SADDHARMA-PUNDARÎKA.

Ginâ hi mâdrisâ gñeyâ ye prâptâ âsravakshayam,
gitâ me pâpakâ dharmâs tenopa(ka) Gino [hy] aham.
Translation: "Victors like me should be known as those who have reached the destruction of the influxes; evil states are conquered by me, therefore, Upaka, I am a victor."

The following verses, taken from Mahâvagga and Lalitavistara l. c., have likewise the same origin, notwithstanding some variations :

dhammakakkam pavattetum gakkhâmi Kâsinam puram,
andhabhûtasmi lokasmim âhañhi amatadudrabhim.
Translation: "To set the wheel of the Law in motion, I go to the city of the Kasis; in this blinded world, I shall beat the drum of the deathless."

Compare:

Vârânasîm gamishyâmi gatvâ vai Kâsikâm purîm,
andhabhûtasya lokasya kartâsmy asadrisîm1 prabhâm.
Vârânasîm gamishyâmi gatvâ vai Kâsikâm purîm,
sabdahînasya lokasya tâdayishye2 'mritadundubhim.
Vârânasîm gamishyâmi gatvâ vai Kâsikâm purîm,
dharmakakram pravartishye lokeshv aprativartitam.
Translation: "I shall go to Vârânasî, having gone to the Kâsika city; I shall make incomparable light for the blinded world. I shall go to Vârânasî, having gone to the Kâsika city; I shall beat the drum of the deathless for the soundless world. I shall go to Vârânasî, having gone to the Kâsika city; I shall set in motion the wheel of the Law, unstopped in the worlds."

An important passage on the divine sight of the Buddha in Lalita-vistara, p. 439 seq., almost literally occurs in the Sâmaññaphala-Sutta Discourse on the Fruits of Recluseship, as has been pointed out by Burnouf3.

These few examples I have chosen will suffice to prove that the material of a Mahâvaipulya Sûtra is partly as old as that of any other sacred book of the Buddhists. The language of the prose part of those Sûtras does not differ from that used in the simple Sûtras of the Northern canon. Should the Sanskrit text prove to be younger than the Pâli text, then we may say that we do not possess the Northern tradition in its original shape. That result, however, affords no criterion for the distinction between the simple Sûtras and the Mahâvaipulya Sûtras, for both are written in the very same Sanskrit, if we except the Gâthâs verses/metrical portions.

It would lead me too far, were I to enter into the heart of the question which of the three idioms, Sanskrit, Pâli, and the so-called Gâthâ dialect, was the oldest scriptural language of the Buddhists, and I will therefore confine myself to a few remarks. In the first place it will be granted

1 The reading aham sadrisîm of the Calc. ed. is clearly a corrupt reading.
2 This word, which spoils the metre, has manifestly replaced an older expression, not unlikely âhañhi, or a similar form of the future tense of âhan (Sansk. âhanishye).
3 Lotus de la bonne Loi, p. 864.