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Manual of Indian Buddhism c6.s8: 8. Holidays. Festivals. Quinquennial Assembly. Annual Congress

Manual of Indian Buddhism c6.s8

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8. Holidays. Festivals. Quinquennial Assembly. Annual Congress

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We have seen that the keeping of Uposatha on the 8th and 14th (or 15th) of each half-month is an institution which Buddhism borrowed from other sects. The idea of imitating that custom is ascribed not to the head of the Saṅgha, but to the worldly sovereign; in other words: the keeping of the Uposatha is a concession made by the Tathāgata to public opinion; it is one of the numberless concessions by the brotherhood to the religious and moral feelings of the nation.

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The weekly Uposatha is a day of celebration for the monks and the laity. Two of the four holidays in the month are by the former devoted to the ceremony of reciting the Pātimokkha. An occasional holiday, only for monks, is the Sāmaggi-Uposatha, Reconciliation holiday, which is held when a quarrel among the fraternity has been made up³.

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³ CHILDERS p. 335, b. Several times mention is made of an extra holiday termed pāṭihārikā, pāṭihāriya (v. l. pārihārika)-pakkha, e. g. S. Nip. p. 70; Aṅg. N. I, p. 144; Therig. 31, on the character whereof see MINAYEF Recherches I, 166, and cp. CHILDERS p. 618.

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The four holidays or Sabbaths are kept in Ceylon, Burma and Nepāl on the days of the new-moon, of the full-moon and on the 8th of each Pakṣa; in Tibet on the 14th, 15th, 29th and 30th of the month⁴. This difference is perhaps caused by some ambiguity in the sacred texts. In the Pāli Vinaya the ambiguity, real or apparent, has been removed by an additional elucidation⁵, but the wording of the fifth Pillar edict of Aśoka⁶ is far from clear, and admits of being interpreted as prescribing a holiday on the 14th and 15th of the Pakṣa. The holidays prescribed by Manu⁷ agree with those kept in Ceylon, but Āpastamba lays down the rule that at the new-moon two holidays should be observed, whereas Gautama allows, without absolutely prescribing, two of such holidays⁸.

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⁴ According to KÖPPEN, Rel. d. B. II, 139; 307; cp. WADDELL op. c. 501.

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⁵ MV. II, 4.

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⁶ Corp. Inscr. I, Delhi Edict V.

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⁷ IV, 113; cp. 128, and Yājñavalkya I, 146.

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⁸ Āpast. I, 3, 9, 28; cp. BÜHLER'S note SBE. II, 36. Gautama XVI, 36.

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The Uposatha is a day of rest; it is not proper to trade or do any business; hunting and fishing are forbidden¹; schools and courts of justice are shut. It is also from ancient times a fasting day². The laity must celebrate the day with clean garments and with clean minds, and it is meritorious in them to keep the eight precepts³.

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¹ Cp. Delhi Pillar V. ² Cp. Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa IX, 5, 1, 6. ³ More detailed in HARDY E. M. 237 ff. and BOWDEN, The Uposatha and Upasampadā Ceremonies (JRAS. of 1893, 159). ⁴ A full and lively description of a Bhāṇa reading is given by HARDY E. M. 232. ⁵ Likewise in the Pillar Edict V, where moreover the full-moon day of Pauṣa is mentioned as a great holiday. Cp. Apast. I, 3, 10, 2; Manu IV, 97; Ep. Ind. II, 261 ff. ⁶ DICKSON JRAS. VIII, 127 (New s.). Cp. Voy. II, 63. ⁷ Cp. above p. 80, f. ⁸ The regulations are minutely described MV. IV. ⁹ Fa Hian speaks of the solemnity as it was observed at Mathurā; Rec. 45, where the phrase "a month after the rest" yields no sound meaning. It should be "the month", for evidently the Cīvaramāsa, the month succeeding the period of Retreat, is intended. ¹⁰ HARDY E. M.

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Preaching and hearing the sermon is a common feature of each Uposatha celebration. The reading, Bhāṇa, of some chapter of the P. Scriptures, Bhāṇavāra, was in former times exclusively done by monks, but now-a-days it occurs in Ceylon that laymen go from house to house to read tracts in the vernacular⁴. In Nepāl, where the Order has ceased to exist, all preachers, the so-called Vajrācāryas, are laics and married men.

