Khuddaka Nikaya - Milinda Panha - Rebirth
The Debate of King Milinda
edited by Bhikkhu Pesala
Chapter 2
Rebirth
1.“He who is reborn, Nàgasena, is he the
same person or another?”
“Neither the same nor another.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“In the case of a pot of milk that turns first
to curds, then to butter, then to ghee; it would not be right
to say that the ghee, butter and curds were the same as the
milk but they have come from that, so neither would it be
right to say that they are something else.”
2.“Is the man who will not be reborn aware of the fact?”
“Yes, O king.”
“How does he know it?”
“By the cessation of all that is cause or condition of
rebirth. As a farmer who does not plough or sow or reap
would know that his granary is not getting filled up.”
3.“In one, Nàgasena, in whom knowledge (¤àõa) arises
does wisdom (pa¤¤à) also arise?”
“Yes, O king.”
“Is knowledge the same as wisdom?”
“Yes, O king.”
“Then would he with his knowledge and wisdom be
in ignorance about anything?”
“He would still be in ignorance about the things he
had not yet learnt but regarding what had been accom-
plished by wisdom — that is the perception of imperma-
nence, unsatisfactoriness and soullessness — he would not
be ignorant.”
“Then what would have happened to his delusions
on those points?”
“From the moment when knowledge arises, delusion
passes away. As when the light comes, darkness dis-
appears.”
“But then what has become of his wisdom?”
“When wisdom has accomplished its task then it dis-
appears; but his understanding of impermanence, unsatis-
factoriness and soullessness does not disappear.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“As a man who wants to write a letter at night would
have a lamp lit and then write the letter. Then he would put
out the lamp, but though the lamp had been put out the
letter would remain.”
4.“Does he who will not be reborn feel any painful
feeling?”
“He may feel physical pain, O king, but not mental
pain.”
“If he feels painful feelings then why doesn’t he just
die and attain the extinction of grasping, and put an end to
suffering?”
“The arahant has no fondness for or aversion to life.
He does not shake down the unripe fruit but awaits the
time of its maturity. For this was said by Venerable
Sàriputta, the Buddha’s chief disciple:
“It is not death, nor life I cherish;
As the hireling his wage,
so I bide my time.
It is not death nor life I long for,
Mindful and clearly comprehending,
I bide my time.”32
5.“Is a pleasant feeling wholesome, unwholesome or
neutral?”
“It may be any one of the three.”
“But surely, venerable sir, if wholesome conditions
are not painful and painful ones are not wholesome, then
there can be no wholesome condition that is at the same
time painful.”33
“What do you think, O king? If a man were to hold in
one hand a hot iron ball and in the other a ball of ice, would
they both hurt him?”
“Indeed they would.”
“Then your hypothesis must be wrong. If they are not
both hot but the heat hurts, and they are not both cold but
the cold hurts then the pain does not come from the heat or
the cold.”
“I am not able to argue with you. Please explain the
matter.”
32.Thag. 1002, 1003.
33.Wholesome deeds are not painful in result but we may find them hard to do because of
our attachment and aversion. It is the defilements that cause us to suffer, not the good
deeds. Unwholesome deeds are painful in result but we may enjoy doing them due to
delusion. When the result comes we have to suffer.
Then the elder taught the king the Abhidhamma:
“There are six pleasures connected with the world and six
of renunciation; six worldly sorrows and six of renuncia-
tion; and six neutral feelings in each case, altogether thirty-
six. Then there are thirty-six feelings in the past, present
and future so altogether there are one hundred and eight
feelings.”
6.“What is it, Nàgasena, that is reborn?”
“Mind and matter.”
“Is it this very mind and matter that is reborn?”
“No, it is not, but by this mind and matter deeds are
done and because of those deeds another mind and matter
is reborn; but that mind and matter is not thereby released
from the results of its previous deeds.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“It is like a fire that a man might kindle and, having
warmed himself, he might leave it burning and go away.
Then, if that fire were to set light to another man’s field and
the owner were to seize him and accuse him before the
king, and he were to say, ‘Your majesty, I did not set this
man’s field on fire. The fire that I left burning was different
to that which burnt his field. I am not guilty’. Would he
deserve punishment?”
“Indeed, yes, because whatever he might say the
latter fire resulted from the former one.”
“Just so, O king, by this mind and matter deeds are
done and because of those deeds another mind and matter
is reborn; but that mind and matter is not thereby released
from the results of its previous deeds.”
7.“Will you, Nàgasena, be reborn?”
“What is the use of asking that question again? Have
I not already told you that if I die with attachment in my
mind I shall be reborn, if not I shall not.”
8.“You were explaining just now about mind and
matter. Therein, what is mind and what is matter?”
“Whatever is gross is materiality, whatever is subtle
and mind or mental-states is mentality.”
“Why are they not born separately?”
“These conditions are related like the yolk of an egg
and its shell, they always arise together and thus they have
been related through time immemorial.”34
9.“Nàgasena, when you say, ‘Time immemorial’, what
does time mean? Is there any such thing?”
“Time means past, present and future. There are some
for whom time exists and some for whom it doesn’t. Where
there are beings who will be reborn, for them time exists;
where there are beings who will not be reborn, for them
time does not exist.”
“Well put, Nàgasena, you are clever in reply.”
—}{—
34.Rhys Davids and Miss Horner, using the Sinhalese text, both read this sentence as:
evametaü dãghamaddhànaü saübhàvitaü, which Miss Horner translates, “Thus is
produced this long. (saüsàric) time”. However, the Burmese text has: sandhàvitaü, and
so I have translated accordingly.
Showing posts with label Milinda Panha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Milinda Panha. Show all posts
Monday, May 23, 2011
Khuddaka Nikaya - Milinda Panha - The Soul
Khuddaka Nikaya - Milinda Panha - The Soul
The Debate of King Milinda
edited by Bhikkhu Pesala
Chapter 1
The Soul
King Milinda went up to Nàgasena, ex-
changed polite and friendly greetings, and
took his seat respectfully to one side. Then
Milinda began by asking:
1.“How is your reverence known, and what sir, is your
name?”
“O king, I am known as Nàgasena but that is only a
designation in common use, for no permanent individual
can be found.”
Then Milinda called upon the Bactrian Greeks and the
monks to bear witness: “This Nàgasena says that no
permanent individual is implied in his name. Is it possible
to approve of that?” Then he turned to Nàgasena and said,
“If, most venerable Nàgasena, that is true, who is it who
gives you robes, food and shelter? Who lives the righteous
life? Or again, who kills living beings, steals, commits
adultery, tells lies or takes strong drink? If what you say is
true then there is neither merit nor demerit, nor is there any
doer of good or evil deeds and no result of kamma. If,
venerable sir, a man were to kill you there would be no
murder, and it follows that there are no masters or teachers
in your Order. You say that you are called Nàgasena; now
what is that Nàgasena? Is it the hair?”
“I don’t say that, great king.”
“Is it then the nails, teeth, skin or other parts of the
body?”
“Certainly not.”
“Or is it the body, or feelings, or perceptions, or
formations, or consciousness?10 Is it all of these combined?
Or is it something outside of them that is Nàgasena?”
Still Nàgasena answered: “It is none of these.”
“Then, ask as I may, I can discover no Nàgasena.
Nàgasena is an empty sound. Who is it we see before us? It
is a falsehood that your reverence has spoken.”
“You, sir, have been reared in great luxury as be-
comes your noble birth. How did you come here, by foot or
in a chariot?”
“In a chariot, venerable sir.”
“Then, explain sir, what that is. Is it the axle? Or the
wheels, or the chassis, or reins, or yoke that is the chariot?
Is it all of these combined, or is it something apart from
them?”
“It is none of these things, venerable sir.”
“Then, sir, this chariot is an empty sound. You spoke
falsely when you said that you came here in a chariot. You
are a great king of India. Who are you afraid of that you
don’t speak the truth?” Then he called upon the Bactrian
Greeks and the monks to bear witness: “This King Milinda
has said that he came here in a chariot but when asked what
it is, he is unable to show it. Is it possible to approve of that?”
Then the five hundred Bactrian Greeks shouted their
approval and said to the king, “Get out of that if you can!”
“Venerable sir, I have spoken the truth. It is because it
has all these parts that it comes under the term chariot.”
“Very good, sir, your majesty has rightly grasped the
meaning. Even so it is because of the thirty-two kinds of
organic matter in a human body and the five aggregates of
being that I come under the term ‘Nàgasena’. As it was said
by Sister Vajãra in the presence of the Blessed One, ‘Just as
it is by the existence of the various parts that the word
“Chariot” is used, just so is it that when the aggregates of
being are there we talk of a being’.”11
“Most wonderful, Nàgasena, most extraordinary that
you have solved this puzzle, difficult though it was. If the
Buddha himself were here he would approve of your
reply.”
King Milinda went up to Nàgasena, exchanged polite
and friendly greetings, and took his seat respectfully to one
side. Then Milinda began by asking:
2.“How many ‘rains’
12 do you have Nàgasena?”
“Seven, your majesty.”
“How can you say it is your seven; is it you who are
seven or the number that is seven?”
Then Nàgasena said, “Your shadow is now on the
ground. Are you the king, or is the shadow the king?”
“I am the king, Nàgasena, but the shadow comes into
being because of me.”
“Just so, O king, the number of the years is seven, I am
11.S. i. 135.
12.A bhikkhu’s seniority is reckoned by the number of rainy seasons that have passed since
his ordination.
not seven, but it is because of me that the number seven
comes into being and it is mine in the same sense as the
shadow is yours.”
“Most wonderful, Nàgasena, and extraordinary. Well
has this puzzle been solved by you, difficult as it was.”
3.Then the king said, “Venerable sir, will you discuss
with me again?”
“If your majesty will discuss as a scholar, yes; but if
you will discuss as a king, no.”
“How is it then that scholars discuss?”
“When scholars discuss there is a summing up and an
unravelling; one or other is shown to be in error. He admits
his mistake, yet he does not become angry.”
“Then how is it that kings discuss?”
“When a king discusses a matter and advances a
point of view, if anyone differs from him on that point he is
apt to punish him.”
“Very well then, it is as a scholar that I will discuss.
Let your reverence talk without fear.”
“It is well your majesty.”
“Nàgasena, I will ask a question”, said the king.
“Ask it sir.”
“I have asked it, your reverence.”
“Then I have answered.”
“What have you answered?”
“What have you asked?”
