සිව්වන ධර්ම සංගායනාව

Fourth Buddhist Council is the name of two separate meetings. The first one was held in Sri Lanka and is traditionally attributed to the 1st century BCE. In this fourth Buddhist council the was for the first time committed to writing, on palm leaves. The second one was held by the school, in around the 1st century CE.

Fourth Buddhist Council in Sri Lanka

The Fourth Buddhist council of Theravada Buddhism was held at the in Sri Lanka under the patronage of in 25 BCE, but there is a major inconsistency if this died in 77 BCE and so was not around to patronize this Council some 52 years later. Norman places the life of this King in the period 29 BCE to 17 BCE which is in stark disagreement to a death year of 77 BCE for :

The Dipavamsa states that during the reign of (29–17 BCE) the monks who had previously remembered the Tipitaka and its commentary orally now wrote them down in books, because of the threat posed by famine, war, and the growing power of the newly established Abhayagiri vihara, which enjoyed the king's favour. The Mahavamsa also refers briefly to the writing down of the canon and the commentaries at this time

The council was held in response to a year in which the harvests in Sri Lanka were particularly poor and many subsequently died of starvation. Because the was at that time maintained in several recensions by dhammabhāṇakas ( reciters), the surviving monks recognized the danger of not writing it down so that even if some of the monks whose duty it was to study and remember parts of the Canon for later generations died, the teachings would not be lost.

After the Council, containing the completed Canon were taken to other countries such as , Thailand, and .^[]

Fourth Buddhist Council in Kashmir

The Fourth Buddhist Council of the tradition is said to have been convened by the emperor (r. CE 127-151), perhaps at Harwan, near Srinagar, Kashmir. The Fourth Council of Kashmir is not recognized as authoritative for the Theravadins; reports of this council can be found in scriptures which were kept in the tradition. The Mahayana tradition based some of its scriptures on (refutations of) the Sarvastivadin texts.

It is said that for the Fourth Council of Kashmir, Kanishka gathered 500 monks headed by , partly, it seems, to compile extensive commentaries on the Sarvastivadin Abhidharma, although it is possible that some editorial work was carried out upon the existing canon itself. The main fruit of this Council was the vast commentary known as the ("Great Exegesis"), an extensive compendium and reference work on a portion of the Sarvastivadin Abhidharma.

See also

References

1. An expert is needed to comment and resolve this dispute.
2. p. 10, A History of Indian Literature, Edited by Jan Gonda, Volume VII, 1983, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden
3. Mahavamsa. p. 100.
4. Buswell & Lopez 2013, පිටු අංකය: 200.

Bibliography

• ; (2013). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press. ISBN . {{}}: Invalid |ref=harv ()