On the Chronicles of Ceylon

I. Chonological Position – 12
the reign of Asoka and his Ceylon contemporary Devānaṁpiya Tissa
even in the second stage of its growth. They are as follows: –
1. That the Dīpavaṁsa account of the Buddhist sects is completely
silent on the rise of the later sects in Ceylon. 14
2. That there is a great disparity between the Dīpavaṁsa and the
Mahāvaṁsa as regards the rivalry between the monks of the
Mahāvihāra and the Abhayagiri monastery, especially the [5]
mischievous activity of the wicked Soṇa and the wicked Mitta. 15
Another important fact which has bearing upon the question of the
date of the Dīpavaṁsa is its account of the early Buddhist sects. It is
said that each sect with its rise made certain textual changes and
adopted certain new rules of discipline. Particularly in connection
with the Mahāsaṅghikas it says: ‘The Bhikkhus of the Great Council
settled a doctrine contrary (to the true Faith). Altering the original
redaction they made another redaction. They transposed Suttas
which belonged to one place (of the collection) to another place; they
destroyed the (true) meaning and the Faith in the Vinaya and in the
five Collections (of Suttas). Those Bhikkhus, who understood neither
what had been taught in long expositions nor without exposition,
neither the natural meaning nor the recondite meaning, settled a
false meaning in connection with spurious speeches of Buddha; these
Bhikkhus destroyed a great deal of (true) meaning under the colour
of the letter. Rejecting single passages of the Suttas and of the
profound Vinaya, they composed other Suttas and another Vinaya
14 Dīpavaṁsa, V, 54; B.C. Law, Debates Commentary, p. 5.
15 Barua, Ceylon Lectures, pp. 77ff.