Thinking, “This monk is a great scholar, he is quite
able to discuss things with me”, the king instructed his
minister, Devamantiya, to invite him to the palace with a
large company of monks and went away muttering,
“Nàgasena, Nàgasena.”
4.So, Devamantiya, Anantakàya and Mankura went to
Nàgasena’s hermitage to accompany the monks to the
palace. As they were walking along together Anantakàya
said to Nàgasena, “When, your reverence, I say, ‘Nàgasena’
what is that Nàgasena?”
“What do you think that Nàgasena is?”
“The soul, the inner breath, which comes and goes.”
“But if that breath, having gone out, should not return
would that man still be alive?”
“Certainly not.”
“And when those trumpeters and the like have blown
their trumpets does their breath return to them?”
“No venerable sir, it doesn’t.”
“Then why don’t they die?”
“I am not capable of arguing with you sir, pray tell me
how it is.”
“There is no soul in the breath. These inhalations and
exhalations are merely constituent powers of the bodily
frame.” Then the elder13
talked to him on the Abhidhamma
and Anantakàya was satisfied with his explanation.
5.Then, after the monks had arrived at the palace and
finished their meal, the king sat down on a low seat and
asked, “What shall we discuss?”
“Let our discussion be about the Dhamma.”
13. Thera (elder) is nowadays normally used only for bhikkhus of ten or more years standing
but Nàgasena was only seven rains. See Question 2 above.
Then the king said, “What is the purpose, your
reverence, of your going forth and what is the final goal at
which you aim?”
“Our going forth is for the purpose that this suffering
may be extinguished and that no further suffering may
arise; the complete extinction of grasping without
remainder is our final goal.”
“Is it, venerable sir, for such noble reasons that
everyone joins the Order?”
“No. Some enter to escape the tyranny of kings,
some to be safe from robbers, some to escape from debt
and some perhaps to gain a livelihood. However, those
who enter rightly do so for the complete extinction of
grasping.”
6.The king said, “Is there anyone who is not reborn
after death?”
“Yes there is. The one who has no defilements is not
reborn after death; the one who has defilements is reborn.”
“Will you be reborn?”
“If I die with attachment in my mind, yes; but if not,
no.”
7.“Does one who escapes from rebirth do so by the
power of reasoning?”
“He escapes both by reasoning and by wisdom, con-
fidence, virtue, mindfulness, energy and concentration.”
“Is reasoning the same as wisdom?”
“No. Animals have reasoning but they do not have
wisdom.”
8.“What, Nàgasena, is the characteristic mark of
reasoning; and what the mark of wisdom?”
“Taking hold is the mark of reasoning, cutting off is
the mark of wisdom.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“How do barley reapers reap the barley?”
“They grasp the barley into a bunch with the left
hand and, with a sickle in the right hand, they cut the
barley.”
“Just so, O king, the recluse takes hold of his mind
with reasoning and cuts of the defilements with wisdom.”
9.“What, Nàgasena, is the characteristic mark of virtue?”
“Supporting, O king, for it is the basis of all good
qualities: the five controlling faculties14
and the five moral
powers,
15 the seven factors of enlightenment
16 the eight
factors of the noble path,
17 the four foundations of
mindfulness18
the four right efforts,
19
the four bases of
success,
20 the four absorptions,
21 the eight freedoms,
22 the
four modes of concentration23
and the eight great
14.Confidence, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom.
15.Confidence, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom.
16.Mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, tranquillity, concentration, and equanimity.
17.Right view, –thought, –speech, –action, –livelihood, –effort, –mindfulness, and
–concentration.
18.Mindfulness of the body, feelings, thoughts, and mind-objects.
19.Effort to prevent and remove unwholesome states and to develop and maintain
wholesome states.
20.Eagerness, energy, tenacity, wisdom.
21.Four stages of one-pointedness or jhàna.
22.Eight stages of release of the mind by intense concentration.
23.Meditations on love, compassion, sympathetic-joy, and equanimity.
attainments.
24 Each of these has virtue as its support and in
him who builds on it as the foundation all these good
conditions will not decrease.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“Just, O king, as all forms of animal and plant life
flourish with the earth as their support, so does the recluse,
with virtue as the support, develop the five controlling
faculties and so on.
25 And this was said by the Blessed One:
“When a wise man, established well in virtue,
Develops concentration and understanding,
Then as a bhikkhu, ardent and sagacious,
He succeeds in disentangling this tangle.”26
10.“What is the characteristic mark of confidence?”
“Clarification and inspiration. As confidence springs
up in the mind it breaks through the veil of the five
hindrances and the mind becomes clear, serene and
undisturbed; thus confidence clarifies. Inspiration is the
mark when the meditator, perceiving how the minds of
others have been set free, aspires to the attainment of what
he has not yet reached, to the experience of what he has not
yet felt and the realisation of what he has not yet
understood. For this was said by the Blessed One:
“By confidence he crosses over the flood,
By vigilance the sea of life,
24.Four formless jhànas and four form jhànas.
25.cf. S. v. 45.
26.S. i. 13, 165, Vism. (opening verse).
By steadfastness all grief he stills,
By wisdom he is purified.”27
11.“What, venerable sir, is the characteristic mark of
energy?”
“Reinforcing, O king, so that those good qualities,
which it supports, do not fall away.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“Just as, O king, when his army has been broken up
by a larger one the king would call to mind every possible
ally to reinforce his army and break up the large army.
Thus reinforcing is the mark of energy. For this was said by
the Blessed One:
“The energetic noble disciple, O monks,
Puts away unwholesomeness and cultivates good,
Shuns the blameworthy and develops the blameless,
And thus does he keep his mind pure.”28
12.“What, Nàgasena, is the characteristic mark of
mindfulness?”
“Noting and keeping in mind. As mindfulness
springs up in the mind of the recluse, he repeatedly notes
the wholesome and unwholesome, blameless and
blameworthy, insignificant and important, dark and light
qualities and those that resemble them thinking, ‘These are
the four foundations of mindfulness, these the four right
efforts, these the four bases of success, these the five
27.S. i. 214; Sn. v 184.
28.A. iv. 110.
controlling faculties, these the five moral powers, these the
seven factors of enlightenment, these are the eight factors of
the noble path, this is serenity, this insight, this vision and
this freedom.’ Thus does he cultivate those qualities that
are desirable and shun those that should be avoided.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“It is like a king’s treasurer who reminds his master of
the size of the army and the amount of wealth in his
treasury.”
“How is keeping in mind a mark of mindfulness?”
“As mindfulness springs up in the mind, he searches
out the categories of good qualities and their opposites
thinking, ‘Such and such qualities are beneficial and such
are harmful’. Thus does he make what is unwholesome in
himself disappear and maintain what is good.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“It is like the Prime Minister of the king who advises
him on the right course of action. And this was said by the
Blessed One:
“Mindfulness, I declare, O monks, is helpful every-
where.”29
13.“What, Nàgasena, is the characteristic mark of
concentration?”
“Leading, O king, for all good qualities have con-
centration as their chief; they incline to it, lead up towards
it.”
“Give me an illustration.”
29.S. v. 115
“As the rafters of a house incline and lead up to the
ridge-pole and the ridge-pole is the highest point of the
roof. So too all good qualities incline and lead up to concen-
tration. And this was said by the Blessed One:
“Monks, develop concentration, a monk who is
concentrated sees things as they really are.”30
14.“What, Nàgasena, is the characteristic mark of
wisdom?”
“Illuminating,
31
O king. When wisdom springs up in
the mind it dispels the darkness of ignorance, causes the
radiance of vision to arise, makes the light of knowledge
shine forth and makes the noble truths plain. Thus does the
meditator perceive with the clearest wisdom, the
impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and soullessness of all
formations.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“It is like a lamp, O king, which in a dark room would
illuminate it and make the objects there plainly visible.”
15.“These qualities that are so different, Nàgasena, do
they bring about one and the same result?”
“They do, the destruction of the defilements of the
mind, just as the various parts of an army such as
elephants, cavalry, war chariots and archers bring about
one result — the conquest of the opposing army.”
“Well put Nàgasena, you are clever in reply.”
30.S. iii. 13, v. 414; cf. Asl. 162.
31.As well as cutting off already given above
The Debate of King Milinda
edited by Bhikkhu Pesala
Chapter 1
The Soul
King Milinda went up to Nàgasena, ex-
changed polite and friendly greetings, and
took his seat respectfully to one side. Then
Milinda began by asking:
1.“How is your reverence known, and what sir, is your
name?”
“O king, I am known as Nàgasena but that is only a
designation in common use, for no permanent individual
can be found.”
Then Milinda called upon the Bactrian Greeks and the
monks to bear witness: “This Nàgasena says that no
permanent individual is implied in his name. Is it possible
to approve of that?” Then he turned to Nàgasena and said,
“If, most venerable Nàgasena, that is true, who is it who
gives you robes, food and shelter? Who lives the righteous
life? Or again, who kills living beings, steals, commits
adultery, tells lies or takes strong drink? If what you say is
true then there is neither merit nor demerit, nor is there any
doer of good or evil deeds and no result of kamma. If,
venerable sir, a man were to kill you there would be no
murder, and it follows that there are no masters or teachers
in your Order. You say that you are called Nàgasena; now
what is that Nàgasena? Is it the hair?”
“I don’t say that, great king.”
“Is it then the nails, teeth, skin or other parts of the
body?”
“Certainly not.”
“Or is it the body, or feelings, or perceptions, or
formations, or consciousness?10 Is it all of these combined?
Or is it something outside of them that is Nàgasena?”
Still Nàgasena answered: “It is none of these.”
“Then, ask as I may, I can discover no Nàgasena.
Nàgasena is an empty sound. Who is it we see before us? It
is a falsehood that your reverence has spoken.”
“You, sir, have been reared in great luxury as be-
comes your noble birth. How did you come here, by foot or
in a chariot?”
“In a chariot, venerable sir.”
“Then, explain sir, what that is. Is it the axle? Or the
wheels, or the chassis, or reins, or yoke that is the chariot?
Is it all of these combined, or is it something apart from
them?”
“It is none of these things, venerable sir.”
“Then, sir, this chariot is an empty sound. You spoke
falsely when you said that you came here in a chariot. You
are a great king of India. Who are you afraid of that you
don’t speak the truth?” Then he called upon the Bactrian
Greeks and the monks to bear witness: “This King Milinda
has said that he came here in a chariot but when asked what
it is, he is unable to show it. Is it possible to approve of that?”
Then the five hundred Bactrian Greeks shouted their
approval and said to the king, “Get out of that if you can!”
