Third Buddhist council (c 250 BCE)

The Third Buddhist council was convened in about 250 BCE at Asokarama in Pataliputra. It was presided over by the Elder Moggaliputta Tissa and one thousand monks under the patronage of the Emperor Asoka.

The traditional reason for convening the Third Buddhist Council is reported to have been to rid the Sangha of corruption in the form of enemies who in the guise of supporters had infiltrated the Sangha, as well as monks who held heretical views. The council recommended the ruler Ashoka to expel sixty thousand Brahminic spies as well as re-evaluate the Pāli Canon.

It was presided over by the elder monk Moggaliputta-Tissa and one thousand monks participated in the Council. The council is recognized and known to both the Theravada and Mahayana schools, though its importance is central only to the Theravada.

Asoka was crowned in the two hundred and eighteenth year after the Buddha's Parinibbana. At first, he paid only token homage to the Dhamma and the Sangha and supported members of other religious sects as well as his father had done before him. However, all this changed when he met the pious novice-monk Nigrodha who preached to him the, Appamada-vagga. Thereafter, he ceased supporting other religious groups and his interest in and devotion to the Dhamma deepened.

He used his enormous wealth to build, it is said, eighty-four thousand pagodas, temples and viharas and to support the Bhikkhus with the four requisites daily and lavishly.

His son Mahinda and his daughter Sanghamitta were ordained and admitted to the Sangha.

Eventually, his generosity was to cause serious problems within the Sangha. In time the order was infiltrated by many unworthy men, holding heretical views and who were attracted to the order because of the Emperor's generous support and costly offerings of food, clothing, shelter and medicine. Large numbers of faithless, greedy men espousing wrong views tried to join the order but were deemed unfit for ordination. Despite this they seized the chance to exploit the Emperor's generosity for their own ends and donned robes and joined the order without having been ordained properly. Consequently, respect for the Sangha diminished. When this came to light some of the genuine monks refused to hold the prescribed purification or Uposatha ceremony in the company of the corrupt, heretical monks.

When the Emperor heard about this, he sought to rectify the situation and dispatched one of his ministers to the monks with the command that they perform the ceremony. However, the Emperor had given the minister no specific orders as to what means were to be used to carry out his command. The monks refused to obey and hold the ceremony in the company of their false and 'thieving', companions (theyyasinivasaka). In desperation the angry minister advanced down the line of seated monks and drawing his sword, beheaded all of them one after the other until he came to the King's brother, Tissa who had ordained. The horrified minister stopped the slaughter and fled the hall and reported back to the Emperor Asoka who was deeply grieved and upset by what had happened and blamed himself for the killings. He sought Thera Moggaliputta Tissa's counsel. He proposed that the heretical monks be expelled from the order and a third Council be convened immediately. So it was that in the seventeenth year of the Emperor's reign the Third Council was called.

Thera Moggaliputta Tissa headed the proceedings and chose one thousand monks from the sixty thousand participants for the traditional recitation of the Dhamma and the Vinaya, which went on for nine months. The Emperor, himself questioned monks from a number of monasteries about the teachings of the Buddha. Those who held wrong views were exposed and expelled from the Sangha, immediately. In this way the Bhikkhu Sangha was purged of heretics and bogus bhikkhus.

This council achieved a number of other important things as well. The Elder Moggaliputta Tissa in order to refute a number of heresies and ensure the Dhamma was kept pure, complied a book during the council called, the Kathavatthu. This book consists of twenty-three chapters, and is a collection of discussions (katha) and refutations of the heretical views held by various sects on matters philosophical. It is the fifth of the seven books of the Abhidhamma Pitaka. The members of this Council also gave a royal seal of approval to the doctrine of the Buddha, naming it the Vibhajjavada, the Doctrine of Analysis. It is identical with the approved Theravada doctrine.

One of the most significant achievements of this Buddhist assembly and one which was to bear fruit for centuries to come, was the Emperor's sending forth of monks, well versed in the Buddha's Dhamma and Vinaya who could recite all of it by heart, to teach it in nine different countries.

These Dhammaduta monks included the Venerable Majjhantika Thera who went to Kashmir and Gandhara. He was asked to preach the Dhamma and establish an order of monks there.

The Venerable Mahadeva was sent to Mahinsakamandala (modern Mysore) and the Venerable Rakkhita Thera was dispatched to Vanavasi (northern Kanara in the south of India.)

The Venerable Yonaka Dhammarakkhita Thera was sent to Upper Aparantaka (northern Gujarat, Kathiwara, Kutch and Sindh).

The Venerable Maharakkhita Thera went to Yonaka-loka (the land of the lonians, Bactrians and the Greeks.)

The Venerable Majjhima Thera went to Himavant (the place adjoining the Himalayas.)

The Venerable Sona and the Venerable Uttara were sent to Suvannabhumi (now Myamar).

The Venerable Mahinda Thera, The Venerable Ittiya Thera, the Venerable Uttiya Thera, the Venerable Sambala Thera and the Venerable Bhaddasala Thera were sent to Tambapanni (now Sri Lanka).

The Dhamma missions of these monks succeeded and bore great fruits in the course of time and went a long way in ennobling the peoples of these lands with the gift of the Dhamma and influencing their civilizations and cultures.