ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter we have observed that the Buddhist Sangha originated as a mere sect of·the Pari... brajaka community of the sixth century B~O•. Its unity lay in a common D ham m a) but it had originally ,no special external bond of union. The Vi nay &. ~hich it recognized W8B not a Bpeoial Buddhist Vinaya.~, This latter kind of Vinaya in its earliest form was '. p~ob8bly settled at the First Buddhist Council, whioh is called the V ina y a 8 a n g i t i in the eleventh Khandaka of the Oullavagga. It has also been shown that the' earliest form of the Vinaya was the code of Pit i m o.k ~ h a • ,The codified body of rules, which was intended' specially f9r the Buddhist Sangha, was advisedly called' by this name (Patimokkha = bond) because it supplied for the Buddhist Bhikkhus an external bond of union. The present· ritual form of the Piitimokkha was not its original forrn---the original was a mere code. It was only..8ub8eq~ently that it became the ground of a Buddhist ritual and was re-- edited for that purpose. The ImroductlJry ~ot'mttlar at the beginning and the IntemJgatory Portions appended to each section eeem to have been later additional
The Buddhist rite of U p 0 Bat h a I of which the recital of the Patimokkha forms the essential part; is at least as old as the Vinagapitaka. But it is certainly not as old as the foundation of the Buddhist 8angha~·itself. An earlier communal rite is referred~ in the, story of Vipassi
in the MaAapadiilna Butta, and the later introduction of the UpOSBtha is also clearly admitted in Makltvagga, ii, 1. But this Upoaatha ceremony was by no meanS a, Buddhist innoyation, for its germs may be traced in a well-known Vedio institution, which strikingly exemplifies the dictum. of Edward Clodd, stated as it is in an extreme form, tha.t c, in religions there are no inventions, only survivals ".1