“Venerable sir, I have spoken the truth. It is because it
has all these parts that it comes under the term chariot.”
“Very good, sir, your majesty has rightly grasped the
meaning. Even so it is because of the thirty-two kinds of
organic matter in a human body and the five aggregates of
being that I come under the term ‘Nàgasena’. As it was said
by Sister Vajãra in the presence of the Blessed One, ‘Just as
it is by the existence of the various parts that the word
“Chariot” is used, just so is it that when the aggregates of
being are there we talk of a being’.”11
“Most wonderful, Nàgasena, most extraordinary that
you have solved this puzzle, difficult though it was. If the
Buddha himself were here he would approve of your
reply.”
King Milinda went up to Nàgasena, exchanged polite
and friendly greetings, and took his seat respectfully to one
side. Then Milinda began by asking:
2.“How many ‘rains’
12 do you have Nàgasena?”
“Seven, your majesty.”
“How can you say it is your seven; is it you who are
seven or the number that is seven?”
Then Nàgasena said, “Your shadow is now on the
ground. Are you the king, or is the shadow the king?”
“I am the king, Nàgasena, but the shadow comes into
being because of me.”
“Just so, O king, the number of the years is seven, I am
11.S. i. 135.
12.A bhikkhu’s seniority is reckoned by the number of rainy seasons that have passed since
his ordination.
not seven, but it is because of me that the number seven
comes into being and it is mine in the same sense as the
shadow is yours.”
“Most wonderful, Nàgasena, and extraordinary. Well
has this puzzle been solved by you, difficult as it was.”
3.Then the king said, “Venerable sir, will you discuss
with me again?”
“If your majesty will discuss as a scholar, yes; but if
you will discuss as a king, no.”
“How is it then that scholars discuss?”
“When scholars discuss there is a summing up and an
unravelling; one or other is shown to be in error. He admits
his mistake, yet he does not become angry.”
“Then how is it that kings discuss?”
“When a king discusses a matter and advances a
point of view, if anyone differs from him on that point he is
apt to punish him.”
“Very well then, it is as a scholar that I will discuss.
Let your reverence talk without fear.”
“It is well your majesty.”
“Nàgasena, I will ask a question”, said the king.
“Ask it sir.”
“I have asked it, your reverence.”
“Then I have answered.”
“What have you answered?”
“What have you asked?”
Thinking, “This monk is a great scholar, he is quite
able to discuss things with me”, the king instructed his
minister, Devamantiya, to invite him to the palace with a
large company of monks and went away muttering,
“Nàgasena, Nàgasena.”
4.So, Devamantiya, Anantakàya and Mankura went to
Nàgasena’s hermitage to accompany the monks to the
palace. As they were walking along together Anantakàya
said to Nàgasena, “When, your reverence, I say, ‘Nàgasena’
what is that Nàgasena?”
“What do you think that Nàgasena is?”
“The soul, the inner breath, which comes and goes.”
“But if that breath, having gone out, should not return
would that man still be alive?”
“Certainly not.”
“And when those trumpeters and the like have blown
their trumpets does their breath return to them?”
“No venerable sir, it doesn’t.”
“Then why don’t they die?”
“I am not capable of arguing with you sir, pray tell me
how it is.”
“There is no soul in the breath. These inhalations and
exhalations are merely constituent powers of the bodily
frame.” Then the elder13
talked to him on the Abhidhamma
and Anantakàya was satisfied with his explanation.
5.Then, after the monks had arrived at the palace and
finished their meal, the king sat down on a low seat and
asked, “What shall we discuss?”
“Let our discussion be about the Dhamma.”
13. Thera (elder) is nowadays normally used only for bhikkhus of ten or more years standing
but Nàgasena was only seven rains. See Question 2 above.
Then the king said, “What is the purpose, your
reverence, of your going forth and what is the final goal at
which you aim?”
“Our going forth is for the purpose that this suffering
may be extinguished and that no further suffering may
arise; the complete extinction of grasping without
remainder is our final goal.”
“Is it, venerable sir, for such noble reasons that
everyone joins the Order?”
“No. Some enter to escape the tyranny of kings,
some to be safe from robbers, some to escape from debt
and some perhaps to gain a livelihood. However, those
who enter rightly do so for the complete extinction of
grasping.”
6.The king said, “Is there anyone who is not reborn
after death?”
“Yes there is. The one who has no defilements is not
reborn after death; the one who has defilements is reborn.”
“Will you be reborn?”
“If I die with attachment in my mind, yes; but if not,
no.”
7.“Does one who escapes from rebirth do so by the
power of reasoning?”
“He escapes both by reasoning and by wisdom, con-
fidence, virtue, mindfulness, energy and concentration.”
“Is reasoning the same as wisdom?”
“No. Animals have reasoning but they do not have
wisdom.”
8.“What, Nàgasena, is the characteristic mark of
reasoning; and what the mark of wisdom?”
“Taking hold is the mark of reasoning, cutting off is
the mark of wisdom.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“How do barley reapers reap the barley?”
“They grasp the barley into a bunch with the left
hand and, with a sickle in the right hand, they cut the
barley.”
“Just so, O king, the recluse takes hold of his mind
with reasoning and cuts of the defilements with wisdom.”
9.“What, Nàgasena, is the characteristic mark of virtue?”
“Supporting, O king, for it is the basis of all good
qualities: the five controlling faculties14
and the five moral
powers,
15 the seven factors of enlightenment
16 the eight
factors of the noble path,
17 the four foundations of
mindfulness18
the four right efforts,
19
the four bases of
success,
20 the four absorptions,
21 the eight freedoms,
22 the
four modes of concentration23
and the eight great
14.Confidence, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom.
15.Confidence, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom.
16.Mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, tranquillity, concentration, and equanimity.
17.Right view, –thought, –speech, –action, –livelihood, –effort, –mindfulness, and
–concentration.
18.Mindfulness of the body, feelings, thoughts, and mind-objects.
19.Effort to prevent and remove unwholesome states and to develop and maintain
wholesome states.
20.Eagerness, energy, tenacity, wisdom.
21.Four stages of one-pointedness or jhàna.
22.Eight stages of release of the mind by intense concentration.
23.Meditations on love, compassion, sympathetic-joy, and equanimity.
attainments.
24 Each of these has virtue as its support and in
him who builds on it as the foundation all these good
conditions will not decrease.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“Just, O king, as all forms of animal and plant life
flourish with the earth as their support, so does the recluse,
with virtue as the support, develop the five controlling
faculties and so on.
25 And this was said by the Blessed One:
“When a wise man, established well in virtue,
Develops concentration and understanding,
Then as a bhikkhu, ardent and sagacious,
He succeeds in disentangling this tangle.”26
10.“What is the characteristic mark of confidence?”
“Clarification and inspiration. As confidence springs
up in the mind it breaks through the veil of the five
hindrances and the mind becomes clear, serene and
undisturbed; thus confidence clarifies. Inspiration is the
mark when the meditator, perceiving how the minds of
others have been set free, aspires to the attainment of what
he has not yet reached, to the experience of what he has not
yet felt and the realisation of what he has not yet
understood. For this was said by the Blessed One:
“By confidence he crosses over the flood,
By vigilance the sea of life,
24.Four formless jhànas and four form jhànas.
25.cf. S. v. 45.
26.S. i. 13, 165, Vism. (opening verse).
By steadfastness all grief he stills,
By wisdom he is purified.”27
11.“What, venerable sir, is the characteristic mark of
energy?”
“Reinforcing, O king, so that those good qualities,
which it supports, do not fall away.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“Just as, O king, when his army has been broken up
by a larger one the king would call to mind every possible
ally to reinforce his army and break up the large army.
Thus reinforcing is the mark of energy. For this was said by
the Blessed One:
“The energetic noble disciple, O monks,
Puts away unwholesomeness and cultivates good,
Shuns the blameworthy and develops the blameless,
And thus does he keep his mind pure.”28
12.“What, Nàgasena, is the characteristic mark of
mindfulness?”
“Noting and keeping in mind. As mindfulness
springs up in the mind of the recluse, he repeatedly notes
the wholesome and unwholesome, blameless and
blameworthy, insignificant and important, dark and light
qualities and those that resemble them thinking, ‘These are
the four foundations of mindfulness, these the four right
efforts, these the four bases of success, these the five
27.S. i. 214; Sn. v 184.
28.A. iv. 110.
controlling faculties, these the five moral powers, these the
seven factors of enlightenment, these are the eight factors of
the noble path, this is serenity, this insight, this vision and
this freedom.’ Thus does he cultivate those qualities that
are desirable and shun those that should be avoided.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“It is like a king’s treasurer who reminds his master of
the size of the army and the amount of wealth in his
treasury.”
“How is keeping in mind a mark of mindfulness?”
“As mindfulness springs up in the mind, he searches
out the categories of good qualities and their opposites
thinking, ‘Such and such qualities are beneficial and such
are harmful’. Thus does he make what is unwholesome in
himself disappear and maintain what is good.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“It is like the Prime Minister of the king who advises
him on the right course of action. And this was said by the
Blessed One:
“Mindfulness, I declare, O monks, is helpful every-
where.”29
13.“What, Nàgasena, is the characteristic mark of
concentration?”
“Leading, O king, for all good qualities have con-
centration as their chief; they incline to it, lead up towards
it.”
“Give me an illustration.”
29.S. v. 115
“As the rafters of a house incline and lead up to the
ridge-pole and the ridge-pole is the highest point of the
roof. So too all good qualities incline and lead up to concen-
tration. And this was said by the Blessed One:
“Monks, develop concentration, a monk who is
concentrated sees things as they really are.”30
14.“What, Nàgasena, is the characteristic mark of
wisdom?”
“Illuminating,
31
O king. When wisdom springs up in
the mind it dispels the darkness of ignorance, causes the
radiance of vision to arise, makes the light of knowledge
shine forth and makes the noble truths plain. Thus does the
meditator perceive with the clearest wisdom, the
impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and soullessness of all
formations.”
“Give me an illustration.”
“It is like a lamp, O king, which in a dark room would
illuminate it and make the objects there plainly visible.”
15.“These qualities that are so different, Nàgasena, do
they bring about one and the same result?”
“They do, the destruction of the defilements of the
mind, just as the various parts of an army such as
elephants, cavalry, war chariots and archers bring about
one result — the conquest of the opposing army.”
“Well put Nàgasena, you are clever in reply.”
30.S. iii. 13, v. 414; cf. Asl. 162.
