Dharmaguptaka - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Dharmaguptaka
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Dharmaguptaka (Sanskrit: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Fzng B) are one of the eighteen or twenty early Buddhist schools, depending on one's source. They are said to have originated from another sect, the Mahsakas. The Dharmaguptakas had a prominent role in early Central Asian and Chinese Buddhism, and their monastic rules for bhikus and bhikus are still in effect in some East Asian countries to this day, including China, Vietnam, Korea, and Taiwan. They are one of three surviving Vinaya lineages, along with the Theravda and the Mlasarvstivda.

Contents
1 Doctrinal development 2 Appearance 3 History 3.1 In Northwest India and Central Asia 3.2 In East Asia 4 Texts 4.1 Gandhran Buddhist texts 4.2 Vinaya translation 4.3 gama collections 4.4 Additional piakas 4.5 Abhinikramaa Stra 5 Relationship to the Mahyna 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links
Central Asian Buddhist monk teaching a Chinese monk. Bezeklik, 9th-10th century

Early Buddhism
Scriptures
Gandhran texts gamas Pali Canon

Doctrinal development
The Dharmaguptaka doctrine appears to have been characterized by an understanding of the Buddha as separate from Sagha so that his teaching is superior to the one given by arhats. They also emphasise the merit of devotion to stupas, which often had pictorial representation of the stories Buddha's previous life as a bodhisattva, as portrayed in the Jatakas. The Dharmaguptakas regarded the path of a rvaka (rvakayna) and the path of a bodhisattva (bodhisattvayna) to be separate. The Dharmaguptaka are known to have rejected the authority of the Sarvstivda pratimoka rules on the grounds that the original teachings of the Buddha had been lost.[1]

Councils
1st Council 2nd Council 3rd Council 4th Council

Schools
First Sangha Mahsghika Ekavyvahrika Lokottaravda Bahurutya Prajaptivda Caitika Sthaviravda Mahsaka Dharmaguptaka Kyapya Sarvstivda Vibhajyavda Theravda

Appearance

Between 148 and 170 CE, the Parthian monk An Shigao came to China and translated a work which described the color of monastic robes (Skt. kya) utitized in five major Indian Buddhist sects, called Da Biqiu Sanqian Weiyi ( view talk edit (//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Early_Buddhism&action=edit) ).[2] Another text translated at a later date, the ariputraparipcch, contains a very similar passage with nearly the same information.[2] However, the colors for Dharmaguptaka and Sarvstivda are reversed. In the earlier source, the Sarvstivda are described as wearing deep red robes, while the Dharmaguptaka are described as wearing black robes.[3] The corresponding passage found in the later ariputraparipcch, in contrast, portrays the Sarvstivda as wearing black robes and the Dharmaguptaka as wearing deep red robes.[3] During the Tang Dynasty, the Chinese Buddhist monastics typically wore grayish-black robes, and were even colloquially referred to as Ziyi (), "those of the black robes."[4] However, the Song Dynasty monk Zanning (9191001 CE) writes that during the earlier Han-Wei period, the Chinese monks typically wore red robes.[5]

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Dharmaguptaka - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharmaguptaka

According to the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, the robes of monastics should be sewn out of no more than 18 pieces of cloth, and the cloth should be fairly heavy and coarse.[6]

History
In Northwest India and Central Asia
The Gandharan Buddhist texts, the earliest Buddhist texts ever discovered, are apparently dedicated to the teachers of the Dharmaguptaka school. They tend to confirm a flourishing of the Dharmaguptaka school in northwestern India around the 1st century CE, with Gndhr as the canonical language, and this would explain the subsequent influence of the Dharmaguptakas in Central Asia and then northeastern Asia. According to Buddhist scholar A.K. Warder, the Dharmaguptaka originated in Aparnta.[7] Scholars over the years have asserted that the Dharmaguptaka were founded by a Greek monk:[8] One of the major missionaries was Yonaka Dhammarakkhita. He was, as his name indicates, a Greek monk, native of 'Alasanda' (Alexandria). He features in the Pali tradition as a master of The region of Aparnta, psychic powers as well as an expert on Abhidhamma. He went to the Greek-occupied areas in the where the Dharmaguptakas west of India. Long ago Przyuski, followed by Frauwallner, suggested that Dhammarakkhita be are believed to have identified with the founder of the Dharmaguptaka school, since dhammarakkhita and [9] originated dhammagutta have identical meaning. Since that time two pieces of evidence have come to light that make this suggestion highly plausible. One is the positive identification of very early manuscripts belonging to the Dharmaguptakas in the Gandhra region, exactly where we expect to find Yonaka Dhammarakkhita. The second is that the phonetic rendering of his name in the Sudassanavinayavibhs evidently renders 'Dharmagutta' rather than 'Dhammarakkhita'. According to one scholar, the evidence afforded by the Gandharan Buddhist texts "suggest[s] that the Dharmaguptaka sect achieved early success under their Indo-Scythian supporters in Gandhra, but that the sect subsequently declined with the rise of the Kua Empire (ca. mid-first to third century A.D.), which gave its patronage to the Sarvstivda sect."[10] In the 7th century CE, Xuanzang and Yijing both recorded that the Dharmaguptakas were located in Oiyna and Central Asia, but not on the mainland of India.[11] Yijing grouped the Mahsaka, Dharmaguptaka, and Kyapya together as sub-sects of the Sarvstivda, and stated that these three were not prevalent in the "five parts of India," but were located in the some parts of Oiyna, Khotan, and Kucha.[12]

