MIL 1 — TẠNG KINH—TIỂU BỘ

Homage to the Blessed One, the Arahant, the Perfectly Self-Enlightened One.

Khuddaka Nikāya

Milindapañha Pāḷi

1.

That king named Milinda, in Sāgala, the foremost of cities, approached Nāgasena, as the Ganges flows to the ocean.

The king approached the eloquent speaker, the torch-bearer who dispels darkness, and asked him many subtle questions concerning what is fitting and unfitting.

The questions and answers, both, were founded on profound meaning, captivating to the heart, pleasing to the ear, wonderful, and causing the hair to stand on end.

Nāgasena’s discourses, deeply immersed in the Abhidhamma and Vinaya, complete with the net of the Suttas, are wonderfully varied, with similes and methods of exposition.

Therefore, having applied your minds to this knowledge and having gladdened your hearts, listen to these subtle questions that shatter the grounds of doubt.

2. As it is heard—there is among the Yonakas a city called Sāgala, a center for the distribution of diverse goods, adorned with rivers and mountains, with delightful regions and landscapes, complete with parks, gardens, groves, lakes, and lotus ponds, made charming by its rivers, mountains, and forests, constructed by the wise, with its enemies suppressed, unoppressed by adversaries, with various, wonderful, and strong watchtowers and bastions, with excellent and supreme gates and archways, its inner city surrounded by a deep moat and white walls. Its streets, alleys, squares, and crossroads are well-laid out; its inner markets are well-stocked and filled with a variety of excellent goods; it is graced with hundreds of various alms-halls; it is adorned with hundreds of thousands of magnificent mansions resembling the peaks of the Himalayas; it is thronged with elephants, horses, chariots, and foot soldiers; it is frequented by groups of handsome men and women; it is teeming with people—numerous Khattiyas, Brāhmaṇas, Vessas, and Suddas; it is a meeting place for various ascetics and brahmins; it has long been inhabited by men of great learning. It is well-supplied with markets for Kāsi cloth, Koṭumbara garments, and various other fabrics; its many kinds of delightful flower and perfume shops are well-stocked; it is fragrant with perfumes; it is filled with many desirable jewels; its shops are well-spread out in all directions; it is frequented by groups of elegant merchants; it is filled with kahāpaṇas, silver, gold, and bronze; it is a repository of shining treasures; it is abundant in riches, grain, and resources; its treasuries and granaries are full; with plenty of food and drink, offering various sweets, delicacies, meals, and drinks, resembling Uttarakuru in its abundant crops, like Āḷakamandā, the city of the gods.

Here, pausing, their past deeds should be recounted, and in recounting them, it should be done by dividing the account into six parts. These are: the Previous Connection, the Milinda Questions, the Questions on Characteristics, the Meṇḍaka Questions, the Questions on Inference, and the Questions with Similes.

Therein, the Milinda Questions are of two kinds: the Questions on Characteristics and the Questions on Cutting Off Doubt. The Meṇḍaka Questions are also of two kinds: the Great Division and the Questions in the Yogi's Discourse.