Manual of Indian Buddhism c6.s2: 2. Admission to the Saṅgha. Novices. Ordination

Manual of Indian Buddhism c6.s2

Language: English

2. Admission to the Saṅgha. Novices. Ordination

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Persons desiring to renounce the world and embrace the life of a monk or nun, may be admitted without any distinction of rank or caste, with a few necessary restrictions; e. g. murderers, robbers, persons with contagious diseases, slaves, soldiers and the like are excluded. The act of admission is termed Pravrajyā, P. Pabbajjā, properly denoting in general “leaving the world, adopting the ascetic life.” The ordination properly so called is the Upasampadā, by which one becomes a monk or nun with all the privileges belonging to the Order. The Upasampadā may be conferred on all who have previously been admitted to the Pravrajyā, except those who have

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whereas avakhaṇḍana (apakhaṇḍana) = apaḍāna. The rule is superfluous, being included in the foregoing.

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committed heinous crimes, eunuchs, hermaphrodites and the like¹. As to nuns, there are 24, blemishes disqualifying them for the Upasampadā². For the admission of Śrāmaṇeras, i. e. young novices, or rather seminarists, is required the consent of their parents and an age of full seven years.

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¹ The circumstances disqualifying persons for admission and ordination are minutely expounded MV. I, 39-76; cp. HARDY E. M. 17 ff. Vyu. § 271. Not a few of these disqualifications are merely theoretical; e. g. eunuchs and hermaphrodites are excluded from the Upasampada, as if these physical disabilities were unknown at the Pravrajyā. More than absurd is the exclusion of Snakes; MV. I, 63.

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² CV. X, 17; Vyu. § 271.

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The broad distinction between the first admission, Pravrajyā, and the Ordination, Upasampadā, is clear enough, but if we descend into the details, the matter becomes embarrassing. It would seem that at the rise of Buddhism the two terms denoted nothing else but what they originally mean, the former: "leaving one's home to become an ascetic"; the latter: "accession" to the Order. It appears from Scripture that the Buddha, after converting the five mendicant friars, further Yaśas and other young men, gathered around him sixty Disciples, who in a very short space of time passed through the four stages, and asked the Master for the Pravrajyā and the Upasampadā simultaneously, whereupon the Lord received them³. After a while the Disciples who had been sent abroad to propagate the Law, returned with persons who wished to receive Pravrajyā and Upasampadā from the Master himself. This circumstance led the Buddha to the consideration that it would be well if henceforth the monks were permitted to confer themselves Pravrajyā and Upasampadā on candidates. He accordingly gives to the monks that permission, and adds: "Let him (who has to receive P. and U.) first have his hair and beard cut off; let him put on the Kāsāyas, adjust his upper robe so as to cover one shoulder, bow down before the feet of the monks, and sit down squatting; then let him raise his joined hands and utter: I take refuge in the Buddha, in the Law, in the Congregation". Thrice. "I ratify, o monks, the P. and U. with this threefold formula"⁴. Afterwards, however, this regulation was cancelled, in so far as he ordered not to confer the Upasampadā, unless by a ceremony in which a formal motion (ñatti) is followed by three questions⁵. Even in this amended form the Upasampadā is nothing else but the solemn consecration of the Pravrajyā, as the story l. c. shows⁶. Cases of persons receiving simultaneously P. and U. are not rare; even in the days of Aśoka the lay devotee Bhaṇḍuka received P. and U. in the same moment, and Arhatship to boot⁷. As twenty years is the lowest age at which a man is qualified for U., it follows that a boy who has become a Śrāmaṇera at eight, will have to wait 12 years before he can receive Upasampadā⁸. It seems questionable whether in the beginning of the spread of Buddhism children were admitted, notwithstanding the tale of Rāhula's Pabbajanā¹. However that may be, the Śrāmaṇeras are no more Bhikṣus than the Brahmacārins, their model, are. They are Śrāmaṇoddeśas, Śrāmaṇoddeśakas, P. Samaṇuddesas, i. e. aspirants for the state of monk, persons destined to become monks, in a word, seminarists². One of their duties is to learn the ten Sikṣāpadas³.

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³ Jāt. Intr. p. 82; MV. I, 6; 7. Cp. above p. 24.

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⁴ MV. I, 12, An extended form of the Triśaraṇa-gamana is: "Buddhaṃ śaraṇaṃ gacchami dvipadānām agryam; Dharmaṃ s. g. virāgānāṃ agryam; Saṅgham s. g. gaṇānāṃ agryam." Vyu. § 267.

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⁵ Ñatthicatuttha; MV. I, 28; Skr. jñapticaturtha-(karmopasampanna) Vyu. § 270. In border countries the conferring of U. is allowed in a chapter of four monks, besides the Vinayadhara; MV. I, 10, 12.

