| Show WHO HAS THE ST that of tho the buddhist Is in volumes the sacred books of 0 the buddhists aro are perfectly appalling in their bulk they are called the TrIpI the three baskets and were originally written in vail pall a vernacular form urn of sanskrit they have been translated into many languages such as ch inego Thi find and handshu Mand shu they have also been written and published in various alphabets not only in devaca sort earl but in singhalese burmese and siamese loiters letters the copy tn in nineteen volumes lately presented present cd to the university ot of aiford by the king of 0 slam siam contains cc main a tho the pall pa I 1 I 1 text written in siamese letters but the language is always the rame it la Is the pall or vulgar tongue and it was supposed to have been spoken by buddha himself about SOO n D C alter after having been preserved lor for cent uiles by oral tradition it was use reduced for or the first time to writing under king in SS 88 76 B C the time when the truly literary period IO 10 0 f india may be said eald to begin but b beside c JIs this pall fall canon there Is another iother in sanskrit and there tire are books in the sanskrit canon which are not ito to be found in the pall felt canon and vice versa rea ive according to a tradition current among iacong the southern as well as the northern buddhists the lite original canon of bonks banks agoo being ascribed to buddha himself and 2000 to his disciples book however seems t to 0 b have v a meant hers here no more than treatise e or topic B but ni as a matter of tact fact the pall fall canon consists according to the rev IL II spence hardy of stanzas and its commentary of stanzas each stanza reckoned at thirty two syllables this would give us sl sil bables for the text and DO syllables ables for the commentary this la 13 of course an enormous amount the question Is only whether the rev spence hardy find and his assistants who are responsible pon sible tor for these statements counted slightly rightly prof rhys davis b by y taking the average of 0 word in ten leaves arrives at much smaller sums namely at 1752 SOO words for or the roll pall canon I 1 which v aich in an english translation as an he says would amount to about twice that number or words even this would be ample tor for a a bible it would make the buddhist bible nearly live five times as large as our own but it am to me that spence hardys account account Is i more likely to be correct prof lloys davis by adopting the same plan ot of reckoning brings the number of 0 words in the bible to about we found lt it given as but who shall decide C I 1 do what the bulk of such a work would be we may gather from what we know ar 0 the bulk of theta li Is a complete copy of 0 the chinese translation fit at the india office in london also in the and a catalogue of it made by a japanese pupil of mine tho the rev brings the number I 1 of separate works in it to 1633 the translation which dates from ithe the eighth century consists of two collections commonly called the kanaur ganju and the kanaur consists of volumes in folio the lajjur of volumes each if volume weighing between four find five pounds till this s collection published by command com maita of the emperor of china sells bells for or A copy of 0 it Is 19 found at the india office the burlatos Bur Dur lates a mona sion gotten tribe converted to buddhism bartered oxen for one copy of VIS kanaur and the value same tribe paid i silver rubles for it complete copy of both kavour kanaur and what must it be to believe in volumes each weighing five pounds ruty nay oven even to 10 read through such a bible wax max bilut lor ler in the nineteenth century Cen lury |
