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A passage for editorial review. A BUDDHIST GENESIS.' THIS document is translated from the twenty-seventh Dialogue of the Long Collection {Digha-Nikdyo). It occurs in a discus- sion on tlie caste question ; but that it is a book in itself is clear from the fact that a rival recension of the Scriptures has transmitted it in a different connection, and with a different title. This rival recension is that of the Sublime Story {^Mahdvastu), an expanded portion of the Book of Discipline belonging to the sect called the Transcendentalists or Docetists {LokottaravMino), which is a branch of the Great Council School (^Mahdsamghiko'). Now the Great Council was the rival sect of the School of the Elders {Theravddo} who have preserved the Scriptures in Pali. The Great Council preserved them in some kind of Prakrit, which has since been par- tially Sanskritised. We have therefore this old Buddhist Genesis in two different Indian languages (to say nothing of a fifth-century translation into Chinese); transmitted by two different sects which parted company in the pre-Christian period of Buddhism ; and in two different portions of the Canon : viz., the Book of Dialogues {Sutta-Pitakam') and the Book of Discipline {^Vinaya-Pitakani). In the former (in Pali) it is entitled the Dialogue Primeval {Agganna- suttani) and in the latter, The History of Kings. These two ancient recensions agree in the main, but are verbally different. When an old document has such a transmission, its antiquity is well estab- lished. The Buddhist Genesis was epitomised by Robert Spence Hardy in his Manual of Budhism {sic') published at London in 1853. But 'Translated from the Pili by Albert J. Edmunds, Philadelphia. 208 THE MONIST. Hardy translated not from the Pali texts, but from mediaeval Sin- ghalese commentaries, which in turn are based upon Pali texts and commentaries combined. Therefore we can never be sure, when reading Spence Hardy, how much of a narrative is from the primi- tive text and how much has been expanded or exaggerated from commentaries in Pali and Singhalese. An account of the Great Council version has been given in French by 6mile Senart, in the Introduction to Vol. I. of his splendid edition of the Mahavastu (Paris, 1882). So corrupt and difficult is the text that even this learned Prakrit scholar shrank from giving a verbal translation, but contented himself with an epitome. A brief account in English, based upon the Pili recension, has been given by Rhys Davids, in his Dialogues of the Buddha (Lon- don, 1899, p. 105). Samuel Beal translates two versions from the Chinese, the second one being from the Long Collection. (^Four Lectures: London, 1882, pp- 151-155.) The present is the first translation of the text itself, and is made from the King-of-Siam's edition, printed in Siamese charac- ters, in Vol. XI. of his thirty-nine volumes of the Pali Canon, which was published at his capital in 1894, and in 1895 distributed throughout the world to universities and libraries. There are two copies in Philadelphia : viz., at the University of Pennsylvania and the Mercantile Library. In 1905 it is expected that the Pali Text Society of London will print our present Genesis text in Roman letters, when it will be much easier to read. We cannot here discuss the many questions raised by this an- cient book. Suffice it to say that the idea of Genesis as a fall is ancient, and the interpretation of Paradise as a spiritual state in- stead of a material one is now regarded by a high authority to be the original conception of Eden in the Babylonian mythology. ^ The Christian student will be aware that such an interpretation was given to the Hebrew Genesis by Philo the Jew of Alexandria, at the time of Christ ; by Origen of Alexandria, in the third cen- ^ Babylonian and Hebrew Genesis. By Heinrich Zimmern. London, 1901, P- 33- A BUDDHIST GENESIS. 2O9 tury ; by Jacob Boehme of GOrlitz in the sixteenth, and by Emanuel Swedenborg of Stockholm, in the eighteenth. The exact date of our document cannot be fixed, but after years of research I am satisfied that the Pali Canon existed, in its main constituents, if not in its present form, at the Council of Vat- tagamini, about B. C. 40,1 in the ancient capital of Ceylon. At this Council the sacred lore, which had hitherto been oral, was com- mitted to writing, say the Ceylon Chronicles; and a number of facts, which cannot be detailed here, give probability to the state- ment. Even if only the older parts of the Canon existed then, the Genesis document was certainly among them, because transmitted by a branch of the rival sect which had split off from the sect of Ceylon (the School of the Elders) some centuries before. The Buddhist tradition maintains that this document, together with most of the Dialogues and Discipline, was fixed in its present form by the Council of Rajagaha, upon Buddha's decease in the fifth century before Christ. But while criticism allows that something was settled then, it cannot admit so early a redaction for a litera- ture bearing all the marks of long development. We may safely say, then, that the Buddhist Genesis was composed between the fifth and the first centuries before Christ. How far the main idea of our document can be regarded as compatible with the underlying philosophy of the teachings of Bud- dha himself, does not fall within the scope of our investigation. Albert J. Edmunds. Easter, 1902. THE DIALOGUE PRIMEVAL (AGGANNA-SUTTAM).