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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1It behoveth all to train themselves according thereto in concord, in pleasantness, without dispute! Here endeth the recitation of the Patimokkha for the use of the Bhikkhus. MAHAVAGGA. THE MAHAVAGGA. REVERENCE TO THE BLESSED ONE, THE HoLy ONE, THE FuLty ENLIGHTENED ONE. FIRST KHANDHAKA. (THE ADMISSION TO THE ORDER OF BHIKKHUS.) 1}, 1. At that time the blessed Buddha dwelt at 1 To this book is prefixed, as introduction, an account of the first events after Gotama’s attaining Buddhahood, down to the conversion of his two chief disciples, Sariputta and Moggallana (chaps. 1-24). Among the elements of historical or legendary character with which, in the Vinaya Pi/aka, the discussion of the monastic discipline is interwoven, this account occupies by far the first place, both in extent and in importance. For it contains the oldest version accessible to us now and, most probably, for ever, of what the Buddhist fraternity deemed to be the history of their Master’s life in its most important period. The connection in which this legendary narration stands with the main subject of the first Khandhaka is not difficult to account for. The regulations regarding the admission to the fraternity, which are discussed in this Khandhaka, could not but present themselves to the redactors of the Pifaka as being the very basis of their religious discipline and monastic life. It was possible to fancy the existence of the Samgha without the Patimokkha rules, or without the regulations about the Pavarana festival, but it was impossible to realise the idea of a Samgha without rules showing who was to be regarded as a duly admitted member of the fraternity, and who was not. It is quite natural, therefore, that the stories or legends concerning the ordination of Bhikkhus were put in connection with the record of the very first events of the history of the Samgha. Nor is it difficult to account for the theory formulated by the 74 MAHAVAGGA. I, 1, 1. Uruvela, on the bank of the river Nera#gar4}, at the foot of the Bodhi tree (tree of wisdom), just after he had become Sambuddha. And the blessed Buddha sat cross-legged at the foot of the Bodhi tree uninterruptedly during seven days, enjoying the bliss of emancipation ?, historians of the Buddhist ecclesiastical law, of different successive forms in which the ordination of Bhikkhus had been performed. In the beginning, of course, there was nobody but the Buddha himself who could ordain Bhikkhus; to him those who desired to be received, expressed their wish, and he conferred on them the pabbagg4 and upasampada4 ordinations by the formula: ‘Ehi bhikkhu,’ &c. (see I, 6, 32, 34, &c.) It was a very natural conception that afterwards, as the Samgha grew larger, the Buddha should have transferred the power of admitting new members to the Bhikkhus themselves, and should have instituted that form of ordination which the redactors of the Pi/aka found valid at their own time.
2The transition, however, from the supposed oldest form of ordination (the so-called ehi-bhikkhu-upasampad§4) to that latter form is in the Vinaya legends not represented as immediate. There is described an intermediate stage between the two, the ordination by the three saramagamanas, or by the candidate’s three times repeated declaration of his taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Samgha (see Mah4vagga I, 12). The reason which has led the redactors of the Vinaya Pi/aka to this construction, was most probably the important part which in the upasampada service of the later time devolved upon the preceptor (upagghaya) of the candidate. As only learned Bhikkhus, who had completed the tenth year after their own upasampadé, could perform the function of upagg4ya at the upasampada ordination of other Bhikkhus (Mahavagga I, 31, 8), it was natural that the redactors of the Vinaya found it impossible to ascribe this form of upasampada service to the first times of Buddha’s teaching. For these times, therefore, they recorded another form, the upasampada by the three saramagamanas, the introduction of which they assigned, very naturally, to the time soon after the conversion of Yasa’s friends, by which event the number of Bhikkhus had been augmented at once from seven to sixty-one. 1 The Lilayan or Phalgu river in Behar; see General Cunningham’s map, Archaeological Reports, vol. i. plate iii. 3 After having reached the sambodhi and before preaching to I,1,2. ADMISSION TO THE ORDER OF BHIKKHUS. 75 2. Then the Blessed One (at the end of these seven days) during the first watch of the night fixed his mind upon the Chain of Causation}, in direct and in reverse order: ‘From Ignorance? spring the sam- the world the truth he has acquired, the Buddha remains, according to the tradition, during some weeks at Uruvela, ‘ enjoying the bliss of emancipation.’ The Mah4vagga, which contains these legends in their oldest forms, assigns to this stay a period of four times seven days; the later tradition is unanimous in extending it to seven times seven days (Buddhaghosa in the commentary on the Mahavagga; GAtaka Atthav. vol. i. p. 77 seq.; Dipavamsa I, 29, 30; Lalita Vistara, p. 488 seq.; Beal, Romantic Legend, p. 236 seq., &c.)
