Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c33.s1.16

v2.c33.s1.16

Fa-hien (414 A.D.) took away, from Pāṭaliputra to China, a complete transcript of the Mahāsanghika Vinaya and translated it into Chinese two years later.⁴ According to Yuan Chwang the Vinaya of the Mahāsanghikas was the same as the one reiterated in the First Council. In Nanjio’s *Catalogue* are mentioned two Vinaya texts of this school, viz., Mahāsanghika Vinaya and Mahāsangha-bhikṣuṇī Vinaya (No. 543). Fortunately, there is the original *Mahāvastu*,⁵ which is the first volume of the Vinaya Piṭaka of the Lokottaravādins, a branch of the Mahāsanghikas. It corresponds to that part of the Pāli Vinaya Piṭaka, which gives an account of Buddha’s life and his formation of the first Saṅgha. By Buddha’s life, the compiler meant not merely his present life but the events of his past lives as well, by recounting which he showed that a particular event in this life was only a repetition or result of the past. The account is divided into three sections like the *Nidāna-kathā* of the *Jātakas*, the first dealing with his existences during the time of Dīpaṅkara and other Buddhas, the secnod with his life in Tuṣita heaven, and the third with his present life, agreeing mostly with the contents of the Pāli Mahāvagga. Apart from a few rules relating to ordination, it has nothing to do with the disciplinary matters. It contains a few Prakrit versions of the sūtras of the Nikāyas, Sutta-nipāta, Dhammapada and a few other texts. It is more a collection of Jātakas than a text on Vinaya. Winternitz thinks that its date of composition should be placed between the 2nd century B.C. and the 4th century A.D.¹