Chapter 1 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BUDDHIST INDIA

Early Hindus Valley

It is not possible to fully appreciate the Buddhist Pāli Canon outside of the historical context of India, so this next chapter is a brief history of before, during, and after Siddhatta Gotama, posthumously entitled The Buddha. Some of the following refers back further than is needed but nevertheless is fascinating. Bare in mind Siddhatta was born circa 250 BC.
    The history of India is some of the oldest on record, and contains much to marvel at. It is often taught as starting with the Dravidian people, in the area of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley (circa 3000 to 1700BC), which today straddles the borders of India and Pakistan. This area contains some of the world’s oldest cities, along with Egypt and Sumeria.
    The cities of the Indus Valley have the earliest recorded uses of gridded street systems, multi-levelled brick buildings, and wheeled transport. Many archaeological artefacts exist revealing fine metal working abilities. It had a language that reads right to left, although it has not yet been deciphered7 . The Dravidians traded extensively, as far afield as Mesopotamia. Their products bore characteristic seals baring various symbols, although it is not known what they stand for.
     What happened to the Dravidian people is not yet established. A vigorously contested nineteenth century hypothesis posits the Arya were new arrivals from the West, sometime between 1500 and 1300BC8 . It postulates the Arya, encountered indigenous people9 , who had darker skin and with flatter noses than the Arya. They were considered by the Arya to be less refined and generally inferior by comparison10 . Some say the Arya prevailed by violence, while some say the two civilisations integrated. Vedic literature and archaeology do not support either type of encounter, and says nothing of people coming from the west, nor how they adapted to a monsoon environment.
    Generally speaking, the Arya were likely not technologically more advanced than the incumbent civilisation of the Indus valley. Relatively recent archaeological discoveries have pushed the age of the Indus civilisation considerably further back in time than the arrival of the Arya. In 2001, scientists monitoring pollution off the coast of North West India in the Gulf of Khambhat (once known as the Bay of Cambay), discovered traces of two ancient cities under the sea, 25 miles from shore, at a depth of 120 feet11 . Computer simulations of sea levels in the Gulf at different stages during the ending of the last ice age, show the area was inundated over an 800-year period, ending 6,900 years ago12 .
    Retrieved from the bottom of the bay are paradigm changing artefacts. They include construction material, pottery shards, wooden artefacts, beads, human bones and teeth. Some of the carbon datings are as old as 9,500 years, which is circa the ending of the last ice age. A figurine of a meditating yogi was found, suggesting the culture of meditation and yoga may also have to be revised further back in time. The cities themselves are under the sea because they were, of course, built before the end of the last ice age, which brought with it a rise in sea level of about 400 feet.
    The end of the last ice age explains the many flood myths from all around the world, including the Vedic legend of Manu. Tradition says he was the first ever king to rule the earth, and who saved mankind from a universal flood13 .
    The sophistication of the submerged cities has yet more to tell us. Baring in mind the time it takes for a society to evolve the skills to design and build a modern city from stone, the age of the city under the Gulf of Khambhat significantly changes our understanding of human evolution14 . Clearly, some humans were more than hunter gathers during the last Ice Age.
    The Rig Veda records a group of seven rivers called the Septa Shindu.The Sarasvati River was once one of them, and was known as the Great River. All that remains of it today is a dried up river bed, visible from satellite imagery. In places, it is 22km wide, which supports its reputation. It was fed by melting ice age glaciers in the Himalayas15 , which flowed some 10,000 to 6000 years ago. The riverbanks of the Sarasvati are yielding many ancient human settlements.
    It would appear that much, if not most, of the Indus valley civilisation once extended into the Arabian Sea and has long been covered by water. What happened to that which remained dry, such as Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, is uncertain. A reasonably credible consideration is that the ancient pristine forest was turned into arable and grazing pastures. This would eventually have decayed into the semi-desert we have today, and unable to support cities of people. Another consideration is global warming which began some 12000 years ago with the ending of the last ice-age. This phenomenon still drives the expanding deserts of the world. Today the area is called the Great Indian Desert, and the Thar Desert. These areas are still inhabited but prone to life-threatening flooding16 , which is a phenomenon that often follows deforestation. The rivers and tributaries of the Indus, still flow from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea, but are very much the lesser of what they once were.

7 J. Keay, India A History Harper Collins Publishers India, 2000, p 5-7.

8 ibid. p. 27.

9 ibid. p. 24.

10 ibid. p. 21.

11Lost City Could RewriteHistory, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_
asia/1768109.stm 19 January, 2002.

12 Graham Hancock Underworld
Flooded Kingdoms Of The Ice Age (video) reporting climatologist, Dr Glen Milne of Durham University. The ice age did not end suddenly. The Himalaya glaciers, being so high, were slower to melt, than other ice deposits.

13 He was characterised by his absolute honesty, and also known as Satyavrata (sworn to truth).

14 The carbon dating of recently discovered Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, places it in the Stone Age of 11 to 12000 year ago. This doubles the age of monument-building civilisation. It has been under excavation since 1994 by archaeologist Klaus Schmidt of the German Archaeological Institute of Istanbul. 

15Glaciers acquire mass by condensing water from the atmosphere. “Some Asian glaciers are 'putting on mass'” Richard Black, Environment correspondent, BBC News, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17701677, 15 April 2012.

The Vedanta

Vedic Sanskrit is an ancient Indo-Iranian language and the oldest attested language of the branch of the Indo-European family. It was the original language of the spiritual texts known as the four Vedas. It predates Buddhism by thousands of years and shaped the society and thus the teaching contexts of Sidhatta Gotama.
     The four Vedas (The Chathurveda) consist of the Rig Veda, Sāma Veda, Yagur Veda, and Atharva Veda. Each Veda is organised into four modes of practice. The Samhitas, which contain the mantras and hymns, the Brahmanas, which contain rituals, the Aranyakas, which contain the spells and charms, and the Upanishads which contain the philosophies. Each had a lineage of Brahmins dedicated to its preservation17 and performance. They were meticulously orally preserved for thousands of years. They had to be as the power of the spells and charms depended on correct pronunciation and intonation.
        Tradition says Vedic wisdom originated with the Supreme Being (The Brahmin) and was passed onto man, via avatars and seers. Originally, there were only three Vedas, known as the Trayi18 ,19 . Today its authorship is attributed to many, not all of whom were of the priestly caste. The Vedas grew larger and more numerous over the millennia and so did the Vedic gods.
    Now is a good place to clarify some vedic lexicon: The Supreme Being is The Brahman (uppercase ‘B’) Brahma(s) is god(s), and a brahmin (lowercase ‘b’) is a person. The Brahmanas is a text containing rituals.
     The roles of the gods, legends and fables are not entirely consistent and one can but only reference one’s sources. The dates of the Vedas are a contested issue. The earliest written Veda is the Rig Veda, dated earlier than the first millennium BC20 . The Sāma Veda, Yagur Veda and latterly the Atharva Veda, were written circa 900 - 600 BC21 . The compositional date of the Upanishads is put at around 800 - 400 BC, although some of it could have been composed as recently as the 16th century CE22 .  The Upanishads are sometimes described as the last word in the Vedic Canon, and are amongst the oldest known documents to record the belief that a human is reborn countless times, into conditions determined by their previous lives. They teach the avoidance of stealing, liquor drinking, killing and sexual misconduct (CU10:8-10)23 . All these teachings are based on the principle of cause and effect at the moral level, known as the law of Kamma/Karma.
    The teaching of Kamma is also found in Buddhism, although the perspective and end result the Buddha put on ethical and renunciative practices, are not always the same as traditional vedic teachings. For the Brahmin, salvation is found in immortality (BU1.3.28)24 , spent in the Brahma Loka heavens (which, curiously, the Pāli Canon, locates in the near Cosmos (see Chapter 12, and The Sense Sphere)). Here the ultimate level of consciousness, called Moksha or Mukti, or Krsna consciousness is realised (CU8.4.3-12.6)25 . The result is that one does not have to return to Earth, but resides enjoying the ineffable consciousness of the Brahman, forever more beyond suffering. In addition to the above ethics, Moksha is attained by the devotional practice (Bhakti yoga), and the five virtues of truth, asceticism, celibacy, study, and generosity (pañacāgni-vidyā) (Bhag. Gita 8.16). The Buddha taught, “Thus those five things that the brahmins prescribe for the performance of merit, for accomplishing the wholesome, I often see among those gone forth, seldom among householders.” (MN99:22).
    There is no place for the worship of gods in Buddhism, but in the Vedas, there is a pantheon of worshiped gods called The Brahman. However, the Brahman is peerless and ineffable, and can only be approached by addressing it as differentiated forms of gods, and avatars. It was not until the arrival of the Puranas (CE 300-1200), a large corpus of mythical and historical texts, that a trinity of gods, The Trimurti, became standard doctrine. The Trimurti consists of the three most exalted gods of the Brahman, these are: Brahma, the personification of creation, Vishnu, the personification of preservation, and Shiva, the personification of destruction.
    Of the Trimurti, most Hindu denominations hold Vishnu as the most venerable, due to his preserving nature. He is the one that balances the principle of Brahma and Shiva. Later texts, however, do not make things easier to understand. The Bhagavad-gītā describes Vishnu as the creator of all (14:3)26 and is sometimes referred to as Sri Krsna and Hari Krishna.
    One can’t help noticing the advent of the Trimurti trinity is dated well after the arrival of Christianity in India. I have been mindful of the arrival of Christianity also when scrutinising the Buddhist Pali Canon. I will elucidate the significance of this in chapter 21.
   There is another exalted trinity in the Vedic pantheon of gods, consisting of Surya who controls the heavens (the Cosmos, the dyuloka), Indra, the god of the atmosphere (antariksha), and Agni, the god of Earth (prithivi)27 . The heavens, the atmosphere and the Earth, are the three Vedic worlds (lokas). Note, these are not the same of the three Buddhist lokas (see table 21).
    There are 11 Vedic gods for each loka, totalling 33 gods in all28 . Brahmin rishis addressed the gods by making animal sacrifices, particularly the horse, or by drinking Soma, a juice, extracted from an unknown plant and mixed with milk. They offered cooked grain and oil to a fire-alter, while carefully intoning the right mantra, to the right god of preservation, prosperity, war, work, weather, agriculture, fertility, commerce … etc 29 . These practices are called Dhamma (Sr. Dharma30 ).
   There are some late developments we should be aware of. In both the Vedic and Buddhist Canons there are teachings that read like attempts to homogenise Brahmanism and Buddhism. Some brahminical faiths claim the Buddha was an avatar of Brahman31 . Krsna consciousness is sometimes wrongly referred to as permanent liberation, Nibbana (Sr. Nirvana). From the Buddhist context, moksha/mukti/Krsna consciousness, whether it is, or is not, the best form of consciousness realisable; whether it is, or is not, union with the Supreme Godhead, the Buddhist perspective is that it is not eternal. This is because in Buddhism, all consciousness is conditional, and all conditions are transient. This includes the greatest of gods and heavens.
    Some latter-day Buddhist developments have borrowed from the Hindu idea of moksha and the Brahma Loka and even Christianity. The Pure Land sect, practiced mainly in East Asia, involves devotional worship with the aspiration of reaching a Buddhist heaven. This heaven, the Pure Land, is ruled over by a Buddha called Amitābha. He is found only in Mahāyāna Buddhist discourses, which were developed several hundred years after the Buddha’s death, so we know this did not come from the mouth of Siddhatta Gotama.

