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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Rahul Sankrityayan, "Prabha" §7}} | {{DISPLAYTITLE:Rahul Sankrityayan, "Prabha" §7}} | ||
{{Translation Review}} | |||
[[Rahul Sankrityayan]], (राहुल सांकृत्यायन). 1942. वोल्गा से गंगा [From the Volga to the Ganges]. इलाहाबाद [Allahabad]: किताब महल [Kitab Mahal]. “प्रभा” [“Prabha” / “Radiance”], section 7, pp. 200–203. | [[Rahul Sankrityayan]], (राहुल सांकृत्यायन). 1942. वोल्गा से गंगा [From the Volga to the Ganges]. इलाहाबाद [Allahabad]: किताब महल [Kitab Mahal]. “प्रभा” [“Prabha” / “Radiance”], section 7, pp. 200–203. | ||
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'''Prabha — Section 7''' | '''Prabha — Section 7''' | ||
There is a large courtyard, with a veranda all around it and rooms in a three-storey building behind. Yellow robes are drying on racks along the verandas. In one corner of the courtyard is a well, with a bathing area beside it. Elsewhere in the courtyard are several trees, one of them a Pipal. Around the Pipal is a platform, and a little farther away stands a stone railing, with spaces for thousands of lamps. | There is a large courtyard, with a veranda all around it and rooms in a three-storey building behind. Yellow robes are drying on racks along the verandas. In one corner of the courtyard is a well, with a bathing area beside it. Elsewhere in the courtyard are several trees, one of them a Pipal. Around the Pipal is a platform, and a little farther away stands a stone railing, with spaces for thousands of lamps. Prabha knelt down and bowed before the beautiful | ||
Prabha knelt down and bowed before the beautiful | |||
{{opage|201}} | {{opage|201}} | ||
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tree, and said, “Beloved, it was a tree of this very kind beneath which Siddhartha Gautama sat, dispelled the delusions of his mind through his own effort and reflection, and attained awakening. From then on, he became known as the Buddha. It is only in memory of that beautiful event that we bow our heads before trees of this kind.” | tree, and said, “Beloved, it was a tree of this very kind beneath which Siddhartha Gautama sat, dispelled the delusions of his mind through his own effort and reflection, and attained awakening. From then on, he became known as the Buddha. It is only in memory of that beautiful event that we bow our heads before trees of this kind.” | ||
“A symbol of dispelling the delusions of the mind and attaining awakening through one's own effort and reflection | “A symbol of dispelling the delusions of the mind and attaining awakening through one's own effort and reflection. Such a symbol deserves to be honoured, beloved. To honour such a symbol is to honour one's own effort—to conquer oneself.” | ||
Then the two went to Bhadanta Dharmarakshita, | Then the two went to Bhadanta Dharmarakshita. At that time, he was sitting beneath a Bakula tree in the courtyard, where the sweet fragrance of newly opened blossoms filled the air. Prabha bowed to him in the manner of a Buddhist lay devotee, touching the ground with her feet, knees, hands, and forehead.<ref>This is ''pañca-pratiṣṭhita'', a five-point prostration. The passage describes the physical form of the bow, with five points of the body touching the ground.</ref> Ashvaghosha stood and showed his respect. Then they took pieces of leather lying on the ground and sat down. The monk's other disciples, assuming that Ashvaghosha had come to talk with him, withdrew. After the usual courtesies, Ashvaghosha began speaking about philosophy. Dharmarakshita said, “Brahmin youth, even philosophy is described in the Buddha's teaching as a bond—a heavy bond, a fetter of views.”<ref>The Hindi term is ''dṛṣṭi-saṃyojana'', a fetter or bondage associated with views. The point is not necessarily that philosophical inquiry has no place in Buddhism: the ensuing dialogue makes clear that the issue is attachment to views, rather than inquiry itself.</ref> | ||
“Then, Bhadanta, does philosophy have no place in the Buddha's teaching?” | “Then, Bhadanta, does philosophy have no place in the Buddha's teaching?” | ||
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“Yes. When people come to a river without a boat, they make a raft and cross over on it. But once they have reached the other bank, they do not carry the raft's planks on their heads, even though the raft has been useful to them.”<ref>This is the raft simile found in the ''Alagaddūpama Sutta'' (Majjhima Nikāya 22). The teaching is to be used as a means of crossing over, not clung to as an object of attachment.</ref> | “Yes. When people come to a river without a boat, they make a raft and cross over on it. But once they have reached the other bank, they do not carry the raft's planks on their heads, even though the raft has been useful to them.”<ref>This is the raft simile found in the ''Alagaddūpama Sutta'' (Majjhima Nikāya 22). The teaching is to be used as a means of crossing over, not clung to as an object of attachment.</ref> | ||
