Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c13.s3.8

v1.c13.s3.8

It should also be kept in mind that the state of the country at the time of Buddha was not such as could permit a missionary to keep clear of disputation. One of the essential works of a preacher was to convince his audience, and this was hardly possible if argumentation was not given a wide berth. Of this time, accounts are available of brāhmaṇa and non-brāhmaṇa heads of religions, wandering about over the whole of eastern India, sometimes with a large band of disciples, and holding disputations with the heads of the rival sects to assert their influence and increase their following. There were the paribbājakas who wandered about with their minds open for the reception of religious light wherever available. The lay people also liked to hear disputations as indicated by their setting up of kutūhala-sālās (halls for people in quest of truths) or paribbājakārāmas in different places where the wandering teachers might reside and hold controversies with convenience in the midst of a large gathering. The people of a locality felt proud if a good many religious teachers visited their kutūhalasālās or paribbājakārāmas.² References are available in plenty in the Buddhist works showing that it was often stated at the disputations that the defeated teacher with his followers relinquished his own doctrines and embraced those of the winner. These defeats in disputations were a fruitful source for the enlisting of converts to the many doctrines and religions that prevailed in the country at the time, and the teachers vied and struggled with one another for securing the largest following. The discussions of the rival sects indicate that they had to be well-grounded not only in the rules by which the disputation was guided and the argumentation was rendered free from fallacies, but also in the doctrines of the various opponents who had to be faced, over and above their own school or tenets and practices with their philosophical bases, if any. Buddha is described in several places in the Buddhist works as a master of the tenets and practices of the heretical sects. A large number of his disciples was recruited either as the result of defeats suffered by the opponents or from among the followers of the brāhmaṇic and the heretical teachers convinced of the superiority of the doctrines propounded by him. His discussions with Soṇadaṇḍa, Kūṭadanta, Upāli, Sakuludāyi, Vekhanassa, Assalāyana and a host of others are instances in which he argued out his own views and convinced his adversaries at the end. The victories thus gained in large numbers in disputations elicited the remark from Dīghatapassi, a Jaina monk to the effect that Gautama was a sorcerer who by the force of his art drew the people of other sects into his own net.¹ The lists of his disciples who were convinced and won over to Buddhism from their own beliefs and practices is a large one, from which the names of the following may be mentioned: Mahākoṭṭhita, Piṇḍola Bharadvāja, Mahākaccāyana, for instance, were masters of the three Vedas and perfect in all the accomplishments of a Brāhmaṇa; Sāriputta and Moggallāna were the disciples of Sañjaya; the Kassapas were the leaders of the Jaṭilas; Abhayarājakumāra was a distinguished disciple of Nigaṇṭha Nāṭaputta.