Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c41.s1: The Traditional Account
Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c41.s1
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The Traditional Account
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The story of the Council as given in the Chronicles runs as follows: About 200 years after Buddha's death, a large number of non-Buddhists joined the order for the sake of gain. They held unorthodox views in matters of both doctrine and discipline. The orthodox monks refused to perform in their company, the *uposatha* ceremony, one of the primary conditions of which was that the members present must declare at the outset of the assembly that they were pure, and had not committed any breach of the disciplinary rules, or if they had, confessed the same and taken formal absolution. For full seven years, as the Pāli tradition goes, no *uposatha* could be held at Pāṭaliputra. Aśoka deputed one of his ministers to persuade the monks at Aśokārāma to hold the *uposatha*. On the monks' refusal to comply with the king's wishes, the minister had them seated in a row and began to behead them one after another. At this, Aśoka's brother Tissa, who was also a monk, residing in the same monastery, intervened by taking a seat in the row. The minister got puzzled, and approached the king for direction. Aśoka was stunned at the news, for he never thought that his orders would be carried out in the manner his minister did. He approached the monks to ascertain whether he or his minister or both were guilty for the heinous act of his minister. He did not get satisfaction at the different answers given by the monks, and so at their advice he decided to invite the oldest and the most learned of the monks of the time, Moggaliputta Tissa, who was then staying in a forest, to the Aśokārāma in order to get his doubts solved by him. Moggaliputta Tissa arrived in due course of time and convinced him of his innocence on the ground of the absence of his intention to have the monks beheaded. At his advice, Aśoka decided to weed out the unorthodox monks from the Saṅgha. He and Tissa called the monks one by one and asked each of them whether Buddha was a Vibhajjavādin or not? Those who answered in the affirmative were allowed to remain within the Saṅgha while the rest were compelled to give up their yellow robes. After thus purging the Saṅgha of unorthodox elements, a Council was held by the orthodox monks, and in that Council the three Piṭakas were recited as was done in the 1st and 2nd Councils. On this occasion Moggaliputta Tissa composed the Kathāvatthu, one of the seven texts of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, with a view to refute the various doctrinal views held by the non-Theravādins.¹
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¹ Mahāvaṃsa, Ch. V.
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In the Nikāya-saṅgraha, a late Sinhalese work, there is the additional information that the monks who were compelled to leave the Saṅgha of the Theriya Nikāya (= Theravādins) became members of the non-Theravāda sects, particularly the Mahāsaṅghikas. In course of time they became subdivided into nine sub sects, viz., Hemavata, Rāj<bos>-giriya, Siddhatthaka (see above, p. 109), Pūrvaśaila, Aparaśaila (see above, p. 74 f.), Vājiriya, Vetullaka, Andhaka and Anya-Mahāsaṅghika. In the Mahāvaṃsa the first six sects are mentioned as some of the later schools which came into being after the first eighteen. The Śaila schools on account of their location in the Andhra country were also known as the Andhakas (see above, p. 49). The Vetullakas or the Vaitulyas (see above, p. 110) and the Anya-Mahāsaṅghikas referred to in the Kathāvatthu as ekacce Mahāsaṅghikā (see above, p. 74) were also later offshoots of the Mahāsaṅghikas with stronger pro-Mahāyānic views.
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By scrutinising the above two traditions, we may draw the following conclusions:—
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(i) The heretics (*titthiyas*) are none other than those Buddhists who were Ācariyavādins, i.e., the Mahāsanghikas and their offshoots.
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(ii) The Ācariyavādins differed from the Theravādins not only in disciplinary rules but also in doctrinal principles.
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(iii) Monks holding different views about the Pātimokkha rules could not reasonably agree to perform the Uposatha in one Āvāsa. According to the Pātimokkha code of every sect all the members present and the absentees by proxy must declare that they had not, during the preceding fortnight, committed any breach of the rules embodied in the Vinaya Code accepted by them. If this condition be strictly enforced, a Theravādin would be impure according to the Mahāsanghika Code and *vice versa*. Hence no two sects could hold the Uposatha at the same sitting.
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(iv) Aśoka not conversant with the Vinaya rules wanted to see that the *uposathas* were held in his Ārāma. He also did not approve of the existence of different sects and probably wanted that they should make up their differences which were in many cases of a minor character.
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(v) The main cause of the Council was the disagreement between the Mahāsanghikas and the Theravādins about the Vinaya rules. The members of the Mahāsanghika sect were considered impure by the members of the Theravāda sect, and so the latter wanted to expel the former from the Sangha.
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(vi) The Mahāsanghikas were already a powerful body with a large following. They probably left Magadha to make their seat in the Andhra country.
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(vii) Aśoka's anxiety for averting schism in the Buddhist church was very probably created by the differences that existed between the Theravādins and the Mahāsanghikas.
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(viii) It is unlikely that Aśoka sided with the Theravādins as against the Mahāsanghikas. Hence Aśoka's part in the Council as recorded in the Ceylonese traditions may be dismissed as imaginary.
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(ix) The Kathāvatthu was definitely the outcome of the deliberations of the Council.
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(x) Moggaliputta Tissa was the Sanghatthera of the Theravāda vibhajjavāda sect¹ at the time while Upagupta was the Sanghatthera of the Sarvāstivādins.²
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¹ On the basis of the inscription Sapurisasa Mogaliputasa in a relic casket found in the Tope no. 2 of the Sanchi group, Dr. Geiger concludes that the tradition about Moggaliputta Tissa is authentic. See his Translation of the Mahāvaṃsa, p. xx.
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² It is rather remarkable that in the Papañcasudanī (II, p. 139) Majjhantikatthera is described as the Sanghatthera on the day on which the festivity on the completion of Aśoka's monasteries took place.
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(xi) The Theravāda-vibhajjavādins³ only, to the exclusion of the adherents of other sects, met together and reaffirmed their acceptance of the Theravāda-Piṭakan collection.
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³ See above, p. 199.
Linked texts (2)
- Kathāvatthu — Moggaliputta Tissa, Pāli
- Mahāvaṃsa — Pāli