A man who had the courage to speak of his own teaching in this way must surely have seen the truth and its power. “Bhadanta, tell me something about the Buddha's philosophy | A man who had the courage to speak of his own teaching in this way must surely have seen the truth and its power. “Bhadanta, tell me something about the Buddha's philosophy | ||
{{opage|202}} | {{opage|202}} | ||
“It is the doctrine of non-self, Kumar | that will help us understand a great deal, even about our own minds.” | ||
“It is the doctrine of non-self, Kumar. The Brahmins regard the self as an eternal, unchanging, everlasting reality. The Buddha does not accept any such eternal, unchanging, everlasting reality, either within the world or beyond it. That is why his philosophy is called the doctrine of non-self: it is the philosophy of impermanence, of arising and passing away from moment to moment.”<ref>''Anātmavāda'' is the doctrine of non-self; ''anityatā'' is impermanence. The passage links them by contrasting Buddhist thought with the Brahmanical belief in an eternal self.</ref> | |||
“This one point is enough for me, Bhadanta. Ashvaghosha bows a hundred times to the Buddha, who declared that the teaching and the doctrine of non-self are like a raft. Ashvaghosha has found what he was searching for. I had been experiencing something like these waves within myself, but I could not give them a name. If | “This one point is enough for me, Bhadanta. Ashvaghosha bows a hundred times to the Buddha, who declared that the teaching and the doctrine of non-self are like a raft. Ashvaghosha has found what he was searching for. I had been experiencing something like these waves within myself, but I could not give them a name. If people had properly understood the Buddha's teachings, the world would be a very different place today.” | ||
“You are quite right, Kumar. Great philosophers have arisen in our Yavana country, too. Pythagoras and Heraclitus were alive in the Buddha's time; Socrates, Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle came a little later. These Greek philosophers thought deeply, but, with the exception of Heraclitus, they could not rise above eternalism—the belief in what is permanent. They were too attached to the present. That is why they wanted to bind the future to it as well. Heraclitus, at least, did not believe that the world remained the same even for two moments in succession, as the Buddha did. But he had a personal interest in this.” | “You are quite right, Kumar. Great philosophers have arisen in our Yavana country, too. Pythagoras and Heraclitus were alive in the Buddha's time; Socrates, Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle came a little later. These Greek philosophers thought deeply, but, with the exception of Heraclitus, they could not rise above eternalism—the belief in what is permanent. They were too attached to the present. That is why they wanted to bind the future to it as well. Heraclitus, at least, did not believe that the world remained the same even for two moments in succession, as the Buddha did. But he had a personal interest in this.” | ||
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{{opage|203}} | {{opage|203}} | ||
Heraclitus was dissatisfied with this state of affairs. He wanted revolution, but not in order to move forward: he wanted to turn back | Heraclitus was dissatisfied with this state of affairs. He wanted revolution, but not in order to move forward: he wanted to turn back.”<ref>The Hindi here uses ''parivartan'', ordinarily “change” or “transformation.” I render it as “revolution” in this explicitly political passage because the contrast is between competing social orders and the interests of the groups seeking to restore or change them. Sankrityayan was a Marxist writing while imprisoned for his political convictions, and the story's framing of the Buddha's community as a model for a future society makes the political resonance significant. “Revolution” is therefore a contextual translation, not a claim that ''parivartan'' always means political revolution.</ref> | ||
“We need revolution, but in order to move forward, not to turn back. I believe, Bhadanta, that the past is dead | “We need revolution, but in order to move forward, not to turn back. I believe, Bhadanta, that the past is dead.” | ||
