[Buddha-l] Re: Disciple Count

[L.S. Cousins]

My guess would be that all references to 1,250 monks derive 
ultimately from the account of the spread of the teaching in the 
Mahaavagga (Skandhaka). According to this account, the growth is in 
stages:

1. in the Benares region
Eventually there are 60 arahat disciples (made up of the original 
five plus Yasa plus four of his friends plus 50 associates of Yasa). 
These are sent in all directions, but bring back disciples 
(unnumbered) to the Buddha for ordination. Just as he is leaving this 
area, the 30 Bhaddavaggiyas join but do not seem to become arahats.

2. in the Gayaa region
The Buddha journeyed back to the area of his Awakening. There he wins 
over the three Kassapa brothers together with their followings of 
500, 300 and 200 respectively. This gives a total of 1,000, either as 
a round number or assuming that the three brothers are included in 
the count. All became arahats after the Fire Sermon. Unlike in the 
case

3. in Raajagaha (Rajgir)
The Buddha now journeyed on the the capital city of Magadha where the 
first 'monastery' is established. It is at this point that Saariputta 
and Moggallaana and the 250 other disciples of Sanjaya join the 
Buddha's following. Presumably they all became arahats fairly soon 
afterwards, but there is no mention of them being sent away by the 
Buddha.

This then is the source for the figure of 1,250 monks: 500 + 300 + 
200 + 250. Probably we should not take this quite literally. In oral 
traditions of this kind 500 is simply a literary convention meaning 
'a large number'. So this is the number of disciples of the senior 
Kassapa brother. His two brothers are given the same number shared 
between them. Sanjaya as a lesser figure is given half the number of 
the senior Kassapa.

 From this point of view, 1,250 is then a way of saying that four 
large followings have joined the Buddha and are present.
  I do not know anything that would suggest any further symbolic 
significance here.

There is also nothing here to indicate any figure for the ultimate 
number of disciples taught by the Buddha.  The duration of the 
Buddha's stay in these three places is not spelt out very explicitly 
in the Mahaavagga, but presumably the above events cannot have taken 
more than a few years. Nothing indicates how many monks were taught 
by him during the rest of his life.

If we ask the question about lay people, then we can only follow the 
indication given in the same account. King Bimbisaara approaches the 
Buddha with 12 myriads (nahuta) of brahmins and householders. The 
figure is obviously intended to correspond to the twelve and a half 
hundreds usually translated as 1,250 - presumably half a myriad would 
have sounded odd. What is not said is that the twelve myriads become 
disciples. Rather a single myriad declare themselves disciples. I 
would agree that this is a hint that in the earlier Buddhist period 
Buddhist followers considered themselves to constitute a twelfth of 
the population in Eastern India. I don't think we have any better 
figure than that.

Lance Cousins