The University of Nalanda c13.66

c13.66

No one need think that the Indian student, as a strict watch was kept over his morals and movements, did not commit any immoral act or violate the discipline in any way. In fact, acts of immorality and transgression of ordinary rules of discipline gave rise to the various regulations in the Pātimokkha. Buddha prescribed rules from time to time, as acts of omission and commission were brought to his notice. Perusal of Vinaya Texts clearly shows this. But, if the rules of discipline were rigorous¹ they were not so spartan in their execution in the sense that the students were not imprisoned nor birched, as the European undergraduates were.² Corporal punishment there was none. The highest punishment was expulsion from the monastery for serious acts of immorality.³ Otherwise, the offence fell under various heads of offences mentioned in the Vinaya Texts⁴ and the punishment for them was to practise penance by the modes prescribed by Buddha.