Fourth Buddhist Council in Kashmir (tradition)

The fullest account is given by the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, who visited Kashmir in the 7th century. Kanishka, he writes, was troubled by the contradictory teachings of the Buddhist schools; on the advice of the monk Pārśva he summoned the most learned monks, selected five hundred of them and assembled them in Kashmir, where Vasumitra became president (later tradition adds Aśvaghoṣa as vice-president). They composed commentaries (vibhāṣā) on the Sutra, the Vinaya and the Abhidharma, three hundred thousand verses in all; Kanishka had them engraved on sheets of red copper, sealed them in a stone chest and raised a stupa over it. The Sarvastivadins associated with this council the Abhidharma Mahāvibhāṣā, which became the central text of the Kashmiri Vaibhāṣika school and survives only in Chinese translations, the complete one made by Xuanzang himself.

The date depends on the Kushan chronology: by the now generally accepted dating of Kanishka (c. 127–150) the council, if it took place, falls in the second quarter of the 2nd century, while older works, depending on their chronology of Kanishka, date it to 78 or to the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries. Tradition sets it at the Kundalavana monastery, probably near Srinagar; some authors name Jalandhar instead. The Theravada tradition does not recognize this council — its own “Fourth Council” is the writing down of the Pali canon in Sri Lanka in the 1st century BC. Historians treat the account with caution: Xuanzang wrote some five centuries after the events, and the story may have been attached to Kanishka to make him a second Ashoka.