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　　   (40) Mukherjee, ibid, pp.89～93.

 

　　   (41) MPS VI.1.

 

　　   Key words: 1.  Mahapaninibbanasutta  2.  Krtya

　　　　　　　　 3.  Khuddanukhuddakani sikkhapadani

　　　　　　　　 4.  Brahmadanda  5.  Arhat

 

 

 

P 473

 

 

 

　　   Buddha himself who had authorised the monks to abrogate

　　   the minor rules if necessary.  Thus the contention of

　　   Poussin that the tradition of chanting the vinaya at

　　   the First Council is a legend for it is contradicted

　　   by  the  earlier tradition of the minor rules is not

　　   acceptable.

Conclusion

The historic nature of the Cullavagga XI account, specially the episode of chanting the dhamma and vinaya, has been denied either because of the silence of the MPS about the chanting, or due to the internal contradictions supposed to be existing between the different episodes narrated in the Cullavagga XI. But we found that these objections against the authenticity of the account are not valid, for they are based on the following wrong assumptions:

1) the MPS is earlier than the Cullavagga XI;

2) the MPS would have recorded the krtyas concerning, the chanting, the minor rules, charges against Ananda etc. if these were known to it;

3) the episodes of Ananda and the minor rules represent earlier tradition and contradict the account of chanting which is of later origin.

These assumptions are shown to be wrong by our finding that while the MPS deal with materials connected with the dhamma, the Cullavagga XI is concerned with krtya traditions, and as such the MPS will naturally omit traditions that rightfully belong to the category of krtya. Moreover we have shown that all these episodes including that of the chanting belong to the earliest traceable tradition current before the Sthavira-Maha samghika schism, and there is no objective ground whatsoever to hold one episode earlier than the other.

On the other hand, there is strong internal evidence to show that the episode of chanting also bears mark of great antiquity. If we analyse materials bearing upon the connotation of the term 'vinaya' as given in accounts of the First Council, and the list of schismatic matters, we will see that the term 'vinaya' has been used in an extremely archaic sense, viz. to mean some of the disciplinary rules at present included in the Pratimoksa-sutra and the informations regarding vatthu, nidana and puggala with reference to these rules. Hence not only the episodes of Ananda, minor rules etc. but also the account of chanting the dhamma and vinaya should be regarded as history.