The Religions of India c19.96.4

c19.96.4

Even the detail of Subhadda’s insolence is not wanting in these records (*Cull.* xi. 1. and elsewhere). No sooner was Buddha dead than the traitor Subhadda cries out : “ We are well rid of him ; he gave us too many rules. Now we may do as we like.” On which the assembly proceeded to declare in force all the rules that Buddha had given, although he had left it to them to discard them when they would. The Confessional (Pātimokkha), out of which have been evolved in narrative form the Vinaya texts that contain it, concerns graded offences, matters of expiation, rules regarding decency, directions concerning robes, rugs, bowls, and other rather uninteresting topics, all discussed in the form of a confession.¹ The church-reader goes over the rules in the presence of the congregation, and asks at the end of each section whether any one is guilty of having broken this rule. If at the third repetition no one responds, he says, ‘ They are declared innocent by their silence.’ This was the first public confessional, although, as we have shown above, the idea of a partial remission of sin by means of confession to the priest is found in Brahmanic literature.² The confession extends to very small matters, but one sees from other texts that the early congregation laid a great deal of weight on details, such as dress, as the sign of a sober life. Thus in *Mahāvagga*, v. 2 ff., certain Buddhists dress in a worldly way.