17 Susan Hamilton, Indian Philosophy A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, 2001. p 27

18 Bibek & Dipavali Debroy, The Holy Vedas BR Publishing Corporation Delhi, 1994. Introduction.

19 Canki Sutta (MN95:8) says there were three Vedas. The Atharva Veda was the last to be written.

20 They are amongst the oldest religious compositions in the world along with Brahmanas, the Mahabarat and the Ramayana.

21Keay op. cit. p 2.

22 Keay  op. cit. p 26.

22 Olivelle op.cit. Introduction xxxiii

23 Olivelle op. cit.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid.

26 Swami Prabhupada, Bhagavad-Gita, The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust 1986.

27 Debroy op.cit. p117, & 331.

28 Debroy op.cit. p 116 - 167.

29 Ibid. Chapter 2.

30 Keay op.cit.  p 29.

31 Olivelle op.cit. ‘the gods somehow love to be cryptic (AU 2.3.14)’.

Social Castes

The creation hymn of the Rig Veda (RV 10:90) was composed around the first millennium BC, and describes society as a quadripartite caste system32 . The Esukāri Suttaṃ and Ambaṭṭha Suttaṃ of the Buddhist Pāli Canon, also refers to a quadripartite social system: Nobles (Khattiya warriors), Brahmin (priestly caste), Merchants (Vessa), and Workers and Artisans (Suda) (MN96:12) (DN3:1.14). It will be noticed that the noble Khattiya warrior cast is not the Buddhist concept of Nobility, even though Sidhatta Gotama was of the Khattiya caste himself. Some scholars argue for more caste distinctions at the time, such as slave, untouchables and opt-outs33 .
    Scholars argue over whether the quadripartite caste system was brought to India by the Arya, or already existed. But do the origins of a quadripartite social structure need much explaining? After all, which developed society cannot be meaningfully viewed as divided into the military, merchants, the labouring classes and the aristocratic landed gentry and religious establishments who historically stay close to each other. We tend to ignore the fact that many heads of state, anciently and even today, are associated with godliness, such as Cleopatra of ancient Egypt, who was the personification of Osiris, Queen Elizabeth of England who was the Head of the Anglican Church, and Japanese emperors were considered gods, to mention but a few examples.
    The caste system had, and still has, a very real hold over Indian society. Everyone married into their own caste. It was acceptable for the lower caste to serve the higher caste but not vice versa (MN96:3). Today there are said to be thousands of sub-castes in India, still influencing national politics and personal relationships34 .
    Vedic orthodoxy held the caste system needed no explaining, as all is kammic consequence. One’s lot in life was therefore merited, and the noble course of action was to accept it gracefully.

32 Olivelle op.cit.  Introduction xxvii.

33 Dīgha Nikāya, Introduction, Walshe p 21.

34 Remarkably, the caste system is still alive in communities outside of India, as reported in the following article from the Daily Mail Indian Couple Accuses UK Law Firm Of Cast Discrimination After Losing Job. Aug 18, 2011.