31.As well as cutting off already given above
Khuddaka Nikaya - Milinda Panha - Prologue
Khuddaka Nikaya - Milinda Panha - Prologue
The Debate of King Milinda
edited by Bhikkhu Pesala
Prologue
Milinda was the king in the city of Sàgala. He was learned
in the arts and sciences and was of an inquiring disposition.
He was skilled in debating and no one could resolve his
doubts about religious matters. Though he questioned all
the famous teachers none could satisfy him.
Assagutta, one of a large number of arahants living in
the Himalayas, knew of the king’s doubts by means of
supernormal power. So he convened an assembly to ask if
there was anyone who could answer the king. There was no
one, so the whole assembly ascended to the heaven of the
thirty-three and requested the god Mahàsena to take birth
as a man in order to protect the religion. One of the monks,
Rohaõa, agreed to go to Kajangalà where Mahà-sena had
been reborn and wait for him to grow up. The boy’s father,
Brahman Sonuttara, had the boy educated in the three
Vedas but the boy, Nàgasena, declared:
“Empty are these three Vedas and as chaff.
There is in them neither reality,
worth nor essential truth.”
Realising that the boy was ready, Rohaõa appeared and the
parents consented to their son becoming a novice. So,
Nàgasena studied the Abhidhamma. After gaining perfect
knowledge of the seven books of the Abhidhamma, Nàga-
sena was admitted to the Order of monks and Rohaõa sent
him to Vattaniya Hermitage to study with Assagutta. While
spending the rainy season there, Nàgasena was asked to
preach a sermon to the pious lady who was Assagutta’s
supporter. As a result of the discourse both the lady and
Nàgasena attained the Eye of the Dhamma, the knowledge
that whatsoever has a beginning also has the inherent qual-
ity of passing away. Assagutta then sent Nàgasena to
Dhammarakkhita at the Asoka Park in Pàñaliputta where,
within the space of three months, he mastered the remain-
der of the Tipiñaka. Dhammarakkhita admonished his pupil
not to be content with mere book knowledge and the very
same night the diligent pupil Nàgasena gained arahantship.
He then went to join the other arahants who were still stay-
ing in the Himalayas. Having completed his education
Nàgasena was ready to meet anyone in debate.
Meanwhile, King Milinda continued his spiritual
quest by visiting the bhikkhu âyupàla at the Saükheyya
Hermitage and asked him why the monks renounced the
world. The elder replied, “It is for the sake of being able to
live in righteousness and in spiritual calm.” Then the king
asked, “Is there, venerable sir, any layman who lives so?”
The elder admitted that there were many such laymen, and
the king retorted:
“Then most venerable âyupàla, your going forth is of
no use. It must be in consequence of sins committed in
some former birth that recluses renounce the world and
even subject themselves to the added constraints of one or
other of the ascetic practices such as wearing only rag-
robes, eating only one meal a day, or not lying down to
sleep. There is no virtue therein, no meritorious abstinence,
no righteousness of life!”
When the king had spoken thus the venerable
âyupàla was silenced and had not a word to say. Then the
five hundred Bactrian Greeks who accompanied the king
said, “The elder is learned but he is also diffident, so he
makes no reply.” To this the king replied by exclaiming: “All
India is an empty thing, it is like chaff. There is no one who
is capable of debating with me and dispelling my doubts!”
However, the Bactrian Greeks were unmoved so the
king asked, “Is there then, my good men, any other learned
sage who is able to discuss things with me and dispel my
doubts?”
Then the minister Devamantiya said, “There is, Great
King, an elder named Nàgasena who is learned, of subdued
manners yet full of courage; he is capable of discussing
with you. He is now staying at this Saükheyya Hermitage,
you should go and put your questions to him.” At the mere
mention of the name ‘Nàgasena’ the king became alarmed
and the hairs of his body stood on end. Then the king sent
a messenger to say that he was coming. Attended on by the
five hundred Bactrian Greeks, the king mounted his royal
chariot and went to the place where Nàgasena was staying.
The Debate of King Milinda
edited by Bhikkhu Pesala
Prologue
Milinda was the king in the city of Sàgala. He was learned
in the arts and sciences and was of an inquiring disposition.
He was skilled in debating and no one could resolve his
doubts about religious matters. Though he questioned all
the famous teachers none could satisfy him.
Assagutta, one of a large number of arahants living in
the Himalayas, knew of the king’s doubts by means of
supernormal power. So he convened an assembly to ask if
there was anyone who could answer the king. There was no
one, so the whole assembly ascended to the heaven of the
thirty-three and requested the god Mahàsena to take birth
as a man in order to protect the religion. One of the monks,
Rohaõa, agreed to go to Kajangalà where Mahà-sena had
been reborn and wait for him to grow up. The boy’s father,
Brahman Sonuttara, had the boy educated in the three
Vedas but the boy, Nàgasena, declared:
“Empty are these three Vedas and as chaff.
There is in them neither reality,
worth nor essential truth.”
Realising that the boy was ready, Rohaõa appeared and the
parents consented to their son becoming a novice. So,
Nàgasena studied the Abhidhamma. After gaining perfect
knowledge of the seven books of the Abhidhamma, Nàga-
sena was admitted to the Order of monks and Rohaõa sent
him to Vattaniya Hermitage to study with Assagutta. While
spending the rainy season there, Nàgasena was asked to
preach a sermon to the pious lady who was Assagutta’s
supporter. As a result of the discourse both the lady and
Nàgasena attained the Eye of the Dhamma, the knowledge
that whatsoever has a beginning also has the inherent qual-
ity of passing away. Assagutta then sent Nàgasena to
Dhammarakkhita at the Asoka Park in Pàñaliputta where,
within the space of three months, he mastered the remain-
der of the Tipiñaka. Dhammarakkhita admonished his pupil
not to be content with mere book knowledge and the very
same night the diligent pupil Nàgasena gained arahantship.
He then went to join the other arahants who were still stay-
ing in the Himalayas. Having completed his education
Nàgasena was ready to meet anyone in debate.
Meanwhile, King Milinda continued his spiritual
quest by visiting the bhikkhu âyupàla at the Saükheyya
Hermitage and asked him why the monks renounced the
world. The elder replied, “It is for the sake of being able to
live in righteousness and in spiritual calm.” Then the king
asked, “Is there, venerable sir, any layman who lives so?”
The elder admitted that there were many such laymen, and
the king retorted:
“Then most venerable âyupàla, your going forth is of
no use. It must be in consequence of sins committed in
some former birth that recluses renounce the world and
even subject themselves to the added constraints of one or
other of the ascetic practices such as wearing only rag-
robes, eating only one meal a day, or not lying down to
sleep. There is no virtue therein, no meritorious abstinence,
no righteousness of life!”
When the king had spoken thus the venerable
âyupàla was silenced and had not a word to say. Then the
five hundred Bactrian Greeks who accompanied the king
said, “The elder is learned but he is also diffident, so he
makes no reply.” To this the king replied by exclaiming: “All
India is an empty thing, it is like chaff. There is no one who
is capable of debating with me and dispelling my doubts!”
However, the Bactrian Greeks were unmoved so the
king asked, “Is there then, my good men, any other learned
sage who is able to discuss things with me and dispel my
doubts?”
Then the minister Devamantiya said, “There is, Great
King, an elder named Nàgasena who is learned, of subdued
manners yet full of courage; he is capable of discussing
with you. He is now staying at this Saükheyya Hermitage,
you should go and put your questions to him.” At the mere
mention of the name ‘Nàgasena’ the king became alarmed
and the hairs of his body stood on end. Then the king sent
a messenger to say that he was coming. Attended on by the
five hundred Bactrian Greeks, the king mounted his royal
chariot and went to the place where Nàgasena was staying.
Khuddaka Nikaya - Milinda Panha - Introduction
The Debate of King Milinda
edited by Bhikkhu Pesala
Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc.
Introduction
The Milinda Pa¤ha is an ancient and much venerated book
of the Buddhists, indeed regarded so highly as to be in-
cluded by the Burmese in the Pali Canon. In the Pali book it
says that the conversations between King Milinda and
Nàgasena took place five hundred years after the Pari-
nibbàna of the Buddha. Mr. T.W. Rhys Davids, the most able
translator of the Pali texts, regarded the Milinda Pa¤ha very
highly. He said, “I venture to think that the ‘Questions of
King Milinda’ is undoubtedly the masterpiece of Indian
prose; and indeed the best book of its class, from a literary
point of view, that had been produced in any country.”1
1.T.W. Rhys Davids, QKM Introduction.
The style of the Milinda Pa¤ha is very much like a
Platonic dialogue, Nàgasena playing the part of Socrates
and winning over King Milinda to the Buddhist viewpoint
by his sound reasoning and his fitting similes. The author
is not known but it is almost certain that he lived in the far
northwest of India or in the Punjab, since he mentions no
place in the interior of India south of the Ganges.
2 This is
supported by what is definitely known about King
Menander, a Bactrian king identified with Milinda.
Much more is known about King Menander. Many of
his coins have been found over a wide area of northern
India, as far west as Kabul, as far east as Mathura and as far
north as Kashmir. The portrait is sometimes of a young
man and other times that of a very old man. Plutarch says,
“Menander was a king noted for justice who enjoyed such
popularity with his subjects that upon his death, which
took place in camp, diverse cities contended for the posses-
sion of his ashes. The dispute was settled by the represent-
atives of the different cities agreeing to divide the relics,
and then erecting separate monuments to his memory”.
The recent publication of the Mir Zakah treasure
confirms the rule of Menander in Ghazni and adjoining
areas of the Kabul valley in the north (there are 521 coins of
Menander in that treasure). The discovery of an Attic
Tetradrachm of Menander sets speculation at rest; he must
have ruled over the Kabul region. In the north he occupied
Hazara and the Swat valley.
3
So Menander was one of the
2.A.K. Narain, The Indo-Greeks.
3.A.K. Narain, The Indo-Greeks.
most important of those Greek kings who continued in
Bactria, the dominion founded by Alexander the Great. He
probably reigned from about 150 to 110 B.C. (thus dating
his conversations not much more than 400 years after the
Parinibbàna of the Buddha). Strabo draws attention in
passing to the remarkable way in which the kingdom of
Bactria expanded beyond its original limits, and he
mentions incidentally that the kings chiefly responsible
were Demetrius and Menander…. But Menander left a far
deeper mark on the tradition of India than did Demetrius.
