Thirty_Years_of_Buddhist_studies,Conze

8 Thirty Years of Buddhist Studies
to jump from the existing Scriptures straight back to the
Buddha's time. It is certainly not good enough any longer to
go through the Pali Scriptures, take out the bits which take
one's fancy, and call them " the original gospel 11 . That method,
easy to apply, and therefore unduly popular, yields no objectively
valid results. In fact, all one can attempt to do is to go
back from stage to stage and here is a diagram of the stages
one has to bear in mind:
The doctrine of the Buddha
480 Nirvana of the Buddha
The doctrine of the most ancient community
** Pre-canonical *' ideas
340 Mahasanghikas / / / Sthaviras
Skandhaka
280 Ninefold .or Pudgalavadins / / /. Sthaviras
Twelvefold
Asoka
Scripture . 274-236
244 Vibhajyavadins / / / Sarvastivadins
Matrkas
100-
Tripitaka Scriptures written down Abhidharma Prajfla-
100 paramita
In other words, before we can come to the Buddha we must
first get beyond Asoka. In a remarkable piece of inspired
detective work Prof. Frauwallner in The Earliest Vinaya and
the Beginnings of Buddhist Literature (1956) has proved almost
conclusively that before Asoka a great work, the Skandhaka,
was produced, which divided and arranged the enormous
material concerning monastic rules according to a wellconceived
plan. It regulates the fundamental institutions of
Buddhist monastic life, the admission to the Order, the confession
ceremonies, the retirement during the rainy season,
and discusses clothing, food and drugs for the sick, as well as the
rules to be observed in the punishment of offenders. This
Skandhaka is in fact the earliest Buddhist literary work of
which we have any definite knowledge.
For the rest, we must patiently compare the recensions of the
different schools. The information which has been handed
down to us about the st eighteen sects 11 is in rather a chaotic