“Exactly right, Kumar | “Exactly right, Kumar. The Buddha wanted revolution, too. To bring about a better world, he presented the community of monks as a model of that future world.”<ref>The Hindi again uses ''parivartan''. “Revolution” is retained here because the preceding exchange has explicitly framed change in political terms, and the Buddha's Saṅgha is now presented as a model for a different social order. The wording brings out Sankrityayan's revolutionary interpretation without implying that the Hindi word invariably has this meaning.</ref> | ||
“A world without caste, without high and low.” | “A world without caste, without high and low.” | ||
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“Yes. He is the most esteemed among us. We bow to him every day with the five-point prostration. He is the leader of the monastic community throughout the whole Kosala country.” | “Yes. He is the most esteemed among us. We bow to him every day with the five-point prostration. He is the leader of the monastic community throughout the whole Kosala country.” | ||
“But I have heard that he comes from a Chandala family | “But I have heard that he comes from a Chandala family.” | ||
“The monastic community does not look at birth, Kumar; it looks at a person's qualities. He is our leader and our father because of his learning and his virtues. If he receives even enough food to grease the inside of his bowl, he will not eat it without sharing it with his companions. This is the Buddha's teaching. Apart from our three robes, earthen alms bowls, a needle, a ''jalḍukkā'', a razor, and a waistband, everything we have belongs to the community. This building, the garden, the platforms, the seats, and all the rest belong to the community. Some of our monasteries also have fields, and those too belong to the community. One person examines and listens to a man before making him a monk; but once he has entered the community and become a monk, he is equal to everyone else.”<ref>The passage contrasts the limited personal requisites of monks with property held by the Saṅgha as a community. ''Jalḍukkā'' is the reading in the Hindi text used here, but its precise identification is uncertain. The statement about community property describes the social ideal presented in the story, not necessarily the practice of every Buddhist monastery in every period.</ref> | |||
“What if a community like this were established throughout the whole country?” | “What if a community like this were established throughout the whole country?” | ||
“How could that happen, Kumar? When have kings and the rich ever allowed others to become their equals? The monks once admitted a slave into the community. | “How could that happen, Kumar? When have kings and the rich ever allowed others to become their equals? The monks once admitted a slave into the community. | ||
{{opage|204}} | {{opage|204}} | ||
As soon as he entered the community, he was no longer a slave: he was equal to everyone else. But the man who owned him began to raise an outcry. Other slaveholders joined him. Kings themselves own thousands of slaves. How could they tolerate an attack of this kind on their property? The Buddha had to give his word that, from then on, the community would not admit slaves.<ref>The story refers to ''Vinaya Piṭaka, Mahāvagga, Mahākhandhaka'' 1.47 (Vin. i. 76). In this passage, the Buddha prohibits the ordination of runaway slaves (''na dāso pabbājetabbo'') following protests from slaveholders and decreeing that candidates must be asked if they are free (''bhujissosi'').</ref> Our community is a little island in an ocean of inequality. That is why it cannot be safe as long as poverty and slavery of this kind continue to exist in the world.”<ref>The image makes the political limits of the Saṅgha explicit. The community can embody a more egalitarian way of life, but it remains vulnerable while the surrounding society is structured by poverty, slavery, and inequality. The passage thus goes beyond praising the internal practices of the monastic community: it raises the question of the social conditions needed for such a community to endure. For the Saṅgha to be free ''securely'', the whole world must be free.</ref> | |||
== Notes == | == Notes == | ||
Latest revision as of 01:57, 27 October 2026
|
⚠ Awaiting Peer Review ⚠ This English translation is complete but has not yet undergone review by a language specialist. |
Rahul Sankrityayan, (राहुल सांकृत्यायन). 1942. वोल्गा से गंगा [From the Volga to the Ganges]. इलाहाबाद [Allahabad]: किताब महल [Kitab Mahal]. “प्रभा” [“Prabha” / “Radiance”], section 7, pp. 200–203.
