Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c19.18

v1.c19.18

might have little trouble in collecting their food and dress and other requisites from the towns people or village folk for the bare maintenance of the physical frame. The ideal monastery was a cave-dwelling in the hills around a town or village, vow of poverty was the rule, and alms was the sole support. Though magnificent Vihāras were built and all possible comforts compatible with a monk’s life were provided, the bhikkhus were disciplined to look upon them with discorn and utilise them just so far as was necessary to maintain their body. Abuses there must have been, as all bhikkhus were not imbued with the ideals of a bhikkhu life, and so the Buddhists could not help formulating a code to curb the recalcitrants. Once the code was started, it went on being revised and added on, and ultimately receiving the shape of a Piṭaka in five parts. Every aspect of a monk’s life had to be dealt with, to wit, the probationary period and initiation, training under the Ācariya and Upajjhāya, daily life including food, dress and other articles of use, residence and the mode of residing in it, religious ceremonies like the Uposatha, Vassāvāsa, Pavāraṇā, and Kaṭhina, ecclesiastical procedure for punishment and absolution from guilt, dissensions in the Saṅgha and the methods of settling disputes among monks.¹ With the introduction of the initiation of women, another code came into existence to regulate the life of the nuns. This code was more or less a supplement to the code of the monks, having some special rules for the conduct of the nuns.¹