Buddha Dhamma and Vedic Dhamma

The Buddha taught in the context of orthodox Vedanta. But, he didn’t passively accept all its teachings.
Kamma is central to understanding the spiritual life. It is generally seen as cause and affects. Even though we are consequent on the conditions that support us (MN38), the Buddha’s perspective wasn’t fatalistic. For those seeking liberation from all existences, he taught that kamma originated with one’s personal volition (AN 6:3) and that selflessness earns merit, regardless of caste (MN96). Crucially, he taught the kammic cycle was broken at the point of volition (see Dependant Origination figure 13).
    One thing he explicitly rejected was the doctrine that anything could be simplistically eternal. While Brahmin culture believes in an atman, which is an eternal self, the Buddha taught we are in no way immutable (SN IV 44:7). The Buddha believed even the gods are transient. Siddhatta taught all compounded things are transient (MN49:2, MN22:22, DN1:2.5-2.6 DN16:6.19). Analysis suggests that a god, or any discreet compounded thing, might be eternal but being compounded, it is in a state of flux. Therefore its reliability one day will come into play. I take a compounded thing as being made up of two or more of the smallest building blocks.
    Ritual was just as important in Ancient India, as it was everywhere in the ancient world. The Brahminical rishis relied on rituals to secure their welfare in this world and the next. There are many Vedic rituals dedicated to Earth, wind, fire and air, which Vedic teachings view ase differentiated manifestations of God. I have found no comment on this by the Buddha but he made fulsome use of these elements for a contemplation of the body (see Chapter 5, Nine Charnel Ground Contemplations). The Buddha taught that rules and rituals treated dogmatically cannot bring Nibbāna. Buddha Dhamma is not to be ritualised. Whatever strategies are used in one’s effort towards Nibbāna, they are merely tools and not the product. The Buddha certainly did not approve of ritualistic animal slaughter (SN I 3:9. DN 5:18). Brahmins believed their ritual offerings and devotional ceremonies (Puja) kept their world and the universe in proper working order. This is one understanding of the law of kamma. For the Buddha, and also the Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta (Mahāvira) the head of the Jain sect35 , cause and affect (kamma) was a different paradigm. Cause and affect were generated at the personal level of mind, body and speech. The Buddha taught mind was of primary importance in the generation of kamma, while the Nigaṇṭha held bodily actions were primary (MN56:4).   
    Brahmins aspired to be reborn amongst the highest in the brahminical retinue of Gods (see table 21, The Echelons Of Existence). This is their permanent solution to all suffering. But the Buddha taught only no existence (Parinibbāna) was a permanent refuge from suffering, although he accepted there was a Brahma Loka (abodes of the gods).
    Brahmins believed in The Brahman, the Trimurti of Gods (Brahma, Shiva, Agni (BU 1-5)36 ), who also have their own particular powers to create and destroy. They are the first differentiations of what the Pali Canon simply references as the Over Lord of Creation (MN1:9-10). According to the Vedanta, this level of existence is ineffable and unsurpassable.
    Brahmins believe that although Brahma was born, he is immortal, and also the creator of sentient life. The Pali canon does not refute this, but Siddhatta does caution those following his discipline not to identify with Pajapati and Brahma (Mūlapariyāya Suttaṃ MN1:9-10). The Brahmajala Sutta (What The Teaching Is Not, DN1) is a fabulous teaching that describes the coming into being of Brahma. It says Brahma was a god that fell from the Ābhassara heavens, into an abandoned palace in the Brahma Loka. Being the first-born of the aeon, and being alone, he wishes for other beings for company. It happens that other beings appear in the abandoned loka, due to the exhaustion of their life span in the Ābhassara heavens. This fools Brahma into thinking he is able to think things into existence; into thinking he is the All Powerful Creator and Lord of all. (DN1:2.4-2.5). Other Buddhist discourses also doubt Brahma as a creator god. The Pali canon records the Buddha could recall his previous lives as far back as 91 aeons (MN71.14, SN IV 42:9). He said he never found the start of his existences, nor found a house builder (Dhammapada 153-54). The Buddha says nothing to support the existence of a Brahman Trimurti. If, as Brahmins believe, that god Brahma was the first born of this aeon, and the Buddha went back 91 aeons and he found no house builder, then he is saying he has no reason to believe Brahma is the house builder, the creator of sentient beings. The Buddha also teaches that Brahma will cease to exist one day (MN49:2). So, the Buddha’s position on Brahma is that he was born; he will die; and remained agnostic about the claim of all-powerful Creator.
    Other Vedic gods appear in Buddhist discourses, such as Indra (DN20:21, DN13:25, DN32:10), but these references are short in detail. They, and the heavens they occupy, do little except to serve the purpose of affirming there is an array of qualitatively different levels of existence in the universe.
    Vedic practices make devotional and worshipful practices out of virtuous emotion, known as bhakti. Traditionally, these are loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. This is part of the ethical practice in preparation for rebirth into the Brahma Heavens. Buddhists refer to these practices as the sublime attitudes, or the Brahmā Vihāra meditations (Brahma = god. Vihara = abode). However, Siddhatta did not encourage the development of godly sensibilities for the purposes of a heavenly rebirth. Even though renunciative practices conduce to heavenly rebirth, heaven is not the ultimate for the Buddhist. In fact, attachment to a heavenly rebirth is known as the fifth shackle (MN16:12). Instead, Buddhists use the sublime attitudes subtly, as a focus of meditation (nimittaṃ). We will study Buddhist meditation in depth shortly.
    Both Brahmins and Buddhists also use the sublime attitudes for maintaining good mental housekeeping in ordinary and community life.
    So, we see from the above that the Buddha didn’t always negate orthodoxy out of hand, but often re-presented them to fit his renunciative paradigm. He was also well aware that Parinibbāna was not what everyone sort. There is an example of Sariputta, a senior Bhikkus who administered the sublime attitudes by way of last rites to a dying benefactor of monks, today called the Sangha (see Last Rites Of Passage in Chapter 12). It is a good example of how Buddhist meditation and didactic strategy works gradually by starting with the gross and leads to the increasingly refine.

35 Hamilton op. cit. p11.

36 Olivelle op. cit.

Prakrits, Sanskrits and the Buddha’s Dialect

A Sanskrit language is a hybridised language, and there are several common to ancient India that we might note. Vedic Sanskrit is thought to have been developed over a period circa early second to mid-first millennium BC. It is the oldest language of the Indo-Iranian branch, of the Indo-European languages. The oldest written form of the RigVeda is in Vedic Sanskrit although the Rig Veda predates its written form, being preserved in the oral tradition of Śrauta (chanting) for unknown centuries.
    Classical Sanskrit was another significant linguistic development in written language. It came about around the fourth century BC, in Taxila37 , found today in the Punjab province in Pakistan. Its development is attributed to one man, by the name of Panini. Classical Sanskrit is a hybrid of Prakrit languages of the time, and is also Indo-European, due to the affinity with ancient Latin, Greek and Persian38 .
    Buddhist Hybridised Sanskrit is better known as Pāli. It is often thought that Pāli is the language the Buddha spoke. In fact, he would have grown up speaking a Kosalan prakrit. Later in life, as he wandered eastwards along the deltas of the Ganges River, teaching his Dhamma, it was inevitable some degree of linguistic homogenisation between dialects would have occurred. There is evidence in the discourses to support this. Bhikkhus are recorded disputing whether the regional dialect should be used or not. They argued over terms for a dish, bowl, vessel, saucer, pot and basin. The Buddha advised, local language should not be insisted upon, nor normal usage overridden (MN139:12).
    The Buddha’s itinerary suggests the major linguistic influence would have been Magadhi. The Buddha would have had little, if any, difficulty understanding Pāli39 .
    The earliest the Buddha’s teachings were known to have taken written form was the first century BC, in Sri Lanka, at the behest of King Vattagamani 40 .

37 Today in what is North Pakistan, just over 200 Km west of Kabul Afghanistan.

38 Olivelli op. cit. introduction xxv.

39 The language of Girnār is very close to Pāli. Hazra op. cit. p12.

40 Walshe, Digha Nikāya Introduction p46-51.

History Local to The Buddha

Siddhattha Gotama was born in the small town of Lumbini, circa 500 BC41 , which is today just inside the Nepalese boarder. His family moved over what is today the border, to Kapilavastu into Northern India, where Siddhatta spent his childhood and early adult years. His father, Suddhodana, was chief of the Sakyan tribe, and the hamlet of Kapilavastu and surrounding area42 .
    Kapilavastu was of little political importance, and is mentioned only in Buddhist texts. The Republic of Sakya was one of many in the larger region of Kosala, the capital city of which was Savatthi (see fig.1). The overall supreme head was king Pasenadi of Kosala. Aspirant bhikkhu Vāseṭṭhi once described the Sakyans as vassals of king Pasenadi (DN27:8). They were certainly no threat to him. King Pasenadi eventually overran and subjugated the Sakya during the Buddha’s lifetime43 .
    To the southeast was the region of Magadha, the capital city of which was Rajgahar, ruled over by king Bimbisara. Pasenadi and Bimbisara were related by marriage. One of Pasenadi's sisters was the chief Queen of King Bimbisara. The Buddha had interactions with both Kings.
    Good relations between Kosala and Magadha lasted while these two aging kings were in power, which was until the son of king Bimbisara, prince Ajātasattu, usurped his father’s throne and put him to death (DN2:100-102). This would likely have been death by starvation, which was not an uncommon practice then. Bimbisara’s wife, Pasenadi’s sister, died from grief. Ajātasattu found himself in conflict with King Pasenadi, who took back a village in the region of Kasi, originally given as a dowry for his sister’s marriage to Bimbisara. A series of military campaigns ensued in which Ajātasattu was captured. But rather than show ill will, the aged Pasenadi smiled upon his nephew. Not only did he give him his daughter, Vajira in marriage, but as a wedding dowry, gave back the disputed village in Kasi.
    Trouble was ongoing for Ajātasattu. Not only had he to contend with antagonistic Kosalan forces, but also a coalition of republics headed by the Licchavis. There are several reasons put forward for the Licchavis’ involvement. They include: his father, king Bimbisara having an illicit affair with the first lady of the Licchavi republic; an argument between Ajātasattu and his brother, domiciled in Licchavi country, who had a particularly coveted necklace and elephant; and an argument over a mountain, which contained a source of highly valued unguent. Against the odds, Ajātasattu prevailed, Kosala disappeared from record, and Ajātasattu’s forces took the Licchavi capital of Vasali unopposed. Ajātasattu went on to forge an empire that stretched from the lower Ganga to the Nepalese Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal44 .
    In similar fate to King Bimbisara, King Pasenadi was also usurped by his own son, prince Vidudabha. Pasenadi died of exhaustion, while fleeing for his life.
   

41 A Buddhist symposium, convened by Heinz Bechert at the University of Göttingen in 1988, revised the dates to be between 483 BC to 368 BC.

