SV: "Buddha" before the Pali Canon?

[L.S.Cousins]

Madhav Deshpande points out:

>The use of the term Maagadha as referring to an inhabitant of Magadha is
>at least as old as the Atharvaveda, which predates the consolidation of
>Magadhan hegemony.  Thus it is very likely that the dialect of Magadha was
>called Maagadhii long before the hegemonic political developments.  This
>of course does not prove that the Buddha spoke a dialect which was called
>Maagadhii.  Best,

I take it that the Maagadhaa are a tribe who lived around the area of
Rajgir.  The area they controlled is therefore called called the
country or kingdom of the Maagadhans and/or the kingdom of the
Maagadha prince.

The evidence of the early Buddhist texts (whether in Pali or Sanskrit
or in translation) is clear that Kaasi, Kosala and Videha were not
part of the territories of the Maagadha-raaja. There is no reason to
suppose that they spoke a language called Maagadhii. They certainly
spoke a dialect of Middle Indian. We do not know in what ways that
differed from Maagadhii; it might have differed a lot or only a
little, but some difference is likely.

Or, are you suggesting that there is explicit Atharva evidence for
the use of the term Maagadha as applying more widely ? That seems
offhand very unlikely.

Lance Cousins
--
HEADINGTON, UK

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