Indian Philosophy v1.c15.2

v1.c15.2

Page 343.—The Tipiṭaka contains products of different ages. Whether or not the Canon of the Dharma and the Vinaya as found to-day were composed at the first Council, it is clear that the elders of the faith gathered together soon after the demise of Buddha and discussed questions of doctrine and discipline. We are on more certain ground with regard to the second Council at Vesali, dated a hundred years after the death of Buddha, which was aimed specifically at the repudiation of the ten errors which crept into the doctrine in the meantime. It may well be that the Canon was actually drawn up at the third Council of Pataliputra, presided over by Tissa, which met during Aśoka’s time, and by then different sects developed on the basis of the master’s teaching. Aśoka’s edicts protest against the schismatic tendencies of his age. The Ceylonese tradition relates that the Canon composed at the third Council was carried to Ceylon by Mahinda, the pupil of Tissa and the younger brother or the son of Aśoka (according to another tradition), and committed to record under Vattagāmani. See Keith: *Buddhist Philosophy*, pp. 3, 13–32.