42 Warder A K, 1970. Indian Buddhism Motilal Banarsidass.  p45.

43 Keay op. cit. p66.

44 Ibid. p66-69.

  Gotama Siddhatta’s Childhood

It should be noted that biographies, as well as some teachings, are usually consistent to a message, but not always identical in the finer details. In these instances, the substance of the teaching is where the message lies.
    Siddhattha Gotama was the only child of Chief Suddhodana and Lady Māyā (DN14:1.12), although he had a half-brother called Nanda45 .  His mother died seven days after his birth and his aunt, Lady Gotami, became his acting mother. Despite particularly fabulous accounts of his birth, Siddhatta was not born a Buddha, nor a prophet. Technically speaking the Mahayana tradition says he was a bodhisatta living his last existence. Other Hindu traditions will have their own contexts to evaluate him. He was a very ordinary child, notwithstanding the claim that he possessed the 32 marks of a great man (see Chapter 11). Buddhist tradition says, the 32 marks indicate a baby destined to be a great and peerless ethical leader (a wheel turning monarch, a Cakkavatti), or a peerless teacher of renunciation.
    The discourses tell us, Chief Suddhodana was disturbed by these markings, and called for the court seers to predict the future of his son. They saw Siddhatta becoming a renunciant, but feigned uncertainty, as they knew Chief Suddhodana abhorred the thought of his son becoming a homeless beggar. Suddhodana sort an independent second opinion, only for this to prophesy that his son would become a renunciant.
    Being forewarned, Suddhodana cosseted his son with luxuries and kept him within the palace walls, at least until he was able to appreciate a local ploughing competition. Versions of his biography vary here. Some say he became deeply interested, not so much in the competition, but more by the discomfort it took to work a plough. Some say he was struck by the sight of a bird unearth a worm and eat it. Some say he took repose under a rose apple tree, and unwittingly entered into the first of the eight meditational levels. But he was not aware of the value of this meditation for some two decades, when he would reappraise his experience in the light of his renunciant training (MN36:31).
    His father continued to nurture his son’s liking for the good life. At one point Gotama had a harem, something not uncommon at that time for the son of a wealthy man. At the age of sixteen, he was found a bride,consort Yasodhara, with whom he had a son. But Siddhatta never really settled into married life. He was drawn more to discovering life outside the palace. His disdain for family values, and wish to move on, is reflected in his son’s name Rahula, which means fetter.
    The traditional biography says at 29 years, Siddhattha became unbearably restless for more egress from the palace. Chief Suddhodana capitulated to his son’s wish and allowed him to journey out of the palace confines. Siddhattha made four such journeys with his charioteer Channa, and on each occasion, he observed one phenomenon of life, collectively referred to as the divine messengers. On his first journey he saw an old man. Siddhattha asked Channa to explain why the man looked aged. Channa explained that no one escaped the process of aging. On his second journey he saw a sick man, and was again moved to learn from Channa that sickness was also inescapable. On his third journey, he saw a corpse being taken to a funeral pyre, and he learned no one escapes death. On his fourth journey he saw a man dressed in rags subsisting as a beggar. Siddhattha was greatly impressed by his serene comportment. Channa explained that the man had renounced the home-life to seek his escape from the rounds of rebirth and death, and its attendant sufferings.
    Against his parents’ wishes, a profoundly naïve Gotama left his father’s palace to pursue the life of the homeless and thereby realise his father’s great fear (MN26:14). He went forward into a world of heterodoxy, renunciant sects, and drop-outs, some subsisting upon alms food and indulging in bizarre and extreme spiritual practices. They could be found unshaven, unwashed, and often naked, arguing their nihilistic, determinist, materialist and rationalist views.

45 Wader op. cit.  p56.

Seven years of rigorous training

There followed seven years (SN 1.24) of rigorous and sometimes bizarre training, during which time he sort out several teachers of meditation. Some were not very good, paying merely lip service to what they taught. But there were two teachers Siddhatta made significant progress under. With Ālārā Kālāma it is said Siddhatta realised the value of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom, and learned to meditate up to the penultimate, the seventh, level of meditation. Next, he studied with Uddaka Rāmaputta, with whom he realised the eighth and highest state of meditation (MN26:15-16), but still not liberated from suffering. He held the view that even abiding in the highest meditation state would not bring Nibbāna, but merely rebirth at a level of existence, commensurate with that level of meditation (MN26:16-17). This tells us that at this juncture in his training he did not consider himself fully liberated from the fetters of existence. However, another fruit of this book, is the explanation that he was in fact Liberated, but had not yet undergone his enlightenment. He had not realised that emptiness/ voidness/deathless is just that, and therefore, is not cogniseable (see, Introduction, Eternal - The Deathless).
    At some juncture in his training, he took up comradeship with five ascetics, and put himself through various bizarre practices. These included flying in the face of conventions, such as going naked, ignoring people, licking his hands, and not accepting food for a variety of reasons. He undertook restrictive eating regimes, such as eating rationed amounts, eating at set intervals, eating only vegan food, or mono diets of greens, or millet, or wild rice, or leather shavings, or moss, rice-bran, rice scum, sesame flour, or grass. He tried living off forest roots and fruit, or only fallen fruit. He wore clothes of hemp, refuse-rags, tree bark, fabric made from either wood, or head-hair, or wool, or owls’ wings. He plucked out his hair and beard, stood on one leg, or squatted continuously. He used a spiked mattress, bathed three times a day, and mortified his body; “Such was my asceticism (MN12:45).”  He never washed for years, or allowed himself the thought of washing; “Such was my coarseness (46).” He took his practice of compassion to extremes, being mindful of where he stepped, even worrying about any tiny creatures contained in patches of water; “Such was my scrupulousness (47).” He would live in seclusion in forests and flee from humans, so he could not be observed; “Such was my seclusion (48).” He would crawl on hands and knees into a cattle pen and eat the dung from suckling calves. He even tried feeding on his own urine and excrement; “Such was my great distortion (49).” He would meditate in locations that would make a man’s hair stand on end. He would meditate outside day and night, on one occasion tolerating eight days of frost (50). He would sleep in charnel grounds, sometimes tolerating boy cattle herders, who would spit and urinate on him, and poke sticks in his ears, and yet no evil thought arose in him; “Such was my abiding equanimity (51).” Despite these colossal efforts, he reports he experienced no supramundane states of meditation (55-56).
    His eating regimes took him to the brink of death. It was while facing death through starvation that he accepted extremism was not the way forward, and he accepted a meal of boiled rice and bread (MN36:33). The five ascetics who he had abided with and who had encouraged and admired him throughout his ordeals became dismayed. They ostracised him, saying he had reverted to luxury.

Enlightenment Under The Bodhi Tree

For reasons already stated, i say liberation and enlightenment are not the same. i say the buddha was liberated before he was enlightened, and because voidness is just that, he simply could not have been enlightened to it. The reader who has followed what I am saying, is now at least partially enlightened, but that does not mean liberated. Let’s look at some accounts of the Buddha’s enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. Most are fabulous, rather than literal.
    After his years of extremism, it still remained for him to exclusively follow his own wisdom. He wandered until he came to a place called Senānigama, near Urvelā, in the territory of Magadha, today called Bodh Gaya46 . It was a suitable area to meditate. There was a delightful grove by a river with gentle banks, clear waters and a village nearby for alms. He resolved never to leave the place until he had become fully liberated. 47In one fabulous version of Siddhatta’s enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, Mara the Evil One warns Siddhatta that if he has any notion of “mine” in him, he will find it and negate his claim to Buddha-hood. The Buddha responds by reciting a verse, proclaiming he has made his escape because he has withdrawn from all craving. Mara recites his own verse acknowledging it is so, and leaves dejected, his shoulders drooping, as he scratches the ground with a stick. His three daughters, who are named Tanha (desire) Arati (lust) and Raga (aversion), see their father looking depressed. Mara explains to them that this was because he was unable to surpass the Buddha’s mind. The three daughters decided to test the Buddha themselves. They take the form of a hundred women of different ages and physical attributes, as “the tastes of men vary”. But the Buddha paid no attention to them. They returned to their father and told him they had teased Siddhatta so skilfully, anyone other than a Buddha would have become deranged, and their hearts would have burst (SN I:24-25). We should note here, the daughters of Mara are affirming Siddhatta already knew he was liberated from the gravity of Saṃsāra, the world of conditionality. In the Mahāsacca Suttaṃ (MN36) there is a completely different and literal version of the moment of enlightenment, sometimes referred to as The Three Muses. It says that he ended his period of extremism with a meal of solid food, and then sort seclusion and meditation. The Buddha describes the first four levels of these meditations, and says the “pleasant feeling that arose in me did not invade my mind and remain (36).” Having reached fourth jhaṅaṃ, that is, the most refined of the mundane levels of meditation, he tells how with an unblemished and malleable mind, he directed it to knowing his past lives. This was his first muse upon becoming enlightened.
    On his second muse, he directed his mind towards knowing the passing away and reappearance of beings, amid inferior and superior conditions, who were fair and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate.
    On his third muse, he directed his mind to understanding existence as it really is: to the destruction of taints, to the cessation of suffering, and the way that leads to the cessation of suffering.