^ O Vasettha,' there is a season, at vast intervals in the lapse of time, when this world is dissolved ; and upon the world's dissolu- tion, the inhabitants are mostly brought together in the heaven of ■ Kern's corrected date. 2 The discussion on caste, which precedes, is omitted, being no part of the Genesis document. ' The plural name of two Brahmin disciples, to whom Gotamo addresses the account. Hereafter we omit it : it occurs in every paragraph. 2IO THE MONIST. the Radiant, and there they dwell for a long, long period, mind- made, feeders on joy, self-resplendent, traversing the sky, and abiding in goodness. Again, there is a season, at vast intervals in the lapse of time, when this world is re-evolved ; and upon the world's evolution, people disappear from the host of the Radiant and come down hither. 1 And they are mind-made, feeders on joy, self-resplendent, traversing the sky, and abiding in goodness. [And so] do they dwell for a long, long period. Now at that season there is gloom and darkness universally ; moon and sun are known not ; stars and constellations are not known ; nor night and day, nor month and fortnight, nor seasons of the year. Women and men are known not, but people say: "Sentient beings only are considered."^ Now for those beings there arises, after a vast interval in the lapse of time, a savory earth everywhere upon the water. Even as the tree of paradise on high is to a self-restrained one who is reach- ing Nirvana, such does it appear. It was endowed with color, scent, and savor like unto ghee and butter : such was its color. And even as a little honey undefiled, such was its taste. Then some luxurious person saying, "Oh ! What can this be?" tasted with his finger the savory earth, and as soon as he had done so, craving' therefor became clothed and entered in. Others also, following the example of that being, tasted the savory earth with a finger. When they had done so, craving became clothed and en- tered in. Then people approached the luxurious savory earth, to partake of it with their hands, and forthwith their self-radiance disappeared. When their self-radiance was gone, the moon and sun were mani- ' A corrupt change in the Prakrit, of the Pali words itthatlam Agacchanti into iccha-svam-Sgacchanti, has given rise to the idea, in the Mahdvastu, that they go whither they please. Then a gloss adds that this is always the rule : they always go whither they desire. ^Theword rendered "inhabitants," "people," and "sentient beings" is the same in the Pili. ' Craving, literally thirst. It is a technical term in Buddhist metaphysics for the will to live, which necessitates personal existence. A BUDDHIST GENESIS. 211 fested, and with them the stars and constellations. With these again came night and day, and with night and day the months and the fortnights, and with the last the seasons of the year. Thus was this world again evolved. Now people remained a long, long time enjoying the savory earth for their food and support ; and so long as they did thus, mere coarseness entered into their bodies and differences of caste arose.^ Some people were beautiful and others were ugly. Then those who were beautiful despised the ugly ones and said: "We are hand- somer than these; they are uglier than we." And by reason of their conceit of color the savory earth disappeared among those born with pride and conceit. When the savory earth had van- ished, they met together and lamented, saying: "Oh, the savor! oh, the savor ! " Even now, when men have taken some surpass- ing^ dainty they say the same: "Oh, the savor! Oh, the savor!" In this they imitate exactly the ancient primeval men, but know not the meaning thereof. After the savory earth had disappeared, there sprang up for those people a fine kind of moss. It was somewhat like a mush- room, and in color, scent, and savor was like unto ghee or butter. And even as a little honey undefiled, such was its taste. ^Then, as before, they ate the fine moss and lived a long time thereon, while coarseness entered still more into their bodies, and differences of caste arose. Also, as before, the beautiful despised the ugly, whereupon the fine moss disappeared.