At that time there was no rule of , and the monks wandered in all seasons; in the rainy season too they trampled the young grass and harmed small creatures, and people criticized them: even the practitioners of other sects settle down for the rains, and even the birds build nests and stay. The monks reported this to the Buddha, and the Buddha allowed the monks to enter the rains retreat in the rainy season. The later commentary on the Aṅguttara Nikāya of the Southern tradition says that for the first twenty years after the Awakening the Buddha had not laid down the rains retreat, and monastics wandered as they pleased in the rainy and dry seasons alike. Pali Canon
Different Accounts
Place: the Pali Vinaya and the Chinese Sarvāstivāda Vinaya have the Bamboo Grove at Rājagaha; the Chinese Dharmaguptaka, Mahīśāsaka and Mahāsāṃghika Vinayas have the Jetavana at Sāvatthī.
More differences between accounts (2)
The occasion: the Pali Vinaya says it was monks in general; the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya says it was the group of six monks (six monks who frequently broke the rules).
The later commentaries say the rains retreat was not laid down in the first twenty years, yet other records list the place of the rains retreat for each of the first twenty years; the two records stand side by side and are kept as they are.
Dating
Known only to fall between Year 20 and Year 21 after the Awakening (the Buddha aged fifty-four to fifty-five). This is derived from the later commentaries' statement that “the rains retreat was not laid down in the first twenty years”; the Vinayas of the various schools themselves give no year.
Related Entries
- Year
- Places
- People
- Discourses
Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
Recorded by five schools: the Pali canon of the Southern tradition, the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (Sifen lü), the Chinese Mahīśāsaka Vinaya (Wufen lü), the Chinese Sarvāstivāda Vinaya (Shisong lü) and the Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya. Attested across multiple schools.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Commentarial dating (the canonical texts give no date; later commentaries record it). Time precision: year uncertain.
Sources
- Pali Canon巴利律 Kd 3:1.1.1–1.3.4
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.830b–c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.129a
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.450c
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1435 p.173b
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 AN-a，§10
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.968a