Third Buddhist Council at Pataliputra Under Ashoka, c. 250 BC

The Third Buddhist Council was a gathering of Buddhist monks held at Pataliputra, the Mauryan capital, around 250 BC under the patronage of the emperor Ashoka. Presided over by the elder Moggaliputta Tissa, it is said to have purified the monastic order, fixed the Theravada view of the teaching and launched missions that carried Buddhism far beyond India. Everything we know about it comes from later Theravada sources, so its details are debated.

Background: Buddhism under Ashoka

The Buddha had died, according to most modern estimates, around 400 BC, though older dates near 480 BC are also defended. Tradition records two earlier councils: the First at Rajagaha soon after his death, to recite his teachings, and the Second at Vesali about a century later, over disputes on monastic discipline.

Ashoka, the third Mauryan emperor, ruled from about 268 to 232 BC. After his bloody conquest of Kalinga he turned increasingly to Buddhism and promoted moral conduct, or dhamma, across his empire. His edicts show that he gave lavishly to monks and took an interest in their affairs.

According to the chronicles, this generosity created a problem. Many people joined the order, or simply wore robes, for the food and honour it brought, and introduced views of their own. Genuine monks refused for seven years to perform the fortnightly uposatha ceremony, the communal recitation of the monastic rules, alongside them.

What happened at the council

The Sri Lankan chronicles, the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa, together with Buddhaghosa’s commentary on the monastic code, tell a dramatic story. Ashoka sent a minister to order the monks of the Asokarama monastery at Pataliputra to resume the ceremony. When they refused, the minister misunderstood his orders and beheaded several of them.

Horrified, Ashoka summoned Moggaliputta Tissa, a respected elder living in retreat, to ask whether he bore the guilt. Assured that he did not, since he had not intended the killings, the emperor agreed to cleanse the order. He questioned the monks himself about what the Buddha had taught. Those who answered that the Buddha was a vibhajjavadin, a “teacher of analysis”, were accepted; the rest were expelled. The chronicles put the number expelled at 60,000, a figure that should not be taken literally.

Moggaliputta Tissa then chose about 1,000 learned monks, who recited the teachings over nine months. Tradition credits him with composing the Kathavatthu (“Points of Controversy”) at this time, a work that sets out and rejects the views of rival schools in question-and-answer form.

The missions

The best-known result of the council is the sending of missionaries. The Mahavamsa names their leaders and destinations:

• Majjhantika to Kashmir and Gandhara
• Mahadeva to Mahisamandala, probably in the south of the Deccan
• Rakkhita to Vanavasi, in the region of modern Karnataka
• Yona Dhammarakkhita, a Greek monk, to Aparanta on the western coast
• Mahadhammarakkhita to Maharattha
• Maharakkhita to the land of the Yonas, the Greeks of the north-west
• Majjhima to the Himalayan region
• Sona and Uttara to Suvannabhumi, the “Golden Land”, usually placed in Lower Myanmar or Thailand
• Mahinda, Ashoka’s son, to Sri Lanka

Some of these names are supported by archaeology. Relic caskets found by Alexander Cunningham in a stupa at Sanchi, near the Great Stupa, carry inscriptions naming a Majjhima and a Kassapagotta described as a teacher of the Himalayan region, matching monks the chronicles say were sent there. The mission of Mahinda became the founding event of Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

Myths and facts

The council is often presented as a meeting of all Buddhists that settled the scriptures for good. The evidence is more limited. The northern Buddhist traditions preserved in Sanskrit and Chinese do not describe this council; the Sarvastivada school told of a different council held later in Kashmir under the Kushan king Kanishka.

Ashoka’s own inscriptions never mention a council. However, his so-called Schism Edict, found at Sarnath, Sanchi and Kausambi, orders that monks or nuns who split the order should be made to wear white and leave the monasteries. This shows that the emperor did intervene against division in the community, which fits the core of the tradition.

Many historians therefore conclude that a gathering probably did take place, but that it was a council of the Vibhajjavada group from which the Theravada school descends, rather than of all Buddhists. The story of the minister beheading monks and the round numbers of participants are best seen as later embellishment.

Timeline

• c. 268 BC: Ashoka becomes Mauryan emperor (dates are approximate).
• c. 261 BC: Conquest of Kalinga, after which Ashoka turns to dhamma.
• c. 250 BC: Council at the Asokarama, Pataliputra, under Moggaliputta Tissa, according to Theravada tradition.
• c. 250–247 BC: Missions depart for Kashmir, the Himalayas, the Deccan, Suvannabhumi and Sri Lanka.
• c. 232 BC: Death of Ashoka.
• AD 5th century: Buddhaghosa and the Mahavamsa record the story in Sri Lanka.

Why it matters

Whether or not every detail is true, the Third Council became the founding story of Theravada Buddhism. It explains the authority of the Kathavatthu and links Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand directly to Ashoka. Modern Theravada countries have honoured that legacy by numbering their own great councils after it, including the Sixth Council held in Yangon in 1954–56.