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INTRODUCTION.
XXXV
6. Council of Vesalî for the repression of ten abuses
(443/377 A.D.) 7. Description of First and Second Councils in Kullavagga. The Kullavagga ascribes the settlement of the canon to the First Council, and does not even claim a revision of that canon for the Second Council. The Dîpavamsa claims a revision of the canon by the 700 Arhats for the Second Council.
CHRONOLOGY. In order to bring the Council of Vesali in connection with the chronology of the world, we must follow the Buddhist historians for another century. One hundred and eighteen years after the Council of Vesâlî they place the anointment of King Asoka, during whose reign a Third Council, under the presidency of Tissa Moggaliputta, took place at Pâtaliputta, the new capital adopted by that king, instead of Râgagaha and Vesâlî. This Council is chiefly known to us through the writings of the southern Buddhists (Dipavasa, Mahavansa, and Buddhaghosa), who belong to the school of Moggaliputta (Theravada or Vibhaggavâda), which ruled supreme at Pâtaliputta, while Upagupta, the chief authority of the northern Buddhists, is altogether ignored in the Pâli chronicles.
Now it is well known that Asoka was the grandson of Kandagutta, and Kandagutta the contemporary of Alexander the Great. Here we see land, and I may refer to my History of Sanskrit Literature, published in 1859, for the process by which the storm-tossed ship of Indian chronology has been landed in the harbour of real historical chronology. We are told by the monks of the Mahâvihåra in Ceylon that Asoka was crowned, according to their computation, 146 + 18 years before the accession of Dutthagamani, 161 B.C., i. e. 325 B.C. ; that between his coronation and his father's death four years had elapsed (329 B.C.); that his father Bindusâra had reigned twentyeight years 1 (357–329 B.C.), and Bindusara's father, Kan
1 Mahâvamsa, p. 31.
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