NOTES
(1) Mentioned before in chapter xxvii.
(2) Mahasanghikah simply means “the Great Assembly,” that is, of monks. When was this first assembly in the time of Sâkyamuni held? It does not appear that the rules observed at it were written down at the time. The document found by Fâ-Hien would be a record of those rules; or rather a copy of that record. We must suppose that the original record had disappeared from the Jetavana vihâra, or Fâ-Hien would probably have spoken of it when he was there, and copied it, if he had been allowed to do so.
(3) The eighteen pu {.}. Four times in this chapter the character called pu occurs, and in the first and two last instances it can only have the meaning, often belonging to it, of “copy.” The second instance, however, is different. How should there be eighteen copies, all different from the original, and from one another, in minor matters? We are compelled to translate—“the eighteen schools,” an expression well known in all Buddhist writings. See Rhys Davids’ Manual, p. 218, and the authorities there quoted.
(4) This is equivalent to the “binding” and “loosing,” “opening” and “shutting,” which found their way into the New Testament, and the Christian Church, from the schools of the Jewish Rabbins.
(5) It was afterwards translated by Fâ-Hien into Chinese. See Nanjio’s Catalogue of the Chinese Tripitaka, columns 400 and 401, and Nos. 1119 and 1150, columns 247 and 253.
(6) A gatha is a stanza, generally consisting, it has seemed to me, of a few, commonly of two, lines somewhat metrically arranged; but I do not know that its length is strictly defined.
(7) “A branch,” says Eitel, “of the great vaibhashika school, asserting the reality of all visible phenomena, and claiming the authority of Rahula.”
(8) See Nanjio’s Catalogue, No. 1287. He does not mention it in his account of Fâ-Hien, who, he says, translated the Samyukta-pitaka Sutra.
(9) Probably Nanjio’s Catalogue, No. 120; at any rate, connected with it.