The Mauryan Polity c11.s3.t4.5

c11.s3.t4.5

The Ceylonese Chronicles which are the primary authority or rather the sole authority for this tradition, with the exception of a single reference in Buddhaghoṣa's writings, have it that a great Council was held under the patronage of Aśoka in his capital city. Briefly the story is as follows:—The Buddhist monasteries were flooded by a large number of people belonging to different heretical sects who practised their own doctrines in the name of the Buddha. Consequently the Buddhist monks had to discontinue for seven years the Uposatha and Pavāraṇa ceremonies. On a representation to the king, who was then Aśoka, he sent on the advice of the Bhikkus, for Tissa Moggaliputta, an eminent Bhikku of the time. With him in an open assembly summoned by Aśoka it was resolved that the Vibhajja doctrine was not unacceptable to the teachings of the Buddha.