The Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya (the Vinaya transmitted by the Mahāsāṃghika, one of the early schools of Buddhism) records that the second to fourth of the were all laid down in the winter of “the sixth year after becoming a Buddha”: the second, forbidding theft, at Rājagaha; the third, forbidding the killing of a human being, at Vesālī; and the fourth, forbidding false claims to superhuman realization, at Sāvatthī. According to that Vinaya, the three occasions were, respectively: a potter's son who, after going forth, took timber belonging to King Bimbisāra to build a hut; nursing the sick who grew weary of it and hired the Migalaṇḍika with robes and bowls to kill a long-ill monastic; and monastics keeping the in a village who claimed to have attained superhuman states. These years are that Vinaya's own reckoning; they are recorded here as in the original, without conversion. Source text
Different Accounts
Year: the other Vinayas give the four gravest rules in the same order (sexual intercourse, theft, killing, false claims to realization) but record no year; the Vinaya commentary of the Southern tradition places the first after the twentieth year.
More differences between accounts (3)
The place of the fourth rule: the Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya has Sāvatthī; the Pali Vinaya and the Chinese Dharmaguptaka, Mahīśāsaka, Sarvāstivāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinayas have Vesālī.
The killer in the third rule: the Chinese Mahāsāṃghika, Sarvāstivāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinayas have the non-Buddhist Migalaṇḍika; the Pali Vinaya has a sham monastic; the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya has a monk; the Chinese Mahīśāsaka Vinaya has a caṇḍāla (a member of the lowest class of ancient India).
The place of the second rule: the Pali Vinaya and the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya have Vulture Peak at Rājagaha; the Chinese Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya has the Bamboo Grove park at Rājagaha.
Dating
The Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya states that the three rules were laid down on days in the second, third and fourth half-months of the winter of “the sixth year after becoming a Buddha”; they are placed here for comparison in Year 6 after the Awakening (the Buddha aged forty), in the winter after the rains retreat. Converted into “Year N after the Awakening”, the year is uncertain. Source text
Related Entries
- Year
- Places
- People
- Discourses
Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
The episode of “the laying down of the second to fourth pārājikas themselves” 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 sixth 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.238a–253b
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.253c–257c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.257c–262a
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1426 p.549c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.572b
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.5b
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1435 p.3b
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1442 p.635c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.575c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.7a
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1435 p.7b
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1442 p.659c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1428 p.577b
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1421 p.9a–b
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1435 p.11a
- 大正藏大正藏 T23 no.1442 p.668c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.253b
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.257c
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.262a
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.238a
- 大正藏大正藏 T22 no.1425 p.253c