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family of 1500 people. Likewise, on coming back to Kapilavastu, the Buddha initiated into monkhood 10, 000 citizens. his own son Rāhula, and also Nanda who was the son of Mahaprajāpati Gautami.
Are the Buddhist accounts exaggerated
Dhar mānand Kosāmbi, a Buddhist scholar, is of the view that the number of the Buddhist bhiksus is exaggerater to the point of rousing doubt about their correctness, To quote him,
"At Vārāṇasī, the Buddha got 60 bhikşus....... Did the number of bhikṣus whom the Buddha could claim in his order till he reached Rajagrha exceed these 15 (i.e., five pañcavarga monks, Yas'a and his four friends, three Käs'yapa brothers, and the two disciles of Sanjaya named Sariputta and Moggailāna)? He added 60 at Vārānasi (as aforesaid), 30 on the way to Uruvela, and 1000 (1003 according to some) at Uruvela, so that with a group of 1093 bhikṣus, the Buddha might have come to Rajagrha. At Rajagsha, 250 disciples of Sanjaya came with Sariputta and Moggallâna and joined the Buddha's order, raising the total to 1345.
But there is no mention in the Sutta-pitaka of there being such a big group with the Buddha. It is stated in the Sāmanaphala Sutta. that one or two years before he passed away, when the Buddha came to Rajagrha, he had 1250 bhiksus in his company; but we have a figure of 500 in eight suttas in Dighanikāya, from which it appears that there were only 500 bhiksus who followed the Buddha's body after he had passed away. The first Buddhist Council meeting at Rājagrha after the death of the Buddha was attende 500 bhiksus' only, from which also it would be a safe surmise that till his death, the total number of monk in the Buddha's order did not exceed 500.
"It was perhaps after the death of the Buddha that exaggerated figures were produced about the number of the bhiksus. At the opening chapter in Lalita Vistara, it has been stated that at Srāvasti, the Buddha had 12,000 bhiksus and 32, 000 bodhisattvas. About this
