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''The Dhammapada: With introductory essays, Pali text, English translation and notes'' is a 1950 book written by philosopher and (later)
President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Mur ...
, Dr.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (; 5 September 1888 – 17 April 1975), natively Radhakrishnayya, was an Indian philosopher and statesman. He served as the 2nd President of India from 1962 to 1967. He also 1st Vice President of India from 1952 ...
(1888–1975), about the
Dhammapada The Dhammapada ( Pāli; sa, धर्मपद, Dharmapada) is a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures. The original version of the Dhammapada is in the Khuddaka ...
, an important
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
scripture Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual pract ...
. Originally published in 1950 by
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
, the book has been republished numerous times by the same publisher, most recently in 1997. A 2007 Indian edition was published by
Pilgrims Publishing Pilgrims Book House is a publishing and bookselling company founded in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1984. It formerly published books under the Book Faith India imprint and now publishes under the Pilgrims Publishing imprint. Pilgrims Book House is curre ...
. The book has been reviewed in several professional journals. All editions have had 194 pages and have used the same title.


Outline of book

Radhakrishnan's ''Dhammapada'' contains original
Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist '' Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Bud ...
text as well as English translations of the Dhammapada's 26 chapters. It begins with a preface composed in 1950 in which Radhakrishnan states that
To-day... We have come to recognize that it is either one world or none. The effort to build one world requires a closer understanding among the peoples of the world and their cultures. This translation of the ''
Dhammapada The Dhammapada ( Pāli; sa, धर्मपद, Dharmapada) is a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures. The original version of the Dhammapada is in the Khuddaka ...
''... is offered as a small contribution to world understanding. The central thesis of the book, that human conduct, righteous behaviour, reflection, and
meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...
are more important than vain speculations about the transcendent - has an appeal to the modern mind.... Books so rich in significance... require to be understood by each generation in relation to its own problems.First edition (1950)
The preface also states that
he ''Dhammapadasteaching - to repress the instincts entirely is to generate neuroses; to give them full rein is also to end up in neuroses - is supported by
modern psychology Psychology is defined as "the scientific study of behavior and mental processes". Philosophical interest in the human mind and behavior dates back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Persia, Greece, China, and India. Psychology as a field of ...
.
Next is a 57-page introduction that is divided into two main sections. The first introductory section, less than 3 pages in length, is entitled simply "The ''Dhammapada''," and briefly summarizes the ''Dhammapadas historical context, noting that its verses connect with incidents in the Buddha's life "and illustrate the method of teaching adopted by him." The second section, entitled "Gautama the Buddha," has several subsections: :*I. Life (pp. 4-15). Contains a biographical outline of the Buddha's early life, marriage, renunciation, search for and encounter with truth, founding of his order, some major manners and themes of his teaching, and passing away. Notes that "the Buddha was more definitely opposed to Vedic orthodoxy and ceremonialism than was Socrates to the State religion of Athens, or Jesus to Judaism, and yet he lived till eighty.... Perhaps the Indian temper of religion is responsible for the difference in the treatment of unorthodoxies." :*II. The Four Truths (pp. 15-26). Describes the
Four Noble Truths In Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths (Sanskrit: ; pi, cattāri ariyasaccāni; "The four Arya satyas") are "the truths of the Noble Ones", the truths or realities for the "spiritually worthy ones". Four Noble Truths: BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY Encycl ...
taught in Buddhism, that 1) sorrow (''duhkha'') is pervasive in life as we know it, 2) Sorrow has a cause (''samudaya">duhkha">Four Noble Truths: BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY Encycl ...
taught in Buddhism, that 1) sorrow (''duhkha'') is pervasive in life as we know it, 2) Sorrow has a cause (''samudaya''), 3) sorrow can be removed (''nirodha''), and there is a path (''Noble Eightfold Path, marga'') beyond sorrow, the Noble Eightfold Path, Eightfold Path. :*III. The Buddha and the
Upaniṣads The Upanishads (; sa, उपनिषद् ) are late Vedic Sanskrit texts that supplied the basis of later Hindu philosophy.Wendy Doniger (1990), ''Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism'', 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press, , ...
(pp. 26-35). "Gautama the Buddha," Radhakrishnan argues, "has suffered as much as anyone from critics without a sense of history. He has been cried up, and cried down, with an equal lack of historical imagination." He explains that "To know what the Buddha actually taught or what his earliest followers thought he did, we must place ourselves in imagination in the India of the sixth century B.C.... Great minds make individual contributions of permanent value to the thought of their age; but they do not, and cannot, altogether transcend the age in which they live.... Even when they are propounding answers which are startlingly new, they use the inadequate ideas and concepts of tradition to express the deeper truths towards which they are feeling their way." He quotes the Buddha as stating that "'there are... four truths of the Brāhmins which have been realized by me... and made known""'there are these four truths of the Brāhmins which have been realized by me by my own higher knowledge and made known (''Aṅguttara'', iv. 195; ''Saṁyutta'', xxii. 90). He characterizes his ''
