182 New edition of the Vinnyapitakam. [August, 



W. Duff Bruce, Esq., and Colonel A. D. Vanrenen have intimated 

 their desire to withdraw from the Society. 



The Seceetaey reported to the Meeting that Mr. J. D. Tremlett 

 had compounded for his future subscriptions on payment of Es. 140 af- 

 ter 16 years' Membership. 



The Chairman read the following letter from Dr. H. Oldenburg 

 of Berlin relating to a new edition of the VinayapitaJcam, and stated that 

 the Council had agreed to subscribe for two copies. 



" I desire to lay before the Asiatic Society of Bengal the following 

 prospectus of an edition of the Vinayapitaham. 



" A chief difficulty in the investigation of the origin and early history 

 of Indian Buddhism results from the fact, that the principal works of Bud- 

 dhism have not yet been published, or are published only in short extracts 

 and fragments. It is my opinion, that the VinayapitaJcmn in the Pali re- 

 cension (comprehending the five works Pdrdjiham, Pdcittiyam, Mahdvagga, 

 Culavagga and Farivdra) holds the first place among those works which 

 deserve our attention from an historical point of view. The critical investi- 

 gation of the life of Gautama Buddha, which has lately been undertaken by 

 M. Senart, will then only have a firm foundation, when it is possible to 

 compare the data of the Mahdvagga on the one hand and those of the 

 Suttas on the other with those of the northern Buddhists, and so to follow 

 the gradual growth of the Buddha legend. In the same manner it must 

 be of the highest importance to compare the principles of Gautama's teach- 

 ing in the form they assume in the Suttas with the form preserved in the 

 Mahdvagga. The Fdrdjikam and the other works relating to ecclesiastical 

 matters will be of great service in the investigation of the historical credi- 

 bility of the Mahavansa and the Dipavansa chronicles. The data there 

 given regarding the Councils and Schisms of the first centuries of Buddhism 

 will receive support or correction from these writings ; and the result of 

 this comparison cannot fail to throw some light on the much debated ques- 

 tion of the difference between the Northern and the Southern accounts of 

 the councils. Finally it must be interesting to compare the legislative 

 contents of the Vinayapitalcam from Magadha with the corresponding and 

 nearly contemporaneous data from Brahmanical sources in the literature of 

 the Vedic Sutras from the more westerly Aryavarta. Without doubt new 

 conclusions will result from this comparative study, and such a study is 

 impossible till the text of the Vinayapitakam is accessible in a published 

 form. 



" I intend to publish the Vinayapitakam giving the Pali text in English 

 letters without adding anything else but a selection from the various readings, 

 which arise from the differences of the Sinhalese and the Burmese MSS., 



