The Journal of the American Oriental Society
Vol.116 No.3
July-Sep 1996
P. 605
Copyright by American Oriental Society
It is generally admitted that the Nikayas of the Theravada Buddhist
Pali canon consist of a number of strata, some of them earlier and
some later. Text critical studies have made clear that the verses of
the Suttanipata, especially the Atthakavagga and the Parayanavagga,
are to be counted among the earlier strata, which present a picture
of a Buddhism fairly different from what is taken by many scholars
to be representative of earlier, or "primitive" Buddhism. In Indian
Buddhism: A Survey with Bibliographical Notes (Hirakata City, Japan:
Kansai University of Foreign Studies Publication, 1980), 57-58,
Hajime Nakamura summarizes some of the distinctive features of this
relatively early layer of textual tradition as follows: Certain core
Buddhist doctrines and peculiarly Buddhist technical vocabulary do
not appear. A skeptical attitude toward what might be called "dogma"
(i.e., ditthi) is expressed. And the life of Buddhist monks was
fairly different from the later, fully developed monastic life.
In her book Desire, Death and Goodness, Grace Burford presents a
detailed textual analysis of the Atthakavagga of the Suttanipata,
focusing on the values which it propounds. Burford finds the
Atthakavagga "exceptional within even the earliest Buddhist
literature in its non-metaphysical presentation of the summum bonum"
(p. 190). These teachings are then carefully compared with the
interpretations of the text contained in two classical Theravada
commentaries on the Atthakavagga, namely in the Mahaniddesa and in
the Paramatthajotika, generally ascribed to Buddhaghosa. The
commentaries are also compared with one another. Through her
analysis, Burford finds that "[i]n the commentaries, a new set of
metaphysical values has been appended to the Buddha's ideal as it is
presented in the Atthakavagga" (p. 188). The commentaries are thus
more expressive of the teachings of the later years of the Nikayas
and, thus, of the more fully developed Theravada than is the
Atthakavagga itself. In this respect, Burford argues that the value
system propounded by the Atthakavagga is more consistent and more
coherent than is the later tradition with its inclusion of
metaphysical concepts and a transcendent vision in its understanding
of the ultimate goal. These she considers "to be a detrimental
'addition' to the teaching of the Atthakavagga," finding its
understanding of the ideal "much less problematic than that imposed
on it by the commentators" (p. 188).
Burford is at her best when she undertakes close textual and
philological analysis, although her translation of the
Paramatthajotika commentary on verse 794 of the Atthakavagga is
rather opaque (p. 137).
Theravada Buddhists and scholars alike are likely to find her
broader argument and conclusions more provocative, controversial,
and at points grating, however. For example, she is particularly
harsh on normative, authoritative Theravada thought, holding that
its value theory lacks "internal consistency and coherence."
Similarly, she argues that its "combination of conflicting
conceptions of the ultimate goal . . . undermines the theoretical
truth-claim of this teaching" (p. 5).