    When I knew and saw thus, my mind was liberated from the taint of sensual desire, the taint of being, from the taint of being of ignorance. When it was liberated there came the knowledge: ‘It is liberated’ I directly knew: ‘Birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what has to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being.’

MN36:43

    From fourth jhaṅaṃ, The Buddha was able to see the panorama of existence, of birth and death, and experience what some would today categorise as mediumship. He saw he was no longer bound by the attractive and sticky, nature of our passions. Not that passions were no longer sticky to him, or that his mind and body stopped cognising the rise and fall of passions. We will shortly read about the wisdom he used, or, to use a figure of speech, walk in the rain without getting wet.
    It is interesting to note that he concentrated his mind only up to the fourth jhaṅaṃ, and not one of the more refined supramundane, absorption states. In chapter 4 we will read that the supramundane, absorption states preclude use of the mind’s audio and visual faculties.
    There are several fabulous variations that use interesting symbolism. In one scene, Mara shoots flaming arrows at Siddhattha, but he turns them into lotus blossoms, which merely fall to the ground. Mara then tries to seduce the Buddha with his three daughters, but they rot away under the Buddha’s gaze. Another version says the Buddha touches the Earth with his right hand, and calls upon the Earth goddess to bear witness that he has done all that has to be done, and rightly earned his Buddhahood. The Earth goddess appears, and bears witness this is so. In another version, a large cobra appears behind and above the Buddha to form a protective hood.
    What do these symbols mean? The flaming arrows represent life’s mental and physical fetters and stresses, which Siddhatta turned into harmless flowers by mindfulness. Mara’s daughters are the mind’s volition, which rot away under the Buddha’s gaze of mindfulness. The snake, is an ancient symbol of wisdom in many cultures, not just India . It rises in defence of the Buddha, because it is protective power is wisdom, the know-how for keeping consciousness pure.
    I have often wondered about the names of Mara’s three daughters. I think it would have made better sense if the daughter Lust had instead been called Ignorance, as lust is a subset of desire. The opposite of ignorance, is wisdom, expressed by the Cobra. Each sister would then have been called after one of the first three fetters to be transcended in order to attain Nobility (see Cūḷagopālaka Suttaṃ MN34).

46 Historically, it has had various names, such as Bodhimanda (the area of the Bodhi-tree), Uruvela, Sambodhi, Vajrasana and Mahabodhi. The name Bodh Gaya came into being in the 18th century.

47 The pharaohs of Lower Egypt wore the image of a snake around their heads, while the Pharaohs of Upper Egypt wore wings. Ralph Ellis points out that if wings are put on a snake, then a dragon is formed. Dragon mythology is found as far afield a Wales, China and Mesoamerica.

Timelessness, Signlessness, Voidness and Liberation

Let’s look at what The Buddha said about the dawning of Nibbana:

Just as the river Ganges inclines towards the sea, slopes towards the sea, flows towards the sea, and merges with the sea, so too Master Gotama’s assembly with its homeless ones and its householders inclines to Nibbāna, slopes to towards Nibbāna, flows towards Nibbāna, and merges with Nibbāna .
MN73:14 Mahāvacchagotta Sutta

We are being told here, by the Buddha himself, that there is no discreet cut-off from Samsara. So just how did the Buddha know he had succumbed to voidness? If enlightenment is one thing and liberation is no thing (voidness, Suññata), therefore beyond cognition, then cognising voidness is an oxymoron. So how does one know one succumbed to voidness. Clearly, it is afterwards that the penny drops, due to a secondary experience. That experience is the indication of an absence of time, supported by factual evidence (a clock, position of the Sun). It is only with repeated experiences that one becomes sure of this phenomenon. I have heard several meditators report, “time just disappears”, but none have equated this with Nibbana. And yet, everybody has at least approached this experience, which is expressed in the well-known phrase: time flies when you are having fun.
    I say, the nonexperience of Timelessness is Voidness, and Voidness is Full Liberation from all suffering. Full Liberation, Voidness and Timelessness are synonymous.

Note, not even the Buddha was free from suffering all the time. All liberation is temporary while alive, even for Buddhas. We read this in the Mahāparinibbāna Suttam, where Buddha tells us signless meditation was the only time he found respite from his ailing body

‘Ānanda, I am now old, worn out, … It is only when the Tathāgata withdraws his attention from outward signs,392 and by the cessation of certain feelings,393 enters into the signless concentration of mind,394 that his body knows comfort.

(Mahāparinibbāna DN16:2.24-2.25).

Sāriputta considered signless meditation foremost in wisdom. He taught that ‘unshakable deliverance of mind’, is achieved only through ‘signless concentration’, and is ‘the best’ meditation technique (Mahāvedalla MN43:33-36). The meditation that brings about Voidness is signlessness. Voidness is full but temporary liberation while one is incarnate in a human body.
   

48 “Just as in the great ocean there is but one taste — the taste of salt — so in this Doctrine and Discipline there is but one taste — the taste of freedom. (Khuddhaka Nikāya Udana V.5)”.

Just After Enlightenment

The newly emerged Buddha thought his newfound insight was likely beyond the comprehension of others. He would not have taught at all, had it not been for the intervention of a god, Brahma Shahampati49 , who was aware of what the Buddha was thinking. It is written, Shahampati left the Brahma world wearing the robes of a renunciant, and appeared before the Buddha, saluted him, and respectfully implored him to teach. He argued, “there are beings with little dust in their eyes, who are wasting through not hearing the Dhamma (MN26:20).” Out of compassion, the newly realised Buddha, surveyed the world with his divine eye, and saw various beings in various stages of development, some capable of understanding. He thought about his ex-teachers. But whilst considering Ālāma Kālāma, more deities approached him, and informed him that Ālāma Kālāma had died seven days previously (22). Using his divine eye the Buddha saw it was so. He next thought of his teacher Uddaka Rāmaputta, but again deities informed him that he had died the previous night (23). Again, looking with his transcendental vision he saw it was so.
    He then thought of the group of five, with whom he had practiced austerities, and who had ostracised him. He set out, wandering in stages until he found them in the Deer Park, in Isipatana, in Banares50 (26), today called Varanasi, some 300 kilometres away. When they saw him approaching, they quickly conspired to treat him with reservation. They decided not to rise in respect, but would make a seat for him. However, their resolve quickly dissipated. One went to greet him, and took his begging bowl and outer robe, another prepared a seat, and another prepared water to wash his feet. They addressed him as “friend Gotama”, but the Buddha corrected them. He informed them that ‘friend’ was not the right way to address a Tathāgata (tath + agata = thus + gone). He told them he had attained the Deathless, and was prepared to tutor them towards the same attainment (29). They were reluctant to accept he was fully enlightened, but nevertheless took up his offer. And so, as a group of six, they took it in turns for two or three to go for alms, while the others received tuition. The six of them would then share the alms. In this way, the first five disciples became the first five arahants after the Buddha (29-30).
    It does not necessarily follow that there is a qualitative difference between a Buddha and an arahant. Both are fully liberated, meaning they are living their last lives. However, the Pāli Canon does describe the Buddha as having more iddhi powers (psychic abilities) than any other arahant. However, we will also later learn why some iddhi powers attributed to the Buddha are unbelievable.
    The epithet of the Buddha is sometimes used as a proper noun. That is, the definite article is dropped and just the term Buddha is used. Technically speaking, this is not correct. Tradition says, Siddhatta Gotama was unique in this era, and is sometimes described as the Historical Buddha, or just the Buddha. It is understandable that some non-Buddhists might resent using these terms, as they do sound like terms of deference. It is my opinion that referring to Siddhatta Gotama simply as Buddha in everyday speech is reasonable. Used as a proper noun, Buddha still makes a unique name for a unique man.

49 Traditions vary on where Shahampati resides. Some say in the Brahma Loka, and some say he is from the Pure Abodes (see table 21).

