[Y-Indology] On Mr. Malaiya's comments

[Guest guest]

Troy,

 

>Thank you for pointing out my oversight. Therefore taking into proper

>consideration the "extant fragmentary portions of non-Theravaadin

>canonical works written on birch bark manuscripts dating from the

>first century A.D. or earlier," the supposed words of an assumed

>founder did not exist in any written form until as late as "4 or 5

>hundred years after their pronouncement."

 

Still, I do not go so far. The first century A.D. is only the first

date for which we have surviving Ms evidence. There is no reason to

doubt that some Buddhist texts could have been put into writing from

the third century B.C. onward. Tradition simply claims (for the Pali

Canon) that the Canon as a whole was put in writing in the first

century B.C.

 

So my view would be that the first texts to exist in written form

giving the words of the claimed founder of Buddhism probably appeared

late in the third century A.D. i.e. less than two centuries after the

probable date of the founder.

 

>So my question remains: *Pronounced by whom?*

>

 

My view would be that some of them were probably the words (or an

oral description of the words) of the founder and his immediate

disciples. Others were probably not. As with everything else in this

world of uncertainty we can speak only of probabilities.

 

Lance Cousins