[Buddha-l] Re: Age of the Sutta Nipata (L.S. Cousins)

[L.S. Cousins]

Hello there, Mitchell,

>Thank you for th mention of this brand new book (well, dated 2007, 
>anyway), Lance.
>On that Alexander Wynne book, ...  it is not listed at amazon.com but
>is at the British amazon web site http://www.amazon.co.uk
>It is listed at 75 pounds sterling.

They are terribly pricey.

>It does sound quite interesting and I have wondered through the 
>years if there was any trace
>in non-Buddhist sources of the two teachers Siddhattha had before awakening.

Alex Wynne discusses the two teachers in detail and defends their 
historicity.  But I don't think he has found any mention of them in 
non-Buddhist sources.

>Do the
>considerations in the book touch on the issue of there being 
>possibly some parts of
>the Sutta Nipata that are quite early and others that are later?

Only briefly. He is mainly interested in the Paaraayana.

It is often argued that the Sutta-nipaata is late as a collection, 
even if certain parts existed independently from an early date. But 
this is no more than a reasonable guess. In fact, we know that 
non-Theravaadin schools possessed parallel material, but we don't 
know how they organized it.

Lance