Translation
Prabha — Section 7
There is a large courtyard, with a veranda all around it and rooms in a three-storey building behind. Yellow robes are drying on racks along the verandas. In one corner of the courtyard is a well, with a bathing area beside it. Elsewhere in the courtyard are several trees, one of them a Pipal. Around the Pipal is a platform, and a little farther away stands a stone railing, with spaces for thousands of lamps. Prabha knelt down and bowed before the beautiful
tree, and said, “Beloved, it was a tree of this very kind beneath which Siddhartha Gautama sat, dispelled the delusions of his mind through his own effort and reflection, and attained awakening. From then on, he became known as the Buddha. It is only in memory of that beautiful event that we bow our heads before trees of this kind.”
“A symbol of dispelling the delusions of the mind and attaining awakening through one's own effort and reflection. Such a symbol deserves to be honoured, beloved. To honour such a symbol is to honour one's own effort—to conquer oneself.”
Then the two went to Bhadanta Dharmarakshita. At that time, he was sitting beneath a Bakula tree in the courtyard, where the sweet fragrance of newly opened blossoms filled the air. Prabha bowed to him in the manner of a Buddhist lay devotee, touching the ground with her feet, knees, hands, and forehead.[1] Ashvaghosha stood and showed his respect. Then they took pieces of leather lying on the ground and sat down. The monk's other disciples, assuming that Ashvaghosha had come to talk with him, withdrew. After the usual courtesies, Ashvaghosha began speaking about philosophy. Dharmarakshita said, “Brahmin youth, even philosophy is described in the Buddha's teaching as a bond—a heavy bond, a fetter of views.”[2]
“Then, Bhadanta, does philosophy have no place in the Buddha's teaching?”
“Why should it have no place? The Buddha's teaching is full of philosophy. But he presents it as a raft for crossing over, not something to lift onto one's head and carry about.”
“What do you mean, like a raft?”
“Yes. When people come to a river without a boat, they make a raft and cross over on it. But once they have reached the other bank, they do not carry the raft's planks on their heads, even though the raft has been useful to them.”[3]
A man who had the courage to speak of his own teaching in this way must surely have seen the truth and its power. “Bhadanta, tell me something about the Buddha's philosophy
that will help us understand a great deal, even about our own minds.”
“It is the doctrine of non-self, Kumar. The Brahmins regard the self as an eternal, unchanging, everlasting reality. The Buddha does not accept any such eternal, unchanging, everlasting reality, either within the world or beyond it. That is why his philosophy is called the doctrine of non-self: it is the philosophy of impermanence, of arising and passing away from moment to moment.”[4]
“This one point is enough for me, Bhadanta. Ashvaghosha bows a hundred times to the Buddha, who declared that the teaching and the doctrine of non-self are like a raft. Ashvaghosha has found what he was searching for. I had been experiencing something like these waves within myself, but I could not give them a name. If people had properly understood the Buddha's teachings, the world would be a very different place today.”
“You are quite right, Kumar. Great philosophers have arisen in our Yavana country, too. Pythagoras and Heraclitus were alive in the Buddha's time; Socrates, Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle came a little later. These Greek philosophers thought deeply, but, with the exception of Heraclitus, they could not rise above eternalism—the belief in what is permanent. They were too attached to the present. That is why they wanted to bind the future to it as well. Heraclitus, at least, did not believe that the world remained the same even for two moments in succession, as the Buddha did. But he had a personal interest in this.”
“A personal interest in philosophical ideas?”
“The stomach is close to everyone, Kumar. At that time, our city of Athens was governed by a gaṇa—a polity without a king. At first, powerful aristocrats, from families like Heraclitus's, were the leading figures in this form of government. Later, the merchants and wealthy traders displaced them and took control of the state. In this situation,
Heraclitus was dissatisfied with this state of affairs. He wanted revolution, but not in order to move forward: he wanted to turn back.”[5]
“We need revolution, but in order to move forward, not to turn back. I believe, Bhadanta, that the past is dead.”
“Exactly right, Kumar. The Buddha wanted revolution, too. To bring about a better world, he presented the community of monks as a model of that future world.”[6]
“A world without caste, without high and low.”
“A world in which everyone shares equally in its benefits, and everyone shares equally in service.”[7]
“You must have seen our Mahāsthavira Dharmasena working outside, sweeping.”
“That dark-skinned monk?”
