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used was the Nagari. Vermilion was the 'ink,' and metal plates, 

 cloth, hides, and leaves, constituted the 'paper' of the time. That 

 Buddhist annals, therefore, were reduced to writing from the very 

 commencement, is not only reasonable, but is indeed capable of 

 easy and satisfactory proof." And in the Appendix to his work, 

 he gives extracts from the 'Papancha Sudaniya,' the 'Maha Vagga,' 

 the 'Atthakatha of Sanyutta Nikaya,' the * Sumangala Vitasini,' 

 the i Atthakatha to the Dhammapada,' and the ' Samanta-pasadika,' 

 which contain proof of each particular stated in the passage we 

 have just quoted. 



The style and method of recording occurrences in the Vinaya- 

 pitaka are moreover convincing proofs that they, or the most of them, 

 were noted down at the time they are said to have taken place ; and 

 the same may be said of the discourses and doctrines forming the 

 bulk of the Sutra and Abhidhamma-pitakas — which three works, 

 taken collectively, form the Tripitika, or sacred words of Buddha. 

 That much was committed to memory by the early Buddhist 

 converts there can be no doubt, for the memory was a faculty 

 highly cultivated in India in olden times as well as at the present 

 day. That many copies of the Pitakas were written is not likely. 

 The art of writing would not be an universal accomplishment ; 

 and while Buddha was still living, and so long as his followers 

 were confined to Maghada, one authenticated copy would suffice, 

 The acute researches of the Hon'ble George Tumour, Csoma 

 de Korosi, James Alwis, and others, upon this subject, are sufficient 

 to establish the point beyond the region of doubt. But there is 

 another consideration which, although not that I am aware of 

 hitherto mooted, seems to possess a certain value in the discussion 

 of this and other matters connected with the establishment of 

 Buddhism. 



Gautama in his yearnings after truth, before attaining to the Bud- 

 dhahood, sought information from every source where he thought 



