Milindapanha

Milindapanha ( Pali, m. Pl., Milindapanha, "The questions of Milinda " ) The Milindapanha is a Buddhist school of Theravada associated Pali text from the 4th - 5th Century AD The largely held in dialogue form work is about a series of philosophical conversations between the Indo- Greek king Milinda and a Buddhist monk named Nagasena.

In these talks, the king directed to the monk a series of questions relating to Buddhist teaching content like nirvana, karma and rebirth, awakening and the existence of a self. These questions are answered by Nagasena in an embellished with numerous pictorial examples form.

History

In the Buddhist tradition the Milindapanha is regarded as the tradition of a historic meeting between Milinda and Nagasena, which may have taken place in the 2nd century BC in what is now northern India.

The original version of this conversation, we are now no longer obtain. It is believed, however, that the text in a North Indian Prakrit, probably Gandhari, was written. The argument put by some Indologists view the original text may have been written in Greek, however, is controversial.

Starting from this Urtext Chinese translations have been made ​​, of which today only the version from the 4th century with the title Nagasenabhikshusutra (Chinese那 先 比丘 经, Pinyin Nàxiānbǐqiūjīng, Sutra on the 3rd and 4th century AD from monk Nagasena ') is obtained.

At least from the 5th century comes the remaining intact Pali version entitled Milindapanha containing numerous variations and insertions compared to the Chinese version.

Translation

• Nyanaponika (ed.), Nyanatiloka (translator ): Milindapanha: A historic summit in the religious world this week. Publisher O.W. Barth, 1998, ISBN 3-502-61011-8.
• Questions of King Milinda, tr by TW Rhys Davids, Sacred Books of the East, volumes XXXV & XXXVI, Clarendon / Oxford, 1890-94; reprinted by Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi Vol.1 (PDF, 19.1 MB ) Vol.2 (PDF, 16.6 MB)