Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c23.s7.8

v1.c23.s7.8

Oldenberg remarked also that there were many incoherent and contradictory statements in the account of the *Cullavagga*. Prof. La Vallée Poussin has gone into them in detail and shown that Oldenberg's interpretation of internal evidences is based upon some pre-conceived notions and should be taken at their worth. He has discussed at length the pros and cons of the charges brought against Ānanda, and for reconciling them with the then form of Buddhism, he has brought in also the doctrinal deviations found in the *Kathāvatthu* and attributed to the Mahāsanghikas. To me it seems that we need not go so far as to trace in the charges germs of schisms which later on appeared in the Buddhist Church, for the doctrines and rules of discipline were then in an undeveloped state and it must have taken a few decades since then for their development into a clear-cut shape.