Returning to His Father’s Palace

Siddhatta received a mixed reception when he first visited his father’s palace after becoming fully enlightened. His reputation must have preceded him. There is no mention of his wife appearing, but he did ordain his son Rahula, much to the dismay of Chief Suddhodana. It was due to Suddhodana’s intervention that the Buddha agreed never to ordain anyone under 20 years old.

44 Year Teaching Ministry

Siddhatta went forth at the age of 29. He had trained for seven years before becoming enlightened, and then went on to teach for the next 44 years (SN I 4:24, DN16:5.27). He spent this time wandering from northern India largely along the Ganges River in Kosala, Magadha, and Anga (see fig. 1 and 2).

The Buddha’s Death

The Buddha died from food poisoning and complications aged 80. There was nothing sinister about it. He accepted a meal offered by Cunda the metal smithy. It was “a fine meal of hard and soft food”, prepared with an abundance of a delicacy, called Porcine’s Delight (DN1:4.17). Porcine’s Delight is a medley of mushrooms and, of course, picking wild mushrooms is a hazardous activity. The discourse states, there was an abundance of the dish and there were 500 Licchavis to feed, amongst others. With so many mouths to feed, a wrong mushroom could easily have found its way into the pot. It was protocol for the guest of honour to start eating first. The Buddha realised all was not right, and recommended the offending dish to be buried. He made it clear there were to be no repercussions for Cunda and that serving a Buddha his last meal indicated Cunda was of noble status (4.42). After the meal, the Buddha gave a discourse, but within hours he had succumbed to bloody diarrhoea51 and severe sickness (4.20) and died.

51 Fungal toxins initially cause severe abdominal cramping, vomiting, and watery diarrhoea, and then liver and kidney failure. Bloody diarrhoea is indicative if bowl cancer.

Post Gotama The Buddha

1st Great Council – The Great Rehearsal

Just before passing away, the Buddha gave his spare hemp robe to elder (Mahā)Kassapa (Vin. ii, 286, para. 2), making him the senior voice for the Saṅgha . But this did not make him leader of the other bhikkhus. There was to be no single lineage, after the Buddha’s death. There were by then many arahants capable of teaching.
    But some seniority in the Saṅgha is needed for issues of discipline. Towards the end of the Buddha’s teaching ministry, the Saṅgha became large and difficult to manage52 .To become eligible for a livelihood as a bhikkhu in the discipline of Siddhatta Gotama, bhikkhus had to agree to a code of conduct. The Vinaya Piṭaka, the bhikkhu’s code of conduct, contains the case law and precedent born of years of incidents (MN65:29-31).
    Commentaries, written some centuries later, say that within weeks of the Parinibbāna, Kassapa called the First of the Great Councils53 . Its purpose was to “rehearse”54 the Dhamma. Two weeks after the Buddha’s death55 , they set off in two groups, to convene at Rajagaha. There was a full moon approaching, and with a month and a half of summer remaining, the rainy season retreat was imminent. It was a fitting time to meet, as both of these dates were times when the Saṅgha routinely convened.
    The council consisted of a committee of some 500, all of whom were Arahants. Kassapa nominated the (Mahā)Upāli to recall the Vinaya, as the Buddha had described him as the first and foremost expert in Vinaya discipline56 . This nomination was accepted by the council.
    Kassapa nominated Ānanda to recall the discourses of the nikāya, but some of the elders described Ānanda as having “the smell of raw flesh”57 , meaning he was not fully enlightened. Ānanda was admonished to strive for full perfection, as it would have been considered a great loss for him not to have contributed. He was famous for his exceptional memory, and had been the personal assistant of the Buddha for 25 years. The role of personal assistant was something he had accepted, only after agreeing that should he miss a teaching, the Buddha would recount it to him. Ānanda realised Full Enlightenment58 and he joined the council as an Arahant.
    MahāKassapa set about questioning both Ānanda and Upāli regarding, “whom”, “when”, “for what reason”, “by whom”, “handed down by whom”, and “where was it established”, in respect of the nikāya and the Vinaya59 .
    It is clear from this account of the first council that there were only two piṭaka; the Doctrine and the Discipline. The Doctrine was certainly not the bloated 5000-plus pages of Sutta Piṭaka we have today. Tradition teaches the Doctrine and the Discipline was orally preserved for several centuries, and the earliest written discourses attributed to King Vattagamani of Sri Lanka, in the first century BC60 .

52 The first note of disaffection took place only one week after the Buddha’s death. Somewhat strangely, the arahant Subhadda ‘the last personal disciple of the Lord (DN16:5.30)’, is reported as saying, “‘Enough friends, do not weep and wail! We are well rid of the Great Ascetic. We were always bothered by his saying: ‘It is fitting for you to do this, it is not fitting for you to do that!’ Now we can do what we like, and not do what we don’t like (DN16:6.20).’” Some commentaries say it is a different Subhadda. But in the absence of any discourse evidence to the contrary, one has to take it that it is the very same Subhadda.

52Jayawickrama, N.A. 1986. The Inception Of Discipline And The Vinaya NidānaTranslation; First Great Convocation. Pāli Text Society, p6.

53 Ibid. p4.

54Ibid. p 6 & 7.

55 Ibid. p11.

56 Ibid. p9.

57 Ibid. p10.

58 Ibid. p12-28.

59 Walshe M, Digha Nikāya, Introduction Wisdom. p46.

60 Walshe M, Digha Nikāya, Introduction Wisdom. p46.

2nd Great Council – The Vasali Issue

The second Great Council took place 100 years or so after the Buddha’s death, circa 380 BC, at Vasali under the patronage of King (Kal)Asoka (Asoka the Black61 ). It stemmed from a grievance raised about a Vrijian group of Saṅgha, who were outside of the Vinaya code of conduct. According to the Theravadin account, there were ten points of minor infringements of the Vinaya:

1. Storing salt in a horn.
2. Eating after midday.
3. Collecting and eating alms more than once a day.
4. Holding the Uposatha Ceremony with monks dwelling in the same locality.
5. Carrying out official acts when the assembly was not quo-rate.
6. Following a certain practice because it was done by one's tutor or teacher.
7. Eating soured milk after midday meal.
8. Consuming strong drink.
9. Using a rug which was not the proper size.
10. Subsisting with the aid of gold and silver.

    The two factions involved, the Sthaviravāda and Mahāsaṃgha, both agreed that the Vrijian bhikkhus were outside of the Vinaya62 .

61 Warder op. cit. p203. Also known as Kākavana = 62 Crow Coloured, p.206.

62 Ibid. p207.

3rd Great Council – Schism in the Saṅgha

The convening of this council, also known as the Great Schism, is attributed to a bhikkhu of disputed identity63 who put forward five points on the nature of what it meant to be an arahant. The debate included one point of whether an arahant could be seduced by another person. Points two, three and four concerned omniscience: was there anything an arahant didn’t know, did an arahant ever have doubts, and could an arahant be instructed by another. The final point questioned whether it was possible to become enlightened by words alone64 .
     The dates of this council are widely disputed. A Tibetan account of this council places the event around 349 BC during the reigns of Nanda or Mahāpadma65 .
    Sri Lankan tradition says this council happened during the reign of Asoka66 . However, King Asoka’s edicts say nothing about a Third Great Council67 . North Indian Buddhist tradition does not acknowledge the event . The Sthaviravāda maintains there was no schism, and only those routinely outside the Dhamma and Discipline were expelled69 by Asoka.
   

Discussion

The Sthaviravāda Saṅgha (the perceived forerunner of Theravada Buddhism) took the Buddha to be an enlightened human. The Mahāsaṃgha group (perceived forerunner of Mahāyāna Buddhism) presented the Buddha and the Dhamma, as supernatural70 . But when supernaturalism really entered Buddhism is a much sort after answer. Currently, the earliest artefact of any written Buddha Dhamma dates from only the first century of the Christian era71 .
    I attribute, by far the largest part of supernaturalism to the arrival of Christianity (not withstanding some reasonable degradation of the Dhamma in the previous 500 years). This scenario says a Third Great Council would not have happened until the first century CE at the earliest.
    I also believe the alleged Third Great Council and schism to be a fabrication and a red herring of an argument. Its purpose is to draw the attention away from the true date of Mahāyana development.
    This being the case, there can be no such thing as Mahayana text before the Christian era.

     4th Buddhist Council?

The Mahāyana tradition has a Fourth Buddhist Council, said to have been convened by the Kushan  emperor Kanishka  around 78 CE, in Kashmir. This council is not recognised by the Theravada tradition.