dharma Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for ...
'' as ancient (''purāṇa'') - as eternal (''ṥāṥvata'' or ''sanātana''). He compares it to the discovery of an old buried forgotten city (''Nagara Sutta''). He is said to be a knower of the Veda (''vedajña'') or of the
Vedānta ''Vedanta'' (; sa, वेदान्त, ), also ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six (''āstika'') schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of the Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, t ...
(''vedāntajña'') (''Saṁyutta'', i. 168; ''Sutta Nipāta'', 463)." (p. 29, footnote 1).Radhakrishnan quotes
Max Müller Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic disciplines of India ...
(1901), who states that Buddhism is "the highest Brāhmanism popularized, everything esoteric being abolished, the priesthood replaced by monks, and these monks being in their true character the successors and representatives of the enlightened dwellers in the forest of former ages" (Müller, ''Last Essays'', 2nd series, p. 121). stating that the Buddha's teaching "is derived" from the
Upaniṣads The Upanishads (; sa, उपनिषद् ) are late Vedic Sanskrit texts that supplied the basis of later Hindu philosophy.Wendy Doniger (1990), ''Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism'', 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press, , ...
. :*IV. Metaphysical Views (pp. 35-52). Notes that "the Buddha discouraged doctrinal controversies as prejudicial to inward peace and ethical striving." Discusses attempts to view the Buddha as adhering to various
metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of consci ...
positions, especially 1)
agnosticism Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficie ...
, 2)
atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, or 3) belief in a "transempirical reality in the universe" and a "time-transcending element in the self." Argues that the third interpretation (belief in a transempirical reality) is most consistent with what is known of the Buddha. :*V. Spiritual Absolutism (pp. 52-57). Here, Radhakrishnan states that "The tradition of teaching by silence has been an ancient one in India," and argues that "If the Buddha declined to define the nature of this absolute or if he contented himself with negative definitions, it is only to indicate that absolute being is above all determinations. It is difficult to differentiate this supreme being from the Absolute ''
Brahman In Hinduism, ''Brahman'' ( sa, ब्रह्मन्) connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality in the universe.P. T. Raju (2006), ''Idealistic Thought of India'', Routledge, , page 426 and Conclusion chapter part ...
'' of
Advaita Vedanta ''Advaita Vedanta'' (; sa, अद्वैत वेदान्त, ) is a Hindu sādhanā, a path of spiritual discipline and experience, and the oldest extant tradition of the orthodox Hindu school Vedānta. The term ''Advaita'' ( ...
or the super-God of
Christian mysticism Christian mysticism is the tradition of mystical practices and mystical theology within Christianity which "concerns the preparation f the personfor, the consciousness of, and the effect of ..a direct and transformative presence of God" ...
as formulated in the writings of the
pseudo-Dionysius Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (or Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite) was a Greek author, Christian theologian and Neoplatonic philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century, who wrote a set of works known as the ''Corpus Areopagiticum'' ...
." "The Buddha's reasons for his silence are quite intelligible," states Radhakrishnan, and he enumerates five motives for the Buddha's silence.1. A climate of bold speculation, pungent speech in which "it was difficult to draw a shap line between the supersititon of the ignorant and the sophistry of the learned" (p. 54); 2. Doctrinal controversies could distract from the need for each adherent to realize the truth by personal effort; 3. The Buddha's mission was "to interest not merely the intellectuals, but the common people" (pp. 54-55); 4. "Fourthly, the affirmative theology, in its anxiety to bring the absolute into relation with the relative, makes the absolute itself relative." (p. 55); 5. "Fifthly, the nature of absolute reality is supra-logical, and it is idle to insist on giving logical accounts of it" (p. 55). Also in the fifth section, Radhakrishnan offers his interpretation of three "inadequacies" or "exaggerations" in the Buddha's thought, which "revealed themselves in uddhism'slater history and relation to Hinduism." These are that i) "Philosophy is a natural necessity of the human mind," and the Buddha's hearers were unable to adopt suspended judgement on the ultimate questions; ii) "The Buddha's conception of ''
dharma Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for ...
'' as the absolute reality was not sufficiently concrete for practical purposes"; and iii) The Buddha taught that one could renounce householder duties at any age. Radhakrishnan states that these "exaggerations" are understandable if we realize that in the Buddha's time, attempts to lead the spiritual life had to contend with "three great enemies... the theologians, the ritualists, and the worldlings." The largest part of the book (pp. 58–187) consists of a romanized transliteration of the original
Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist '' Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Bud ...
text, plus a verse-by-verse English translation. Two examples are shown in the table at right. Many verses are augmented with footnotes or are followed by commentary, presented in a smaller font size than the verses themselves. The book concludes with a short selected bibliography, a 4-page
Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist '' Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Bud ...
index (indicating which verses contain a specified word), and a 2-page general index.


