ABSTRACT
In the first twenty-four chapters of the Khandhaka section of the Pa ¤li Vinaya Pit >aka we find the account of the enlightenment of the Buddha and the foundation of the Buddhist Sam ≥gha. This account is undoubtedly old. However, in his book on the original Skandhaka – of which the Pa ¤li Khandhaka is one version – Erich Frauwallner expressed his belief that the timespan between the death of the Buddha and the composition of the text was at least 150 years.1 If Frauwallner was correct, the author of the Skandhaka would have described events of the distant past. I want to show that the time separating the origins of the Skandhaka from the events that it describes may be considerably shorter than previously assumed. Thus, the historical value of the work is greater than Frauwallner, and historians who have relied on his work, believed. It seems to me that the Skandhaka deserves more attention from scholars who work with early Buddhism.
