The Questions of King Milinda (Classic Reprint)

INTRODUCTION. THE work of which a translation is here, for the first time, presented to the English reading public, has had a strange and interesting history. vVritten in Northern India, at or a little after the beginning of the Christian era, and either in Sanskrit itself or in some North Indian Prakrit, it has been entirely lost in the land of its origin, and (so far as is at present known) is not extant in any of the homes of the various sects and schools of the Buddhists, except only in Ceylon, and in those countries which have derived their Buddhism from Ceylon. It is true that General Cunningham says 1 that the name of Milinda ' is still famous in a 11 Buddhist countries.' But he is here drawing a very wide conclusion from an isolated fact. For in his note he refers only to Hardy, who is good evidence for Ceylon, but who does not even say that the' Milinda > was known elsewhere. Preserved there, and translated at a very early date into Pali, it has become, inTable of Contents CONTENTS; PAGE; INTRODUCTION XI; The SiJJlhalese version of the llilinda XII; Buddbaghosa's four references to it xiv; lISS and edition of the text XVI; King lIiIinda the same as lIenander xviii; Notices of him in classical writers xix; His coins xx; His birthplace, Kalasi, probably = Karisi X X III; The author not the same as Nagargulla xxv; Passages in the Pi/akas referred to silently xxvii; Pali books, &c, referred to by name xxix; Pi/aka passages quoted XXXI; Length of the Pitakas xxxyi; Results of these comparisons XXXVIIl; Differences between our author and the Pitakas xl; Proper names outside the Pi/akas xliii; Differences of language between our author and the; Pi/akas xlv; The lIiIinda as a work of art xlviii; TRANSLATION OF THE TEXT; Book 1 The Secular Narrative; Description of Sagala 2; Previous births of lIilinda