Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c16.25

v1.c16.25

In the *Sutta-Nipāta* and other earlier books of the Piṭakas, practice of a rigorous hermit life has been extolled, but with the introduction of monastic life, the rigorousness was gradually relaxed, and a good illustration of this fact is furnished by the *Mahāvagga* itself.¹