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The title of Dhammapada has been interpreted in various ways. It is an ambiguous word, and has been accepted as such by the Buddhists themselves. Dhamma has many meanings. Under one aspect it means religion, particularly the religion taught by Buddha, the law which every Buddhist should accept and observe. Under another aspect dhamma is virtue, or the realisation of the law.

Pada also has many meanings. In the Abhidh膩napad墨pik膩 it is explained by place, protection, 狈颈谤惫腻峁嘺, cause, word, thing, portion, foot, footstep.

Hence dhammapada may mean 'footstep of religion,' and thus the title was first rendered by Gogerly, only that he used the plural instead of the singular, and called it 'The Footsteps of Religion,' while Spence Hardy still more freely called it 'The Paths of Religion. ' It may be quite true, as pointed out by Childers, that pada by itself never means path. But it means footstep, and the footstep towards a thing is much the same as what we call the path to a thing. Thus we read, verse 21, 'appam膩do amatapadam,' earnestness is the step, i. e. the path that leads to immortality. p. xlvi Again, 'pam膩do maccuno padam' can hardly mean anything but that thoughtlessness is the path of death, is the path that leads to death. The commentator, too, rightly explains it here by amatasya adhigamup膩ya, the means of obtaining immortality, i. e. 狈颈谤惫腻峁嘺, or simply by up膩yo, and even by maggo, the way. If we compare verses 92 and 93 of our text, and verses 254 and 255, we see that pada is used synonymously with gati, going. In the same manner dhammapada would mean the footstep or the footpath of virtue, i. e. the path that leads to virtue, and supply a very appropriate title for a collection of moral precepts.

In verses 44 and 45 'path of virtue' seems to be the most appropriate meaning for dhammapada^[1], and it is hardly possible to assign any other meaning to it in the following verse (Cundasutta, v. 6):

Yo dhammapade sudesite
Magge 箩墨惫补迟颈 sa帽帽ato satim膩,
Anavajja-pad膩ni sevam膩no
Tat墨yam bhikkhum 膩hu maggaj墨vim,

'He who lives restrained and attentive in the way that has been well pointed out, in the path of the law, cultivating blameless words, such a Bhikkhu they call a Maggaj墨vi (living in the way). '

I therefore think that 'Path of Virtue,' or 'Footstep of the Law,' was the idea most prominent in the mind of those who originally framed the title of this collection of verses. It seems to me that Buddhaghosa also took the same view, for the verse which D'Alwis^[2] quotes from the introduction of Buddhaghosa鈥檚 commentary,鈥�

Sampatta-saddhammapado 蝉补迟迟丑腻 诲丑补尘尘补辫补诲补峁� 蝉耻产丑补峁� Desesi,

and which he translates, 'The Teacher who had reached the very depths (lit. bottom) of Saddhamma, preached this holy Dhammapada,'鈥攍ends itself far better to another translation, viz. 'The Teacher who had gained a firm

[1. Cf. Dhammapada, v. 285, 苍颈产产腻苍补峁� sugatena 诲别蝉颈迟补峁�.

2. Buddhist 狈颈谤惫腻峁嘺, p. 62. ]

p. xlvii footing in the Good Law, showed (preached) the holy Path of the Law. '

Gogerly, again, who may generally be taken as a faithful representative of the tradition of the Buddhists still preserved in Ceylon, translates the title by the 'Footsteps of Religion,' so that there can be little doubt that the priests of that island accept Dhammapada in the sense of 'Vestiges of Religion,' or, from a different point of view, 'The Path of Virtue. '

M. L. Feer^[1] takes a slightly different view, and assigning to pada the meaning of foot or base, he translates Dhammapada by Loi fondamentale, or Base de la Religion.

