ABSTRACT
The P 8 rib r i j a k a, by the necessity of his manner of life, had to live outside the pale of organized Bociety: he was absolved from a.ll Bocial and domestio ties. But, even for a professed recluse and BolitarYJ the deep-seated gregarious instinct of man is difficult to abjure. ThuB among primitive Paribrajakas, B~ts and parties appear to have abounded. We find San g h a 8 Bnd G a n a 8 among them, each recognizing the leadership of a spiritual head. The famous story of Sanjaya in Maklilvagga, 1, 23, is an illustration in point. Sanjaya was at the head of two hundred and fifty Paribrijakas, and among them two who were afterwards destined to be tho foremost of Buddha's disciples, Siriputta and Moggalliina. When theBe t\VO communicated to Sanjaya their desire of trans~ ferring their Bpiritual allegianoe to Buddha, Sanjaya ofiered to divide the leadership of the G 8 n a with themSabbeva tayo imam ganam pariharissimi ti (we three Bhalliead this Gana). In the same story the relation between a Paribrajaka leader, called elsewhere 8 G ani - car i y a, and his body of followers 'is set out in the following dialogue between Biripntta and ABsaji :-Siripntts asks: Kam 'si tvam aVUBO uddisa6 pabbajitoJ ko vi te sattbA, kassa vi tvam'dhammam roceaiti 1 (Tr.- Under whose guidance, sir, have you accepted religious mendicancy! Who is your Master 1 Whose doctrine is after your mind 1) (The same question, it will be
observed, is put by Upaka to Buddha in MahtilVagga, i, 6) 7.) A88aji ans,vera ~ AtthJ avu80 mahasamano sakya... putto sakyal{ula pabbajito, taham bhagavantam uddissa pabbajito, so Cit me bhagava satthat tassa caham bhagavato dhammam recemiti. (Tr.~Sir, I have accepted religious mendicancy under the guidance of the great Samano" Sakyaputta, who passed on into the state of religious mendicancy from the Sakya clan. The same lord is my Master ~ I follow his doctrine.) Siiriputta next puts the question: Kimvidi panayasmato sattha.. Kimakkhayiti.. (Tr..- What is your Master's doetrineJ sir 1 How is it named 1) To which Assaji replies: Aham kho aVUBO navo acirapab.. bajito adhun.Rgato imam dhammavinayam na t'iham sakkomi vitthar.ena dhammam desetum, api ca te sam· khittena attham vakkhamiti. (TrIO-Sir, I a.m a neophyte, newly oIdained and recently admitted. I cannot explain exhaustively this doctrine and rule I But I will explain its purport briefly.)
This brief conversation between Sariputta and Assaji is highly signifioant. A~ong the Paribrijakas, it appears from this, there were founders and leaders of sects who had organized bodies of followers recognizing their headship. Six: of them are frequently referred to in the Pali books as Sanghi Gani Ganacariyo.l One who had left the household state would often be a convert to a sect... leader, a GaniicarillG (u d d i 8 B a p a b b·a j ito ), recog..
nizing him as his master (8 at t h ti) and accepting his doctrines (D ham m a m).. He would thereby be admitted to the membership of a certain G a n a or San g h a I though he ,,"ould be free to withdraw from it and affiliate himself to another..l The Brahmanical works) however, in the rules which they lay down for the regulation of the Paribrajaka, contain no clear allusion to such associations among the Paribrajakas. Dr. Rhys Davids, however, finds Borne obseme indications of the existence of 8ssocia.. · tions of this kind among the· Brihmanical ParibrajakBB 000.9 It is curious to observe how 'in the fourth A..srama there grew up a type of association resembling the association of a teacher and his pupils, BS in the first Asra-ma, and in PaJi literature the relation between 8 Sat t h i and -hie followers is often and often indioa.ted. by the word Bra h mac a r i y a . 8 Like the other great teachers of his time, Buddha was the founder of a
