Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c42.s2.1

v2.c42.s2.1

The few deviations from the earliest principles of Buddhism dealt with above were hardly enough to make the religion popular. The persons who took to *saddhā* and *brahmavihāra* path for emancipation were few and far between; the emphasis was still on the monastic life. The cult of *cetiya*- and *stūpa*-worship made very little progress and the householders with their *Trisaraṇa* and other rituals still remained outside the Buddhist fold as mere suppliers of material needs of the monks and nuns and as faithful listeners to the moral discourses delivered to them by the monks on certain occasions. The Aśokan edicts reveal no change in this austere attitude of the early Buddhists—the only relieving feature being that Aśoka favoured the view that the people should not care very much for recluse-life and should perform good deeds (*kuśalakarmapathas*) to ensure them an after-life in the heavens. Hence we may say that the real move to make the religion popular among the common-folk was taken after Aśoka. This movement consisted mainly in the following five directions:—