Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c24.6

c24.6

**'Vassa.'** Buddhaghosha [quoted in *SBE.*, xiii, p. 299 n.] thus describes how the monks were to begin the retreat: "They are to look after their Vihāra (if it is in a proper state), to provide food and water for themselves, to fulfil all due ceremonies, such as paying reverence to sacred shrines, etc., and to say loudly once, or twice, or thrice: 'I enter upon Vassa in this Vihāra for these three months.' Thus they are to enter upon Vassa." This statement of Buddhaghosha shows that by his time the place of retreat might be the very Vihāra in which the monk usually lived, and, also, that while the retreat during the rains at some fixed abode was compulsory to every monk, it was optional in other times. The *Vinaya*, as we shall presently see, points to the more usual earlier custom of the monks taking up their places of abode in new dwellings rather than in their old ones. "There are two periods for entering upon Vassa, the earlier and the later. The earlier is the day after the full moon of Āshāḍha (June–July); the later, a month after this" [*Mahāv.*, iii, 2, 2].