Thread by @shrikanth_krish

The Anguttara Nikāya is one of the classics of the early Pāli canon

It is also referred to as the "Numerical Discourses of the Buddha" and forms a part of the Sūtra Piṭaka

The work comprises of the teachings of the Buddha himself, and is an important source of early Buddhism

The canon was first put to writing in Sri Lanka during the reign of King Vaṭṭagamiṇi (29-17 BCE) as per Sinhalese Chronicles.

That makes the text definitely older than 1st century BCE, and most likely dating to 5th-4th cen BCE - when Buddha himself lived

Now I am not a Buddhist. Yet I feel these texts are an invaluable source of information on the state of North India in the period immediately preceding the Mauryas and possibly even the Nandas.

What was India really like?

While the book mostly comprises of ethical discourses, there are clues to the world around Siddartha Gautama.

I haven't read much of the book yet, but here are some early gleanings from it

While comparing kingship with spiritual happiness, Buddha at one point says -

"Suppose one were to exercise sovereignty and kingship over these sixteen great countries abounding in the seven precious substances, that is not worth a sixteenth part of upasotha observance" (Contd)

In this statement he mentions the 16 countries by name -

"Anga, Magadha, Kashi, Kosala, Vajji, Malla, Chedi, Vanga, Kuru, Panchala, Maccha (matsya), Surasena, Assaka, Avanti, Gandhara, and Kamboja"

I found this very valuable information.

As it is an enumeration of the political landscape of Northern India during Buddha's lifetime or that of his immediate disciples who may have written this text.

What's interesting is that all these states are very much states of the late Vedic period. All of which find mention in the great Mahabharata War - a text that purportedly describes events circa 1200-800 BCE as per many historians

So it's interesting that states of the late Vedic period like Kurus, Matsyas and Panchalas (very central to the Mahabharata narrative), were still surviving political entities as late as the 4th / 3rd century BCE when Anguttara Pitika was written

Kashi was a flourishing town at the time of this text's composition. A city very close to where Buddha himself grew up

This is evident from Buddha's rather vivid description of his own youth. Which is very valuable, as it is a first hand account from Siddhartha himself

Here's Siddartha Gautama on his youth -

"Bhikkhus, I was delicately nurtured, most delicately nurtured, extremely delicately nurtured. At my father's residence lotus ponds were made just for my enjoyment: in one of them blue lotuses bloomed, in another red lotuses" (Contd..)

"I used no sandalwood unless it came from Kasi and my head dress, jacket, lower garment, and upper garment were made of cloth from Kasi"

"By day and by night a white canopy was held over me so that cold and heat, dust, grass, and dew would not settle on me"

"I had three mansions: one for the winter, one for the summer, and one for the rainy season. I spent the four months of the rains in the rainy-season mansion, being entertained by musicians, none of whom were male, and I did not leave the
mansion"

"While in other people's homes slaves, workers, and servants are given broken rice together with sour gruel for their meals, in my father's residence they were given choice hill rice, meat, and boiled rice"

He mentions the fabrics and Sandalwood from Kashi in more than one place, which I find very interesting.

Especially given that today, we associate sandalwood with southern India, particularly Mysore, and not the Gangetic plain

Now the most interesting part of the Pitika to my mind is when Buddha converses with a Brahmin in the "Book of the Threes" (Sutra 56).

I find it very fascinating as it possibly points to something momentous in Indian history

An affluent brahmin approaches Gautama and asks him -

"Master Gotama, I have heard older brahmins who are aged, burdened with years, teachers of teachers, saying: 'In the past this world was so thickly populated. One would think there was no space between people" (Contd.)

"The villages, towns, and capital cities were so close that cocks could fly between them"

"Why is it, Master Gotama, that at present the number of people has declined,
depopulation is seen, and villages, towns, cities, and districts have vanished?"

To which Gotama replies

"At present, brahmin, people are excited by illicit lust, overcome by unrighteous greed, afflicted by wrong Dhamma. As a result they take weapons and slay each other. So many people die

This is the reason why at present the number of people has declined"

I found this fascinating. And I am not sure if others have noticed this and taken it at face value.

Does this suggest a wave of de-urbanization and a reversion to rural life in the centuries immediately preceding the Buddha?

To me this goes contrary to the conventional historical wisdom that regards the Vedic and even the Post Vedic age as primarily agrarian, to be succeeded by the emergence of large towns and commercial culture during the period of Buddha and Nandas.

But here we find Buddha telling us something very different

He regards his own age (possibly 4th cen BCE) as a period of decline and fall). And recalls an earlier period (possibly a few centuries before) when the degree of urbanization was greater, with higher population density

So what is it that caused this decline leading up to the age of Buddha? Could it be the great Bharata war?

But that goes contrary to the view that usually places the Bharata war much earlier - 10th cen BC

Is this a clue that the war happened much closer to Buddha's own time?

Buddha's enumeration of the 16 great states, all of which find mention in Mahabharata further strengthens this hypothesis that perhaps the Great War does not precede Buddha by more than 3-4 centuries.

This is consistent with even BB Lal, the Painted Grey ware archeologist, who places the Great war circa 800 BCE

This is also consistent with the emergence of the BhAgavata religion at around the same time as Buddha, given that scholars usually date the Bhagavad Gita too to 5th-4th cen BCE

But it is also explicitly mentioned that the "histories" form a part of a Brahmin's education. So clearly the Itihaasas (presumably Mahabharata and Ramayana had taken shape by the time of this Pitika).

The Pitika while presenting Buddha's own critique of the conventional understanding of a Brahmin's duties describes the conventional brahmin as follows -

"a brahmin is well born on both his maternal and paternal sides, of pure descent, unassailable and impeccable with respect to birth as far back as the seventh paternal generation."

"He is a reciter and preserver of the hymns, a master of the three Vedas with their vocabularies, ritual, phonology , and etymology, and the histories as a fifth"

So clearly the canonical status of the "Histories" (the two epics most likely) had been established by the time of this text.

And even much of Vedic literature including the brahmana ritual texts and also Yaska's Nirukta (going by the reference to "etymology") had taken shape

Regarding Buddha's travels, it is usually assumed that he lived all his life in present day Bihar and Eastern UP.

But that doesn't seem to be true.

At one place it is mentioned that the "Blessed One" lived among Kurus in the Kuru town of KammAsadamma

I am not sure which town this is. But the Kuru kingdom was definitely much further to the west of the areas we usually associate Buddha with.

So he did move around a fair bit

But it's also interesting that the Kuru region was existent as a political entity even as late as 5th/4th century BCE.

Something that was a revelation for me.

If we then do associate the Kuru state's peak period with 1000 BCE, that means the kingdom lasted over 500 years as a political area given its existence in Buddha's lifetime

That makes it a very long lasting entity (as were the other Vedic kingdoms mentioned by Gotama)

I'll stop here. But I am sure there is a lot more one can glean about India in that tumultuous period of Post Vedic transition by reading the Pali canon.

Post-script : Here's the text of Anguttara NikAya that I was referring to -

lirs.ru/lib/sutra/The_…

Here's another piece on the age of the Pali canon

budsas.org/ebud/ebsut055.…