Discussion

According to the hypothesis in this book, the Pāli Canon underwent extensive revision, going from humanistic practice to supernatural religion, and that this is attributable to the arrival of Christianity in the first century C.E. However, AK Warder points out that there is evidence suggesting first century BC texts had already shown ‘whole sale restatement of doctrine’ 72 . Indeed, it would be unrealistic not to accept that some corruption of the Pāli Canon had not already started before the Christian era. But the evidence is conflicting, creating much confusion between traditional accounts from various Saṅgha groups 73 . The fact remains that the oldest written Buddhist discourses currently date from the Christian era 74 .
    But dates are less important than Dhamma, which is discoverable. This leaves us with the task of evaluating the supernaturalisms that pervade the Pāli Canon. We will be looking at more than half a dozen faith teachings from the Canon, which our methodology reveals to be outside of realisable by the wise, and which are uncharacteristic of renunciation, but while being characteristic of biblical monotheism. These questionable teachings are too numerous to be coincidence and too problematic to ignore.
    The Buddha’s instruction to the Saṅgha was that all schismatic beliefs must be resolved (MN104:6). As the Saṅgha is clearly unable to do this, we will, as best we can, address and resolve them for ourselves.
  

72 Wader op. cit. p337 and see p5.

73 Warder op. cit. p 263.

74 The oldest Buddhist manuscript is ‘ … unique collection of fifty-seven fragments of Buddhist manuscripts on birch bark scrolls, written in the Kharosthi script and the Gandhari (Prakrit) language that were acquired by the British Library in 1994. The manuscripts date from, most likely, the first century A.D., and as such are the oldest surviving Buddhist texts … look like "badly rolled up cigars" … The exact origin is unknown beyond that they were probably found in Afghanistan in earthen jars.’ http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/history/s_scripts.htm (November 2012).

Kings Post Siddhatta Gotama

After the death of Ajātasattu circa 380BC, his throne was fought over until 330 BC, when Mahāpadma Nanda, of Sudda casting no less, came to reign (according to Vedic Puranas). He extended his kingdom over much of Northern India. He punctuated Indian history by becoming the first of many to forge an Indian identity75 , and is considered to be the first of the Cakkavatti (Dhamma Wheel turning monarchs). He acquired great wealth and a substantial army, the match of Alexander the Great.
    It was likely the son of Nanda, Andrames, whose army Alexander’s turned away from76 . Alexander’s excursion into India was of no great consequence to Indian history. It is written of his army that its biggest achievement in India was to have reached India77 . No doubt his invasion fuelled the need for an Indian identity for the purposes of self-defence.
   The second of the Nandas was over thrown by Chandragupta78 (circa. 321-297 BC). He was followed by his son Bindusāra (not to be confused with King Bimbisara), who was then followed by his son, the great King Asoka (circa 268-232BC).
    Even though King Asoka inherited much of his vast empire, he became not only India’s greatest leader, but one of history’s. He ruled over what today covers all of India, but the southernmost tip, some of Afghanistan, all of Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
    After the Kalinga war, which had extended his reign79 , he became remorseful at the suffering he had caused (minor rock edict XIII). Asoka then became a Buddhist upāsaka80 , that is, a celibate layman (mre 10), and a great patron of the Saṅgha, and other renunciant sects. He issued many edicts upon rock boulders, cave walls, and even had pillars of rock erected, and inscribed with Buddhist ethics81 . Only in the last 100 years have all the edicts of Asoka been deciphered82 . His inscriptions are also found in Greek and Aramaic83 ,84 , the language of Jesus of Nazareth.
    Asoka instructed state officials, Mahāmitta (mahā+Mitta=great+friend/Noble Officers/Officers of the Law of Piety), to visit Indian provincial capitals every three years, and to visit the capitals of sovereign nations every five years85 . These included Cyrene, Macedonia, Epirus86 , Egypt, Syria, West Asia and North Africa87 . They propagated the doctrine of non-violence, and the wisdom of the Dhamma, and took medicines for men and animals. In return, Asoka imported many cultural influences from Asia and Southern Europe, which boosted Indian art and contributed to a new self-identity and a new international identity for India.
    He was also responsible for erecting a number of petraglyphs at key Buddhist locations88 . Of particular note is Bodh Gayā, where the Buddha became enlightened under the Bodhi tree89 , and Lumbini (now called Rummindei) where the Buddha was born, and where Asoka’s stone column still stands. The stones baring the edicts were written in local scripts, such as Kharosti, Brahmi, Prakrits and Girnār90 .
   Even though Asoka was concerned about schism in the Saṅgha91 , he was far from intolerant of other sects, and even encouraged sect members and laity to be more tolerant in their thinking92 . Asoka supported all renunciant sects and credos. He gave caves to Ājivika93 and material support to Brahmins, Niganthas, as well as Buddhists. He also showed kindness to forest tribes and did much to smooth relations between sects (mre 11&12).
    Asoka was a vegetarian, and made his palace kitchen all but totally vegetarian (mre I). He banned many animals from being used in sacrificial worship94 . It might be true to say, no individual has done more for vegetarianism, and the ending of animal sacrifice, than King Asoka.   
    Asoka implemented a policy of impartial civic justice95 . He introduced a welfare system of free education, and health care by opening hospitals and supplying medicines. He gave orders to dig wells, and plant trees (re III).
    Asoka was exemplary in his Buddhist practice as a Cakkavatti (Wheel Turning Monarch), even though the Buddha described the role as worth less than one-sixteenth of nobility (SN 55:1). Asoka appeared more interested in attaining a heavenly rebirth than seeking Nibbāna96 . His edicts do not mention Nibbāna but frequently refer to heaven97 .

75 Keays op. cit. p70.

76 Keay op. cit. p78.

77 Keay op. cit. p70.

78 Keays op. cit. p83.

79 Ibid. p9.

80 Hazra op. cit. p9.

81 Ibid. p282.

82 Ibid. p9.

83 Warder op. cit. p 241.

84 Hazra op. cit. p285.

85 Ibid. p16.

86 Ibid. p89.

87 Ibid. p284.

88 Warder op. cit. p221.

89 The Bodhi trees that currently exist there are said to be the offspring of the original.

90 Hazra op. cit. p282.

91 Ibid. p108.

92Ibid. p80.

93 Ibid. p7. Three cave inscriptions at Barābar in the Gayā district.

94 Ibid. p287.

95 Ibid. p207.

96 ‘Better than full sovereignty over the earth, or going to heaven, or lordship over all the worlds, is the noble fruit of stream winning (Dhammapada op. cit. 178).’

97 Hazra op. cit. p288.

Post Asoka

Half a millennium after the Buddha’s death, during the first and early second centuries CE, the Kushans expanded across the northern part of the South Asia from Afghanistan to India, perhaps as far as Varanasi (Benares). Indian, Persian and Greeks, civilisations mixed cultures and religions, which included Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity. Emperor Kanishka, (c. 127-151 CE) was a famous and great patron of the arts who, like Asoka, became a Buddhist. The Kushan Empire began declining around the 3rd century, falling to the Sassanid and Gupta Empires.
    The Gupta Era (320-550 CE ) began with Chandra-Gupta  (not to be confused with Chandragupta 320 BC) presiding over territory in the Ganges plain, which he expanded to include all of north India from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal, and from the Himalayas to the Vindhyas Mountains in central India. There were several successful Guptas, who between them created an era during which renunciant Buddhists, Jains and Hindus, along with arts and sciences, all thrived.
    By 606 Harsha was king of a state near Delhi. He seized most of the lands that the Gupta’s had ruled. Harsha proved himself to be every bit as competent a leader as the Guptas. He was meticulous with detailed administration, and spent a lot of his time inspecting his empire. Universities flourished under his rule.
    Between 630 and 645 CE, Chinese traveller Hwen Thsang98 toured India visiting the famous Buddhist sites and studying for two years at the world-famous Buddhist University of Nalanda, in the state of Bihar. He wrote about its curriculum, which included Buddhism, Brahmanism, metallurgy, image making, mathematics, astrology and logic. The university’s reputation was international, enrolling students as far afield as China, Korea, Tibet and South East Asia. Thsang returned to China with hundreds of Sanskrit texts and is credited with translating over a thousand scriptures into Chinese. He took a particular interest in Yogācāra (consciousness-only).
    When Harsha died in 647, his empire collapsed, and with it came the end of an era of Indian history. Asoka, Kanishka, the Guptas and Harsha were notable not only for the size of their empires, but also for the progressive and caring societies they nurtured. They are historical examples of how successful state interventionism can be. Even though these far reaching historical developments were inspired by the Buddhist concept of the Cakkavatti, the Dhamma wheel-turning ruler, the reader should note these kings offered impartial help. They did not attempt to make their kingdoms Buddhist.
    It should be understood that the Buddha was not a political leader. But the Dīgha Nikāya has some particularly fabulous parables, which link him to political and social policies. In one parable the Buddha tells a group of bhikkhus about a lineage of wheel-turning monarchs, who lose their wisdom, and how loss of wisdom at the highest level of society, leads to a loss of wisdom at the lowest.

