ks of Vesali, quarrelled
with them because they accepted money from the laity and, departing
thence, sought for support among the Theras or elders of the south and
west. The result was a conference at Vesali in which the principal
figures are Revata and Sabbakami, a pupil of Ananda, expressly said to
have been ordained one hundred and twenty years earlier[559]. The ten
theses were referred to a committee, which rejected them all, and this
rejection was confirmed by the whole Sangha, who proceeded to rehearse
the Vinaya. We are not however told that they revised the Sutta or
Abhidhamma.

Here ends the account of the Cullavagga but the Dipavamsa adds that the
wicked Vajjian monks, to whom it ascribes wrong doctrines as well as
errors in discipline, collected a strong faction and held a schismatic
council called the Mahasangiti. This meeting recited or compiled a new
version of the Dhamma and Vinaya[560]. It is not easy to establish any
facts about the origin and tenets of this Mahasangitika or Mahasanghika
sect, though it seems to have been important. The Chinese pilgrims Fa
Hsien and Hsuean Chuang, writing on the basis of information obtained in
the fifth and seventh centuries of our era, represent it as arising in
connection with the first council, which was either that of Rajagaha or
some earlier meeting supposed to have been held during the Buddha's
lifetime, and Hsuean Chuang[561] intimates that it was formed of laymen
as well as monks and that it accepted additional matter including
dharanis or spells rejected by the monkish council. Its name (admitted
by its opponents) seems to imply that it represented at one time the
opinions of the majority or at least a great number of the faithful. But
it was not the sect which flourished in Ceylon and the writer of the
Dipavamsa is prejudiced against it. It may be a result of this animus
that he connects it with the discreditable Vajjian schism and the
Chinese tradition may be more correct. On the other hand the adherents
of the school would naturally be disposed to assign it an early origin.
Fa Hsien says[562] that the Vinaya of the Mahasanghikas was considered
"the most complete with the fullest explanations." A translation of this
text is contained in the Chinese Tripitaka[563].

Early Indian Buddhism is said to have been divided into eighteen sects
or schools, which have long ceased to exist and must not be confounded
with any existing denominations. Fa Hsien observes th