Buddha: His Life, His Teachings, His Order, Together With the History of the Buddhism

by Manmatha Nath Dutt

Excerpt from , other of which his countrymen spoke within three hundred years after his death;is much historically based ?" It is natural that every word that fell from the lips of the Great Master was, as it were, devoured by his disciples. They got it by heart and repeated it by day and by night, in their begging excursions, in their public preachings, and in their private discourses. It is natural that the beloved disciples of the great Buddha would put into colloqual verse the chief events of his life and every word of his lips, and sing them from house to house. Such things do even now take place in India,it must have taken place at the time of the Great Prophet. We have then the chief events of the great Buddha's life and every word that fell from his lips in these original Gathas and Pali Sutras. We can, therefore, write the story of his life on a sure basis and give his teachings as they were really delivered by him. But what are these original Gathas and Pali Sutras ? We shall discuss them in the next Chapter. CHAPTER II. AUTHORITIES ON THE LIFE OF BUDDHA. What are then the authorities on the life of Goutama ? We do not possess now the Theraveda which was recited by the monks in the First Council immediately after the death of their great Master We have now two sets of the Rhys Davids in his Buddhism, p 214 "The Southern Buddhists believe that the Theraveda is identical with the Three Pitakas as now exist in Ceylon. This cannot, however, be the case. Some parts of the Pitakas however much of the Theraveda may contain, other parts bear evident marks of later composition. Buddhist Sacred Books,one belonging to the Northern School and the other belonging to the Southern School. The Southerners have their Tri-Pitakas and the Northerners have their Maha Vaipu...

Table of Contents

CHAPTER V. BRAHMANISM, VRS., THEISM The development of caste p. 33. Supremecy of the Brahmans and their religion p~

352 pages, Paperback

First published April 19, 2010

About the author

One of India’s greatest translators, Dutt translated the Valmiki Ramayana (sequentially from 1892 to 1894), Markandeya Purana (1896), Bhagavata Purana (1896), Vishnu Purana (1896), Hari Vamsha (1897), Mahanirvana Tantra (1900), Agni Purana (1903-04), Mahabharata (1895-1905), Kamandakiya Nitisara (1896), several samhitas anddharmashastra texts (1906, 1908-09), Garuda Purana (1908) and Rig Veda Samhita (1906-1912).

Manmatha Nath Dutt described himself as M.A. in his initial books. M.R.A.S.(Member of Royal Asiatic Society) got added later.

Apart from this remarkable body of translation work, Dutt wrote a biography of the Buddha (1901), retold stories from the Puranas (1893-94, the four volumes titled Gleanings from the Indian Classics), retold stories about famous women in Hinduism (1897), wrote a book on Hindu metaphysics (1904) and wrote another book on the dharma of householders (1905).

Dutt set up a monthly magazine known as Wealth of India. This was “a monthly magazine solely devoted to the English translation of the best Sanskrit works” and was published between 1892 and 1908. Manmatha Nath Dutt was the editor and publisher.