the Uposatha ceremony, and the edict about schismatics is to be brought
to the notice of the laity, which doubtless means that the laity are not
to give alms to them.

It is probable that many more inscriptions remain to be discovered but
none of those known allude to the convening of a Council and our
information as to this meeting comes from the two Sinhalese Chronicles
and the works of Buddhaghosa. It is said to have been held two hundred
and thirty-six years after the death of the Buddha[597] and to have been
necessitated by the fact that the favour shown to the Sangha induced
heretics to become members of it without abandoning their errors. This
occasioned disturbances and the King was advised to summon a sage called
Tissa Moggaliputta (or Upagupta) then living in retirement and to place
the affairs of the church in his hands. He did so. Tissa then composed
the Katha-vatthu and presided over a council composed of one thousand
arhats which established the true doctrine and fixed the present Pali
Canon.

Even so severe a critic of Sinhalese tradition as Vincent Smith admits
that the evidence for the council is too strong to be set aside, but it
must be confessed that it would be reassuring to find some allusion to
it in Asoka's inscriptions. He did not however always say what we should
expect. In reviewing his efforts in the cause of religion he mentions
neither a council nor foreign missions, although we know from other
inscriptions that such missions were despatched. The sessions of the
council may be equally true and are in no way improbable, for in later
times kings of Burma, Ceylon and Siam held conventions to revise the
text of the Tripitaka. It appeared natural that a pious King should see
that the sacred law was observed, and begin by ascertaining what that
law was.

According to tradition Asoka died after reigning thirty-eight or forty
years but we have no authentic account of his death and the stories of
his last days seem to be pure legends. The most celebrated are the
pathetic tale of Kunala which closely resembles a Jataka[598], and the
account of how Asoka vowed to present a hundred million gold pieces to
the Sangha and not being able to raise the whole sum made a gift of his
dominions instead.

3

Asoka had a decisive effect on the history of Buddhism, especially in
making it a world religion. This was not the accidental result of his
action in establishing it in north-west India and Ceylon, fo