to that between ascetics
4. Erdosi (88: i12). and non-ascetics discussed in the text below: that is, between liturgical
and other texts which place tlhe brahmin at the top of the social hierarchy,
5. Summary accounts can be found in Ghosh (73), Sharma (83) and Erdosi
and other texts- including even the Manusmrti
-
which make the
(88); the latter contains a judicious and helpful discussion of the problerns
of dating both Brahmanical and Buddhist king the highest.
texts, and of relating both
to the archaeological data currently known. 18 (92: 22-3), referring to Heesterman (85).
6. See Bechert (91), and other forthcoming volumes on the subject under 19. suggest that the story of origins must have been as separate
The first to
his editorship. text was Edmunds (04: 207-9); more recently Schneider (57) and Meising
(88) have taken a similar approach.
7. Erdosi (88: 16).
20. I am here influenced by recent trends in Homeric scholarship; see,
8. Gombrich (88: 49-59) offers an elegant summary. e.g., Macleod (82), esp. pp. ix and 37-40, and Griffin (80), esp. pp.
9 See Olivelle (92), Introduction section 2, and (93) Chapter 2.2-3. Earlier 12-5.
Van Buitenen (81: 12) had sketched out a similar idea.
21 I use this term in the sense proposed by Ramanujan (91).
10. For this political history, see esp. Erdosi (88: 118-50). See also Sarkisyanz (65). Much of the heat, and much of the point,
22
11. They are: the majority of the Digha, Majhima, Samyutia and Anguttara can be removed from the debate between Tambiah and Carrithers (77),
Nik ya-s, and the Suta Nip ta, with perhaps some other short texts (87), (93: chapter 7), when one distinguishes what AS and the figure
from the Khuddaka Nikya. The Abhidhamma has always been accepted of Mahasammata might be in their earliest form, and what the 'myth
to be late; recent evidence is tending to suggest that the version of of origins' and Mahsammata (sic. now become a proper name for
the Vinayya we have is a later redaction, although it too contains no an individual) became in the later tradition.
reference to imperial formations.
23 Some seem to historically factual, pointing to what
have taken it as
12. Where
such a figure is mentioned, as in the well-known they thought was the 'natural', pre-political, 'pre-contract' condition
Cakkavattis ihanda Sulta, which was redacted next to AS in the Digha of the newly-discovered American Indian tribes as empirical evidence;
others seem to have recognised the allegorical nature of the story,
collection, and which shares certain narrative motifs with it, there are
See Lessnoff
two interpretive options. Either one decides such passages were redacted while still according it explanatory and legitimatory value.
after the Mauryan empire; or one follows Gombrich (88: who 82), (86).
 GENERAL INTAODUCTION 37
36 AGGANNA SUTTA

former as late as
the 4th
24 He was writing of the poet Andrew Marvell (32: 255). I am for elements of the
grateful 37. See Winternitz (33.247) the 4th-5th
Centuries
to Gananath dated the latter to
Obeyesekere for Century A.D. Lamotte (88: 657)
talk entirely unconnected with introducing
me to this at the
passage (in a a n earlier date,
AS), and for kindly tracking down the disagreed, preferring
A.D.; Gnoli (77: xix-xxi) but is usually
precise reference. is not known exactly,
time of Kani_ka. This, notoriously,
25. Manuel A.D.
and Manuel (79: 16, 80, 103, 229, 343). thought to be Ist-2nd Century
that 'in n u c e
26. acknowledging
ibid., p. 1 on More, and passim. See KRN Coll. Pap,
1: 156, RFG (ibid.), Buddhists
38 first generations of
tradition goes back to the
27. I think it would be the commentarial Dravidian kinship pattens
interesting to study the Brahmanical traditions of in northerm India', cites
Trautmann's work on
dharma-s- Sãstra from this of at least those
await another occasion, and
'oleu-topian 'perspective; but that must in the commentaries
to show the latter
provenance
'since North India
was

perhaps another scholar. sections. But Norman argues

(pers. Comm.) reason
I s e e no
28. See, e.g. KRN Coll. Pap. II #43 on the before it became Indo-Aryan,
Dravidian and Munda
Sabhiya Sutta. Buddha's family w e r e in fact
Dravidian, and it
could

29. Kahrs (83) has argued that in Sanskrit, such to doubt that the until only shortly
'etymologies' are to be Sakyans w e r e Dravidian speakers
understood in relation to the have been that the need to a s s u m e
Brahmanical view of it as language with Buddha. There is, therefore, no
a specialand direct relation to reality: thus, the more before the time of the were composed
meanings which deal with such things
perceivable in a word, the more it tells us about the world. RFG that the commentaries commentaries
cites of the
he says, while some parts
Kahrs, arguing that the etymologies in AS are deliberately in South India'. Thus,
and/or Sri Lanka, 'I
think o n e
this view. I am not sure that this point is decidable. As I parodying clearly w e r e composed
in South India
hope to show with the possibility
in a future article, while there is some commentary on its merits,
evidence that early Buddhism has to treat each pieceof otherwise'.
did have a view of unless it c a n be proved
language as purely conventional, by the commentarial that everything is old
period the form of Middle Indo-Aryan we call Pali (for the texts, the inter alia, Collins (90) and the literature
cited there.
39 On this see,
language of Magadha) was seen as havinga privileged, epistemologically
direct relation and Mahva msa (Chap. 2), roughly
to reality,
if not the ontological status accorded to Sanskrit 40. Both the Dipavamsa (Chap. 3) commentaries in Pali,
in the Brahmanical Mimmsa school. contemporaneous
with the final fixing of the
a king at the origin
of the Sakyan family; and
30. See Bronkhorst (83); make Mah sammata
and for the a-historicism 'first king' Mah sammata
occurs
of Sanskrit, Deshpande in the later tradition the figure ofthe
(85). to ritual, as well as
in inseriptions.
in many kinds of texts, from legal
31. Translations from the Sutta of these later sources; hope to add more

Nipata, here and of the BrhmaFadhammika Tambiah (89) lists some

Suta, are by Norman (92). in a future publication.

32. For a list of examples of Brahmanical 44); cp. DI 63 et freq.
terminology used in a (new) 41 Sn. 406, translation from Norman (92:
Buddhist sense, see KRN Coll. Pap. IV #99.
'material objects to desire' here
uses
vatthu-k ma,
2. The reference to
33. material and mental;
Although novices were not allowed to attend formal-ritual recitations a standard
division of '(objects of)
desire', into

of the Paimokkha ("'in a seated assembly', nisinna-paris Vin I 135), kilesa-k m , literally,'(objects of) desire (consisting) in
the latter is
monkS as prone to this as
as
'co-res ident pupils' of a preceptor, they learnt to recite it (Vin I defilement(s). Unenlightened
a re

47: ep. Horner (15: 62 n. 7) and CPD s. v. uddispeti. the description is of an enlightened monk,
householders; given that
the reference must be
neither form of desire,
34. The word is Komrabrahmacariya: see AS #31.2 and #31.3. in whom there can be
said specifically
to such a person's behaviour - t h a t is, he
is being
35 See Collins (forthcoming) on the significance of this in Buddhist not to store things such as food.

monasticism. of A IV 70 in the PTS

edition
76, Sv. 913. The text
43. Sp. 710. Kkh scribe error,
s e e m to be a
36. The phrase is manthe but this would
ganthetv; cp. AS #23 and #23.1 on ganthe reads sannidhik rak kme,
karnot.