Part 5 - Growth of the Buddhist Order

It was only the beginning and the Buddha needed many more people to accept his creed to make this a grand success. Very soon he gathered a large number of followers. Vārāṇasī was exposed to different types of thought and religious practices. The two dominant trends were Śramaṇa and Brāhmaṇa. As against the chaste and simple life of ascetics the Brāhmaṇas advocated complex rituals and sacrifices, not comprehended by the masses. People were already fed up with the strict ritualism and tight control of Brahmanism. So the natural choice of the people was the ascetic culture, very vigorously offered by the Buddha. The masses can now leave behind the conditions imposed by the Brahmanical religion.

This social context partially explains why the Buddha had readily available receptive ears for his doctrines. He started with a very rich son of a setthi, named Yasa. His wealth accounted for three palaces for three seasons-summer, rainy and winter. He indulged in every type of lust and pleasure. One day he saw the ugly face of these pleasures and wanted to be counselled by the Buddha. In that end he went straight to the deer park Isipatana. The Buddha taught him the lessons of Dharma. He was initiated to Buddhist doctrines.^[1] Later his father was also taken into the pale of Buddhism. He became the first lay disciple of the Buddha.^[2] Both of them resorted to alms pilgrimage and turned into Bhikkhus. The Buddha was invited to the house of Yasa where his ex-wife and mother served them savoury food. The Buddha taught these ladies His religious discourse. They became the first female lay followers of the Buddha.^[3] Four other friends of Yasa all belonging to the Setthi families of Benaras named Vimala, Subahu, Punnaji and Javampati were curious to know why Yasa renounced all comforts and became a monk visited the Buddha. Impressed by the tenets of the Buddha they all turned into bhikkhus.^[4] So now the Buddha had altogether eleven monk and lay followers. Very soon fifty more people all belonging to Yasa’s circle and merchants by profession joined the Buddha’s creed.

So there were sixty one followers of the Buddha. Now the Buddha instructed them to preach the doctrines of Buddhism far and wide. They dispersed to different countries and even permitted them the right to confer the pabajja and upasampada to the interested.^[5] There is no need to bring him to the Buddha. This he surely did to give a free hand to his bhikkhus so that they can convert maximum number of people into the fold of Buddhism, to avoid unnecessary delay and complications.

This is how the Buddhism was born as an order and started spreading to distant places and people. The whole incident brings to notice that the Buddha chose Sārnāth as the spot for his propagation of his dharma for its closeness to Vārāṇasī. The earliest people to accept Buddhism were not only residents of Vārāṇasī but all were exclusively Setthis. In the social ladder they were placed in the Vaiśya class, but the wealthiest. Despite their tremendous wealth they were always placed behind the Brāhmanas and the Kṣatriyas. Certainly they were not happy with their social position. Perhaps trhat’s why they were the first to respond to the egalitarian appeal of the Buddhism and accepted it so readily. On the other hand Buddha knew that initially it would be difficult to appeal the Brāhmanas and the Kṣatriyas for their secured social position. So the Buddha’s primary target was the disgruntled section and he achieved considerable success in this regard. Moreover association of the Setthis guaranteed sponsorship for the early Buddhism.

During the Buddha’s time Vārāṇasī was one of the most important cities, the others being Rājagṛha, Srāvastī, Avantī–all associated with the Buddha and growth of Buddhism. So it was a typically urban movement depending on the finance and other help of the urban merchant class for its sustenance and propagation. One more thing the Buddhism was very quickly gaining ground among the people and more people were renouncing their household to join Buddhist church. This increase in the size of the saṃgha needed some organisation. Hermitages of temporary nature or wandering asceticism were not suitable for all seasons and place. There was a growing need for the saṃgha to settle down. With the help of the wealthy lay followers residences of permanent type were erected. The finance often came from the kingly class or the merchants. At Sārnāth monastic complex the earliest antiquity belonged to Aśoka’s time. This was the time when Buddhism enjoyed enormous state patronage and transcended from a localized small scale movement to a state religion and even moved towards a world religion.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The Mahavagga, First Khandaka, op.cit.7{GL_NOTE:137297:} .1- 15 pp.102-108

[2]:

The Mahavagga, First Khandaka, op.cit. 7{GL_NOTE:137298:} . 10,p.106

[3]:

The Mahavagga, First Khandaka, op.cit. 8.1-3, p.109

[4]:

The Mahavagga, First Khandaka, op.cit. 9.1-4, pp.111-12

[5]:

The Mahavagga, First Khandaka, op.cit. 10,11,12 pp.112-15