Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c27.8

c27.8

The *Milinda* also indicates the studies of the Bhikkhus. They must "concern themselves with recitation of, with asking questions about, the discourses, and the pieces in mixed prose and verse, and the expositions, and the poems, and the outbursts of emotion, and the passages beginning 'Thus he said', and the birth-stories, and the tales of wonder, and the extended treatises ". These make up the nine sections into which the Buddhist scriptures are divided [iv, 7, 1]. Besides these studies, the brethren must " trouble themselves about new buildings, about gifts and offerings to the Order " [ib.]. Hearing the Scriptures, recitation of them, asking questions about thein, superintending building work, and seeing to gifts and offerings—all these comprise the duties of Bhikkhus as being conducive to their spiritual progress [v, 7, 6]