Sramana 2011 01

SR No.: 525075
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sundarshanlal Jain, Shreeprakash Pandey
Publisher: Parshvanath Vidhyashram Varanasi
Publication Year: 2011
Total Pages: 172
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Sramana, & India
File Size: 15 MB

Page 56

38: Śramana, Vol 62, No. 1 January-March 2011
eastward did not reach the Magadha region until some time after the advent of Buddhism and Jainism. We have evidence that posaha/ uposatha was practiced at the time of Aśoka, and no reason to suspect that it was not a part of the earliest manifestations of both Buddhism and Jainism.
Posaha->upavasatha?
Two paths offer a way out of aconnection between the Vedic upavasatha and the Śramanic posaha/uposatha: a linguistic argument separating the terms, and a historical argument concerning the contents and function of the rites. By one we can vitiate the connection between them, but by the other we can demonstrate an alternate causality. Ultimately a full revision of the history should involve both; however, an alternate causality already exists which must be examined, tested, and verified, and in the process we may have a chance to learn something important about the history of the 'early' Śramanic movement. In point 4. above I mention Schonthal's theory that the Buddhist uposatha derives from posaha, and in this section I examine this theory more closely. No matter what the outcome of this investigation, though, we should observe that even if we show that uposatha evolves from posaha, we still have the possibility that posaha came from upavasatha and then subsequently gave rise to uposatha, and that is a theory that I ultimately want to critique, if not discard, for reasons already mentioned.
The posaha ->uposatha argument rests on two points: the Buddhist uposathavastu in the Pāli vinaya and poṣadhavastu in the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya both acknowledge that the Buddhists borrowed the idea for the uposatha from another sect of renunciates. Schonthal gives this perfectly serviceable translation of the relevant passage:
At that time wanderers (paribbājakā) from other sects (titthiya) gathered on the fourteenth, fifteenth and eighth days of the lunar fortnights and spoke of dharma.