Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c35.s3.t1: Succession of Teachers
Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c35.s3.t1
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Succession of Teachers
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If we turn to the succession of teachers (*ācariyaparamparā*) as given in almost all Sanskrit traditions, preserved in Tibetan, it will be observed that after Sambhūta Śāṇavāsi, the succession is recorded differently from that in Pāli. Buston and Tāranātha,³
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³ See Buston, II, p. 108 He derived his information from the *Vinayakṣudraka* of the Mūlasarvāstivādins
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in the *Kośa-Vyākhyā* (VIII. 32) as Vinaya-vid. There were also Vaibhāṣikas who lived outside Kashmir referred to in the *Kośa* as "bahir-deśakā Vaibhāṣikā."
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tell us that Mahākassapa entrusted the guardianship of the Sangha to Ānanda, who in turn entrusted the same to Sambhūta Śāṇavāsi. The latter gave over the guardianship to Upagupta of Mathurā.¹ It is well-known that in the Sanskrit Avadānas, Upagupta is made the spiritual adviser of Aśoka as against Moggaliputta Tissa of the Pāli texts. This also lends support to the view that Mathurā became the first seat of the Sarvāstivādins soon after the Second Council, and that it was from Mathurā that the influence of the Sarvāstivādins radiated all over Northern India, particularly over Gandhāra and Kashmir.
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¹ Upagupta was followed by Dhitika.
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The propagation of Buddhism in Gandhāra and Kashmir has an independent history of its own. Both the Pāli and Sanskrit traditions state that Madhyāntika (Majjhantika) was responsible for the propagation of the religion in these two countries. Madhyāntika was a disciple of Ānanda and so he was a contemporary of Sambhūta Śāṇavāsi and senior to Upagupta. Madhyāntika is recognised as a teacher by the Sarvāstivādins. That Madhyāntika preached there Sarvāstivāda Buddhism in Kashmir is corroborated by the testimony of Hiuen Tsang who tells us that Aśoka not only sent Buddhist monks to Kashmir but also built monasteries at that place.² He writes that during Aśoka's reign there was in Magadha "a subtle investigator of name and reality, and who put his extraordinary thoughts in a treatise which taught heresy." An attempt was made to drown into the Ganges these monks who however saved themselves by flying through the air to Kashmir where they settled on the hills and the valleys. On hearing this, Aśoka felt remorse and requested them to return, and on their refusal, built for them 500 monasteries and "gave up all Kashmir for the benefit of the Buddhist church."' The fact underlying this story is that the "investigators of name and reality" were none other than the Sarvāstivādins, whose principal tenet is that nāma and rūpa are real and are divisible into 64 elements which exist for ever (sarvam asti), and it is for this they had the appellation of Sarvāstivāda.² Then the statement that they resorted to the hills and valleys of Kashmir corroborates the flight of the Sarvāstivādin monks to the north in Kashmir.
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² Watters, I, p. 269.
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² See Infra.
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Yuan Chwang must have fallen into confusion in regard to the name Mahādeva. There were very probably two persons of this name "one an influential abbot of Pāṭaliputra"³ who preached the Devadūta-sūtra,⁴ and the other a monk who introduced the tenets relating to the imperfections of an Arhat.⁵ Mahādeva the investigator of name and reality must have been a Sarvāstivādin while the other Mahādeva, who attributed imperfections to an Arhat, was a Mahāsanghika. Yuan Chwang further confused the Theravādins with the Mahāsanghikas when he wrote that Aśoka supported the Mahāsanghikas against the Theravādins, and that 500 Arhats left Pāṭaliputra and propagated the Sthavira School in Kashmir, while the majority of the inferior brethren at Pāṭaliputra began the Mahāsanghika school.⁶ The Mahāsanghikas, as we know, lived originally at Vesālī and later on passed on to the south, making their principal centre in the Andhra country at Dhanakaṭaka (present Guntur District).
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³ Watters, I, p. 269
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⁴ Majjhima, III, 179.
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⁵ Watters, I, p. 268. See above, pp 64, 84-8.
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⁶ Watters, I, p. 269.
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The statement that Aśoka became later on repentant and wanted the monks who fled to Kashmir to return to Magadha may be an indirect reference to the fact recorded in the *Divyāvadāna*¹ and *Aśokāvadāna*² that Aśoka made an attempt towards the end of his life to reconcile the monks of the different schools of Buddhist thought by convening a council to which he particularly invited the monks living at Tamasāvana in Kashmir. The Ceylonese chronicles maintain a discreet silence over this incident, and this is not unusual in view of the sectarian spirit permeating the chronicles.
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¹ Watters, I, p. 267
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¹ *Divyā.*, p. 399 वसन्ति काश्मीरपुरे म्याये ये चापि धोरणमसावनेऽवसन् । *IA*, 1895, pp. 241 ff.
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² Prof. Przyluski writes in his *Légende de l'Empereur Aśoka*, pp. 101, 117 that a council of 30,000 monks was held by Aśoka, his sources of information being the *Aśokāvadāna* and Tāranātha (Schiefner p. 38) but we do not find any such reference in Tāranātha.
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The Sarvāstivādins also claim Aśoka as their patron. They ignore the name of Moggaliputta Tissa and put in its stead the name of Upagupta as the spiritual adviser of Aśoka. The Avadāna literature of the Sarvāstivādins is full of episodes dealing with the life and munificence of Aśoka. Tāranātha also speaks of his lavish gifts to the Sarvāstivāda monks of Aparantaka, Kashmir and Tukhāra.³ Kalhaṇa⁴ writes that Aśoka not only built Śrīnagarī but also covered Suskaletra and Vitastrā with numerous stūpas, one of which was so high that its pinnacle could not be seen. Yuan Chwang noticed four Aśoka topes, each of which contained relics of Buddha's body. The Avadānas record that Aśoka's liberality to the Buddhist monks was carried to such an excess towards the end of his life that his grandson Sampadi⁵ who was in charge of his treasury refused to carry out his commands and even reduced his food to a myrobalan, half of which was the last gift made by him to the Buddhist Saṅgha.
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³ Schiefner, p. 38.
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⁴ Stein, I, p. 19.
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⁵ *Divyā.*, p. 430. Tib སཾཔདི། It has been restored by Schiefner as Vāsavadatta, but it may also be Dhanadā or Sampadi.
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Through the activities of the Sarvāstivādins, Kashmir became a centre of Buddhist philosophical studies¹ and was, according to Tāranātha, also the scene of the activities of Vatsa, the propounder of the Ātmaka theory (pudgalavāda) and the founder of the Vātsīputrīya or Sammitīya school.²
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¹ See *Gilgit Ms.*, vol I, Intro
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² Schiefner, p. 44. See *Infra*
Cites (5)
- Devadūtasutta — Pāli
- Divyāvadāna — Sanskrit
- Aśokāvadāna — Sanskrit
- Abhidharmakośa — Vasubandhu, Sanskrit
- Srinagar