1845.] du Buddhism Indien, par E. Burnouf. 791 



We now follow Mr. Burnouf into the description of the collection of 

 the Nepalese works. 



The Buddhist collection of Nepal, he says, is composed of a great 

 number of works, the titles of which announce treatises of very different 

 kinds. 



Mr. Hodgson has published two long lists of these titles, which 

 may be completed from the analysis which C. de Koros has given, 

 of the Tibetan collection. 



We do not possess in Paris all these works, but the eighty Buddhist 

 volumes, which we owe to Mr. Hodgson, probably contain the most 

 important part of the religious collection of Nepal. 



The books, which are now extant, are divided into three classes, under 

 the collective title Tripitaka. They are the Sutrapitaka, or the dis- 

 course of Buddha, the Vinayapitaka, or the discipline, and the Abhi- 

 dharmmapitaka, or the manifested laws, that is the metaphysics. This 

 division, justified by the texts, is at the same time one of the bases of 

 classification of the Kah-gyur, and is also familiar to the Chinese 

 Buddhists, who explain it by the three words : sacred books, precepts, 

 and discourses. 



The word Sutra denotes in the ancient literature of the Brahmans 

 short, and obscure sentences, which contain the fundamental rules of 

 the Brahminical sciences from grammar to philosophy. Though the word 

 in this application is not unknown to the Buddhists, they use it also 

 in another sense, and the treatises, which bear the title of Sutras, have 

 a very different character from those known by this name in the Brah- 

 minical literature. The Sutras, according to the Nepalese authorities, 

 quoted by Mr. Hodgson, contain the sayings of the Buddhas; they 

 are therefore often called " Buddha Vachana," the word of the Buddhas, 

 or Mulagrantha, text-books. These books are ascribed to the last of 

 the Buddhas, viz. to Sakyamuni, and in consequence occupy a very 

 elevated place among the Buddhist literature in Nepal. The Sutras 

 by their generally simple form and language, preserve the visible trace of 

 their origin. They are dialogues, relative to ethics and philosophy, in 

 which Sakya plays the part of teacher. Far from presenting his thoughts 

 under the concise form, which is so intimately connected with Brah- 

 minical instruction, he commits repetition, which, though fatiguing, 

 bears the character of real preaching. There is a wide abyss between 



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