Reception

The book has been reviewed in professional journals that include ''
The Journal of Religion ''The Journal of Religion'' is an academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press founded in 1897 as ''The American Journal of Theology''. The journal "embraces all areas of theology (biblical, historical, ethical, and constructiv ...
'', '' Philosophy'', ''
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies Bulletin or The Bulletin may refer to: Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, journals) * Bulletin (online newspaper), a Swedish online newspaper * ''The Bulletin'' (Australian periodical), an Australian magazine (1880–2008) ** Bulletin Debate ...
'', and ''
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: * Bullet journal, a method of personal organization * Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal ...
''. Ashby stated that "the distinct contribution of this volume is the Introduction,"Fuller quote: "As is so often the case in new translations of works previously available, the distinct contribution of this volume is the Introduction..." (Ashby, p. 147). where "
Radhakrishnan Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (; 5 September 1888 – 17 April 1975), natively Radhakrishnayya, was an Indian philosopher and statesman. He served as the 2nd President of India from 1962 to 1967. He also 1st Vice President of India from 1952 ...
sets out in clear and penetrating fashion to give the reader a basic understanding of the thought-world in which Buddhist ethical teaching moves. His discussion of the relation of the teachings of the Buddha to the
Upanishads The Upanishads (; sa, उपनिषद् ) are late Vedic Sanskrit texts that supplied the basis of later Hindu philosophy.Wendy Doniger (1990), ''Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism'', 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press, , ...
and his examination of the metaphysical views of
Sakyamuni Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...
will prove valuable ... nd hisinsistence upon the positive nature of the Buddhist conception of
Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lamp Richard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo. ...
is recommended reading for... victims of the 'annihilation-extinction' theory of Nirvana." Horner noted that the same Pali word is translated differently by Radhakrishnan in different places. "
Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist '' Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Bud ...
technical terms are, of course, recognized to contain a subtle variety of meanings. Some of these will be appreciated by anyone making... the reasonably intensive study of this volume which it deserves as well as makes possible." For example, "Professor Radhakrishnan translates ''
dhamma Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for ' ...
'' in the text by 'virtue' and by 'law.... Thus, ''
asava Āsava is a Pali term (Sanskrit: Āsrava) that is used in Buddhist scripture, philosophy, and psychology, meaning "influx, canker." It refers to the mental defilements of sensual pleasures, craving for existence, and ignorance, which perpetuate ...
'' is rendered by 'passions', 'taints', 'impurities', and... ''
Samadhi ''Samadhi'' (Pali and sa, समाधि), in Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools, is a state of meditative consciousness. In Buddhism, it is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. In the Ashtanga Yoga ...
'' is usually 'tranquillity', once (ver. 271) 'meditative calm'." Brough described the book as "a convenient presentation of the Pali text, and... a useful introduction to the work for beginners in Pali," although "a comprehensive textual study in the light of the Tibetan and Central Asian parallel verses is still awaited." In the journal '' Philosophy'', Stede stated that "On the whole, the translation is clear and accurate." She added that the translated verses are "frequently... supplemented by explanations taken from the early commentator
Buddhaghosa Buddhaghosa was a 5th-century Indian Theravada Buddhist commentator, translator and philosopher. He worked in the Great Monastery (''Mahāvihāra'') at Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka and saw himself as being part of the Vibhajjavāda school and in t ...
and by comparative passages selected from philosophical and theological texts of East and West. Although perhaps too numerous, these extraneous references give evidence of the translator's wide learning."


Editions

Editions have been published in 1950, 1954, 1958, 1966, 1968, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1997, and 2007, and include: *
Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...
, India:
Pilgrims Publishing Pilgrims Book House is a publishing and bookselling company founded in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1984. It formerly published books under the Book Faith India imprint and now publishes under the Pilgrims Publishing imprint. Pilgrims Book House is curre ...
. (2007). , , . *London: Oxford University Press (1997), ''The Dhammapada: With introductory essays, Pali text, English translation and notes'', , , . *London: Oxford University Press (1950), ''The Dhammapada: With introductory essays, Pali text, English translation and notes''


See also

* Radhakrishnan's ''
The Principal Upanishads (book) ''The Principal Upanishads'' is a 1953 book written by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975), then Vice President of India (and later President of India), about the main Upanishads, which carry central teachings of the Vedanta. Originally publis ...
'' * ''Dhammapada'' (Easwaran translation)


References


External links


Detailed word-by-word translation of the Dhammapada
including explanation of grammar {{DEFAULTSORT:Dhammapada Philosophy books Books about spirituality Buddhism studies books 1950 non-fiction books Indian non-fiction books Contemporary Indian philosophy 20th-century Indian books