THE FIRST TURNING OF THE WHEEL OF
THE DOCTRINE: SARVSTIVDA AND
MAHSGHIKA CONTROVERSY
Bart Dessein (Ghent University)- Introduction
After an initial period in which the Buddhist faith did not spread beyond
the boundaries of the region where the Buddha spent his life, the ter-
ritorial expansion of the Mauryan Empire under the famous king Aoka
(r. ca. 270–ca. 230 BC) enabled Buddhism to quickly spread through-
out India. This geographical expansion of the community gradually
invoked different interpretations of the word of the Buddha, and led
to the formation of different sects and schools.^1
The dispute between the Sarvstivdins and the Mahsghikas on
the nature of the wheel of the doctrine and on the event that should
be considered as the ( rst) turning of this wheel of the doctrine is an
interesting example of scholarly debate between different Hnayna
groups on the Indian subcontinent. This discussion, recorded in the
Abhidharma literature, illustrates how the spread of Buddhism led to
different interpretations of even such fundamental issues as: “What is
the nature of what the Buddha said?” and “Where and to whom did
He deliver his rst sermon?”
The Mahsghikas were involved in the rst division of the Bud-
dhist community early in the second century after the demise of the
Buddha,^2 that is, the schism between the Mahsghikas and the
Sthaviravdins. This schism was most likely invoked by the expansion
of the root Vinaya text by the future Sthaviravdins, an expansion
that was not accepted by the later Mahsghikas.^3 In the second(^1) We here follow the distinction between “schools” and “sects” as de ned by Heinz
Bechert 1961.
(^2) Nattier & Prebish 1976–1977, p. 239, suggest the date 116 Anno Buddhae.
(^3) On the primacy of monastic matters over doctrinal matters in the formation of
the earliest Buddhist schools, see Frauwallner 1956 and Bechert 1961. On the relation
of the so-called “ ve points of Mahdeva” to the rst schism in the community, see
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