Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies Vol. 39, No. 2, March 1991
The
Relation
between
the Divydvaddna
and the Mulasarvastivadavinaya
-The Case of Divykvaddna Chapter
31-Satoshi
Hiraoka
It is well known that the Divyavadana (Divy.) shares many parallel
sto-ries with the Mulasarvastivadavinaya
(MSV). With regard to the problem
of which is the source and which the borrower, there are two opposite
opinions. First, Ed. Huber closely examined the issue and came to the
conclusion that stories in the Divy. were extracted from the MSV ["Les
Sources du Divyavadana," Bulletin de l'Ecole Francaise d'Extre-me-Orient
-6 (1906): 1-37]. Later, S. Levi supported Huber's idea ["Les Elements de
Formation du Divyavadana," T'oung Pao 8 (1907): -105-122]. J. Przyl uski,
in contrast, concluded that the compiler of the MSV borrowed the stories
from the Divy. ["Fables in the Vinaya-Pitaka of the Sarvastivadin School,"
Indian Historical Quarterly 5 (1929): 1-5]. Since then, however, this
pro-blem has been poorly studied. The aim of the present paper, therefore, is to
reconsider the problem and shed some light upon it by examining the usage
of the term purvavad yavat in Divy. chap. 31.
In this chap. there are eight examples of the purvavad yavat that we
are now bringing into question. The original contexts of six examples out
of eight referred to by purvavad yavat exist quite far from this chap. The
locations of purvavad yavat in Divy. chap. 31 and their original contexts
are as follows in Cowell & Neil's edition: i) 462. 11-310. 26ff, ii)
463.12-461. 17ff, iii) 463. 25-6-342.1ff, iv) 463. 27-344. 25ff-1342.6ff-341.1ff-282.
1ff, v)464.4-[No
original context. This will be examined later], vi) 464.
12-3-311.22ff, vii) 464.15-344.6, vim) 465. 8-9-X348.3-314. 4ff. It is quite
unnatural that the original contexts are found more than 100 printed pages
before the positions of purvavad yavat. Since this chap, has a parallel in
-1038-The Relation between the Divy. and the MSV (S. HIRAOKA) (18)
the MSV, I examined the antecedants of the same phrase in the MSV in Dutt's edition: i) 70.1-54.1ff-21.5ff, ii) 71.7-69.1ff, iii) 71.19-25. 9ff, iv) 71.20-25. 12ff-Ch. (j24, 15b) [No original in the Skt. and Tib.], v) 72.4-57. 19ff, vi) 72.11-61.15-X59.7-55. 6-46.7-30.1-23.2-Tib.
(1030 Ge 6b7) [No original in the Skt.], vii) 72.14-61.17 59.10-11-55.9-10-46.10ff, vin) 73.14-62.15-59.17-57.17-X48.2-24.5-6-Tib. (1030 Ge 7b2) [No original in the Skt.]. As the original contexts are found quite near the positions of parvavad yavat (and note that there is much more text on one page of Cowell & Neil's edition than on one of Dutt's), the usages of purvavad yavat in the MSV look more natural. This gives the impression that the story of Divy. chap. 31 was extracted from the MSV. The real key to solve the problem, however, lies in the fifth example of purvavad yavat. The story in which the fifth purvavad yavat appears runs this way:
The Buddha preached to five hundred peasants, and then ordained them. Just after that, bulls kept by the peasants came to the Buddha, thus:
Cutting off ropes and thongs, those bulls also approached the Blessed One. Approaching [him], they stood crowding around the Blessed One. To them the Blessed One preached the dharma with three principles-and so on as before, up to: like when [he preached] to geese, fishes, and tortoises when [he] went across the Ganges (tesam bhagavata tribhih padarthair dharmo desitah purvavad yavad yatha gangavatare hamsamatsyakur-manam). [Divy. 464. 1-5]
The reason why the passage underlined is awkward is, as the editors of the Divy. point out in a footnote, that "this passage has never occurred before, although it is introduced with the parvavat." Moreover the phrase "With thr
ee principles (tribhih padarthair)" is ambiguous because the abbre-viation with purvavat has removed its referent. Here we need to take into consideration the parallel story in the MSV [MSVIII-i, 72. 1-5; Tib. 1030 Ge 147b1-3; Ch. X24, 52b]. It is depicted in the story preceding this parallel passage that the Buddha, while travelling, crossed over the Ganges. Here is our key:
Crossing over the Ganges, the Blessed One was surrounded and circled on the right by five hundred geese, fishes, and tortoises. To them the Blessed One
-1037-(19) The Relation between the Divy. and the MSV (S. HIRAOKA)
preached the dharma with three principles, saying, "Gentle sirs, all conditioned states are impermanent, all things have no self, [and-] Nirvana is calm (sarvasa-mskara anityah sarvadharma anatmanah Bantam nirvanam). Conceive faith in me and you will escape the state of animals [MSV i, 57.19-58.3; Tib. 1030 Ge
139b3-6; Ch. 大24, 50b].
This passage tells us two things: First, "three principles" in the Divy. means sarvasamskara anityah, sarvadharma anatmanah, and Bantam nirva-nam. Second, the reference to the geese etc. in the Divy., which is pre-sented after the purvavad yavad, presupposes the fable in the MSV. In other words, this shows that the compiler of the Divy. extracted the story from the MSV. However, he carelessly or blindly took in the unnecessary passage of the geese etc. as well, and that is the reason why the sentence
does nott make any sense in the Divy. This is precisely the phenomenon described by Huber [p. 3] as an uncritical pious borrowing from one text into another.
The examination of the usage of purvavad yavad in chap. 31 leads us to the conclusion that the compiler of the Divy., as far as chap. 31 is concerned, seems to have borrowed the story from the MSV. This does not mean that all the stories in the Divy. were extracted from the MSV.
Things could be more complicated and there are other possibilities. For example, we might have to think of a common pool from which stories in both the Divy. and the MSV were derived, or a scenario in which borrowing took place at the stage of the respective sources of the two texts. Furthermore, it will also be neccessary to confirm the readings in, other manuscripts that were not used by the editors of the Divy. But as for chap. 31 in the Divy. as edited by E. B. Cowell and R. A. Neil, it is hypothesized in this paper that the story was extracted from the MSV.
[Tib: The Peking edition. Ch: The Taisho edition]
<Key Wor ds> Divyavadana, Mulasarvastivadavinaya, purvavad yavat. (Lecturer, Bukkyo University)