3vol. i. p. 77 seq.; Dipavamsa I, 29, 30; Lalita Vistara, p. 488 seq.; Beal, Romantic Legend, p. 236 seq., &c.) 1 The Chain of Causation, or the doctrine of the twelve nidanas (causes of existence), coritains, as has often been observed, in a more developed form an answer to the same problem to which the second and third of the four Noble Truths (ariyasa&&a) also try to give a solution, viz. the problem of the origin and destruction of suffering. The Noble Truths simply reduce the origin of suffering to Thirst, or Desire (Tazh4), in its threefold form, thirst for pleasure, thirst for existence, thirst for prosperity (see I, 6, 20). In the system of the twelve nidanas Thirst also has found its place among the causes of suffering, but it is not considered as the immediate cause. A concatenation of other categories is inserted between tazh4 and its ultimate effect; and on the other hand, the investigation of causes is carried on further beyond tazh4. The question is here asked, What does tazha come from? and thus the series of causes and effects is led back to avigg4 (Ignorance), as its deepest root. We may add that the redactors of the Pifakas, who of course could not but observe. this parallelity between the second and third ariyasakéas and the system of the twelve nidanas, go so far, in one instance (Anguttara-Nikaya, Tika-Nipata, fol. ke of the Phayre MS.), as to directly replace, in giving the text of the four ariyasakkas, the second and third of them by the twelve nidanas, in direct and reverse order respectively. Professor Childers has furnished a valuable note on the nidanas; see Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays (second edition), II, 453 seq. 2 In the SammAadi/Aisuttanta (Magghima-Nikdya, fol. kh of Turnour’s MS.) we find the following explanation of what Ignorance is: ‘ Not to know Suffering, not to know the Cause of suffering, 76 MAHAVAGGA. I, 1, 2. kharas’, from the samkharas springs Consciousness, from Consciousness spring Name-and-Form, from Name-and-Form spring the six Provinces (of the
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1It behoveth all to train themselves according thereto in concord, in pleasantness, without dispute! Here endeth the recitation of the Patimokkha for the use of the Bhikkhus. MAHAVAGGA. THE MAHAVAGGA. REVERENCE TO THE BLESSED ONE, THE HoLy ONE, THE FuLty ENLIGHTENED ONE. FIRST KHANDHAKA. (THE ADMISSION TO THE ORDER OF BHIKKHUS.) 1}, 1. At that time the blessed Buddha dwelt at 1 To this book is prefixed, as introduction, an account of the first events after Gotama’s attaining Buddhahood, down to the conversion of his two chief disciples, Sariputta and Moggallana (chaps. 1-24). Among the elements of historical or legendary character with which, in the Vinaya Pi/aka, the discussion of the monastic discipline is interwoven, this account occupies by far the first place, both in extent and in importance. For it contains the oldest version accessible to us now and, most probably, for ever, of what the Buddhist fraternity deemed to be the history of their Master’s life in its most important period. The connection in which this legendary narration stands with the main subject of the first Khandhaka is not difficult to account for. The regulations regarding the admission to the fraternity, which are discussed in this Khandhaka, could not but present themselves to the redactors of the Pifaka as being the very basis of their religious discipline and monastic life. It was possible to fancy the existence of the Samgha without the Patimokkha rules, or without the regulations about the Pavarana festival, but it was impossible to realise the idea of a Samgha without rules showing who was to be regarded as a duly admitted member of the fraternity, and who was not. It is quite natural, therefore, that the stories or legends concerning the ordination of Bhikkhus were put in connection with the record of the very first events of the history of the Samgha. Nor is it difficult to account for the theory formulated by the 74 MAHAVAGGA. I, 1, 1. Uruvela, on the bank of the river Nera#gar4}, at the foot of the Bodhi tree (tree of wisdom), just after he had become Sambuddha. And the blessed Buddha sat cross-legged at the foot of the Bodhi tree uninterruptedly during seven days, enjoying the bliss of emancipation ?, historians of the Buddhist ecclesiastical law, of different successive forms in which the ordination of Bhikkhus had been performed. In the beginning, of course, there was nobody but the Buddha himself who could ordain Bhikkhus; to him those who desired to be received, expressed their wish, and he conferred on them the pabbagg4 and upasampada4 ordinations by the formula: ‘Ehi bhikkhu,’ &c. (see I, 6, 32, 34, &c.) It was a very natural conception that afterwards, as the Samgha grew larger, the Buddha should have transferred the power of admitting new members to the Bhikkhus themselves, and should have instituted that form of ordination which the redactors of the Pi/aka found valid at their own time.
