P 452

The problem of the First Council was first raised and discussed in detail by Minayeff in 1887. (1) He thought that the chapter XI of the Cullavagga which contains an account of the First Council is riddled with contradictions, and rejected the episode of chanting of the dharma and vinaya as legend, for it was contradicted by traditions of earlier origin. His view as summarised by Poussin(2) may be stated as follows:

Minayeff puts aside as apocryphal or tendencious the history of the council in its official convocation and in its literary labours. But he retains as history or semi-historic the episodes of Subhadra, the Khuddanukhuddakani sikkhapadani, faults of Ananda, etc. Minayeff comes to this conclusion for he thinks that the account of the chanting of dharma and vinaya suffers from both incoherence and contradiction. He finds it incoherent when the CV speaks of the suggestion of Kassapa to the monks to chant together and next records that the monks request Kassapa to choose competent monks for chanting the dharma and vinaya; or when the CV first puts the decision of the monks to hold the council at Rajagrha and then proceeds to record the same as an official resolution proposed by Kassapa and accepted by the Samgha. On the other hand, Minayeff sees contradiction between the drawing up of a complete canon and the episodes of Khudda nukhuddakani sikkhapadani, faults of A nanda, etc. It is also clear that the legendary account of the chanting of dharma and vinaya is of much later origin while the different episodes which are of historical nature, belong to an earlier tradition.

　　   ───────────

　　   (1) D.P. Minayeff published  his work in  Russian in

　　　　  1887. This  was  translated  into  French  under

　　　　  the  titleRecherch es sur le Bouddhisme in 1894.

　　　　  Poussin  gave a  critical  account of  Minayeffs

　　　　  thesis  in his  work (see nex note) which I have

　　　　  utilised for the article.

　　   (2) Louis De La Vallee Poussin, The Buddhist Councils

　　　　  (K. P.  Bagchi  and  Co,  Calcutta, 1976), p.10,

　　　　  Henceforth abbreviated as Councils.

P 453

Oldenberg's Criticism of Minayeff

This view of Minayeff is totally rejected by Oldenberg. (3) He neither finds any incoherence nor contradiction in the account of the Cullavagga. Moreover Oldenberg rightly points out that so far as the official resolution regarding the chanting is concerned, nothing 'can be more probable nor more conformable to the habits made known to us by the literature'. He further states that the 'point of view of Minayeff who claims to recognise in these episodes (and those of the failings of Ananda) an old kernel of authentic tradition (einen guten alten kern guter uberlieferung) and to separate them from the rest of the account due to a much younger time, is illusory'. In fact "Der Culla, wenn er.... die Geschiste von dem Konzil mit dem in Rede stehenden Episoden ausstattete beging damit nicht in mindesten, wie Minayeff will, einen Selbstwiederspruch. "So Oldenberg neither accepts the view that the episodes of Subhadda etc. are historic and earlier in origin than the legendary account of, nor accepts that there is any contradiction between the chanting and the other episodes. This does not mean that Oldenberg believes in the authenticity of the Council. He has other reasons to discard it as a legend.

Oldenberg points out that much of the Cullavagga XI. 1 agrees almost verbatim with certain portions of the Mahaparinibbanasutta (VI.19-20).(4) In order to understand the relationship between the Cullavagga and the Mahaparinibbanasutta we will give below a synopsis of the Cullavagga XI. 1:(5)

'Now the venerable Mahakassapa said to the monks that one day he was travelling from Pava to Kusinara with about five hundred monks. Along the road there came an Ajivika monk who informed Mahakassapa and other monks about the death of the Buddha. The faithful but imperfect monks abandoned themselves to grief, but those who were

　　   ───────────

　　   (3) Ibid, p.10.

　　   (4) The Mahaparinibbanasutta (PTS,  London,  1982),

　　　　  VI.  19 ～ 20   ( abbreviated  as  MPS ).   Also