AGGANNA SUTTA: On Knowledge of Beginnings

This is a text taken from a larger collection called the Long Discourses (Digha Nikaya); the teachings attributed to the Buddha were organized by his later disciples in terms of their length. This text is considered by Buddhists to be an actual teaching of the Buddha made in the sixth or fifth century before Christ, and preserved by his disciples in its present form. Texts such as this one are difficult to date. We know that they were put down into writing during the first few centuries of the common era, but there is evidence which strongly suggests that these texts were preserved and transmitted orally for several centuries.

This text, quite self-consciously, gives an alternate view of the creation of the universe, and is directly opposed to the sorts of myths exemplified by the Rig Veda’s Hymn of Purusa, which sought to base, and thus justify, the social hierarchy in a creation myth. This myth counters that one, and has a very different idea about how society developed. It thus constitutes a very interesting look at the Buddhist view of ancient Indian society, and the hotly contested issues of that social context.

Source: The Long Discourses of the Buddha, a Translation of the Digha Nikaya. Trans. Maurice Walshe. Wisdom Publications (Boston)