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⁶ It results from MV. I, 76 that the U. need not be preceded by a formal Prav. For the Senior who confers the U. asks the canditate: "Are you a human being?" etc. Such a question is always foolish, but excessively so if the candidate has already been examined before.

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⁷ Dīpav. XII, 62 f.

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⁸ CHILDERS D. p. 532; cp. p. 305, where the Sāmaṇera is compared with "a deacon". A deacon of 8 years is something strikingly original. HARDY E. M. 45 has much better understood the character of a Sāmaṇera.

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¹ The more so because, MV. I, 50, the Lord expressly forbids to confer the Pravrajyā on a boy under 15 years of age. In Tibet a Śrāmaṇera can receive a socalled 2d consecration in his sixteenth year; in China it is not unusual that at the same age the ceremony of hair-shaving is performed; the Cūḷakanta-maṅgala in Siam is a rite performed in the 9th, 11th, 13th, or 15th year. All these customs may be called "pagan accrescences"; KÖPPEN Rel. des B. II, 265; HARDY E. M. 18; GERINI, Cūḷakantamaṅgala, 2; 29.

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² S. Vibh. II, p. 139; the femin. is Śrāmaṇoddeśikā, Div. 160.

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³ MV. I, 56. The rule now followed in Ceylon (HARDY E. M. 23) is exactly the counterpart of the Brahmanic Upanayana.

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Converts from other, heterodox sects, who desire to receive P. and U., are subjected to the same formalities, and have moreover to pass a probation time, Parivāsa. Only two classes of persons, viz the Jaṭilas, fire-worshippers with matted hair, and the Śākyas, received Upasampadā — there is no question of Pravrajyā — without a probation time being imposed, the former because they believed in the retribution of moral actions, and the latter because the Master wished to grant a privilege to his kinsmen⁴.

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⁴ MV. I, 38.

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The passages and testimonies adduced seem to warrant the conclusion that the real Ordination or Consecration takes place by the Upasampadā, whereas the Pravrajyā is the act by which the candidate formally declares his intention to take the vows. The regulations prescribed in Scripture have been collerted in the manual for various Kammavācās, Skr. Karmavācanās, ecclesiastical resolutions⁵.

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⁵ The manual has been published under the title Kammavākyam, syn. with Kammavācam, by SPIEGEL, with Latin transl.; partly by DICKSON with English transl. in JRAS. VII, 1 ff. (New s.). Cp. BOWDEN in JRAS. of 1893; HARDY E. M. 44; BIGANDET II, 272; MV. I, 28; 30; 76; 77. A "collection of Kammavācas" in FRANKFURTER'S Handb. pp. 142—150. Cp. also the Kalyāṇī Inscription of A. D. 1476, text and transl. by TAW SEIN KO, Ind. Ant. XXII.

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In a chapter of at least 10 monks — under certain circumstances only 5, as already remarked above — the candidate, after having provided himself with the requisite alms bowl and robes, and chosen his spiritual leader or tutor, Upajjhāya, is examined by the president of the chapter⁶ concerning his eventual disabilities, his name and the name of his spiritual tutor. These things being ascertained, the candidate requests to be ordained, whereupon the president formally proposes to the chapter to assent to this request, twice repeated. If the assembly by their silence give the consent, the president exhorts the newly ordained brother to stick to the four Necessaries⁷, and to avoid during his whole life the four capital sins. All things above the Necessaries, though not absolutely forbidden, are to be considered superfluities.

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⁶ Wrongly called Upajjhāya in BIGANDET I. c., contrary to MV. I, 76; cp. 25.

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⁷ The 4 Nissayas (MV. I, 30; 77) are: piṇḍalōtabhojana, living on a pittance of begged food; pamsukūlacīvara, rags from a dustheap; rukkhamūlasenāsana, lodging at the foot of a tree; pūtamuttabhesajja, cow urine as medicine. The corresponding Skr. terms of the Niśrayas are: pāṃsukūla; piṇḍapāta; vṛkṣamūla, and pūtimuktabheṣajya, an unsuccessful attempt at rendering pūtamutta into Skr. Vyu. § 266.

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It would be difficult to point out a single case in Buddhist writings, sacred or profane, that the sons of Śākya kept to the four Necessaries, except the hermits. As to the four capital sins, which we shall meet again under another head, the vow of the ordained monk to abstain from all sexual intercourse as long as his life lasts, is contrary to the theory that one may, under circumstances, leave the Order¹.

Cites (6)

Mahāvagga — Pāli
Cullavagga — Pāli
Divyāvadāna — Sanskrit
Jātaka — Pāli
Dīpavaṃsa — Pāli
Suttavibhaṅga — Pāli