“Yes. He is the most esteemed among us. We bow to him every day with the five-point prostration. He is the leader of the monastic community throughout the whole Kosala country.”
“But I have heard that he comes from a Chandala family.”
“The monastic community does not look at birth, Kumar; it looks at a person's qualities. He is our leader and our father because of his learning and his virtues. If he receives even enough food to grease the inside of his bowl, he will not eat it without sharing it with his companions. This is the Buddha's teaching. Apart from our three robes, earthen alms bowls, a needle, a jalḍukkā, a razor, and a waistband, everything we have belongs to the community. This building, the garden, the platforms, the seats, and all the rest belong to the community. Some of our monasteries also have fields, and those too belong to the community. One person examines and listens to a man before making him a monk; but once he has entered the community and become a monk, he is equal to everyone else.”[8]
“What if a community like this were established throughout the whole country?”
“How could that happen, Kumar? When have kings and the rich ever allowed others to become their equals? The monks once admitted a slave into the community.
As soon as he entered the community, he was no longer a slave: he was equal to everyone else. But the man who owned him began to raise an outcry. Other slaveholders joined him. Kings themselves own thousands of slaves. How could they tolerate an attack of this kind on their property? The Buddha had to give his word that, from then on, the community would not admit slaves.[9] Our community is a little island in an ocean of inequality. That is why it cannot be safe as long as poverty and slavery of this kind continue to exist in the world.”[10]
Notes
- ↑ This is pañca-pratiṣṭhita, a five-point prostration. The passage describes the physical form of the bow, with five points of the body touching the ground.
- ↑ The Hindi term is dṛṣṭi-saṃyojana, a fetter or bondage associated with views. The point is not necessarily that philosophical inquiry has no place in Buddhism: the ensuing dialogue makes clear that the issue is attachment to views, rather than inquiry itself.
- ↑ This is the raft simile found in the Alagaddūpama Sutta (Majjhima Nikāya 22). The teaching is to be used as a means of crossing over, not clung to as an object of attachment.
- ↑ Anātmavāda is the doctrine of non-self; anityatā is impermanence. The passage links them by contrasting Buddhist thought with the Brahmanical belief in an eternal self.
- ↑ The Hindi here uses parivartan, ordinarily “change” or “transformation.” I render it as “revolution” in this explicitly political passage because the contrast is between competing social orders and the interests of the groups seeking to restore or change them. Sankrityayan was a Marxist writing while imprisoned for his political convictions, and the story's framing of the Buddha's community as a model for a future society makes the political resonance significant. “Revolution” is therefore a contextual translation, not a claim that parivartan always means political revolution.
- ↑ The Hindi again uses parivartan. “Revolution” is retained here because the preceding exchange has explicitly framed change in political terms, and the Buddha's Saṅgha is now presented as a model for a different social order. The wording brings out Sankrityayan's revolutionary interpretation without implying that the Hindi word invariably has this meaning.
- ↑ The Hindi bhoga samāna refers to equality in enjoyment or benefit, while the phrase about service stresses equality in serving. This supports a reading of the Saṅgha as an egalitarian community, although the wording alone does not establish a detailed system of collective ownership or equal distribution of every resource.
- ↑ The passage contrasts the limited personal requisites of monks with property held by the Saṅgha as a community. Jalḍukkā is the reading in the Hindi text used here, but its precise identification is uncertain. The statement about community property describes the social ideal presented in the story, not necessarily the practice of every Buddhist monastery in every period.
- ↑ The story refers to Vinaya Piṭaka, Mahāvagga, Mahākhandhaka 1.47 (Vin. i. 76). In this passage, the Buddha prohibits the ordination of runaway slaves (na dāso pabbājetabbo) following protests from slaveholders and decreeing that candidates must be asked if they are free (bhujissosi).
- ↑ The image makes the political limits of the Saṅgha explicit. The community can embody a more egalitarian way of life, but it remains vulnerable while the surrounding society is structured by poverty, slavery, and inequality. The passage thus goes beyond praising the internal practices of the monastic community: it raises the question of the social conditions needed for such a community to endure. For the Saṅgha to be free securely, the whole world must be free.
