Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 11.djvu/20

xiv This conclusion, however, is only almost, and not quite certain. It is just possible that the author of the Book of the Great Decease omitted all mention of the First Council at Râgagaha, not because he did not know of it, but because he considered it unnecessary to mention an event which had no bearing on the subject of his work. He was describing the death of the Buddha, and not the history of the Canon or of the Order.

I must confess however that I only mention this as a possibility from a desire rather to understate than to overstate my case. For, firstly, it should be remembered that the writer does not merely omit to mention an occurrence subsequent to and unconnected with the Great Decease. He does more: he gives an account of the Subhadda incident which is inconsistent and irreconcilable with the legend or narrative of the Râgagaha Council as related in the Kulla-vagga. Had that narrative, as we now have it, been received in his time among the Brethren, he would scarcely have done this.

And, secondly, he does not, after all, close his book, as he might well have done, with the Great Decease itself. It will be seen from the translation below that there was a point in his narrative, the exclamations of sorrow at the death of the Buddha, which would have formed, had he desired to omit all unnecessary details, a very fitting conclusion to his narrative. The Book of the Great King of Glory, the Mahâ-sudassana-Sutta, closes with the very exclamation our author puts, at this point, into the mouth of Sakka. The Mahâ-parinibbâna was then over, and the Mahâ-parinibbâna-Sutta might have then been closed. But he goes on and describes in detail the cremation, the distribution of the relics, and the feasts celebrated in their honour. It is not necessary for my point to show that it was in the least degree unnatural to do so. It is sufficient to be able to point out that the author having done so,—having gone on to the arrival of Kassapa, who was afterwards (in the Kulla-vagga) said to have held the Council; having mentioned the very incident which, according to the