ABSTRACT
It is generally admitted tha.t much of the earliest canon-. iCBlliterature of the Buddhists and the Jainast whatever
their aetnal chronology) reflect to us in faithful traditions the life andsociety of Northern India in the sirth century B.O. I t is n~t necessary for us to enter here into the elaborate arguments on which this view is based, But students of ancient literature know with what persistency traditions survive long centuries after the historical facts in which they originated have passed into oblivion. It is even pas.. sible in Borne cases to discover the original historical facts hidden in them by the searchlight of historical criticism. This III harking· ba.ck" in ancient literature, once clearly perceived and intimately realized by the historian, helps to guide his steps beyond the chronological limits where written records come to a stop. Thu8 the Udana seems to be a comparatively late Pali work in the 8tdtapita1ca. Yet the description of the Paribrajakas in the Jaccandhawggo '(4, 0, 6) of the Udana clearly points back to the teeming life of the Paribrajaka community in the lifetime of BuddhaI' They are described thus: If sa.mbahuIa nanititthiya samanabriihmana paribbajaka , . I nanaditthikii nanikhantiki ninirucikii nanaditthinissayaniaaitii." 1
(Tr~-Nume~usmendicants,.both SamBnas and Brahmanas, of various denominations-of various views, opinions, inclinationsJ doctrines, and doxies.) They enter the city of Sivatthi in a miscellaneous crowd for alms, putting forth many speculative doctrines of the same character. though not exactly the same, 88 those which are dis0U8Bed in the BralJfna-jala Buttanta, wounding one another with U mouth-weapons U (mukh&-.satthihi). The whole paBBage is'purely reminiscent and bears the stamp of an earlier age than the time when the Udana itself was compiled. for there is reason to think that the Paribrijaka community did not contain 80 many sectarian varieties later OD.
