ABSTRACT
The only clue to the chronology of the V ina y &. - pit a k a is afforded by the account of the Council of Vesali in the 12th Khandaka of OuUamagga. If we accept the arguments of Oldenberg and Rhye Da.vids, the Council of Vesali must be dated about the middle of t}le fourth century B.a., and the compilation of .& complex codex of Vinaya. rules not much earlier than that date.1 But though the ViMyapitaka, in the form. in which it has been pre· served to us, shows a more or less aymmetnool plan and design, and points unmistakably to a final diaBkeuasis a little earlier than the Council of VesaliJ its cOntents are by no meane the work of an age. They consist in faot, 88 I expect to ·show presently, of earlier and later materials welded together by· a· theory. When these are rightly interpreted and thrown into tl:teir· proper sequence, they
It is well known that the history of religious mendicanoy in India may be traced to remote antiquity. The religious mendicants formed 0. widespread. populous, and influential cOllmlunity inNorthern India even in the sixth century BIO. TheY.lived outside social and communal organizations, but they constituted by themselves a well-defined com... munity. They had internal relations amongst themselves, ---communal customs, recognized manners and usageBJ and distinctive ideas and praotices. There were also numerous sectarian parties among them called S & n g h a. B or G ft, n a s, and one of them, which afterwards became most
~nftuentia,l in history, was led.by the world-famous Prince of the S&ky& clan. Now this Sangha whiOh recognized Buddha as their leader partook no doubt of the general charaoteristics of all Paribrajakas (religious mendicants) and followed g~erally their common customs and usages. Many features of Buddhist monaohism, therefore, point back to earlier times than the foundation of the Buddhist Sangha itself. Such ate the V It 8 8 a. • the U p 0 Bat h 8 , many eleemosynary and domiciliary rules, and numerous minor regulations of Buddhist monastio life whioh, however, it is next to impoBBible for us to piok out and assort with any· degree of certainty. It is obvious that the only way of doing BO would be to compare them with the usages. manners) rites. ·and praotices recorded of the JaiDA, Hindu. and other Paribrijakas in their respective ancient litera'" turcs. But the records of the non-.Buddhist Paribrijaka sects are unfortunately far less clear and exhaustive than those of the Bud.dhists. The Buddhist Sangha, however,
gradually differentiated itself from the others, and their communal character became more and more distinctive with the lapse of time.1 The first ste.p in this process of differentiation was the drawing up of a special body of rules, the Pat i m 0 k k h a J whioh Bupplied an external bond of union for the Buddhist Sangha, which had reated hitherto mainly on 8 community of distinot religious faith.8 From this ~tarting-point Buddhist monachism followed its own course. But at the earliest stages the individualistic and eremitical ideal of the primitive Pari... brijak:as predominatedin it, and, likethe other Paribrijakas, the Buddhist Bhikkhus led a wandering life. without any fixed looal habitatioD, cohesion, or oenobium.1 But the observance of the Ra.in..retreat was & custom observed by all Paribrajakas. This custom among the Buddhist BhikkhuB led afterwards to the staking out of. A. v i 8 a I (monastio colonies). Theso i v aBas, being originally intended for sojournment during the Vassa period, became later on places of domioile for the Bhikkh118. Ea.ch Bhikkhu oame to belong to & partioular domicile
,l WIS a member of the Sangha resident there, and derived his personal rights and privileges therefrom. The word Ba. n g h a signified later on not the whole body of Buddhist" BhikkhuB of the four quarters ", but only a particular cenobitical society resident at an i v i 8 a. • This state of things, as I shall have oocasion to explain later on,s was one of the causes of growth of those Buddhist sects which bear place-names, pointing to their origin
and growth at different Beats of ~anonioal culture. In the following pages I Bhall trace in detail these various stages of the development of Buddhist monaohism before the riBe 01 the Mahayana. Now at all these different stBgeB rules were made for the guidance of the life and conduct of the Buddhist Bhikkhu8--80me of which had simply been inherited by the Sangha. others possibly bo;rrowed from different sectst while the rest were undoubtedly peculiar to the BhikkhuBj-though it is a matter of the most delicate diffioulty to separate and assign them to the different heads. The rules of the Vinayapitaka have thUB followed the course of evolution of Buddhist monaohiam itself, and as such may be truly said to have an f' inner chronology".