4
Menander annexed the Indus delta, the peninsula of
Surastra (Kathiavar), occupied Mathura on the Jumna,
besieged Madyamika (Nagari near Chitor) and Saketam in
southern Oudh, and threatened the capital, Pàñaliputta. But
the invasion was repulsed and Menander was forced to
return to his own country.
5 Since the Bactrians later became
Buddhists there can be little doubt that King Menander is
indeed the King Milinda referred to in the book. However,
the conversations may be just a literary device the author
used to add interest. His primary aim is to clarify Buddhist
doctrine and to refute the wrong views promulgated by
various opponents of Buddhism.
The introductory story in the Milinda Pa¤ha concern-
ing Nàgasena’s upbringing is almost identical to the story
of the young Moggaliputta Tissa, which is told in the Mahà-
vaüsa, the Ceylon Chronicles. Moggaliputta Tissa Thera
lived about a hundred years before Menander and is men-
4.Cambridge History of India, Vol. I. P.446
5.V.A. Smith, The Early History of India.
tioned twice in the text [Miln. pp 3,71] so it is probably his
story that is the older of the two. However, the Mahàvaüsa
was written much later by Mahànàma, at the beginning of
the 6th century A.D., so the story could have been bor-
rowed by Mahànàma from the Milinda Pa¤ha, which was by
then a venerable book edited by Buddhaghosa. (In the
Milinda òika, a commentary on the Milinda Pa¤ha, it is stated
that several verses of prologue and epilogue in the Milinda
Pa¤ha were composed by Buddhaghosa).
From the supposed conversation that Milinda has
with Påraõa Kassapa, Makkhali Gosala and other ascetics6
it is obvious that this introductory story was fabricated by
the author since these ascetics were contemporaries of the
Buddha. The story is based on the Sàma¤¤a Phala Sutta of
the Dãgha Nikàya. One point of difference is noteworthy: in
the Sàma¤¤a Phala Sutta,
7
Prince Ajàtasattu goes to see the
Buddha but is unable to recognise him; whereas in the
introduction to the Milinda Pa¤ha, King Milinda says of
Nàgasena, “There is no need to point him out to me”, thus
showing his great superiority to Prince Ajàtasattu.
6.Though this supposed conversation is found in the original text, it adds nothing of
substance to the dialogues, and could not have taken place, so I have left it out.
7.D. i. 50
The Rise of the Magadha Kingdom
In the Mahàparinibbàna Sutta the Buddha predicted that the
city of Pàñaliputta, which was founded shortly before his
death, would become a great city, “ânanda, among the
towns and cities that are centres of congregation and com-
merce of people of the Aryan race, this new town will be-
come the greatest city, called Pàñaliputta, a place where goods
are unpacked, sold and distributed, but it will be in danger
from flood, fire and internal dissension”.
8
The Magadha
Kingdom, of which Pàñaliputta (modern Patna) was the capi-
tal, gradually became the most powerful in all India.
In the mid 4th century B.C. a Sudra named Mahà-
padma Nanda usurped the throne of the kingdom of
Magadha and became the ruler of a kingdom stretching
from the Brahmaputra river in the east to the Beas in the
west. But beyond the Beas were several small kingdoms.
During this period, Alexander the Great conquered
Persia and crossed the Hindu Kush into Bactria (Northern
Afghanistan). It took him two years to subdue these inhos-
pitable regions, but in so doing he founded several cities
penetrating as far north as Samarkand and Leninabad (in
the USSR). Another city has been identified at Charikar
(north of Kabul). Hearing about the river Indus he re-
crossed the Hindu Kush in 327 B.C. and pushed eastwards
to Taxila (Takkasãla), but when he reached the Jhelum river
he encountered the Paurava rajah, who had war elephants.
Even the veterans of Macadonia were unable to continue
8.D. ii. 87, 88.
against such opposition, so Alexander was forced to retreat
down the Indus river and thence back through Persia,
where he died at Babylon in 323 B.C. Nevertheless, he had
left behind him the foundations of the Bactrian kingdom
and had surveyed the Jhelum and Indus rivers.
After Alexander’s death, Chandragupta, the founder
of the Mauryan dynasty, was able to drive away the Greek
garrisons from the Indus valley. In 321 B.C. he defeated
Nanda and became the ruler of the Magadha kingdom
from the capital at Pàñaliputta. Alexander’s successor,
Seleukos I Nikator, led an expedition against the Indians in
311 B.C. hoping to regain the Punjab. However, he was up
against the might of Chandragupta. So, by 304 B.C.,
Seleukos was glad to conclude a treaty with him, giving his
daughter in marriage and ceding large areas of what is now
Baluchistan and Afghanistan in exchange for 500 war
elephants. Seleukos sent his ambassador, Magasthenes, to
Pàñaliputta and from what remains of his writings we
know something about the size of the army and the
strength of the fortifications there. Chandragupta ruled for
24 years and his son Bindusàra, about whom we know very
little, ruled for 28 years until his death in 269 B.C.
At the time of Bindusàra’s death his eldest son was the
viceroy at Takkasãla and his younger son, Asoka, was the
viceroy at Ujjeni in the south. Asoka fought with his brother
for the right to ascend to the throne, and when his
brotherwas killed in battle, Asoka became the ruler of a vast
empire from Bengal to Afghanistan. However, he was still
not satisfied and it was only in the ninth year of his reign,
after the bloody conquest of the Kaliïga kingdom (Orissa)
that he gave up warfare and became a devoted follower of
Buddhism. Emperor Asoka sent missions of monks to the
border areas of his great empire. Asokan inscriptions have
been found in the Kabul valley written in Greek and Ara-
maic, and elsewhere his inscriptions say that he had made
Dhamma conquests in Egypt, Syria, Macedonia, Greece,
Cyprus, Bactria, Kashmir, Gandhàra, etc. The Mahàvaüsa
says that missionaries were sent to Kashmir, Gandhàra,
Bactria, the Himalayas, Sindh (Gujarat), and inscriptions on
relic caskets found in ståpas at Sanchi record the success of
those missions to the Himalayas. Unfortunately, the other
ståpa records have been vandalised, but we can be sure that
the missions to Kashmir and Gandhàra were successful
since even in the Buddha’s time Takkasãla was a renowned
centre of learning. The Mahàvaüsa also records that at the
consecration of the Great Ståpa in 157B.C. monks came
from Alasanda (Charika) in Yona (Bactria).
The Rise of the Bactrian Kingdom
After the death of Asoka in 227 B.C. the Mauryan empire
began to disintegrate. The empire founded by Seleukos had
already revolted in 250 B.C. under its governor, Diodotus I
and it continued to grow under his successors, Diodotus II
and Euthydemus. At the beginning of the 2nd century B.C.
the Greek rulers of the new kingdom of Bactria crossed the
Hindu Kush and began to invade India from the northwest.
Of the Greek kings who ruled to the south of the Kush,
Apollodotus would seem to be the first. He is twice men-
tioned in association with Menander. Their rule extended
on the south west to Ariana (southern Afghanistan) and in
the south to the Indus valley.
As mentioned above, Menander must have ruled
over the Kabul and Swat valleys and at some time he
annexed the Indus valley too. Sàgala, the city mentioned in
the Milinda Pa¤ha as the place where the dialogues took
place, was the ancient city of the Madras who came to the
region in about the 6th century B.C. It is now Sialkot,
between the Chenab and Ravi rivers, near the border of
Kashmir. At Miln. page 83 (see Question 5, Chapter Seven)
it is mentioned that Kashmir is 12 yojanas (84 miles) distant
and that Milinda’s birthplace on the island of Alasanda is
200 yojanas away. There are many cities founded by
Alexander during his conquests, several of which might
have been the birthplace of Menander. The city founded at
Charikar has been suggested by A.K. Narain, but it is rather
less than 200 yojanas (1,400 miles) at the usual reckoning.
Could it perhaps be the Alexandra located at Leninabad or
one of the Alexandras further West?
However, from the available evidence we can postu-
late that Menander was born in Bactria, but brought up in
Ariana (the Kabul valley) and in the early years of his rule
expanded his father’s kingdom to the Indus valley and
beyond, perhaps later establishing his capital at Sàgala.
Unlike Bactria, which was predominantly influenced by
Greek culture, these new areas were already Buddhist.
Menander, then, would have been educated in the Greek
traditions but would have had direct contact with Bud-
dhism and no doubt often met monks living in his king-
dom. Nevertheless, it does seem rather improbable that his
knowledge of doctrine would have been sufficient to
engage in the dialogues as recorded in the Milinda Pa¤ha
since Milinda is shown to have a substantial knowledge of
the texts. My opinion is that the author had at most a brief
acquaintance with Menander, most probably basing his
work on an oral tradition of the dialogues and using his
own deep knowledge of the texts to extend the dialogues
into the longer work that we have now. He might have
used the dialogues as a device to add interest to his treatise
and to please the Greek king by making him one of the cen-
tral characters.
This hypothesis gains some support from the
existence of Chinese translations that consist of only the
first three divisions. They are almost identical with the Pali
as to the questions asked but differ in the introductory
story, which in neither case looks very authentic.
Comparison with the Chinese Text
As V. Trenchner pointed out when he transliterated the Pali
text in the 1860’s, we can be sure that the original Milinda
Pa¤ha was in Sanskrit because it begins with the words
“Taü yathà nusuyatà” (thus has it been handed down)
rather than the Pali formula “Evam me sutam” (thus have I
heard). This is confirmed by the presence of Chinese
translations of the text which, although they obviously
come from the same root source, show a number of notable
differences.9
9.For a detailed and thorough comparison, see Milinda Panha and Nàgasenabhikshusåtra
(AComparative Study) Bhikkhu Thich Mihn Chau.
1.The Chinese versions correspond to the first three
divisions of the Pali version, suggesting that the other
four divisions (Dilemmas, A Question solved by
Inference, Ascetic Practices, and the Similes) were
later accretions.
2.The Chinese work, the Nàgasena-bhikshusåtra takes the
name of the monk. The Pali work, the Milinda Pa¤ha,
the name of the king.
3.The Pali work has twelve extra questions.
4.The stories of the former lives of Nàgasena and Milinda
are different.
5.There is no mention of the Abhidhamma in the Chinese.
It is frequently mentioned in the Pali.
6.On the very well known classification of the
Bodhipakkhiya Dhammas the Chinese translator goes
astray on several terms, indicating that he was not
familiar with the Pali texts.
7.The Pali says that animals have reasoning but not
wisdom; the Chinese says they have wisdom but their
hearts are different.
