Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c21.s1.4

c21.s1.4

It is also evident from the history of these conversions that the Buddha’s disciples were all drawn from the already existing ascetic orders of the country, whether Brāhmaṇa or Samaṇa, and trained beforehand in the discipline of monastic life. Their entry into the Buddhist brotherhood did not therefore imply any revolution in their ways of life; it meant only a change in their religious opinions, and also in the object of their heart-felt homage. It is thus that we find that the formula with which the Buddha admitted his first disciples into his order ran in the following words: ‘Come hither, O monk; well preached is the doctrine, walk in purity, to make an end of all suffering." It was thus the monks well versed in the doctrines and technique of monastic life, and not the untutored lay men, that constituted the early Buddhist congregation and are called 'ascetics who adhere to the Samaṇa who is the son of the Śākya house', who already bore on their persons all the visible marks, such as the yellow garment and tonsure which signify separation from the home and the world, from all earthly ties.