The Age of Vinaya

The study begins by distinguishing Dhamma from Vinaya: Dhamma concerns the Buddha’s teaching and the inner spiritual development of his followers, while Vinaya regulates the external conduct and collective life of monks and nuns. Misra compares the Buddhist disciplinary system with Brahmanical and Jain ascetic traditions and identifies the distinctive corporate character of the Buddhist Saṅgha. Unlike more dispersed ascetic communities, the Buddhist Order developed an extensive body of rules covering individual behaviour, institutional offices, legal procedures, communal administration, and the circumstances surrounding the formulation of each precept. The subsequent analysis reconstructs the first period of Buddhist history through the Vinaya record. It surveys the surviving Pāli, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan Vinaya traditions; examines the role of the first Buddhist Councils in the formation and transmission of disciplinary literature; and studies the evolution of monastic practices in relation to Buddhist doctrine. The later sections broaden the inquiry to education, social organization, political history, art, architecture, economic conditions, and material culture, thereby presenting a comprehensive account of ancient Indian civilization as reflected in Pāli Vinaya literature.