Early Development of the Saṅgha

 Split of the monastic Order

 18+ self-governing and self-producing schools
 causes of split: 1) points of rules (councils to
settle); 2) Views of doctrines; 3) Geography-
languages; 4) understanding of doctrines
 From wanderers to landlords; monasteries
became cultural and educational centres
(e.g. Nālandā university…)
 Buddhism spread beyond India
 Emperor Aśoka’s (c.304-232) efforts
 Merchants’ role
 Lecture Three

Early Indian Buddhist Texts

PU. CBS. HKU

17.09.2021
 Points to cover
1. Buddha’s Preaching
2. Texts/Scriptures in the Buddha’s time
3. Transmission of the texts
4. Formation of early Buddhist canon
(tripiṭaka / tipiṭaka)
 The Buddha’s Preaching
 The language/dialect of the Buddha
 Eastern Middle Indian dialect [Kosala, Māgadhī]
 Way to know: his life; Pāli philology
 The Buddha’s preaching
 Places, dialects, occasions (similar-themed
scriptures.)
 style: requested, or without; Q & A
 Targeted preaching technique
 Gradual instruction: from merit-oriented (for a
better rebirth) to liberation-oriented (for
enlightenment)
After his preaching
 Ananda’s memorization?
Sharing what was heard
 Spreading of the teaching;
 Language policy on promoting
the teaching and its pro & con
 Misunderstanding of the
teaching (sati)

Preaching posture(5th C. India)

  Prevent misunderstanding or misrepresenting:
‘Two things, o monks, conduce to the confusion and
disappearance of the True Dhamma. What two? The
wrong arrangement of words and letters, and the
wrong interpretation of the meaning…
‘These two, O monks, slander the Tathāgata. What
two? The one who asserts that what was not spoken
or uttered by the Tathāgata was spiken and uttered
by the Tathāgata, and the one who asserts that what
was spoken and uttered by the Tathāgata was not
spoken or tutored by the Tathāgata.’ [A. I 59]
 The four great authorities: Buddha; Sangha; Elders;
one elder (judged with Dharma & Vinaya)
 Scriptures of the Buddha’s time
 Formation of the scriptures
 Verses (gātha;vinaya-matṛka); Recitation of the
dharma( the case of Aśvaji)
 Texts of discourses (Chn.)
 Pasadika-sutta:  “All of you, whom I have taught
these truths [37 requisites of enlightenment] that I
have directly known, should gather together and
recite them, comparing meaning with meaning,
comparing text with text without dissension, so that
the holy life will last long.”
 Communal recitation as one of the seven ways to
keep the order flourishing.
 Organization of the Buddha’s preaching
 Summarization while he was alive:
-Saṅgīti sutra & Dasutarasuta (principles, concepts,
terms of the dharma);
-Mahāparinibbāṇa-sutta: “Monks, I say to you that these
teachings of which I have direct knowledge and which I have
made known to you, these you should thoroughly learn,
cultivate, develop and frequently practise, so that the life of
purity may be established and may long endure, for the
welfare and happiness of the multitude, out of compassion for
the world, for the benefit, well-being, and happiness of gods
and men. And what, bhikkhus, are these teachings? They are
the four foundations of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the
four constituents of psychic power, the five faculties, the five
powers, the seven factors of enlightenment, and the Noble
Eightfold Path.” (Why only practice techniques?)
 -Divisions of the teaching: Dharma (discourses) and Vinaya
(disciplinary rules & records of stories about them).
 Collecting, Categorizing and standardizing the
teachings after his death
• 3 councils (Purāṇa’s disagreement); ‘peṭakin’ (Bhārhut -3-1);
‘trepiṭaka’, ‘trepiṭikā’ (Sārnāth, Śrāvastī, Mathurā). Nikāyas / Āgamas
(Nikāyas (Pali) are five divisions of the discourses (scriptures), the
same as Āgamas (in Sanskrit & Kharoṣṭhi) survived in Chinese
translation).
• Classification of scriptures by genre (aṅgas: sutra; gātha;
veyyākaraṇa →9 / 12 kinds absent in Nikāya, seen in -2
Buddhavaṃsa)
• 9 titles of scriptures mentioned in Aśoka’s Bhābrā edict
• Common structure of a Buddhist scripture: opening
formula ‘Thus have I heard/ 如是我聞…’ , body text,
ending.
 Transmission of the texts
 Oral tradition
 Brahmin oral culture; prohibition vs. practical need
 Reciters(Bhāṇaka) of suttas & vinaya mentioned at
Bhārhut and Sāñci (this tradition “may explain the
total absence of Hīnayāna Vinaya and Sūtra texts
before the fifth century AD)
 Features of oral texts: rhythmed, repetitious; stock
phrases
 Mistakes: memory [Ananda]
 open-canons: sectarian differences [e.g. nun status]
 Writing down of the texts
 Writing in India prior to 3rd bce:
 [seal]; Asoka’s edits (on potsherds in Anuradhapura
4bce);
 Scripts: Brahmi [Mesopotamia]; Kharoṣṭhi;
 Brahmin attitude to writing;
 Traditional Buddhist view:
 Buddha’s time;
 29 bce [Ceylon or India? 2 stanzas in Dīpavaṁsa:
‘formerly, learned monks handed down the text of the three baskets and
its explanation by means of oral recitation. Seeing the decline of beings,
at that time monks assembled and had [the text] written down in books
so that the dhamma would last long’.
 Elaborated in a 13th C. Sub-commentary: at
Ālokavihāra due to famine.
 The Earliest Buddhist manuscripts
 2-1 BCE Gandhārī [Cf. Dead Sea scroll 150 BCE]
 Before it’s opened