But it cannot be denied that the title of Dhammapada was very soon understood in a different sense also, namely, as 'Sentences of Religion. ' Pada means certainly a foot of a verse, a verse, or a line, and dhammapadam actually occurs in the sense of a 'religious sentence. ' Thus we read in verse 102, 'Though a man recite a hundred 骋腻迟丑腻蝉 made up of senseless words, one dhammapadam, i. e. one single word or line of the law, is better, which if a man hears, he becomes quiet. ' But here we see at once the difficulty of translating the title of 'dhammapadam' by 'religious sentences. ' Dhammapadam means one law verse, or wise saw, not many. Professor Fausb枚ll, who in his excellent edition of the Dhammapada translated that title by 'a collection of verses on religion,' appeals to such passages as verses 44 and 102 in support of his interpretation. But in verse 42 诲丑补尘尘补辫补诲补峁� su诲别蝉颈迟补峁�, even if it does not mean the path of the law, could never mean 'versus legis bene enarratos,' but only versum legis bene enarratum, as Dr. Fausb枚ll himself renders eka峁� 诲丑补尘尘补辫补诲补峁�, in verse 102, by unus legis versus. Buddhaghosa, too, when he speaks of many law verses uses the plural, for instance^[2], 'Be it known that the 骋腻迟丑腻 consists of the Dhammapad膩ni, 罢丑别谤补驳腻迟丑腻, 罢丑别谤墨驳腻迟丑腻, and those unmixed (detached) 骋腻迟丑腻 not comprehended in any of the above-named Sutt膩nta. '

[1. Revue Critique, 1870, p. 378.

2. D'Alwis, 笔腻濒颈 Grammar, p. 61. ]

p. xlviii

The only way in which Dhammapada could be defended in the sense of 'Collection of Verses of the Law,' would be if we took it for an aggregate compound. But such aggregate compounds, in Sanskrit at least, are possible with numerals only; for instance, tribhuvanam, the three worlds; caturyugam, the four ages^[1]. It might therefore be possible in 笔腻濒颈, too, to form such compounds as da艣apadam, a collection of ten padas, a work consisting of ten padas, a decamerone, but it would in no wise follow that we could in that language attempt such a compound as Dhammapadam, in order to express a collection of law verses^[2]. Mr. Beal^[3] informs us that the Chinese seem to have taken Dhammapada in the sense of 'stanzas of law,' 'law texts,' or 'scripture texts. '

It should be remembered, also, that the idea of representing life, and particularly the life of the faithful, as a path of duty or virtue leading to deliverance, (in Sanskrit dharmapatha,) is very familiar to Buddhists. The four great truths of their religion^[4] consist in the recognition of the following principles: 1. that there is suffering; 2. that there is a cause of that suffering; 3. that such cause can be removed; 4. that there is a way of deliverance, viz. the doctrine of Buddha. This way is the ash峁�膩峁単a-尘腻谤驳补, the eightfold way^[5], taught by Buddha, and leading to 狈颈谤惫腻峁嘺^[6]. The faithful advances on that road, pad膩t padam,

[1. See M. M. 's Sanskrit Grammar, 搂 519.

2. Mr. D'Alwis' arguments (Buddhist 狈颈谤惫腻峁嘺, pp. 63-67) in support of this view, viz. the dhammapada may be a collective term, do not seem to me to strengthen my own conjecture.

3. Dhammapada from Chinese, p. 4.

4. Spence Hardy, Manual, p. 496.

5. Burnouf, Lotus, p. 520, 'Ajoutons, pour terminer ce que nous trouvons 脿 dire sur le mot magga, quelque commentaire qu'on en donne d'ailleurs, que suivant une d茅finition rapport茅e par Turnour, le magga renferme une sous-division que l'on nomme 辫补峁璱辫补诲腻, en sanscrit pratipad. Le magga, dit Tumour, est la voie qui conduit au 狈颈产产腻苍补, la 辫补峁璱辫补诲腻, litt茅ralement "la marche pas 脿 pas, ou le degr茅," est la vie de rectitude qu'on doit suivre, quand on marche dans la voie du magga. '

6. See Spence Hardy, Manual, p. 496. Should not caturvidha-dharmapada, mentioned on p. 497, be translated by 'the fourfold path of the Law?' It can hardly be the fourfold word of the Law. ]

p. xlix step by step, and it is therefore called patipad膩, lit. the step by step.

If we make allowance for these ambiguities, inherent in the name of Dhammapada, we may well understand how the Buddhists themselves play with the word pada (see v. 45).

Thus we read in Mr. Beal鈥檚 translation of a Chinese version of the Pr膩timoksha^[1]:

'Let all those who desire such birth,
Who now are living in the world,
Guard and preselve these Precepts, as feet. '