In East Asia
The Dharmaguptakas made more efforts than any other sect to spread Buddhism outside India, to areas such as Iran, Central Asia, and China, and they had great success in doing so.[13] Therefore, most countries which adopted Buddhism from China, also adopted the Dharmaguptaka vinaya and ordination lineage for bhikus and bhikus. According to A.K. Warder, in some ways in those East Asian countries, the Dharmaguptaka sect can be considered to have survived to the present.[14] Warder further writes:[15] It was the Dharmaguptakas who were the first Buddhists to establish themselves in Central Asia. They appear to have carried out a vast circling movement along the trade routes from Aparnta north-west into Iran and at the same time into Oiyna (the Suvastu valley, north of Gandhra, which became one of their main centres). After establishing themselves as far west as Parthia they followed the "silk route", the east-west axis of Asia, eastwards across Central Asia and on into China, where they effectively established Buddhism in the second and third centuries A.D. The Mahsakas and Kyapyas appear to have followed them across Asia into China. [...] For the earlier period of Chinese Buddhism it was the Dharmaguptakas who constituted the main and most influential school, and even later their Vinaya remained the basis of the discipline there. During the early period of Chinese Buddhism, the Indian Buddhist sects recognized as important, and whose texts were studied, were the Dharmaguptakas, Mahsakas, Kyapyas, Sarvstivdins, and the Mahsghikas.[16]

Full bhiku ordination is common in the Dharmaguptaka lineage. Vesak festival, Taiwan

Texts
Gandhran Buddhist texts
The Gandhran Buddhist texts (the oldest extant Buddhist manuscripts) are attributed to the Dharmaguptaka sect by Richard Salomon, the leading scholar in the field, and the British Library scrolls "represent a random but reasonably representative fraction of what was probably a much larger set of texts preserved in the library of a monastery of the Dharmaguptaka sect in Nagarhra."[17][18]

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Among the Dharmaguptaka Gandhran Buddhist texts in the Schyen Collection, is a fragment in the Kharoh script referencing the Six Pramits, a central practice for bodhisattvas in Mahyna doctrine.[19]

Vinaya translation
In the early 5th century CE, Dharmaguptaka Vinaya was translated into Chinese by the Dharmaguptaka monk Buddhayaas () of Kashmir. For this translation, Buddhayaas recited the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya entirely from memory, rather than reading it from a written manuscript.[20] After its translation, the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya became the predominant vinaya in Chinese Buddhist monasticism. The Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, or monastic rules, are still followed today in Taiwan, China, Vietnam and Korea, and its lineage for the ordination of monks and nuns has survived uninterrupted to this day. The name of the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya in this tradition is the Si Fen L (), or Four-Part Vinaya, and the equivalent Sanskrit title would be Caturvargika Vinaya.[21] Ordination under the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya only relates to monastic vows and lineage (Vinaya), and does not conflict with the actual Buddhist teachings that one follows (Dharma).

gama collections
The Drgha gama ("Long Discourses," Chng Ahnjng Taish 1)[22] corresponds to the Dgha Nikya of the Theravada school. A complete version of the Drgha gama of the Dharmaguptaka sect was translated by Buddhayaas and Zhu Fonian () in the Later Qin dynasty, dated to 413 CE. It contains 30 stras in contrast to the 34 suttas of the Theravadin Dgha Nikya.

Additional piakas
The Dharmaguptaka Tripiaka is said to have contained two extra sections that were not included by some other schools. These included a Bodhisattva Piaka and a Mantra Piaka ( Zhu Zng), also sometimes called a Dhra Piaka.[23] According to the 5th century Dharmaguptaka monk Buddhayaas, the translator of the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya into Chinese, the Dharmaguptaka school had assimilated the "Mahyna Tripiaka" ( Dchng Snzng).[24]

Abhinikramaa Stra
The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive of all classical biographies of the Buddha, and is entitled Abhinikramaa Stra. Various Chinese translations of this text date from between the 3rd and 6th century CE.

