The newly ordained have no one to instruct them; they wear their robes untidily, go improperly, and make a loud noise at meals; and a sick monk dies with no one to care for him. The Buddha therefore lays down a rule establishing the , with the preceptor to regard the pupil as a son and the pupil to regard the preceptor as a father. Pali Canon
Different Accounts
Year: the Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya says that for five years after the Awakening no monastic committed an offence, and only afterwards did offences gradually occur; if this is taken as the background to the establishment of preceptors, the event does not belong to the early years after the Awakening, and so it is placed here between Years 1 and 5.
More differences between accounts (2)
The occasion: the Tibetan Vinaya says that monastics without a preceptor or teacher behaved improperly and went for alms into lay people's houses, were mocked by non-Buddhists, and only then did the Buddha allow the establishment of preceptors and teachers (ācariyas, another kind of instructing teacher); this differs from the “sick monk with no one to care for him” of the Pali Vinaya and the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya.
Order: the Pali Vinaya and the Chinese Dharmaguptaka and Mahīśāsaka Vinayas all place this rule immediately after the going forth of Sāriputta and Moggallāna, at Rājagaha; the Chinese Sarvāstivāda Vinaya also says Rājagaha, but gives no surrounding context.
Dating
Placed here in Year 2 after the Awakening (the Buddha aged thirty-six); the Pali Vinaya and others put it, in sequence, immediately after the going forth of Sāriputta and Moggallāna, but taking the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya into account it can only be said to fall roughly between Years 1 and 5 after the Awakening (the Buddha aged thirty-five to thirty-nine).
Related Entries
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Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
Recorded by four schools: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (Sifen lü), the Chinese Mahīśāsaka Vinaya (Wufen lü) and the Chinese Sarvāstivāda Vinaya (Shisong lü). Attested across multiple schools.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Inferred from the sequence of events (neither the canonical texts nor the commentaries give the time; the year is worked out from the order of this event and those around it). Time precision: approximate range.
Sources
- Pali Canon巴利律 Kd 1:25.1.1
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.799b–c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.110c–111a
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1435 p.148a
- 藏譯（德格版）德格版 D1 ka 48a6–48b5
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.412b