Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:27:27.009Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Sangha in Buddhist History1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

D. N. De L. Young
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Comparative Religion in the University of Manchester

Extract

Of all the distinctive features of the Buddhist religion, one of the most neglected is the sangha. Scholars give much attention to the study of texts and commentaries, the analysis of doctrines and the classification of schools. But the core of the Buddhist religion is the sangha, the community of bhikkhus around whose corporate life the religion is moulded. It is the existence and structure of the sangha which has shaped the history of Buddhism, enabled it to take root in new countries, and given it the customs and rituals which have made it a religion rather than a small sect.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 243 note 2 Vinaya, i. 6.

page 244 note 1 Vinaya, i. 7.

page 244 note 2 Dīgha Nikāya, ii. 106.

page 244 note 3 Vinaya, i. 17.

page 244 note 4 Deussen, P., The Philosophy of the Upanishads, Edinburgh, 1906, pp. 374–81.Google Scholar

page 244 note 5 Vinaya, i. 40.

page 245 note 1 Dīgha Nikāya, ii. 104.

page 245 note 2 Vinaya, i. 21.

page 245 note 3 Vinaya, i. 40.

page 245 note 4 Sutta Nipāta, 180.

page 245 note 5 Therāthā, 69.

page 247 note 1 Anguttara Nikāya, iv. 241.

page 247 note 2 Anguttara Nikāya, iv. 239.

page 247 note 3 Anguttara Nikāya, iv. 394.

page 247 note 4 Anguttara Nikāya, iv. 242.

page 247 note 5 Anguttara Nikāya, iv. 396.

page 248 note 1 Anguttara Nikāya, iv. 255.

page 248 note 2 Anguttara Nikāya, iv. 259.

page 248 note 3 Jacobi, H., ‘Jainism’ in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. VII, Edinburgh, 1914, p. 470.Google Scholar

page 249 note 1 Rock Edict, xiii.

page 249 note 2 Rock Edict, xii.

page 249 note 3 Mahavamsa, xv. 180–1.