2The transition, however, from the supposed oldest form of ordination (the so-called ehi-bhikkhu-upasampad§4) to that latter form is in the Vinaya legends not represented as immediate. There is described an intermediate stage between the two, the ordination by the three saramagamanas, or by the candidate’s three times repeated declaration of his taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Samgha (see Mah4vagga I, 12). The reason which has led the redactors of the Vinaya Pi/aka to this construction, was most probably the important part which in the upasampada service of the later time devolved upon the preceptor (upagghaya) of the candidate. As only learned Bhikkhus, who had completed the tenth year after their own upasampadé, could perform the function of upagg4ya at the upasampada ordination of other Bhikkhus (Mahavagga I, 31, 8), it was natural that the redactors of the Vinaya found it impossible to ascribe this form of upasampada service to the first times of Buddha’s teaching. For these times, therefore, they recorded another form, the upasampada by the three saramagamanas, the introduction of which they assigned, very naturally, to the time soon after the conversion of Yasa’s friends, by which event the number of Bhikkhus had been augmented at once from seven to sixty-one. 1 The Lilayan or Phalgu river in Behar; see General Cunningham’s map, Archaeological Reports, vol. i. plate iii. 3 After having reached the sambodhi and before preaching to I,1,2. ADMISSION TO THE ORDER OF BHIKKHUS. 75 2. Then the Blessed One (at the end of these seven days) during the first watch of the night fixed his mind upon the Chain of Causation}, in direct and in reverse order: ‘From Ignorance? spring the sam- the world the truth he has acquired, the Buddha remains, according to the tradition, during some weeks at Uruvela, ‘ enjoying the bliss of emancipation.’ The Mah4vagga, which contains these legends in their oldest forms, assigns to this stay a period of four times seven days; the later tradition is unanimous in extending it to seven times seven days (Buddhaghosa in the commentary on the Mahavagga; GAtaka Atthav. vol. i. p. 77 seq.; Dipavamsa I, 29, 30; Lalita Vistara, p. 488 seq.; Beal, Romantic Legend, p. 236 seq., &c.)
3vol. i. p. 77 seq.; Dipavamsa I, 29, 30; Lalita Vistara, p. 488 seq.; Beal, Romantic Legend, p. 236 seq., &c.) 1 The Chain of Causation, or the doctrine of the twelve nidanas (causes of existence), coritains, as has often been observed, in a more developed form an answer to the same problem to which the second and third of the four Noble Truths (ariyasa&&a) also try to give a solution, viz. the problem of the origin and destruction of suffering. The Noble Truths simply reduce the origin of suffering to Thirst, or Desire (Tazh4), in its threefold form, thirst for pleasure, thirst for existence, thirst for prosperity (see I, 6, 20). In the system of the twelve nidanas Thirst also has found its place among the causes of suffering, but it is not considered as the immediate cause. A concatenation of other categories is inserted between tazh4 and its ultimate effect; and on the other hand, the investigation of causes is carried on further beyond tazh4. The question is here asked, What does tazha come from? and thus the series of causes and effects is led back to avigg4 (Ignorance), as its deepest root. We may add that the redactors of the Pifakas, who of course could not but observe. this parallelity between the second and third ariyasakéas and the system of the twelve nidanas, go so far, in one instance (Anguttara-Nikaya, Tika-Nipata, fol. ke of the Phayre MS.), as to directly replace, in giving the text of the four ariyasakkas, the second and third of them by the twelve nidanas, in direct and reverse order respectively. Professor Childers has furnished a valuable note on the nidanas; see Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays (second edition), II, 453 seq. 2 In the SammAadi/Aisuttanta (Magghima-Nikdya, fol. kh of Turnour’s MS.) we find the following explanation of what Ignorance is: ‘ Not to know Suffering, not to know the Cause of suffering, 76 MAHAVAGGA. I, 1, 2. kharas’, from the samkharas springs Consciousness, from Consciousness spring Name-and-Form, from Name-and-Form spring the six Provinces (of the
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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