o documents, for it opens as a narrative by Kassapa, but it soon
turns into a narrative about him. But the clumsiness in compilation and
the errors of detail are hardly sufficient to discredit an event which
is probable in itself and left an impression on tradition. The Buddha
combined great personal authority with equally great liberality. While
he was alive he decided all questions of dogma and discipline himself,
but he left to the Order authority to abolish all the minor precepts. It
seems inevitable that some sort of meeting should have been held to
consider the position created by this wide permission. Brief and
confused as the story in the Cullavagga is, there is nothing improbable
in its outline--namely that a resolution was taken at Kusinara where he
died to hold a synod during the next rains at Rajagaha, a more central
place where alms and lodgings were plentiful, and there come to an
agreement as to what should be accepted as the true doctrine and
discipline. Accordingly five hundred monks met near this town and
enquired into the authenticity of the various rules and suttas. They
then went on to ask what the Buddha had meant by the lesser and minor
precepts which might be abolished. Ananda (who came in for a good deal
of blame in the course of the proceedings) confessed that he had
forgotten to ask the Master for an explanation and divergent opinions
were expressed as to the extent of the discretion allowed. Kassapa
finally proposed that the Sangha should adopt without alteration or
addition the rules made by the Buddha. This was approved and the Dhamma
and Vinaya as chanted by the assembled Bhikkhus were accepted. The
Abhidhamma is not mentioned. The name usually given to these councils is
Sangiti, which means singing or chanting together. An elder is said to
have recited the text sentence by sentence and each phrase was intoned
after him by the assembly as a sign of acceptance. Upali was the
principal authority for the Vinaya and Ananda for the Dhamma but the
limits of the authority claimed by the meeting are illustrated by an
anecdote[554] which relates that after the chanting of the law had been
completed Purana and his disciples arrived from the Southern Hills. The
elders asked him to accept the version rehearsed by them. He replied,
"The Dhamma and Vinaya have been well sung by the Theras, nevertheless
as they have been received and heard by me from the mouth of the Lord,
so will I hold them." In other wo