< Issue No. 5 (2009)Article
Vedhamissakena: Perils of the Transmission of the Buddhadhamma
Levman, Bryan, University of Toronto
Abstract
Comparing parallel Pāli and Sanskrit versions of the Buddha’s teachings reveal an underlying linguistic stratum which is a common source for both. Although we may never be able to ascertain the exact words of the Buddha, we know his teachings were transmitted orally by bhāṇakas (reciters) in one or more middle-Indic dialects. As the religion spread into different regions of India the words also changed, adapted to local dialects. When the teachings were committed to writing around the first century B. C., the Pāli and Buddhist Sanskrit forms were sometimes contradictory, reflecting the redactors’ different interpretations of the oral transmission. By comparing these different forms, it is possible to isolate a proto-form which explains the ambiguities and is closer to the original transmission. This is a case in point, comparing an incident from the Pāli Mahāparinibbāna sutta and its Sanskrit parallel, the Mahāparinirvāṇa sūtra.