Let no crime prevail in your kingdom, and to those who are in need, give property. And whatever ascetics and Brahmins in our kingdom are devoted to forbearance and gentleness  ...  from time to time go to them and consult them … That my son, is the duty of an Ariyan wheel-turning monarch.
    Sire as long as you rule the people ... differently from the way they were ruled before under previous wheel-turning monarchs, the people do not prosper so well.
Cakkavatti-Sīhanānda DN26:5-9

    The Parable goes on to attribute a lack of housing stock to rises in poverty, theft, and violent crime (10).
    Another parable in the Kutadanta discourse tells us, “once upon a time there was a King called Mahāvijita”, and his Chaplin recommended distributing grain and fodder for the elimination of plague and robbers (DN5:10-11).
    The Buddha was not a political figure. But if we believe the discourses, Siddhatta Gotama was definitely left of centre and an interventionist.
    India flourished as a world power under the above leaders, but as the centuries elapsed, its greatness atrophied. The arts and sciences lost their vibrancy as India became insular and vulnerable to invasion.

98 French sinologist Stanislas Julien (1797-1873) translated the writings of Hiuen Tsang from Chinese to French in the 19th century.

Muslim Invasion

In 711 CE, while Muslim forces were invading Spain, they were also fighting their way into the Indus valley, led by Mohammad Bin Qasim. They were to get no further than the Indus for nearly 300 years. Even so, Qasim’s forces still caused mayhem. They are known to have spent three days slaughtering the inhabitants of the port city of Debel, and to have enslaved women and children, and massacred perhaps as many as 16,000 men in Brahminabad99 .
    In 1001, Turk Mohammed of Ghazni marched on India, at the head of 15,000 horse-mounted troops. His bloodthirsty army zealously killed the infidel according to Koranic decree (Surat 2. Part1:89)100 . They expressed a particular hatred for Hindus, no doubt due to their idolatrous polytheism, and no apparent Abrahamic affiliations.
    India’s defence was greatly hindered by the caste system, which believed only warrior cast may fight101 . Its elephant cavalry also proved too slow against horsemen.
    Between 1175 and 1197 Mohammad Ghori made what is thought to be the first of 17 raids on India.
    In 1191 Mohammed Khilji attacked and occupied India. He burned and sacked the world famous Buddhist library and university at Nalanda, which had existed for some 700 years, since the 5th century102 . The library allegedly contained millions of Buddhist manuscripts. In Varanasi, Mathura, Ujjain, Mahāshwar, Jwalamukhi and Dwarka, not one temple survived intact. Mosques were built where temples once stood. Even as late as 1626, Islamic forces were destroying Hindu and Christian places of worship103 . As recently as March 2000, two stone Buddhas, some 50 and 34.5 meters tall, carved into sandstone cliffs of Bamiyan, in Afghanistan sometime during the second century AD, were dynamited by the Taliban (Muslim Jihadists).

99 Trifkovic S. The Sword Of The Prophet. Regina Orthodox Press. Chapter 3. 2002.

100 ‘… Although a foretime they had invoked Allah in order to gain victory over those who disbelieve … So let the curse of Allah be on disbelievers … So they have drawn upon themselves wrath upon wrath. And for the disbelievers, there is disgracing and torment.’

101 The Buddha’s teaching of the bandits with a two-handled sword, says if a bhikkhu as much as gets angry at being cut up, limb from limb, he would not be practicing the Buddha Dhamma. Whilst Buddhist peoples have fought wars, they have never gone to war in the name of Buddhism. The Pāli Canon simply does not contain the lexicon to call for war.

102 Warder op. cit. p220.

Resurrection of Buddhism in India

The Islamic invasion effectively purged India of Buddhism, scattering bhikkhus to Tibet and southern India. It was not until the 19th century that it was given a new lease of life by British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham. He began excavation at Sarnath, near Varanasi, in 1834, at the age of 19. By the 1890s, as director of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), he had successfully identified many Buddhist sites, such as Vasali, Kosambi and Kusinara. But two sites were missing: Lumbini, the birth place of the Buddha, and Kapilavastu, the location of the Buddha’s childhood, and the town and district his father had ruled over.
    Between 1915-1916, Cunningham, excavated Nalanda University, finding hundreds of metal objects, and fine statues and statuettes. He acknowledges his debt to French sinologist Stanislas Julien (1797-1873), who had translated the work of Hiuen Tsang from Chinese to French. Tsang left geographical and topographical descriptions of India. He had visited and wrote about a site he believed was Kapilavastu. He described a heavily fortified ancient city in ruins and noted the distance from Lumbini as 27 kilometres. Responding to local knowledge, Cunningham investigated a stone column just over the border in the jungle of Nepal. On a part of the pillar buried beneath the Earth, Cunningham found a message written in Brahmi script, stating the column marked the precise spot where the Buddha’s mother gave birth. The inscription also says Kapilavastu is located some tens of kilometres to the west.
    It was not for over a hundred years after Cunningham that Kapilavastu was discovered, in what is now called Tilaurakot, in Nepal. In January 2011, a UNESCO and Japanese funded team began a partial excavation of the site, led by Archaeologist Robin Coningham104 . They found the remains of an ancient and great wall, all but completely buried beneath jungle growth. It is the only ancient fortification in the region. It remains unexcavated but Coningham estimates that it was a small unsophisticated town, more like a hamlet and not a city of widely paved streets. The buildings were likely made of bamboo and mud, extending out from a fortified palace. Beyond the walls of the hamlet would have been the jungle as it is today.
    At the time, a far grander contemporary city than Kapilavastu was Rajagir, the capital of Magadha, which was ruled over by King Bimbisara. Large sections of its once protective 48 Kilometres of city wall are still standing.
    Alexander Cunningham was also associated with the excavation and restoration of the Mahābodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, where Siddhatta Gotama attained enlightenment. This work was completed by the anagarika (trainee bhikkhu) Dharmapala, who pioneered the Buddhist revival in India.
    Cunningham also helped excavate the Great Stupa at Sarnath. Sarnath is the deer park Mrigadava, (Sr. Migadāya), where the Buddha first taught the Dhamma, and where the first five arahants were realised. In the Pāli Canon it is called Isipatana (Sr. Rishipattana), which means the place where holy men fell to Earth.
    The Great Stupa at Sarnath was originally commissioned by the emperor Asoka, in the third century BC. Its nucleus was a simple hemispherical brick structure, housing a few relics of the Buddha’s cremated body. There are several Buddhist monuments in the area dating from the third century BC to the twelfth century AD, making the area an important place of Buddhist pilgrimage.
    Sanchi is a village in Raisen District of the state of Madhya Pradesh. In Sanchi is found a group of stupas, monasteries, temples and pillars, dating from the 3rd century BC to the 12th century AD. It was a place of ancient Buddhist learning, and now a place of pilgrimage. Many Buddhist artefacts have been found there showing symbols common in early Buddhist tradition. The lotus flower represents the Buddha’s birth, the Bodhi tree represents enlightenment, the Dhamma wheel represents the truth of cyclic existence, and footprints represent the Buddha himself.
        

The Caste System and The Dalits

Hierarchy is still very strong in India. People outside of the Hindu caste hierarchy are sometimes refered to as the the Darlits or untouchables. As recently as 1956 the untouchable caste had no legal representation in the Indian Congress. Change came with activist Bhimaro Ramji Ambedkar. His strategy for overcoming social exclusion was for the untouchables to convert to Buddhism. By becoming Buddhist, they were trying to break up old social psychologies and, no doubt, draw support from existing Buddhists. This was possible because Buddhists have never had a social casting. The Buddha taught that merit and therefore heavenly rebirth is independent of caste.
    Despite the Buddha-Dhamma being consistent with respect for all sentient beings, strictly speaking, the Dalit strategy is a misuse of the renunciative ideal. The Dalit strategy is a political effort to change the world, whereas a true renunciative effort is an attempt to be unaffected by the world.

104 The dig is scheduled to continue until 2014. http://www.dur.ac.uk/cech/news/ February 2012.