Note 26 — Chapter III

The virtuous and zealous Kathaba was at once convinced of the absolute necessity of soon holding a meeting of the wisest members of the assembly, for the purpose of ascertaining, and authoritatively determining, the genuineness of Buddha’s doctrines. Human passions were already at work, deforming more or less in various ways the instructions of the great preacher. Many, laying more stress on their talents than on the authority of their departed instructor, began to entertain on certain questions views and opinions evidently at variance with those of Buddha. The enemies of truth were numerous even during his lifetime, when as yet overawed by his presence and matchless wisdom. Kathaba sagaciously foresees that their number and boldness would soon increase to a fearful extent and threaten the very existence of religion. He was roused to exertions by such considerations, and on that very moment he resolved to assemble the elders of the assembly, as soon as convenient after Buddha’s funeral. He was, it appears, acknowledged by common consent the first of the disciples. He was entitled to that distinction by the renown of his abilities before his conversion, and by his great proficiency under Buddha’s teachings subsequently to that event. But a circumstance related by Kathaba clearly indicates the intimate familiarity existing between the master and the disciple, and the unbounded confidence the former placed in the latter. During a walk, the two friends, if such an expression be allowed, had entered into a more than usual intimate communion of thoughts and feelings; the soul of the one had passed into the person of the other, or rather both souls were blended together, and united so as to become one in the bosom of a virtuous, high, refined, sublime, and philosophic friendship. They made an exchange of their cloaks. Kathaba, by putting on Buddha’s cloak, inherited as it were his spirit and his authority. Hence his legitimate right to be appointed president or head of the first council, assembled a little while after Gaudama’s Neibban.

Our author maintains that the first council was held three months after Gaudama’s demise. This important step was taken at Radzagio, the capital of the kingdom of King Adzatathat, who doubtless made use of his royal power to secure tranquillity during the deliberations of this assembly, under the presidency of Kathaba. The number of religious that formed the council is reckoned at five hundred. Its object was, as mentioned by Kathaba himself, to silence the voice of many who wished to innovate in religious matters, and follow their own views, instead of the doctrines of Buddha. They wished to shake off the yoke of authority, and arrange all things in their own way.

The second general assembly of the Buddhist religious was held one hundred years later at Wethalie, in the tenth year of the reign of King Kalathoka, under the presidency of Ratha, who was assisted by seven hundred religious. The object of this assembly was to regulate several matters of discipline. It is probable that a spirit of innovation had reappeared and begun to undermine the strictness of the disciplinary institutions, threatening to weaken the ties that kept together the members of the religious body, and deprive it of that halo of sacredness that had hitherto rendered it an object of so profound and general esteem, respect and veneration. The council, moreover, revised the canon of sacred books, and purified it from all the imperfections and spurious writings that had been embodied in it.

Two hundred and eighteen years after Gaudama’s death, King Damathoka or Athoka ascended the throne of Palibotra, which was the capital of a vast and powerful empire. It was in the seventeenth year of that monarch’s reign that the third and last general assembly was held at Palibotra, under the presidency of Maugalipata. The last and final revision of the sacred scriptures was made with the greatest care and labour. The pious Athoka lent to the decisions of the assembly the influence of the secular power. The Pittagat, or the collection of the religious books, such as it now exists, is supposed to be the work of that council. In the two following chapters, the subject of the councils shall receive the attention it deserves.

There is a most important fact to be noticed here, which must be considered as a most remarkable result of the third assembly. It forms the grandest era in the history of Buddhism, and it is carefully noted down by our Burmese author. I mean the extraordinary zeal and fervour which seemed at that time to have simultaneously and powerfully acted for the bringing about of this mighty but peaceful religious commotion, that was to be felt, not only in the Indian Peninsula, but far beyond the valley of Cashmere, the country of Guzerat in the west and north-west, beyond the snowy ranges of the Himalaya in the north, and the territories and kingdoms in an eastern direction. King Athoka was then at the height of his power. His religious zeal induced him to make use of all the vast resources at his command to favour the development of the comparatively new religion. During the holding of the council, the religious tempered, as it were, their zeal, fervour, devotion, and ardour for their religious creed, in the middle of their conferences. They resolved to propagate with unremitting zeal the tenets of the holy religion, and extend it all over the world. The spirit of Gaudama seemed to have been infused into the soul of every individual religious. His ardent fervour glowed in the soul of all, who from that period had but one desire, that of extending the boundaries of their spiritual empire.

This is certainly one of those extraordinary epochs, when the indolent and apathetic mind of the Hindus, after centuries of a profound slumbering, seems on a sudden to awake, and, with an unexpected vigour and youthful energy, bursting forth as a terrific hurricane, brings about the most astounding revolutions, or commotions, that sweep away with irresistible power the old political and religious forms, to establish new ones on the ruins of the former. The religious zeal that seized on the Buddhists of those days, and impelled them with an unheard-of resolution to disseminate their doctrines, coupled with the astonishing success that attended their preachings, forms one of the most prominent periods in the religious history of the world.