The History of Buddhist Thought c20.1

c20.1

WITH Asoka in the middle of the third century B.C. Buddhism comes into the light of secular history. Both Pāli and Sanskrit schools possess legends about Asoka, and we have the contemporary evidence of his edicts.¹ The legends, as we have seen (ch. III), are late traditions, and the most important event for the history of Buddhism, the third Council, is unknown to the Sanskrit tradition and ignored in the edicts. But, even if the Council really took place, we learn nothing about the state of the Canon as a whole, for it was still unwritten, nor do we know what took place at the Council beyond the fact that the work the *Kathāvatthu* is said to have been spoken at it.