156 THE KEV. R. COLLIKS^ ON 



of our race live and die in the tenets of Gautama," must be 

 taken with considerable quahfications. For instance the 

 great mass of the Chinese, though commonly ranked amongst 

 Buddhists, neither live nor die in the tenets of ancient Bud- 

 dhism. (See Professor Legge's Religions of China.) 



It is only in the most ancient sources that we can hope 

 to reach the original tenets of Buddhism, and these are to 

 be found, as I think also all scholars allow, in certain of the 

 Ceylon books. Even the most ancient writings, however, 

 do not reach, by any means, up to Buddha's time ; and it is 

 impossible to say how far they may have embedded pre- 

 viously existing manuscripts. Of this, however , we are 

 certain, that for some time the tenets of the order were 

 handed down from mouth to mouth, as is more than once 

 stated in the books we have,* not, perhaps, because they 

 could not write in those days (we have now learned that 

 the art of writing is as old, at least, as the early Accadians, 

 and was common among them) ; but for the sake of secrecy, 

 as well, no doubt, as to give a certain dignity to what was 

 taught, a custom that has always obtained in India, and 

 is even to this day adopted in certain cases in our own 

 island. There has been, no doubt, abundance of room and 

 opportunity for additions and changes by speculative Buddhist 

 Avriters, as time has passed on. We can, in fact, only 

 separate the old from the new by the application of internal 

 evidences, supported indeed to some extent, and it is to be 

 lioped still further to be supported, or corrected, some day, much 

 more at large, by external evidences furnished by antiquarian 

 research in the North and perhaps other p^rts of India, 



* The original mode of l^eeping up the traditions was by question anc? 

 answer : see the account of the Council of Eajagalia iu the eleventh 

 Khandhaka of the ChuUavagga ; this Council is said to hare taken place 

 immediately after Buddha's death. The same plan was adojjted a hun- 

 dred years after at the Council of Vesali, where "the brother Revata " 

 was brought forward, as "wise in the traditions," and "knowing by heart 

 the Dhamma and the Vinaya" {ChuUavagga, xii, 1, 10). Further, we are 

 told in the Dipavamsa, that in Ceylon in the reign of Vattagamani, who 

 is supposed to have lived about 400 years after the death of Buddha, the 

 traditions as known in that Island were first put into writing : " Before 

 this time the wise Bhikkhus had orally handed dowu the text of the three 

 Pifcikis and also the Atthakatha. At this time the Bliikkhus, who per- 

 ceived the decay of created beings, assembled, and in order that the 

 Religion might endure for a long time, they recorded (the texts) in written 

 books." {Dipavamsa xx, 20, 21.) It is, of coui'se, possible that there had 

 already been privately written memoranda. 



