The Spread of Buddhism

16 bart dessein

century after the Buddha’s parinirva, the Mahsghikas split into

the Ekavyavahrikas, the Lokottaravdins, the Bahurutyas, the

Kukkuikas, and the Prajñaptivdins. Epigraphical evidence reveals

that the Ekavyavahrikas and the Lokottaravdins moved into present-

day Afghanistan, and that at least some of the Bahurutyas resided

in present-day Pakistan.^4 The Prajñaptivdins moved to the Hmlaya

mountains. The place of residence of the Kukkuikas is unclear. After

Mathur had been the Mahsghika stronghold in the second half of

the  rst century BC,^5 the school also spread to the south of the Indian

subcontinent, more precisely to the K   

 valley region. Epigraphic

evidence of the presence of the Mahsghikas and their different sub-

schools in the K    

 valley region, dates back to the second and third

centuries AD.^6 This means that, at the time of the compilation of the

Vaibh

ika *Abhidharmamahvibhstra, our major Abhidharma source

of information on the Sarvstivda and Mahsghika controversy

under scrutiny here, the Mahsghikas had become an important

Buddhist group also in the south.

2. Treatment of the Subject in STRAand VINAYA Literature

To answer the question on which premises the discussion on the nature

of the wheel of the doctrine and its  rst turning may have arisen, we

need to investigate the different accounts of the  rst turning of the

wheel of the doctrine in the S tra and Vinaya literature. As the Vinaya

literature contains the most complete accounts, we start with discussing

the Vinaya literature.

The  rst sermon of the Buddha is narrated in the Pli Vinaya,

the Mahsakavinaya «Mishasai bu hexi wufen lü» (T.1421), and the

Dharmaguptakavinaya «Sifen lü» (T.1428).^7 All three accounts start with

Dessein, “Of Tempted Arhats and Supermundane Buddhas: Abhidharma in the K   



Region”, in: Anthony Barber & Sri Padma Holt (eds.). Buddhism in the K River Valley

of Andhra 4. State University of New York Press (forthcoming).

See Kieffer-Pülz 2000, pp. 293–294.

(^5) Lamotte 1958, p. 580. See also Shizutani 1965.
(^6) See Epigraphia Indica XX, pp. 15–17, 17, 19–20, 21–22, 24; Epigraphia Indica XXI,
pp. 61–62; Epigraphia Indica XXIV, pp. 256–260; Epigraphia Indica XXVII, pp. 1–4;
Lüders 1973, nos. 1223, 1230, 1244, 1248, 1250, 1263, 1272, 1270; Sivaramamurti
1942, p. 278. See further also Lamotte 1958, p. 580. 7
Pli Vinaya, Mahvagga I.6.18–29 (Oldenberg 1964, pp. 10–11; Rhys Davids &
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