1. We not only find here what we meet with in other Pali poetry, the fuller Vedic forms of nouns and verbs in the plural, as avitatamhase, panditase, dhammase, sitase, upatthitase, pavadiyase, &c., and karamase, asmase, sikkhissamase; the shorter Vedic plurals and the instrumental singular of nouns, as vinikkhaya, lakkhana for vinikkhayani, lakkhanani, manta, parinna, vinaya, labhakamya for mantaya, &c.; Vedic infinitives, as vippahatave, sampayatave, unnametave; contracted (or sometimes old) forms, as santya, gakka, duggakka, sammukka, titthya, thiyo, parihirati for santiya, gatiya, sammutiya, titthiya, itthiyo, parihariyati, by the side of protracted forms, such as atumanam; but also some unusual (sometimes old) forms and words, as apukkhasi, sagghasi[2] = sakkhissasi, sussam = sunissami (Sansk. sroshyami), pava and pava = vadati, pavekkhe = paveseyya, parikissati = parikilissati, vineyya, vikeyya, nikkheyya, pappuyya, = vinayitva, &c., datthu = disva (S. drishtva), atisitva = atikkamitva, anuvikka = anuviditva, paribbasana = vasamana, amhana (S. asmana) = pasanena, vakibhi, katubbhi, rattamahabhi, ise (vocative), suvami = sami, maga = miga,

[1. Sir M. Coomara Swamy's translation of part of the book has been a great help to me. I hope shortly to publish the Pali text.

2. C reads pagghasi.]

p. xii

tumo = so, parovara = paravara, bhunahu = bhutihanaka, upaya, amagandha, dhona, vyappatha, vyappathi, vevikkha, visenibhuta, visenikatva, patiseniyanti. Sometimes we meet also with difficult and irregular constructions, and very condensed expressions. All this proves, I think, that these parts of the book are much older than the Suttas in which the language is not only fluent, but of which some verses are even singularly melodious.

2. In the contents of the Suttanipata we have, I think, an important contribution to the right understanding of Primitive Buddhism, for we see here a picture not of life in monasteries, but of the life of hermits in its first stage. We have before us not the systematizing of the later Buddhist church, but the first germs of a system, the fundamental ideas of which come out with sufficient clearness. From the Atthakavagga especially it is evident where Buddha takes his stand in opposition to Philosophy (ditthi = darsana).