The Mauryan Polity c11.s3.t4.1

c11.s3.t4.1

(10) Similar to the legends which have grown around the three Tamil Academies (*Saṅgam*) of the Tamil literary tradition, the Buddhist tradition speaks of three councils summoned at different times to settle the disputed points about the dharma. There is a tradition that a council (perhaps the fourth) was held under the patronage of king Kaniṣka. The Ceylonese version is silent on this and maintains the council of Aśoka as the third and the last. In a similar manner the Buddhists of Northern India, not to speak of Tibet and China, do not mention anything about the third Council and refer to the Council of Kaniṣka as the third and the last. Thus there is a conflict of opinion among the Buddhists themselves as regards the so-called Third and Fourth councils. Examining the historical character of the First council Prof. Oldenberg has made the remark that it was pure invention and not history.¹ Considering the disagreement of the varying accounts with regard to the Second Council Kern held that it was dogmatic fiction.² Judged by the modern critical standards we have to conclude that whenever a dispute arose as to the discipline or the doctrine, the leading monks met together and came to some agreement. Not only three or four but a good number might have been held and "later traditions have jumbled them all up into one story", and fathered every one of them invariably to a great monarch like Aśoka or Kaniṣka. Confining ourselves to the Third Council, it is mentioned by the Dīpavaṃśa and the Mahāvaṃśa and referred to by Buddhaghoṣa in his Introduction to Samantapāsādika.¹