Buddhist council

Buddhist council, any of several assemblies convened in the centuries following the death of the Buddha to recite approved texts of scriptures and to settle doctrinal disputes. Little reliable evidence of the historicity of the councils exists, and not all councils are recognized by all the traditions; on occasion they resulted in schisms within the Buddhist community.

The first council, held at Rājagṛha (modern Rājgīr, Bihār state, India), is said to have taken place during the first rainy season following the Buddha’s death. Compilations were made of the Buddha’s rules of vinaya (monastic discipline), under the direction of the elder Upāli, and of the sutras (instructive aphorisms), under the direction of the disciple Ānanda. The entire assembly of 500 monks then recited the approved texts. Many scholars deny that the Council of Rājagṛha took place.

The second council was held at Vaiśālī (Bihār state) a little more than a century after the Buddha’s death. Virtually all scholars agree that this council was a historical event. It was called to settle a dispute regarding the relaxed rules of discipline followed by the monks of Vaiśālī. According to the Sri Lankan Theravāda (“Way of the Elders”) tradition, the assembled council of monks was split between those who supported the relaxed practices of the Vaiśālī monks and those who were opposed to them. A majority of the council voted against the Vaiśālī rules, whereupon the defeated minority of monks withdrew and formed the Mahāsaṅghika school. The list of 10 disputed practices differs in various accounts of the council but apparently dealt with such questions as the storing of salt, eating or begging after the prescribed hours, taking as precedent for one’s actions the practices of one’s tutor, and accepting gold and silver as alms. Accounts of the schism between the Mahāsaṅghikas and the Theravādins (Sanskrit: Sthaviravādins) give significance also to doctrinal differences on the nature of the arhat. Scholarship has shown that the Theravādin account of the council is probably incorrect; all Buddhist traditions disagree in their accounts of the council.

The third council, held during the reign of the emperor Aśoka at his capital, Pāṭaliputra (modern Patna), about 247 bc, may have been confined to an assembly of the Theravādas. By then the faithful had divided into schools and subschools holding different interpretations of monastic discipline; it thus became difficult for monks of separate schools who presided together to hold the fortnightly uposatha ceremony, which required prior confession by monks of any breach of discipline. This difficulty may have prompted the convening of the third council. Those monks who failed to declare themselves Vibhajyavādins (adherents of the “doctrine of analysis,” presumably Theravādins) were turned out of the assembly. The fifth book of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka (“Basket of Scholasticism”; a part of the Theravāda canon) contains an examination and refutation of the views held by the third council to be heretical.

The chronicles of the Sarvāstivāda (“All Is Real”) school do not mention the Council of Aśoka. The council that they speak of as the third—and about which the Theravādas, in turn, are silent—was held during the reign of Kaniṣka at Jālandhara (or, according to other sources, in Kashmir). The uncertainty of Kaniṣka’s dates makes dating of the council equally difficult, but it may have been held in about ad 100. The renowned scholar Vasumitra was named president of the council; and, according to one tradition, commentaries on the scriptures were composed under his direction and copies were enclosed in stupas (reliquaries).

In the modern era, a notable Buddhist council was the sixth, which convened in Yangôn (Rangoon) from May 1954 to May 1956 to commemorate the 2,500th anniversary (according to Theravāda chronology) of the death of Gautama Buddha. The entire text of the Pāli Theravāda canon was reviewed and recited by the assembly of monks from Myanmar (Burma), India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Pakistan.