THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST Volume 10 SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST EDITOR: F. Max Milller These volumes of the Sacred Books of the East Series include translations of all the most important works of the seven non­ Christian religions. These have exercised a profound influence on the civilizations of the continent of Asia. The Vedic Brahmanic System claims 21 volumes, Buddhism 10, and Jainism 2;8 volumes comprise Sacred Books of the Parsees; 2 volumes represent Islam; and 6 the two main indigenous systems of China, thus placing the historical and comparative study of religions on a solid foundation. VOLUMES I, IS. THE UPANISADS: in 2 Vols. F. Max Maller 2,14. THE SACRED LAWS OF THE ARYAS: in 2 vols. Georg Bahler 3,16,27,28,39,40. TilE SACRED BOOKS OF CHINA: In 6 Vols. la~s Legge 4,23,31. TheZEND-AVESTA: in 3 Vols. la~s Darmesteter & LH. Mills 5,18,24,37,47. PHALVI TEXTS: in 5 Vols. E. W. West 6,9. THE QUR' AN: in 2 Vols. E. H. Pa/~r 7. lhe INSTITUTES OF VISNU: J.Jolly 8. THE BHAGAVADGITAwith the Sanatsujiitiya and the Anugita: K.T. Telang to. THE DHAMMAPADA: F. Max Maller SUITA-NIPA.TA: V. Fausboll 11. BUDDHIST SUTTAS: T.W. Rhys Davids 12,26,41,43,44. VINAVA TEXTS: in 3 Vois. T.W. RhysDavids & H. OIde!lberg 19. THE FO-SHO-HING-TSANG-KING: Samuel Beal 21. -mE SADDHARMA-PU~ARfKA or TIlE LOTUS OF THE TRUE LAWS: II. Kern 22,45. JAINA SUTRAS: in 2 Vols. Hermannlacobi 25. MANU: Georg Bahler 29,30. THE G~JIYA-S(jTRAS: in 2 Vols. II. Olden berg & F. Max Maller 32,46. VEDIC HYMNS: in 2 vols. F. Max Maller & H. Olfknberg 33. TlIE MINOR LAW ·BOOKS: J. Jolly 34,38. TilE VEDANTA SumAS: in 2 Vols. with Swikariic3rya's Comm.: G. Thibau/ 35,36. TilE QUESTIONS OF THE KING MILINDA: in 2 Vols.: T.W. Rhys Davids 42. IlYMNSOFTIIE ATHARVA·VEDA: M.Bloomfield 48. TilE VEDANTA-SlJrRAS with Riimiinuja's Sribh~ya: G.ThibaUl 49. BUDDIIIST MAIIAYANA TEXTS: E.B. Cowell, F. Max Maller & J. Tal«Jkusu 50. INDEX: M. Win/erni/! THE DHAMMAPADA A COLLECTION OF VERSES BEING ONE OF THE CANON1CAL BOOKS OF THE BUDDHISTS Translated from Piili by F. MAX MULLER I~ ~~o~;~~n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 1895-1910 by Curzon Press Ltd Published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an infonna business All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. THE DHAMMAPADA Translated by F. Max MUller SUTTA-NJPATA Translated by V. Fausboll ISBN 07007 1548 7 ISBN 978-0-700-71548-0 (hbk) The Sacred Books of the East in 50 vols ISBN 07007 0600 3 ISBN 0-7007-1548-7 CON TEN T S. .AG" PREFACE TO NEW EDITION ix-xv I!\"TRODVCTION TO THE DHAMMAPADA xvii-lxiii DHAMMAPADA. CHAPTER 1. The Twin-verses . 3 2. On Earnestness " 9 J' 3. Thought 12 J' 4. Flowers 16 tJ 5. The Fool 2Q 6. The Wise Man (Pandita) " 23 7. The Venerable (Arhat) . 2'1 1 J' 8. The- Thousands 3 9, Evil 34 10. Punishment 6 " 3 .J 11. Old Age 41 12. Self " 45 ' .. 13. The World .7 14. The Buddha.(the Awakened) 50 " 15. Happiness " 54 16. Pleasure 57 17. Anger. " 59 18. Impurity 61 " 19. The Just " 65 20. The Way 68 21. Miscellaneous 1 " 7 22. The Downward Course. " 75 23. The Elephant 8 " 7 24. Thirst. 81 " t, 25. The Bhikshu (Mendicant) 86 .. 26. The Brihmana (Arhat) • 90 Index 97 Transliteration of Oriental Alphabets adopted for the Translations of the Sacred Books of the East (see the end of this volume) 209 This page intentionally left blank PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. IT has been a great and unexpected pleasure to me to have to bring out a new, the third edition of my translation of the Dhammapada. The first was published in 1870. the second in 188 I. I cannot indeed pretend to have improved the present edition very much. for I have not had any time left during the last few years to continue my study of PAli. Nor has PAli eve~ been more than a par"Kt»I to me. I began if: in 1845 during my stay at Paris with Bumouf. who was then almost the only scholar who could read Pili texts. and I still have a letter of his in which he apologises for his imperfect knowledge of the language. At that time PAli scholarship had not yet become a special and independent study, but it was a kind of annexe to Sanskrit. Men like Bopp and Burnoue were expected to teach not only Sanskrit and Comparative Philology, but at the same time, Zend, the PrAkrit dialects, and, as one of them, PAli. Clough's PAli Grammar (Colombo. 