The Chinese Sapoduo pini piposha (a Vinaya commentary of the Sarvāstivāda, one of the early schools of Buddhism) lists three views: that the Buddha began to permit by formal act (a motion followed by three announcements) one year, four years, or eight years after the Awakening; the author holds that “eight years” is correct. The work also says that “ordination by the three statements” and “ordination by the threefold refuge” (two early forms of ordination in which one simply declared refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha) were valid only within the eight years after the Awakening, and that after eight years no one was ordained in this way any more, whereas ordination by formal act is valid both during the Buddha's lifetime and after his passing (). By the reckoning used here, “after eight years” means from Year 9 after the Awakening. Taishō Canon
More sources (1)
Different Accounts
The starting year: the same treatise sets the views of one year, four years and eight years side by side; the Chinese Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya says that only five years after the Awakening did monastics gradually begin to commit offences, and only then was ordination by the formal act of ten monastics laid down.
More differences between accounts (1)
The Pali Vinaya says the Buddha abolished full ordination by the threefold refuge and replaced it with the formal act at Rājagaha, among the events before the rainy season of Year 2 after the Awakening.
Dating
From Year 9 after the Awakening (the Buddha aged forty-three onwards); the treatise says “after eight years”, and “after year N” is converted here as counting from the following year; the year is uncertain.
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Research Notes: Reliability, Dating and Sources
- How Reliability Is Assessed
Not recorded in the early sutras and Vinayas of any school; found only in the commentaries or later Buddha biographies. Later addition.
- Dating Evidence and Precision
Commentarial dating (the canonical texts give no date; later commentaries record it). Time precision: year uncertain.