[Buddha-l] Are the Pali Sutta's really ancient?

[Bruce Burrill]

At 04:11 AM 3/1/2010, you wrote:
>Thank you Bruce for the long and detailed reply. It was very helpful.
>
>You asked if I had an example of variant manuscripts for Pali Suttas. I
>don't have anything at hand, but I recall reading many a PTS translation
>where the translator  had written about this. Wynne in "The Origin of
>Buddhist Meditation" talks about variant readings a fair bit, but I also
>believe that whole passages differed between manuscripts found in Sri Lanka
>and Thailand or Burma. Does anyone have any references for this?
>
>Thanks
>
>Bankei

Sure, this exist, but it hardly evidence of a wholesale editing of 
the Pali suttas to fit the Theravada doctrine. What this points to is 
the problem of manuscripts copied by scribes and the problem that 
there was no central authority overseeing any of the scribal work. 
Look at the PTS' Pali edition of the suttas and you will se that the 
editors have included the variant readings they had access to, and 
what is seen seems to be just that, scribal variations.

Also, difference between Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand would be 
expected. There is no evidence that I have seen that any of those 
differences are significant.