1824 and 1832) and Tumour's MaMvanso (1837) were all that we had to' depend on. Some advance was made by Spiegel and Westergaard, but the real impulse to an independent and scholarlike study of PAli literature came from my friend Childers, the author of the first PAli Dictionary, published in 1875. Before that time the only names to be mentioned in PAIi scholarship were those of ] ames D'Alwis, Spence Hardy, SpiegeJ, E. Kuhn, MinayefF, Senart, Weber, and last, not least. Fausboll. After the publication o~Childers' Dictionary. the progress of Pili scholarship has been very rapid, and the number of 'PAli texts and translations has increased "ery considerably. As the most active x PREFACE TO among the new generation of PAIi scholars deserve to be mentioned Rhys Davids, the founder of the PAli Text Society, Oldenberg, the editor of the Vinaya-pitaka, Trenckner, E. Senart, Feer, Morris and the translators of the GAtaka, Professor E. B. Cowell, Messrs. R. Chalmers, W. H. D. Rouse, H. T. Francis, and R. H. Neil. The most favourite PAIi text seems to have been the Dhammapada. It is certainly a most interesting collection of verses, giving a trustworthy picture of Buddhist thought, particularly in its practical and m\)ral character. Consisting of short senten~es it seems at first an easy book to translate, but the very fact that these versus memoriales stand by themselves without any context to throw light on them creates a peculiar difficulty, much the same as that with which the readers of another elementary book, the Hito­ padesa, are well acquainted. Like the Hitopadcsa, the Dhammapada also may be called an easy and at the same time a vhy difficult book. The verses being often torn from the context to which they originally belonged, may indeed be rendered word by word, but they leave us often in the dark, particularly where two readings are possible, which of the two we ought to choose; while if we knew what preceded and followed them in their original context, we should find our choice much easier. Though many difficult and obscur<! passages in the Dhammapada have now by a succession of translators and commentators been elucidated, many more still remain which require renewed study. It may seem strange to outsiders that there should still be so much uncertainty as to the exact meaning of many Pali words. The meaning of the very title of our book, the Dhammapada, is still contested. I have produced whatever arguments I could collect in support of the mean­ ing of 'Path of Virtue' or 'Path of the Law" But I am far from saying that the translation' Collection of Texts of the Law,' 'Worte der Wahrheit,' is impossible. What we want to settle the point is some ancient Buddhist authority to tell us with what intention this title was originally given. For titles are often fanciful, and mere NEW EDITION. Xl scholarship is not sufficient to enable us to speak with magisterial assurance. Let us take another instance. One of the commonest words in Buddhist philosophy is saJikharo. It corresponds to Sanskrit samskAra. The meanings of the Sanskrit word are difficult enough. It means the forming of matter, it can mean refining, polishing, embellishing, also the preparing of food and the moulding of clay. Purifying rites also are called samskAra and the impressions of the mind as well as the result of them, the dispositions, tastes, talents or incli­ nations, may go by the same name. In PAU, however, the growth of the meanings of saJikhAro becomes far more complicated. It means there also preparing, but the Buddhist, as if remembering that samskAra meant etymo­ logically putting together, and then what has been put together, uses sarikhAro in the sense of anything that has been made and will therefore perish. According to Hindu philosophy whate.ver has been put together or made can be put asunder or unmade, and thus saJikhAro came to be used not only for what we should call the created or material world, but for anything in it that is anitya or perishable. Thus saJikharo may sometimes be tendered by matter in general, though chiefly by organised or living matter, except that saJikhArc;> includes what we should call attributes also. Lastly, like samskAra, saJikhAro may mean the impressions left on the mind, and the .resulting states of the mind pre­ dispositions, talents or character, in which sense it is often used by the SAJikhya phno~ophers.