Relationship to the Mahyna

Paramrtha, a 6th century CE Indian monk from Ujjain, unequivocally associates the Dharmaguptaka school with the Mahyna, and portrays the Dharmaguptakas as being perhaps the closest to a straightforward Mahyna sect.[25] It is unknown when some members of the Dharmaguptaka school began to accept the Mahyna stras, but the Majurmlakalpa records that Kanika (127-151 CE) of the Kua Empire presided over the establishment of Prajpramit doctrines in the northwest of India.[26] Trantha wrote that in this region, 500 bodhisattvas attended the council at Jlandhra monastery during the time of Kanika, suggesting some institutional strength for Mahyna in the northwest during this period.[27] Edward Conze goes further to say that Prajpramit had great success in the northwest during the Kua period, and may have been the "fortress and hearth" of early Mahyna, but not its origin, which he associates with the Mahsghika branch.[28]

Bhikus performing a traditional Buddhist ceremony in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China

According to Joseph Walser, there is evidence that the Pacaviatishasrik Prajpramit Stra (25,000 lines) and the atashasrik Prajpramit Stra (100,000 lines) have a connection with the Dharmaguptaka sect, while the Aashasrik Prajpramit Stra (8000 lines) does not.[29]

See also
Buddhism in Central Asia Schools of Buddhism Silk Road transmission of Buddhism

Notes
1. ^ Baruah, Bibhuti. Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism. 2008. p. 52 2. ^ a b Hino, Shoun. Three Mountains and Seven Rivers. 2004. p. 55 3. ^ a b Hino, Shoun. Three Mountains and Seven Rivers. 2004. pp. 55-56

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4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

9.

10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29.

^ Kieschnick, John. The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture. 2003. pp. 89-90 ^ Kieschnick, John. The Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography. 1997. p. 29 ^ Kieschnick, John. The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture. 2003. pp. 91-92 ^ Warder, A.K. Indian Buddhism. 2000. p. 278 ^ Bhikkhu Sujato. "Abstract: Sects & Sectarianism. The Origin of the three existing Vinaya lineages: Theravada, Dharmaguptaka, and Mulasarvastivada" (http://www.congress-on-buddhist-women.org/index.php?id=62) . http://www.congress-on-buddhist-women.org /index.php?id=62. ^ In Pali, "Dhamma-rakkhita" literally means "Dhamma-protector" while "Dhamma-gutta" means "Dhamma-guard." In this context, "Dhamma" could be translated as either "Truth" or "teaching." "Gutta" is a Pali cognate for the Sanskrit "gupta." In the Pali Canon, the term dhammagutta can be found, e.g., in SN 11.4 (translated as "guarding the dhamma" by Andrew Olendzki, 2005). (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn11/sn11.004.olen.html) ^ "The Discovery of 'the Oldest Buddhist Manuscripts'" Review article by Enomoto Fumio. The Eastern Buddhist, Vol NS32 Issue I, 2000, pg 161 ^ Baruah, Bibhuti. Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism. 2008. p. 52 ^ Yijing. Li Rongxi (translator). Buddhist Monastic Traditions of Southern Asia. 2000. p. 19 ^ Warder, A.K. Indian Buddhism. 2000. p. 278 ^ Warder, A.K. Indian Buddhism. 2000. p. 489 ^ Warder, A.K. Indian Buddhism. 2000. pp. 280-281 ^ Warder, A.K. Indian Buddhism. 2000. p. 281 ^ "The Discovery of 'the Oldest Buddhist Manuscripts'" Review article by Enomoto Fumio. The Eastern Buddhist, Vol NS32 Issue I, 2000, pg 160 ^ Richard Salomon. Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhra: The British Library Kharosth Fragments, with contributions by Raymond Allchin and Mark Barnard. Seattle: University of Washington Press; London: The British Library, 1999. pg 181 ^ Presenters: Patrick Cabouat and Alain Moreau (2004). "Eurasia Episode III - Gandhara, the Renaissance of Buddhism". Eurasia. Episode 3. 11:20 minutes in. France 5 / NHK / Point du Jour International. ^ Scharfe, Harmut. Education in Ancient India. 2002. pp. 24-25 ^ Williams, Jane, and Williams, Paul. Buddhism: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies, Volume 3. 2004. p. 209 ^ Muller, Charles. Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, entry on (http://www.buddhism-dict.net/cgi-bin/xpr-ddb.pl?96.xml+id('b963f542b-7d93')) ^ Baruah, Bibhuti. Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism. 2008. p. 52 ^ Walser, Joseph. Ngrjuna in Context: Mahyna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture. 2005. pp. 52-53 ^ Walser, Joseph. Ngrjuna in Context: Mahyna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture. 2005. p. 52 ^ Ray, Reginald. Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values and Orientations. 1999. p. 410 ^ Ray, Reginald. Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values and Orientations. 1999. p. 410 ^ Ray, Reginald. Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values and Orientations. 1999. p. 426 ^ Williams, Paul. Mahyna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. 2008. p. 6

References
Foltz, Richard, Religions of the Silk Road, Palgrave Macmillan, 2nd edition, 2010 ISBN 978-0-230-62125-1 Heirmann. Rules for Nuns According to the Dharmaguptakavinaya. ISBN 81-208-1800-8. Ven. Bhikshuni Wu Yin (2001). Choosing Simplicity. Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1-55939-155-3.

External links
The Gandharan texts and the Dharmaguptaka (http://www.ebmp.org/) Sects & Sectarianism - The origins of Buddhist Schools (http://sectsandsectarianism.googlepages.com/home) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dharmaguptaka&oldid=535046885" Categories: Nikaya schools Early Buddhist schools Buddhism in China Buddhism in Korea Buddhism in Vietnam Gandhara History of Central Asia Religion in Central Asia Silk Road

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