Indian Antiquary Vol 37

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 13

JANUARY, 1908.]
THE BUDDHIST COUNCILS.
of the Coyncil proper [$$ 7-8]; - and that for reasons whose whole weight he has caused to be felt afresh by well-disposed persons, for, in truth, they affect as very little" ;-moreover, he Scarcely dares to attribute any historic value whatever to the discussion relative to the small and I esser precepte, and the major penance inflicted on Channa" ($9 9 and 12): "Es mag sogar an irgendwelche Überbleibsel von bistorischer Erinnerung gedacht werden: das wird ebenso wenig zu beweisen wie zu widerlegen sein." On the other hand, he protests himself with great vigour against the observations of Minayeff. The latter, retaining as historic or semi-historic all the episodes (Subhadra, small rules, faults of Ananda, etc.), pats aside as apocryphal or tendencious the history of the Council in its officiel convocation ($$ 3-4), in its literary labours ($$ 7-8), and tries to show, on the one hand, the incoherence of $$ 1-2 and 3-4 ; on the other band, the contradiction between the episodes and the solemn drawing-up of a complete canon.
Our Chapter of the Cullavagga, says Prof. Oldenberg, opens with the textual reproduction of an episode of the Mahaparinibbanasutta (Culla XI., $1. = Mahaparinibbana, VI., 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 40); next it gives us a legendary reconstruction of the First Council, inspired by the narrative, authentic and historical in this case, of the Second Council; finally it makes use of Buddha's discourses relative to the secondary precepts and to the boycotting" of Channa, discourses reproduced in this same Mahāparinibbana. "The point of view of Minayeff, who claims to recognise in these episodes (and those of the “ failings" of Ananda] an old kernel of authentic tradition (einen alten kern guter Überlieferung) and to separate them from the rest of the account due to a much younger time, this point of view is illusory." In fact, "Der Culla, wenn er jene Andeutungen seinerseits ergriff und daraufhin die Geschichte von dem Konzil mit den in Rede stehenden Episoden ausstattete, beging damit nicht in mindesten, wie Minayeff will, einen Selbstwiderspruch."
Minayeft has not put on his spectacles when he maintains that the Culla identifies Küç yapa's five hundred companions, among whom were Subhadra and many of the faithful but imperfect bhikhus, with the five hundred Arbats (except one) whom Kāçyapa elected for the conclave. The $1 of the Culla contains the account of his journey, given by Kāçyapa before a numerous assembly probably at Kucinārā; this assembly is the one convoked by Kaçyapa to chant the choir and in which he is going to choose the members of the choir.
Minayeff saw a contradictory repetition in the designation of the future conclavists by Kāçyapa at the prayer of the Samgha, and the official decision following on a "double proposition" (and not quadruple, as tho Russian savaut says) which delegates to these same conclavists the power and the mission to hold their sessions at Rājagļha :35 wrongly, for, adds Prof. Oldenberg, "Nothing can be more probable, nor more conformable to the habits made known to us by the literature." There is here (551-5) neither incoherence nor contradiction. 30
NP. 628, noto. hose ronsons are, firstly, that the Mahaparinibāna does not breatbe a word of the Council. See the Introduction to the text of the Mahāvagga, P. xxvi and following, and the remarks of Mr. Rhys Du Buddhist Suttas, p. xiii.
» Minayeff believed that we have to do with two locounts : according to the first, "perhaps the nearer to the truth," Kaçyapa chooses the members of the Council and to them he adds Ananda; the second, of later origin, introduced in order to give to the Councils character of authenticity, admits of our $ 4, the approbation by the Baragha of the measuroa it has itself instigated.
MM, Oldenberg is in the right. It is all the same certain that if this part of the account, deftly interpreted, can be made to agree, the author has certainly not taken much trouble to make himself clear. To what monks does Kaçyapa relate his encounter with the parivrăjaka, bearer of the sad news, and his journey with Subhadra P The same, evidently, who heg him to choose the members of the future Council. Where does this soene take place ? "The Culla does not say formally," says M. Oldenberg, "but decidedly we cannot hesitate the editor of the Owlla has represented the matter. The modern Singalese sources, as also those of the North, place the soone at Kasinārā.... The amount of the Culla, which joins on to (abschlieast) the Mahaparinibāna. nutta, long passages of which it reproduces textually, has certainly no intention of making Kassapa appear in any other place than that to which the M. P. 8. oondasta him and where all the other sources quoted make him appear." I quite agroo; I should be more sure of it, if I were certain that the Culla has really interpolated the paragraphs X. P. 8., VI., 33–39, 41, 40;--which, M. Oldenberg has remarked many times, lead to nothing in the M. P. 8.; if I understood why Kācape gives no answer to Subhadra, any more than the other monks whose piety is manifonted by untimely weeping. Prof. Oldenberg, apparently, does not ng any difficulty in this last detail.