Although there are many minor differences between the
two texts, the close correlation between the similes used to
illustrate the terms defined and the order of the questions,
leaves us with no doubt that they are both translations of an
older work (probably in Sanskrit). However, we should be
cautious when drawing conclusions as to which is the more
authentic. Bhikkhu Thich Mihn Chau, in his efforts to prove
the greater antiquity of the original on which the Chinese
translation is based, dates it soon after the demise of the
Buddha citing the absence of classification of the texts into
Vinaya, Sutta, Abhidhamma, and Nikàyas, which were only
well defined at the Third Council. Yet, Menander was not
even born until 100 years after this council. Clearly, the
‘original’ is not earlier than the 1st century B.C. and the
long gap before the translations appeared, in about
400A.D., was ample time for numerous accretions and
amendments, or omissions and lacunas to occur.
For the reasons already stated above and because the
conversations in the Milinda Pa¤ha were said to have taken
place about 500 years after the Buddha’s death, whereas
Menander lived at least a hundred years earlier than that, it
seems most likely that the Milinda Pa¤ha was composed
some time after Menander’s death, perhaps being based on
an oral tradition of actual conversations that did take place
between Menander and a monk or several monks.
Menander’s successors, Queen Agathocleia and
Strato I Soter, continued to reign for at least 40 years after
his death, but their lives saw the emergence of a new
dynasty in western India, that of the Sakas (Scythians) and
Yueh-Chih from central Asia, and the Greek Bactrian era
came to an end.
The Arrangement of the Pali Book
The epilogue says that the book is divided into 6 divisions
and 22 chapters containing 262 questions, 42 of which have
not been handed down making 304 in all, but it is difficult
to see how this is reckoned. There are numerous discrepan-
cies between the different texts available, which is to be ex-
pected in such an old work. Now only 237 questions
remain.
To make cross-reference easier I have followed the
same sequence as the Pali text in numbering the questions
and chapters, except that I have condensed the last seven
chapters into chapter eighteen.
In this edition of the Milinda Pa¤ha, although I have
followed the arrangement of the Pali text, I have left out
large numbers of similes and condensed long, though often
very eloquent passages, (without, I hope, spoiling the
beauty of the original work) in order to make the book rea-
sonably concise and thus make it more appealing to the
busy western reader. It is an abridgement, not a translation,
therefore here and there I have combined separate para-
graphs into one for the sake of brevity, but I have endeav-
oured to be faithful to the intention of the original author,
which was the clarification of the Buddha’s teaching and
the elucidation of some common misconceptions that one
may fall into.
The references in the footnotes are to page numbers of
the Pali texts of the Pali Text Society. In the corresponding
translations these page numbers are given in square brack-
ets at the top of each left-hand page or, in the case of Vinaya
and Jàtaka books, in the body of the text.
To help those who would like to know the Pali word
from which its translation derives (which is sometimes
different to that used by Rhys Davids or Miss Horner) I
have included Pali words in the index alongside the
English reference.
edited by Bhikkhu Pesala
Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc.
Introduction
The Milinda Pa¤ha is an ancient and much venerated book
of the Buddhists, indeed regarded so highly as to be in-
cluded by the Burmese in the Pali Canon. In the Pali book it
says that the conversations between King Milinda and
Nàgasena took place five hundred years after the Pari-
nibbàna of the Buddha. Mr. T.W. Rhys Davids, the most able
translator of the Pali texts, regarded the Milinda Pa¤ha very
highly. He said, “I venture to think that the ‘Questions of
King Milinda’ is undoubtedly the masterpiece of Indian
prose; and indeed the best book of its class, from a literary
point of view, that had been produced in any country.”1
1.T.W. Rhys Davids, QKM Introduction.
The style of the Milinda Pa¤ha is very much like a
Platonic dialogue, Nàgasena playing the part of Socrates
and winning over King Milinda to the Buddhist viewpoint
by his sound reasoning and his fitting similes. The author
is not known but it is almost certain that he lived in the far
northwest of India or in the Punjab, since he mentions no
place in the interior of India south of the Ganges.
2 This is
supported by what is definitely known about King
Menander, a Bactrian king identified with Milinda.
Much more is known about King Menander. Many of
his coins have been found over a wide area of northern
India, as far west as Kabul, as far east as Mathura and as far
north as Kashmir. The portrait is sometimes of a young
man and other times that of a very old man. Plutarch says,
“Menander was a king noted for justice who enjoyed such
popularity with his subjects that upon his death, which
took place in camp, diverse cities contended for the posses-
sion of his ashes. The dispute was settled by the represent-
atives of the different cities agreeing to divide the relics,
and then erecting separate monuments to his memory”.
The recent publication of the Mir Zakah treasure
confirms the rule of Menander in Ghazni and adjoining
areas of the Kabul valley in the north (there are 521 coins of
Menander in that treasure). The discovery of an Attic
Tetradrachm of Menander sets speculation at rest; he must
have ruled over the Kabul region. In the north he occupied
Hazara and the Swat valley.
3
So Menander was one of the
2.A.K. Narain, The Indo-Greeks.
3.A.K. Narain, The Indo-Greeks.
most important of those Greek kings who continued in
Bactria, the dominion founded by Alexander the Great. He
probably reigned from about 150 to 110 B.C. (thus dating
his conversations not much more than 400 years after the
Parinibbàna of the Buddha). Strabo draws attention in
passing to the remarkable way in which the kingdom of
Bactria expanded beyond its original limits, and he
mentions incidentally that the kings chiefly responsible
were Demetrius and Menander…. But Menander left a far
deeper mark on the tradition of India than did Demetrius.
4
Menander annexed the Indus delta, the peninsula of
Surastra (Kathiavar), occupied Mathura on the Jumna,
besieged Madyamika (Nagari near Chitor) and Saketam in
southern Oudh, and threatened the capital, Pàñaliputta. But
the invasion was repulsed and Menander was forced to
return to his own country.
5 Since the Bactrians later became
Buddhists there can be little doubt that King Menander is
indeed the King Milinda referred to in the book. However,
the conversations may be just a literary device the author
used to add interest. His primary aim is to clarify Buddhist
doctrine and to refute the wrong views promulgated by
various opponents of Buddhism.
The introductory story in the Milinda Pa¤ha concern-
ing Nàgasena’s upbringing is almost identical to the story
of the young Moggaliputta Tissa, which is told in the Mahà-
vaüsa, the Ceylon Chronicles. Moggaliputta Tissa Thera
lived about a hundred years before Menander and is men-
4.Cambridge History of India, Vol. I. P.446
5.V.A. Smith, The Early History of India.
tioned twice in the text [Miln. pp 3,71] so it is probably his
story that is the older of the two. However, the Mahàvaüsa
was written much later by Mahànàma, at the beginning of
the 6th century A.D., so the story could have been bor-
rowed by Mahànàma from the Milinda Pa¤ha, which was by
then a venerable book edited by Buddhaghosa. (In the
Milinda òika, a commentary on the Milinda Pa¤ha, it is stated
that several verses of prologue and epilogue in the Milinda
Pa¤ha were composed by Buddhaghosa).
From the supposed conversation that Milinda has
with Påraõa Kassapa, Makkhali Gosala and other ascetics6
it is obvious that this introductory story was fabricated by
the author since these ascetics were contemporaries of the
Buddha. The story is based on the Sàma¤¤a Phala Sutta of
the Dãgha Nikàya. One point of difference is noteworthy: in
the Sàma¤¤a Phala Sutta,
7
Prince Ajàtasattu goes to see the
Buddha but is unable to recognise him; whereas in the
introduction to the Milinda Pa¤ha, King Milinda says of
Nàgasena, “There is no need to point him out to me”, thus
showing his great superiority to Prince Ajàtasattu.
6.Though this supposed conversation is found in the original text, it adds nothing of
substance to the dialogues, and could not have taken place, so I have left it out.
7.D. i. 50
The Rise of the Magadha Kingdom
In the Mahàparinibbàna Sutta the Buddha predicted that the
city of Pàñaliputta, which was founded shortly before his
death, would become a great city, “ânanda, among the
towns and cities that are centres of congregation and com-
merce of people of the Aryan race, this new town will be-
come the greatest city, called Pàñaliputta, a place where goods
are unpacked, sold and distributed, but it will be in danger
from flood, fire and internal dissension”.
8
The Magadha
Kingdom, of which Pàñaliputta (modern Patna) was the capi-
tal, gradually became the most powerful in all India.
In the mid 4th century B.C. a Sudra named Mahà-
padma Nanda usurped the throne of the kingdom of
Magadha and became the ruler of a kingdom stretching
from the Brahmaputra river in the east to the Beas in the
west. But beyond the Beas were several small kingdoms.
During this period, Alexander the Great conquered
Persia and crossed the Hindu Kush into Bactria (Northern
Afghanistan). It took him two years to subdue these inhos-
pitable regions, but in so doing he founded several cities
penetrating as far north as Samarkand and Leninabad (in
the USSR). Another city has been identified at Charikar
(north of Kabul). Hearing about the river Indus he re-
crossed the Hindu Kush in 327 B.C. and pushed eastwards
to Taxila (Takkasãla), but when he reached the Jhelum river
he encountered the Paurava rajah, who had war elephants.
Even the veterans of Macadonia were unable to continue
8.D. ii. 87, 88.
against such opposition, so Alexander was forced to retreat
down the Indus river and thence back through Persia,
where he died at Babylon in 323 B.C. Nevertheless, he had
left behind him the foundations of the Bactrian kingdom
and had surveyed the Jhelum and Indus rivers.
After Alexander’s death, Chandragupta, the founder
of the Mauryan dynasty, was able to drive away the Greek
garrisons from the Indus valley. In 321 B.C. he defeated
Nanda and became the ruler of the Magadha kingdom
from the capital at Pàñaliputta. Alexander’s successor,
Seleukos I Nikator, led an expedition against the Indians in
311 B.C. hoping to regain the Punjab. However, he was up
against the might of Chandragupta. So, by 304 B.C.,
Seleukos was glad to conclude a treaty with him, giving his
daughter in marriage and ceding large areas of what is now
Baluchistan and Afghanistan in exchange for 500 war
elephants. Seleukos sent his ambassador, Magasthenes, to
Pàñaliputta and from what remains of his writings we
know something about the size of the army and the
strength of the fortifications there. Chandragupta ruled for
24 years and his son Bindusàra, about whom we know very
little, ruled for 28 years until his death in 269 B.C.
