ABSTRACT
Saint Benedict divides monks into four classes: CenobitesJ Anohorites, BarabitesJ and Gyrovagi.1 Among the early Paribrajakas of India, though we find the other three classes, no cenobites are found. The Paribrijakas are mostly of Anchorite cum Gyrovagus character. In the Buddhist soot of the Paribrijakas also, the cenobitical ideal seems to have been originally unknown. We find it exp:ressly ruled out in a number of passages cited below which belong t~ an earlier range of Buddhistic ideaB6 But. with the. lapse of time and the growth of the Buddhist Sangha, the communal life of the Bhikkhus came to gravitate more and more towards a ccenobium. The contrast between the earlier eremitical and the latter
cenobitical ideal struck Milinda, and forms the Bubject of his inquiry ill the forty-first dilemma propounded to NagaBena.. Milil1da Rsks; 1
U Bhante Niigasena, bhaeitam p'etam Bhagavat§, Santhavito bhayam jatam, niketi jayati rajo, Aniketam &sBnthavam, etam ve munidaBB8nan tt
Puna ca bhanitam : Vihire kiraye ramme, vasay'ettha bahuesute ti.
