admission to the order and the conducting of the rains-
retreat; and (3) the Parivara,a compendium of addi-
tional materials.
The vinaya texts list seven different sets of rules for
junior and senior members of the community. Besides
the rules for the bhiksus and bhiksunls(fully ordained
monks and nuns), there are also sets of rules for male
and female novices. The further special set of rules for
probationary nuns probably reflects a stage in the grad-
ual elimination of the female component of the com-
munity. The bhiksunlcomponent of the community
eventually died out in India, though it has continued
in China and Korea to the present day.
The morality expected of all members of the monas-
tic community is given in the pratimoksa. At its core
are four basic rules of defeat (parajika): to refrain from
taking life, from taking what is not offered freely, from
sexual activity, and from lying about spiritual attain-
ments. Transgression of any of these rules entails ex-
pulsion from the order. The different nikayas list
slightly different totals for the number of rules, rang-
ing from about 350 for the full bhiksunldown to about
thirteen for novices. Among these rules are some that
enjoin on members of the community the yellow-, ma-
roon-, or blue-colored robes, the begging bowl, the
kuti(monastic cell), and dietary habits such as not eat-
ing in the afternoon and not keeping food overnight.
The first major split in the san ̇gha occurred between
the MAHASAMGHIKAS(the Great Assembly, or Majori-
tyists) and the Sthaviras (elders). Since most of what
we know about the early history of the Buddhist order
comes from the Mahavamsa(Great Chronicle), a his-
tory written in Pali from the particular viewpoint
of monks of the ancient Mahavihara monastery in
Sri Lanka (the nikayafrom which the present-day
THERAVADAschool understands itself to originate),
there has been a tendency to overemphasize the dif-
ferences between different Buddhist nikayas,and to see
them as sects fundamentally opposed to each other,
rather than as different san ̇ghas, each connected
through the same basic pratimoksa.
The community of Buddhist monks and nuns has
never been a monolithic entity. It is possible that its
basic decentralized structure, characterized by the ab-
sence of a strong central ruler in favor of consensual
assemblies, reflects the customs of the S ́akyas, part of
the Vrji (Pali, Vajji) confederation in the area of north-
central India where S ́akyamuni (“the sage of the
S ́akyas”) was born. Although diversity was an integral
part of the Buddhist community from an early period,
the early nikayaswere careful to formulate themselves
in ways that avoided formal schism. Even after the
Mahasamghika/Sthavira schism, there was no funda-
mental split in the san ̇gha, and it is an error to imag-
ine that the split into HINAYANAand MAHAYANA
Buddhism was based on irreconcilable differences be-
tween these early nikayas.There were at least eighteen early Buddhist nikayas,
some of which give their names to later schools of Bud-
dhist practice and philosophy. Many, if not all, recited
the pratimoksa in their own vernacular language, and
it is likely that each also had a vinaya, and perhaps an
entire tripitaka. The complete tripitakaof the Ma-
havihara nikaya,or Theravada school, written in Pali,
became available to European-language scholars in the
nineteenth century.Although the original versions of the Vinaya Pitaka
of many of the other schools have been lost, except
for occasional texts and fragments, some are extant in
Chinese and Tibetan translation. Among them, the
Dharmaguptaka-vinayain particular was followed in
China and countries strongly influenced by Chinese
Buddhism, and the MULASARVASTIVADA-VINAYAwas
followed in Tibet and the regions influenced by it.Each san ̇gha was (and still is to a great extent) defined
by a shared recitation of the pratimoksa at a bimonthly
posadha(Pali, uposatha; confession or restoration-of-
morality ceremony) carried out while scrupulously fol-
lowing karmavacana (Pali, kammavaca; prescribed
formula) and ritual action dictated by tradition. Also
defining of a community are two other ritual activi-
ties: setting up the slma(established boundaries) for
the varsavasa(rains-retreat; Pali, vassavasa) and the rit-
ual crossing of those boundaries at the end of the re-
treat. This custom probably dates back to the original
followers of Gautama and to the places where build-
ings were located for groups of monks and nuns to
spend the rainy season. A minimum of ten, or in some
cases five, fully ordained members of a san ̇gha consti-
tute the required quorum. The presence or absence of
these defining acts of a san ̇gha is the basic criterion for
deciding whether or not the s ́asana(Pali, sasana; Bud-
dhist teaching) is or is not present in a particular re-
gion. Members of different communities keep basically
the same rules, but they do not attend each others’ cer-
emonies and they do not form a single san ̇gha, except
in the sense that they symbolize, through their clothes
and adherence to the rules in the pratimoksa,the com-
munity of noble beings described above.SAN ̇GHA