the first turning of the wheel of the doctrine 21with his hands and stops its turning,^24 eight thousand gods are con-
verted simultaneously with Kau inya,^25 and the one thousand monks
he addressed, attain arhat-ship.^26
As mentioned above, apart from the location of the rst preach-
ing, the accounts in the Madhyamgama and in the Ekottargama—the
two works that only contain the rst part of the account we nd in
the vinayas—also agree on the content of the Buddha’s preaching: the
two extremes to be avoided, and the middle mode of progress. They
do not mention the ministry on the four noble truths and their three
cycles and twelve constituent parts.^27 As the eight constituent parts of
the noble path can all be seen as characteristic for a “middle mode
of progress”, while this is not the case for the three other truths, it is
not unlikely that the fourth truth was the rst to be proclaimed by the
Buddha.^28 This would imply that the four noble truths as a set, are a
later modi cation.^29 This assumption seems to be sustained by the fact(^24) T.109.2.503b7–11.
(^25) T.109.2.503c13–14.
(^26) T.109.2.503c14–15. Waldschmidt 1951b, p. 96, remarks that in the Catupariats tra,
a text known through a Sanskrit manuscript from Eastern Turkestan and that stems
from the Drghgama of the (M la-)Sarvstivdins, the de nition of the four noble truths
follows the section with the three turns and twelve aspects. In this text, Ka#u inya
attains enlightenment after having heard the proclamation of the three cycles and
twelve aspects, without having heard the actual ministry on the four noble truths
(op. cit., p. 99). According to this text, Kau inya further attains arhat-ship after also
having heard the de nition of the four truths, while the other four monks do not (op.
cit., p. 100). The other four monks only attain arhat-ship after the further sermon on
the absence of a “self ”. At this moment, the text says, there are six arhats: the ve
monks and the Tathgata (op. cit., p. 100). See also Waldschmidt 1957, pp. 144–151.
See further notes 83 and 94.
(^27) As the initial part of the account, starting from the two extremes, appears in
the Pli, Sarvstivda, Mahsaka and Dharmaguptaka literature, it probably is
an ancient layer. See Bareau 1963, pp. 177–178. For the vinaya accounts, Bareau
1963, p. 178 suggests the following chronological order: Mahsaka, Theravda and
Dharmaguptaka. He situates the Sarvstivda account (T.26) in between the Theravda
and the Dharmaguptaka account.
(^28) See Bareau 1963, p. 180. Bronkhorst 2000, pp. 34–35: “Dem Thema der Befreiung
vom Leiden wird nie widersprochen in den buddhistischen Texten. Wir werden also
davon ausgehen, dass dies ein Hauptthema der Unterweisung des Buddha war. Wie
gesagt wird dieses Thema sehr oft in der Form der sogenannten vier edlen Wahrheiten
ausgedrückt. Man könnte in dieser aufzählenden Ausdrucksform vielleicht den Ein uss
der späteren Scholastiker sehen, aber dies ändert nichts an ihrem Sinngehalt: der
Buddha hat eine Methode gelehrt, dem Leiden ein Ende zu setzen.” 29
See Frauwallner 1953, p. 184; Schmithausen 1981, p. 203; Vetter 1996, p. 54;
Bronkhorst 2000, pp. 34–35. On the problem of precanonical Buddhism, see Schayer
1935, p. 121. Schayer 1935, p. 124: “The supposition that Buddha himself preached
the mrga without taking any interest in its dogmatic foundation, though it cannot be
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