At the time of Bindusàra’s death his eldest son was the
viceroy at Takkasãla and his younger son, Asoka, was the
viceroy at Ujjeni in the south. Asoka fought with his brother
for the right to ascend to the throne, and when his
brotherwas killed in battle, Asoka became the ruler of a vast
empire from Bengal to Afghanistan. However, he was still
not satisfied and it was only in the ninth year of his reign,
after the bloody conquest of the Kaliïga kingdom (Orissa)
that he gave up warfare and became a devoted follower of
Buddhism. Emperor Asoka sent missions of monks to the
border areas of his great empire. Asokan inscriptions have
been found in the Kabul valley written in Greek and Ara-
maic, and elsewhere his inscriptions say that he had made
Dhamma conquests in Egypt, Syria, Macedonia, Greece,
Cyprus, Bactria, Kashmir, Gandhàra, etc. The Mahàvaüsa
says that missionaries were sent to Kashmir, Gandhàra,
Bactria, the Himalayas, Sindh (Gujarat), and inscriptions on
relic caskets found in ståpas at Sanchi record the success of
those missions to the Himalayas. Unfortunately, the other
ståpa records have been vandalised, but we can be sure that
the missions to Kashmir and Gandhàra were successful
since even in the Buddha’s time Takkasãla was a renowned
centre of learning. The Mahàvaüsa also records that at the
consecration of the Great Ståpa in 157B.C. monks came
from Alasanda (Charika) in Yona (Bactria).
The Rise of the Bactrian Kingdom
After the death of Asoka in 227 B.C. the Mauryan empire
began to disintegrate. The empire founded by Seleukos had
already revolted in 250 B.C. under its governor, Diodotus I
and it continued to grow under his successors, Diodotus II
and Euthydemus. At the beginning of the 2nd century B.C.
the Greek rulers of the new kingdom of Bactria crossed the
Hindu Kush and began to invade India from the northwest.
Of the Greek kings who ruled to the south of the Kush,
Apollodotus would seem to be the first. He is twice men-
tioned in association with Menander. Their rule extended
on the south west to Ariana (southern Afghanistan) and in
the south to the Indus valley.
As mentioned above, Menander must have ruled
over the Kabul and Swat valleys and at some time he
annexed the Indus valley too. Sàgala, the city mentioned in
the Milinda Pa¤ha as the place where the dialogues took
place, was the ancient city of the Madras who came to the
region in about the 6th century B.C. It is now Sialkot,
between the Chenab and Ravi rivers, near the border of
Kashmir. At Miln. page 83 (see Question 5, Chapter Seven)
it is mentioned that Kashmir is 12 yojanas (84 miles) distant
and that Milinda’s birthplace on the island of Alasanda is
200 yojanas away. There are many cities founded by
Alexander during his conquests, several of which might
have been the birthplace of Menander. The city founded at
Charikar has been suggested by A.K. Narain, but it is rather
less than 200 yojanas (1,400 miles) at the usual reckoning.
Could it perhaps be the Alexandra located at Leninabad or
one of the Alexandras further West?
However, from the available evidence we can postu-
late that Menander was born in Bactria, but brought up in
Ariana (the Kabul valley) and in the early years of his rule
expanded his father’s kingdom to the Indus valley and
beyond, perhaps later establishing his capital at Sàgala.
Unlike Bactria, which was predominantly influenced by
Greek culture, these new areas were already Buddhist.
Menander, then, would have been educated in the Greek
traditions but would have had direct contact with Bud-
dhism and no doubt often met monks living in his king-
dom. Nevertheless, it does seem rather improbable that his
knowledge of doctrine would have been sufficient to
engage in the dialogues as recorded in the Milinda Pa¤ha
since Milinda is shown to have a substantial knowledge of
the texts. My opinion is that the author had at most a brief
acquaintance with Menander, most probably basing his
work on an oral tradition of the dialogues and using his
own deep knowledge of the texts to extend the dialogues
into the longer work that we have now. He might have
used the dialogues as a device to add interest to his treatise
and to please the Greek king by making him one of the cen-
tral characters.
This hypothesis gains some support from the
existence of Chinese translations that consist of only the
first three divisions. They are almost identical with the Pali
as to the questions asked but differ in the introductory
story, which in neither case looks very authentic.
Comparison with the Chinese Text
As V. Trenchner pointed out when he transliterated the Pali
text in the 1860’s, we can be sure that the original Milinda
Pa¤ha was in Sanskrit because it begins with the words
“Taü yathà nusuyatà” (thus has it been handed down)
rather than the Pali formula “Evam me sutam” (thus have I
heard). This is confirmed by the presence of Chinese
translations of the text which, although they obviously
come from the same root source, show a number of notable
differences.9
9.For a detailed and thorough comparison, see Milinda Panha and Nàgasenabhikshusåtra
(AComparative Study) Bhikkhu Thich Mihn Chau.
1.The Chinese versions correspond to the first three
divisions of the Pali version, suggesting that the other
four divisions (Dilemmas, A Question solved by
Inference, Ascetic Practices, and the Similes) were
later accretions.
2.The Chinese work, the Nàgasena-bhikshusåtra takes the
name of the monk. The Pali work, the Milinda Pa¤ha,
the name of the king.
3.The Pali work has twelve extra questions.
4.The stories of the former lives of Nàgasena and Milinda
are different.
5.There is no mention of the Abhidhamma in the Chinese.
It is frequently mentioned in the Pali.
6.On the very well known classification of the
Bodhipakkhiya Dhammas the Chinese translator goes
astray on several terms, indicating that he was not
familiar with the Pali texts.
7.The Pali says that animals have reasoning but not
wisdom; the Chinese says they have wisdom but their
hearts are different.
Although there are many minor differences between the
two texts, the close correlation between the similes used to
illustrate the terms defined and the order of the questions,
leaves us with no doubt that they are both translations of an
older work (probably in Sanskrit). However, we should be
cautious when drawing conclusions as to which is the more
authentic. Bhikkhu Thich Mihn Chau, in his efforts to prove
the greater antiquity of the original on which the Chinese
translation is based, dates it soon after the demise of the
Buddha citing the absence of classification of the texts into
Vinaya, Sutta, Abhidhamma, and Nikàyas, which were only
well defined at the Third Council. Yet, Menander was not
even born until 100 years after this council. Clearly, the
‘original’ is not earlier than the 1st century B.C. and the
long gap before the translations appeared, in about
400A.D., was ample time for numerous accretions and
amendments, or omissions and lacunas to occur.
For the reasons already stated above and because the
conversations in the Milinda Pa¤ha were said to have taken
place about 500 years after the Buddha’s death, whereas
Menander lived at least a hundred years earlier than that, it
seems most likely that the Milinda Pa¤ha was composed
some time after Menander’s death, perhaps being based on
an oral tradition of actual conversations that did take place
between Menander and a monk or several monks.
Menander’s successors, Queen Agathocleia and
Strato I Soter, continued to reign for at least 40 years after
his death, but their lives saw the emergence of a new
dynasty in western India, that of the Sakas (Scythians) and
Yueh-Chih from central Asia, and the Greek Bactrian era
came to an end.
The Arrangement of the Pali Book
The epilogue says that the book is divided into 6 divisions
and 22 chapters containing 262 questions, 42 of which have
not been handed down making 304 in all, but it is difficult
to see how this is reckoned. There are numerous discrepan-
cies between the different texts available, which is to be ex-
pected in such an old work. Now only 237 questions
remain.
To make cross-reference easier I have followed the
same sequence as the Pali text in numbering the questions
and chapters, except that I have condensed the last seven
chapters into chapter eighteen.
In this edition of the Milinda Pa¤ha, although I have
followed the arrangement of the Pali text, I have left out
large numbers of similes and condensed long, though often
very eloquent passages, (without, I hope, spoiling the
beauty of the original work) in order to make the book rea-
sonably concise and thus make it more appealing to the
busy western reader. It is an abridgement, not a translation,
therefore here and there I have combined separate para-
graphs into one for the sake of brevity, but I have endeav-
oured to be faithful to the intention of the original author,
which was the clarification of the Buddha’s teaching and
the elucidation of some common misconceptions that one
may fall into.
The references in the footnotes are to page numbers of
the Pali texts of the Pali Text Society. In the corresponding
translations these page numbers are given in square brack-
ets at the top of each left-hand page or, in the case of Vinaya
and Jàtaka books, in the body of the text.
To help those who would like to know the Pali word
from which its translation derives (which is sometimes
different to that used by Rhys Davids or Miss Horner) I
have included Pali words in the index alongside the
English reference.
Khuddaka Nikaya - Milinda Panha - Foreword & Editor's Preface
The Debate of
King Milinda
an Abridgement of
The Milinda Panha
Edited by
Bhikkhu Pesala
Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc.
Overview
The Milinda Pa¤ha is, with good reason, a famous work of
Buddhist literature, probably compiled in the first century
B.C. It presents Buddhist doctrine in a very attractive and
memorable form as a dialogue between a Bactrian Greek
king, Milinda, who plays the ‘Devil’s Advocate’ and a
Buddhist sage, Nàgasena. The topics covered include most
of those questions commonly asked by Westerners such as
“If there is no soul, what is it that is reborn?” and “If there
is no soul, who is talking to you now?”
This abridgement provides a concise presentation of
this masterpiece of Buddhist literature. The introduction
outlines the historical background against which the dia-
logues took place, indicating the meeting of two great cul-
tures, that of ancient Greece and the Buddhism of the Indus
valley, which was a legacy of the great Emperor Asoka. It is
hoped that the adequate references, glossary, and list of
Pali quotations will provide readers with an incentive to
read further from the translations of the Pali texts.
Bhikkhu Pesala
Bhikkhu Pesala is an
English monk ordained in
1979 by Venerable Mahàsã
Sayàdaw of Burma while
the Venerable Sayàdaw
was on a mission to the
United Kingdom to teach
Vipassanà Meditation.
Bhikkhu Pesala has visited Burma four times to train
in Mahàsã Sayàdaw’s Vipassanà method.
After returning to the UK in 1985 he worked closely
with Venerable Hammalawa Saddhàtissa, helping him to
prepare a number of publications including:
‘A Buddhist’s Manual’,
‘Abhidhammatthàvibhàvinãñãkà’,
‘Pali Literature of South-East Asia’
and ‘Facets of Buddhism’.
