Textual criticism as practiced by early Sinhalese scholars

Abstract

The scientific process of emending manuscripts is known as Textual Criticism'. The method has been practiced in both Eastern and Western literatures from the early times. However, the term Textual Criticism' was first used in the mid 19th century.

In this research my attempt is to show that Sri Lankan and Indian scholars practiced 'Textual Criticism' as a technical activity and it can be compared with the modem method mentioned above.

The Buddhist tradition of Textual Criticism' is an important branch of the Indian tradition. The 𝘚𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘢 contains seven-fold process of analyzing 𝘋𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘢. In the process of studying 𝘈𝘣𝘩𝘪𝘥𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘢, the method adopted is described in five steps. The three 𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘺𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘴 in Tripitaka held in India took a considerable part in re-constructing the original words of the Buddha. What had taken place at these 𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘺𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘴 was a laborious process of the discussion of the texts orally transmitted and arriving at a consensus with a view to establishing an authoritative text.

The history of text editing in Sri Lanka extends as far back as the 151 century B.C. That was the instance of texts transmitted hither to orally being written down at 𝘈𝘭𝘶𝘷𝘪𝘩𝘪𝘪𝘳𝘢. This is not a mere copying but also involved reading and emendation.

My main task here is to probe into the editorial actions of Buddhaghosa in the translation of Sinhalese commentaries into Pali. His task was not a mere translation, but to edit the Sinhalese works according to the 𝘗𝘢𝘭𝘪 '𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘺𝘢𝘯𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘬𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘢𝘯'). The procedure u applied by him, as described himself in his works is as follows: by taking the substance of the & old commentaries (𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘮 𝘴𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘢), including the opinion of the elders (𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘢𝘥𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘯 𝘺𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘫𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘰), exceeding any error of transcription (𝘱𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘬𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘷𝘢𝘫𝘫𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘢), condensing detailed accounts (𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘢 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘵𝘷𝘢), including authoritative decisions (𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘺𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘵𝘷𝘢), without overstepping any Pali idioms (𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘬𝘬𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘤𝘪 𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘬𝘬𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘷𝘢). Whenever the commentator had to give his own opinion on any point of suspect, he did not fail to mention that the views are his own (𝘢𝘺𝘢𝘮 𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘢 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪). At the points that he cannot give a proper decision, Buddhagosha records the whole incident and delegates the judgment to the reader (𝘺𝘢𝘩𝘵𝘢 𝘸𝘢 𝘵𝘢𝘩𝘵𝘢 𝘸𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘶). This method of analyzing fact is known as 𝘔𝘢𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘢 in early Buddhism. On many occasions in commenting he consulted manuscript of various schools, and faithfully recorded the variant readings that he found in the texts. His main effort was to arrive at the basic text with supreme authority.

As the Encyclopaedia Britannica points out, the method or the critical process applied in restoring text has been resolved into three stages, namely (1) Critical Recension, (2) Examination and (3) Emendation. Emendation is further linked with conjecture. 1 shall take into consideration these modem methods and try to investigate the achievement of Buddhaghosa in his editorial works of translation Sinhala texts into Pali.