The Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya (the Vinaya transmitted by the Mahāsāṃghika, one of the early schools of Buddhism) records that the first of the , the rule forbidding monastics to engage in sexual intercourse, was laid down by the Buddha at Vesālī on “the twelfth day of the fifth half-month of the winter season in the fifth year after becoming a Buddha”, that is, the twelfth day of the fifth half-month of winter in the fifth year after the Buddha's awakening. According to that Vinaya, there was a famine at Vesālī at the time, and Yasa Kākaṇḍakaputta, a householder's son who had gone forth (a different person from the Yasa who went forth in the first year after the Awakening), was persuaded by his mother to return home to continue the family line and had intercourse with his former wife; the Buddha therefore laid down this rule. This year is that Vinaya's own reckoning; it is recorded here as in the original, without conversion. Taishō Canon
More sources (1)
Different Accounts
The year the rule was laid down: the Vinaya commentary of the Southern tradition says that Sudinna, who committed the offence, went forth in the twelfth year and committed the offence in the twentieth, so that this rule was laid down only after the twentieth year; the Chinese Shanjian lü has twenty years after the Awakening; the Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya says that for twelve years after the Awakening the disciples were without fault, and the first offence occurred in the thirteenth year. Another work explaining the Vinaya commentary of the Southern tradition (the Vinaya sub-commentary) cites the view of “the fifth year after the Awakening” and immediately refutes it.
More differences between accounts (3)
The offender: the Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya has Yasa Kākaṇḍakaputta; the Pali Vinaya and the Chinese Dharmaguptaka, Mahīśāsaka and Sarvāstivāda Vinayas have Sudinna Kalandakaputta; the Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya has Suzhenna. Taishō Canon
The day: the Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya has the twelfth day of the fifth half-month of winter, after the meal, seated facing east, with the shadow one and a half persons long; the view cited in the Vinaya sub-commentary has the tenth day of the second half-month of the first month of winter, with the shadow two and a half persons long.
The other Vinayas also all say that the first of the gravest rules was laid down at Vesālī.
Dating
The Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya states that it was a day in the winter of “the fifth year after becoming a Buddha”; it is placed here for comparison in Year 5 after the Awakening (the Buddha aged thirty-nine), in the winter after the . That Vinaya's reckoning has not been converted into “Year N after the Awakening”, and the converted year is uncertain.
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Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
The episode of “the first pārājika laid down at Vesālī” is 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 (Mohe sengqi lü). Attested across multiple schools. The “year count of ‘the winter season of the fifth year after becoming a Buddha’” within it is recorded only in the Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Stated in the canonical text (the text itself gives the time). Time precision: year uncertain, fixed to the day, month only.
Sources
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.229a
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.238a
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1426 p.549c
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 《摩訶僧祇律大比丘戒本》，§36
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.569c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.2b
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1435 p.1a
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1442 p.628a
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Vajirabuddhi
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 Vin-a〈Samantapāsādikā〉，§31
- 大正藏大正藏 T24 no.1462 p.712b
- 巴利註解書巴利註釋 《Vajirabuddhi-ṭīkā》，§36，緬甸版 0.71，VRI 0.65