The Earliest Vinaya and the Beginnings of Buddhist Literature

The book grows out of a broader investigation of Buddhist philosophy and literature. He states that the research led him increasingly toward the history of Buddhist literature, particularly the Vinaya, where he believed older literary forms and traditions could be recovered through comparison of the surviving school recensions. The study is consequently historical and philological: it examines textual structure, parallels, divergences and transmitted narratives rather than approaching Vinaya primarily as a normative manual of monastic discipline. 

The work’s central methodological premise is that the similarities and differences among the various Vinayas provide evidence for reconstructing earlier stages of Buddhist literary history. Frauwallner therefore investigates not only disciplinary rules but also the narrative frameworks surrounding them. This enables him to connect the development of the Vinaya with larger questions concerning the early Buddhist schools, the missions associated with Aśoka, the origins of the Skandhaka, the formation of Buddha biography and the earliest traditions of Buddhist ecclesiastical history.

Table of Contents

• Preface

• The Schools of Buddhism and the Missions of Aśoka

• Sarvāstivādin and Mūlasarvāstivādin

• The Origin of the Skandhaka

• Structure and Contents of the Old Skandhaka Text

• The Sources of the Old Skandhaka Text and the Earliest Buddhist Tradition

• The Biography of the Buddha and the Beginnings of the Buddhist Church History

• Appendix: Tradition and Structure of the Extant Vinaya Works

• Index