Synopses & Reviews
Text extracted from opening pages of book: BDDHAGHOSHA'S PARABLES: TRANSLATED FROM BURMESE BT CAPTAIN T. ROGERS, RE. CONTAINING BUDDHA'S DHAMMAPADA, OB PATH OF VIRTUE, TRANSLATED FBOM PALI BT F. MAX MtLLlB, M. A., FBOFESSOn 07 OOMFAHATIVB PHILOLOGY AT OXFORD, FOREIGN MEMBER OP THE PBJ9NOH INSTITUTE, BIO. LONDON: TEttBNBE AND 00., ' 60, PATEENOSTEE EOW. 1870. INTEODUCTION. BY PROFESSOR MAX MttLLER, A FEW words seem required to explain the origin and history of this hook. About the end of last year, Captain Bogers, after having spent some years in Bur mah, returned to England, and as he had paid par ticular attention to the study of Burmese, he was anxious, while onjoyiug the leisure* of his furlough, to translate some Burmese work that might ho useful to Oriental students. Ho first translated' The History of Prince Theemeewizaya, ' bsing one of the former lives ( fttaka) of Buddha. Although this work con tains many tilings that are of interest to the student of Buddhism, it was impossible to find a publisher for it. I then advised Captain Rogers to undertake a translation of tho parables which are contained in Buddhaghosha's c Commentary on the Dhammapada.' Many of these fables had been published in Pali by Dr. Fausboll, at the end of his edition of the' Dham mapada; ' but as the MSS. used by him wore very defective, the PAH text of these parables had only excited, but had not satisfied tho curiosity of Oriental scholars, . It is well kno n that the Burmese look upon Buddhaghoeha, not indeed as having introduced Bud VI THE BURMESE PARABLES. dhism into Bunnab., but as having brought the feost important works of Buddhist literature to the shelf es of the Gulf of Martaban, and I thereforehoped that the Burmese translation of Buddhaghosha's parables would be as trustworthy as the P& li original. In this expectation, however, I was disappointed. When I re ceived the first instalment of the translation by Captain Eogers, I saw at once that it gave a small number only of the stories contained in Buddhaghosha's P& li original, and that the Burmese translation, though literal in some parts, was generally only a free render ing of the Pali text. K or does it soem as if the trans lator had always understood the text of Buddhaghosha correctly. Thus in the very first story, we read in tho Pali text that, when the wifo of MahSsva a had her first son, she called Mm Pala; but whon she had a second, she called the elder MaM-pala, *. 0. Groat Pala, and the second, JTulla-paia, i e. Little Pdla, In the translation all this is lost, and wo simply read: After ton months a son was born, to whom ho gave the name of Mahapfila, because he had obtained him through bis prayers to the Nat. After this, another son was born, who received the name of JTullap& la/' Though, for a time, I thought that the Burmese version of thosu parables might be a shorter, and pos sibly a more original collection, yet passages like the ono just quoted would hardly allow of such a view. On tho contrary, the more I saw of the translation of tho Burmese parables, tho more I felt convinced that the Burmese toxt was an abstract of Buddhaghosha's work, giving only a certain number of Buddhaghosha's stories, and most of thorn considerably abridged, and sometimes altered. As - Dr. Fausboll hus given of THE BURMESE PARABLES. Yll of these . stories the titles only, it was impos sible in. every case to compare the Burmeseversion with the Pali original. But, on the whole, I do not expect that the opinion which I have formed of the Burmese translation will be materially modified, when we have the whole of the PSli text to compare with it; and we must wait till we receive from Burmese scholars an explanation of the extraordinary changes which Buddhaghosha's original has undergone in the hands of the Burmese translator. My own opinion is, that there must be a more complete and more accurate Burmese translation of Buddhaghosha's work, and that what we have now before us is only the tran