In 1995, Bhikkhu Pesala founded the Association for
Insight Meditation to promote the Venerable Mahàsã
Sayàdaw’s teaching and meditation method. The Associa-
tion holds retreats and publishes literature on insight
meditation. For information about the Association’s publi-
cations or retreats (in the UK) please write to:
Association for Insight Meditation
3 Clifton Way
Alperton
Middlesex HA0 4PQ
United Kingdom
The Association for Insight Meditation was set up in Sep-
tember 1995 to promote the practice of vipassanà meditation
in the Mahàsã tradition. The Association also aims to pub-
lish selected books and booklets on satipaññhàna vipassanà
meditation to promote understanding of the practice of
mindfulness.
The Spiritual Director of the Association, Bhikkhu
Pesala, was ordained by the Venerable Mahàsã Sayàdaw in
1979.
If you would like information about other publica-
tions or insight meditation retreats in the Burmese tradi-
tion, please contact Bhikkhu Pesala, at:
3 Clifton Way
Alperton
Middlesex HA0 4PQ
England
E-mail: pesala@aimwell.org
Foreword
by the Late Ven. Dr. Hammalawa Saddhàtissa
The Milinda Pa¤ha is a Pali book written in about the 1st
century B.C. King Milinda, a Bactrian king who ruled the
northeast of India, met a learned monk called Nàgasena and
the king put to him a number of questions on the
philosophy, psychology, and ethics of Buddhism. I presume
this debate was conducted in the Bactrian Greek language,
but was later translated into Pali and Sanskrit.
This well-known Pali book, called Milinda Pa¤ha or
Questions of King Milinda, has twice been translated into
English: in 1890, and in 1969. Both translations are literary
and, in many places, literal; therefore they were mainly
confined to scholars. This present work is, however, not a
literal but a free rendering, making an abridgement and
aimed at the reader who prefers to take a short cut rather
than the long way, notwithstanding that the latter may be
very beautiful.
The framework remains the same as the original, but
in many cases the number of similes used to make a point
has been reduced.
The author, Bhikkhu Pesala, is a Buddhist monk who
has had training in Burma and Thailand and whose know-
ledge of Pali has enabled him to check areas of ambiguous
translation to compile this concise and readable work in
elegant, modern English, while his knowledge of Bud-
dhism has enabled him to clarify some obscure ideas.
This book will certainly serve its intended aim by its
uncomplicated presentation of the original work.
I started work on the first edition of “The Debate of King
Milinda” in 1988 at the instigation of Ven. Dr. Hammalawa
Saddhàtissa. A Sri Lankan supporter, Indrajit Samaranayake,
gave me the keys to his house, and I typed the first draft on
his computer while he and his wife were at work. In 1990 I
brought out the first paperback edition of 500 copies for free
distribution.
Motilal Banarsidass reprinted this first edition as a
hardback in 1991, and in 1998 they printed a revised edition.
My original intention in abridging Rhys David’s translation
was to make this important work of Buddhist literature
accessible to as many people as possible, but it is still not
widely available. Therefore, I produced a pocket edition,
published by the Association for Insight Meditation.
The Milinda Pa¤ha is ideally suited for people edu-
cated in the West. Most questions that sceptical Westerners
ask me are answered in its pages. The method of reasoned
inquiry is the one advised by the Buddha himself in the
Discourse to the Kàlàmas. However, one should keep an
open mind. Ignorance of the Dhamma is the main reason
that we have taken rebirth. The truth is concealed from un-
enlightened minds: to gain insight and right understanding
we need to practise insight meditation, which is the only
way to win liberation from the cycle of suffering.
Bhikkhu Pesala
April, 2001
Dedication
That I have been able to complete this work at all is due to
the dedication of Pali scholars like Professor T.W. Rhys
Davids and Miss I.B. Horner, who have done a great service
to all Buddhists, and indeed to all who have any true
religious aspirations, by translating the Pali texts into
English. As the great engineers and architects of Victorian
times have built great railways, canals, and bridges, so all
that remains for us to do is to travel to our destinations, or
perhaps now and then to carry out some modernisation
work; so this work of mine is only one of modernisation,
wishing that present-day readers can more easily acquire a
knowledge of Buddhism and come to appreciate the
spiritual legacy left for us by the Buddha and his disciples.
Whatever merit I have acquired by my efforts I share
with all those scholars who have dedicated their lives to
spreading the knowledge of the Buddha’s teachings.
With the aid of this merit may I have the power to
change those things that should be changed, the patience to
tolerate those things that cannot be changed and above all
the wisdom to know the difference.
Bhikkhu Pesala
November, 2000
King Milinda
an Abridgement of
The Milinda Panha
Edited by
Bhikkhu Pesala
Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc.
Overview
The Milinda Pa¤ha is, with good reason, a famous work of
Buddhist literature, probably compiled in the first century
B.C. It presents Buddhist doctrine in a very attractive and
memorable form as a dialogue between a Bactrian Greek
king, Milinda, who plays the ‘Devil’s Advocate’ and a
Buddhist sage, Nàgasena. The topics covered include most
of those questions commonly asked by Westerners such as
“If there is no soul, what is it that is reborn?” and “If there
is no soul, who is talking to you now?”
This abridgement provides a concise presentation of
this masterpiece of Buddhist literature. The introduction
outlines the historical background against which the dia-
logues took place, indicating the meeting of two great cul-
tures, that of ancient Greece and the Buddhism of the Indus
valley, which was a legacy of the great Emperor Asoka. It is
hoped that the adequate references, glossary, and list of
Pali quotations will provide readers with an incentive to
read further from the translations of the Pali texts.
Bhikkhu Pesala
Bhikkhu Pesala is an
English monk ordained in
1979 by Venerable Mahàsã
Sayàdaw of Burma while
the Venerable Sayàdaw
was on a mission to the
United Kingdom to teach
Vipassanà Meditation.
Bhikkhu Pesala has visited Burma four times to train
in Mahàsã Sayàdaw’s Vipassanà method.
After returning to the UK in 1985 he worked closely
with Venerable Hammalawa Saddhàtissa, helping him to
prepare a number of publications including:
‘A Buddhist’s Manual’,
‘Abhidhammatthàvibhàvinãñãkà’,
‘Pali Literature of South-East Asia’
and ‘Facets of Buddhism’.
In 1995, Bhikkhu Pesala founded the Association for
Insight Meditation to promote the Venerable Mahàsã
Sayàdaw’s teaching and meditation method. The Associa-
tion holds retreats and publishes literature on insight
meditation. For information about the Association’s publi-
cations or retreats (in the UK) please write to:
Association for Insight Meditation
3 Clifton Way
Alperton
Middlesex HA0 4PQ
United Kingdom
The Association for Insight Meditation was set up in Sep-
tember 1995 to promote the practice of vipassanà meditation
in the Mahàsã tradition. The Association also aims to pub-
lish selected books and booklets on satipaññhàna vipassanà
meditation to promote understanding of the practice of
mindfulness.
The Spiritual Director of the Association, Bhikkhu
Pesala, was ordained by the Venerable Mahàsã Sayàdaw in
1979.
If you would like information about other publica-
tions or insight meditation retreats in the Burmese tradi-
tion, please contact Bhikkhu Pesala, at:
3 Clifton Way
Alperton
Middlesex HA0 4PQ
England
E-mail: pesala@aimwell.org
Foreword
by the Late Ven. Dr. Hammalawa Saddhàtissa
The Milinda Pa¤ha is a Pali book written in about the 1st
century B.C. King Milinda, a Bactrian king who ruled the
northeast of India, met a learned monk called Nàgasena and
the king put to him a number of questions on the
philosophy, psychology, and ethics of Buddhism. I presume
this debate was conducted in the Bactrian Greek language,
but was later translated into Pali and Sanskrit.
This well-known Pali book, called Milinda Pa¤ha or
Questions of King Milinda, has twice been translated into
English: in 1890, and in 1969. Both translations are literary
and, in many places, literal; therefore they were mainly
confined to scholars. This present work is, however, not a
literal but a free rendering, making an abridgement and
aimed at the reader who prefers to take a short cut rather
than the long way, notwithstanding that the latter may be
very beautiful.
The framework remains the same as the original, but
in many cases the number of similes used to make a point
has been reduced.
The author, Bhikkhu Pesala, is a Buddhist monk who
has had training in Burma and Thailand and whose know-
ledge of Pali has enabled him to check areas of ambiguous
translation to compile this concise and readable work in
elegant, modern English, while his knowledge of Bud-
dhism has enabled him to clarify some obscure ideas.
This book will certainly serve its intended aim by its
uncomplicated presentation of the original work.
I started work on the first edition of “The Debate of King
Milinda” in 1988 at the instigation of Ven. Dr. Hammalawa
Saddhàtissa. A Sri Lankan supporter, Indrajit Samaranayake,
gave me the keys to his house, and I typed the first draft on
his computer while he and his wife were at work. In 1990 I
brought out the first paperback edition of 500 copies for free
distribution.
Motilal Banarsidass reprinted this first edition as a
hardback in 1991, and in 1998 they printed a revised edition.
My original intention in abridging Rhys David’s translation
was to make this important work of Buddhist literature
accessible to as many people as possible, but it is still not
widely available. Therefore, I produced a pocket edition,
published by the Association for Insight Meditation.
The Milinda Pa¤ha is ideally suited for people edu-
cated in the West. Most questions that sceptical Westerners
ask me are answered in its pages. The method of reasoned
inquiry is the one advised by the Buddha himself in the
Discourse to the Kàlàmas. However, one should keep an
open mind. Ignorance of the Dhamma is the main reason
that we have taken rebirth. The truth is concealed from un-
enlightened minds: to gain insight and right understanding
we need to practise insight meditation, which is the only
way to win liberation from the cycle of suffering.
Bhikkhu Pesala
April, 2001
Dedication
That I have been able to complete this work at all is due to
the dedication of Pali scholars like Professor T.W. Rhys
Davids and Miss I.B. Horner, who have done a great service
to all Buddhists, and indeed to all who have any true
religious aspirations, by translating the Pali texts into
English. As the great engineers and architects of Victorian
times have built great railways, canals, and bridges, so all
that remains for us to do is to travel to our destinations, or
perhaps now and then to carry out some modernisation
work; so this work of mine is only one of modernisation,
wishing that present-day readers can more easily acquire a
knowledge of Buddhism and come to appreciate the
spiritual legacy left for us by the Buddha and his disciples.
Whatever merit I have acquired by my efforts I share
with all those scholars who have dedicated their lives to
spreading the knowledge of the Buddha’s teachings.
With the aid of this merit may I have the power to
change those things that should be changed, the patience to
tolerate those things that cannot be changed and above all
the wisdom to know the difference.
Bhikkhu Pesala
November, 2000
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