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The regular period for preaching is the rainy season. This custom or institution, dating from the very beginnings of Buddhism, is common to both divisions of the Church. In ancient India the ritual year was divided into three four-monthly periods. The three terms were celebrated with sacrifices on the full-moonday of Phālguna, of Āṣāḍha, and of Kārttika; or otherwise one month later, in Caitra, in Śrāvaṇa, and in Mārgaśirṣa. These three sacrificial festivals inaugurated summer, rainy season, and winter. The Buddhists have retained this ritual division, and equally celebrate the terms, but, of course, not with sacrificial acts⁵. In the Simhalese calendar summer begins at the full-moon of Phālguna, the rainy season at the full-moon of Āṣāḍha, and winter at the full-moon of Kārttika⁶.

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The entrance upon the Retreat during the rains⁷ is fixed either on the day of the full-moon of Āṣāḍha, or one month after. In Ceylon the Vassa is limited to three months. The solemn termination, Pravāraṇā, Pavāraṇā, is inaugurated by an act of the Saṅgha in an assembly of the chapter of at least five members⁸.

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The Pravāraṇā is held on two successive days, the 14th and 15th of the bright half-month, on which Uposatha is kept. It is a festival and an occasion for giving presents to the monks, for inviting them to dinner, and for processions⁹.

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Immediately after the Pravāraṇā there follows a distribution of robes which the believers offer to the fraternity. The raw cotton cloth, Kaṭhina, collected by the givers cannot be received except by a chapter of at least five persons. When the chapter has decided which of the brethren stand most in need of a garment, the assembled monks, assisted by the laity, make the cloth into a robe, and dye it yellow; the whole of which process must be concluded in twenty-four hours¹⁰.

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In addition to the Varṣopanāyikā and Pravāraṇā there are some other days which the Buddhists are in the habit of celebrating. Thus the Simhalese keep a festival in the beginning of spring in commemoration, as they say, of Māra's destruction. This festival, called Awaruda in Ceylon, is likewise known to the Siamese by the name of Sonkran, i. e. Skr. Saṅkrānti. Both the name and the legendary account of the origin of the solemnity are a sufficient proof that it is the Hindu vernal feast of Holāka or Kāmadahana¹.

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¹²¹ Cp. above p. 80.

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¹ DAVY, Account of the interior of Ceylon p. 169; PALLEGOIX, Description du royaume de Siam I, 249. Something like it in Tibet; WADDELL op. c. 505.

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The Vaiśākhapūjā on the day of the full-moon in Vaiśākha, which is celebrated in Siam and formerly was so in Ceylon², coincides with the date of Buddha's birth. The date of the Nirvāṇa was, in the days of Huen Thsang, celebrated at Gayā with a great festival³.

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² Dīpav. XXI, 28; XXII, 60; Mahāv. pp. 212; 222. PALLEGOIX l. c. For the same festival with the Vaiṣṇavas see Pañcarātra II, 7, 38; for the Sattra from the 5th of Vaiśākha till after the full-moon, Kātyāyana Śrautra-S. XXIV, 7, 1.

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³ Voy. II, 462; cp. 335. It is not plain which of the two dates, the 8th day after the full-moon of Kārttika, or the last of Vaiśākha.

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Fa Hian speaks of a grand festival in Ceylon "in the middle of the third month", when the tooth relic was exhibited⁴. Not unlikely the date intended is that of the full-moon day in Vaiśākha, for this was the official date of the Lord's Nirvāṇa as well as of his birth and his attaining Buddhahood.

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⁴ Rec. 105.

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In the palmy days of Buddhism in India the quinquennial assembly, Pañcavārṣika or Pañcavarṣapariṣad, otherwise termed Mahāmokṣapariṣad, was a grand solemnity and festival. From the description of it in the Divyāvadāna and other sources⁵ we may gather that it was something like a Pravāraṇā, a distribution of presents on a large scale, and an occasion for an extraordinary display of liberality to the Saṅgha⁶. The celebrated King Harṣa of Kanauj, surnamed Silāditya, had the custom of regularly convoking such an assembly⁷.

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⁵ Divy. 405; cp. 242; 398; 403; 419; 429; Rec. 22; Voy. I, 374; 392; II, 38.

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⁶ The quinquennial tour of inspection, Anusamyāna, by the Dharma-mahāmātras, ordered by Aśoka (Rock Edict III), bears a different character; there is no question of an assembly. P. anusamyāti, to go for inspecting, to visit, occurs e. g. S. Vibh. 1, p. 43; Aṅ. N. I, p. 68.

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⁷ Voy. I, 113; II, 252.

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