an ordained bhiksu (or bhiksunl). This is just one more
way in which the Pali Vinayaappears to be unrepre-
sentative.
In addition to the parajikas,the Pratimoksalists six
further categories of offenses (a seventh outlines cer-
tain procedures), again in decreasing order of serious-
ness. These again involve issues of SEXUALITYand
property, but overwhelmingly, perhaps, matters of
proper decorum. Actual ethical concerns are surpris-
ingly underdeveloped.
A second component part of the vinaya is called the
Vibhan ̇ga,or explanation, and is closely related to the
first. It is a kind of commentary on each of the rules
listed in the Pratimoksa,which typically describes the
incident that gave rise to each of the rules, the condi-
tions under which they must be applied, or in light of
which an infraction of the rule does not actually con-
stitute an offense. There are an impressive number of
loopholes, and the dialectical ingenuity applied to the
interpretation of the rules here is easily a match for
that found in the higher reaches of Buddhist scholas-
tic philosophy.
Although the bare Pratimoksawas regularly recited
at the fortnightly communal assembly of monks, it is
unlikely that the rules themselves were ever actually
applied without recourse to a Vibhan ̇ga, and this
makes all the difference in the world. The Mulasar-
vastivada Pratimoksa,for example, has—like all the
Pratimoksas—a rule that would seem to forbid the en-
gagement of bhiksus in money transactions, but its
Vibhan ̇gaunequivocally states that they must, for re-
ligious purposes, accept permanent money endow-
ments and lend that money out to generate interest.
This is but one of many possible examples.
A third component of Buddhist vinayas is what is
called the Vinayavastuor Khandhaka,both vastuand
khandhakameaning here something like “division” or
“chapter.” There are generally between seventeen and
twenty vastus,and they are named according to the
main topic that they treat. There is, for example, a chap-
ter on entering the religious life (Pravrajyavastu), a
chapter on the rainy season retreat (Varsavastu), a
chapter on medicine (Bhaisajyavastu), a chapter on
bedding and seats (Sayanasanavastu), and so on. Like
the Vibhan ̇ga,this part of a vinaya is large and very rich
in both details and illustrative stories. The name of a
vastuis, however, by no means an exhaustive indica-
tion of what it contains. The chapter on robes (Cvar-
avastu), for example, does indeed deal with robes, but
it also contains a good deal of material on Buddhist
monastic inheritance law and the proper handling of a
deceased monk’s estate, which, in some cases at least,
appears to have been very large. One of these vastus,
the chapter on small matters (Ksudrakavastu), is, iron-
ically, so large that it sometimes is treated as a separate
component.What has so far been described refers strictly speak-
ing to a vinaya for bhiksus. But another component
of a vinaya is both a separate Pratimoksaand a sepa-
rate Vibhan ̇ga for bhiksunls, a term that is usually
translated as “nun.” Although the number of rules for
bhiksunls, or NUNS, in their Pratimoksasis significantly
larger than the rules for monks, the literature dealing
with them is considerably smaller, and, for example,
there appears not to have been a separate Vinayavastu
for nuns, although the Pali Khandhakadoes contain
a chapter on nuns, and a large part of one of the two
volumes of the Mulasarvastivada Ksudrakavastualso
is devoted to them.Not so long ago a description of canonical vinaya
literature would have ended here, with perhaps a nod
toward the Pali Parivara,which is usually, but proba-
bly wrongly, described simply as an appendix. But very
recent work has begun to look more carefully at the
group of texts preserved in Chinese that are called
Nidanasand Matrkas,and their counterparts preserved
in the Tibetan translation of a large two-volume work
called the Uttaragrantha.These texts seem to represent
an independent ordering and treatment of vinaya
rules, and there are some indications that this treat-
ment may be older than that found in the better-
known parts of the vinaya. This research, however, has
only just begun, and the relative age of even the
better-known parts of the vinaya is itself unresolved.Theories on the date of vinaya literature
There are two general and opposed theories concern-
ing the development of vinaya literature, both of
which at least start from one of its most obvious char-
acteristics: Although belonging to different orders or
schools, the vinayas that have come down to us have,
as already noted, a great deal in common, both in
terms of their structure and their general contents.
One theory would see these shared elements as early
and argue that they predate the division of the Bud-
dhist community into separate orders or schools. An-
other theory would see these same elements as late, as
the result of mutual borrowing, conflation, and a
process of leveling. There are, of course, arguments
and evidence to support both theories.VINAYA