Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c16.28

v1.c16.28

In the four Nikāyas and also in the *Vinaya Piṭaka* there is no mention of the term *dhutaṅgas* not to speak of its inclusion in the list of *sīlas*. Some of the *dhutaṅga*-practices, such as *sapadānacārī*, *piṇḍapātiko*, *paṃsukūliko*, *rukkhamūliko*, *abbhokāsiko*, *āraññiko*, *pantasenāsano* are mentioned incidentally in the Nikāyas² and *Vinaya*³ but it is also stated that Buddha himself did not practise them in his own life while some of his disciples did.⁴ It is therefore evident that the *dhutaṅgas* were not recognised in early Buddhism as a group of practices or at least as subsidiary practices compulsory for the Buddhist monks. It may be contended by some that Mahākassapa is referred to in the *Saṃyutta* and the *Aṅguttara Nikāyas*¹ as the foremost of the dhūtavādins, hence the dhutaṅga practices were in vogue but as against it we may point out that had it been so, the thirteen dhutaṅgas would have found a place in the last section of the *Aṅguttara*, if not, in the *Dasuttarasuttanta* of the *Dīgha Nikāya*.² The interpretation given in the *Visuddhimagga* (pp. 80-81) deserves also attention. According to it, a bhikkhu need not practise the dhutaṅgas in his own life but for that reason he is not debarred from being a dhūtavādin, i.e., an advocate or preacher of the dhutaṅgas. It may be that Mahākassapa like Buddha was only a dhūtavādī and did not observe the dhutaṅgas. The silence of the *Nikāyas* and the *Vinaya* is a distinct evidence of its later growth, or at least its later recognition by the Theravāda sect.