INTRODUCTION

Motivation

In the year 2009, I was ordained as a novice nun (Sanskrit: Sramaneri (Skrt), Getsulma (Tib) in the Mulasarvastivada, Kagyu Lineage. The Renunciation Vows had been transmitted to me without any explanation of their origins and history, but I wanted to know them. In 2015, while temporarily receiving training in a Thai women’s monastery, I came across the book Cultivation in the Present Moment: The Disciplinary Rules for Nuns, translated from the Dharmaguptaka. Therein are the origin stories of the Ten Precepts. This inspired me to explore further the MSV Novice Nun Renunciation Vows for their similarities to the Dharmagupta and Theravada School precepts. While doing so, I have discovered that the Mulasarvastivada Renunciation Vows mix the classification of Paycitta within the Parajika rule list of the Dharmaguptaka and Theravada Vinayas. I will give three examples:

Payattika/Pacittiya	MSV	Dharmaguptaka	Pali Vinaya
Killing an animal	#2	#46	#61
Striking an animal to death	#3	#19	#20
Using something containing an animal for self or others	#4	#47	#62

See Table I for a complete list of MSV and parallel Vinayas.

Roach (2020) stated, “The MSV Renunciation Vows survive in part in Classical Sanskrit with some deviation from the norm. The manuscript was found, along with others, in Gilgit, Pakistan, in 1931. It is written in a script known as Gilgit/Bamiyan, Type II, and has been dated on paleographical grounds to around the 6th-7th centuries CE. Then there is a Tibetan translation, in part in Chinese, dated to the end of the 8th century/beginning of the 9th century CE, as well as a translation completely in Chinese dated to the 8th century CE.”According to the 84000 Tibetan Translation Project, the 9th century CE Tibetan translation remains the only complete version known today. Though similar in general outline to most other Buddhist monastic disciplines, it is no dry legal document or mere vade mecum for disciplinary measures. Instead, it is a rich bricolage of stories, discourses, ritual handbooks, community guidelines, and catalogs of monastic discipline, featuring passages and texts from a diverse range of genres, including sūtras, avadānas, and nidānas. The 17th Karmapa, Orgyen Trinley Dorje (2022), postulates that MSV origins may lie with Brahman ritual holders and Vedic school codes of behavior, as it is more eclectic in content and character.

Mulasarvastivada disciplinary code manuscripts formed the Vinaya for an early Buddhist community based in Mathura, India, which might have been independent in its establishment as a monastic community from the Sarvāstivādins of Kashmir (although, of course, this does not mean that they were different in terms of doctrine). However, many scholars debate MSV’s origin, contents, and implementation. (Wikipedia, 2023).

In the second account, Pandita (2018) tells us that “there were 6 bhikkus and 6 bhikkhunis, the Sadvargika/Chabbaggiya, whose conduct was not worthy of a monk. When the incidents of their misbehavior caused the lay practitioners to feel uneasy or mistrustful of these bhikkus and bhikkhunis, senior monks reported them to the Buddha, who then formed an incident-specific training rule” to help develop restraint, help the Sangha live in harmony, joy, and comfort, and protect the ordained Sangha’s reputation so that laypeople would continue to help maintain the health and welfare of the ordained Sangha, hence accumulating merit.

Setting Vinay Rules

Two accounts in Dharamaguptaka, Pali Vinaya, and MSV explain the reasons for formulating the monastic set of rules. The first account of Buddha’s invocation for formulating monastic rules, according to Cheuhman (2013, pp. 14 & 416), was at Kutagara-Sala, on the bank of the river Markatahrada in Vesali, where Buddha Shakyamuni was residing when there was an incident concerning sexual misconduct. At that time, he gathered the monks together to formulate a training rule provoked by the incident. The World-Honored One told the bhiksus, “From now on, I will establish the Vinaya for the bhiksunis. There are ten reasons for the Vinaya rules. If the Bhiksu Sangha is to teach the Pratimoksa to the bhiksunis, they should follow the teachings according to the way I have taught.” In the preceding Dharmaguptaka narrative, the reasoning and concerns echo in the MSV Tibetan/Chinese translations. However, the Pali Vinaya Pitaka Parajika most closely parallels the ten reasons list in MSV. Even though the Buddha’s authorization in the Dharmaguptaka for bhiksus to instruct bhiksunis is referenced to the ten reasons, in Pali sources, it does not necessarily occur in one continuous speech. (Norbu, 2025).

In the second account, Pandita (2018) tells us that “there were 6 bhikkus and 6 bhikkhunis Sadvargika/Chabbaggiya, whose conduct was not worthy of a monk.” When the incidents of their misbehavior caused the lay practitioners to feel uneasy or mistrustful of these bhikkus and bhikkhunis, senior monks reported them to the Buddha, who then formed an incident-specific training rule to help develop restraint and help the Sangha live in harmony, joy, and comfort and protect the ordained Sangha’s reputation so that the lay people would continue to help maintain the health and welfare of the ordained Sangha, hence accumulating merit.

The above motif and concerns are shared across both Vinaya lineages. Specifically in the Mahāvagga and Cullavagga sections of the Khandhaka and, likewise, appear throughout the MSV Vinayakṣudrakavastu and Vinayavastu (extant in Sanskrit and Tibetan), functioning in the same narrative role: notorious misbehavior leading to the public announcement of rules. (Norbu, 2025).

Resources

The primary source is an English translation of the commentary of the Four-Part Dharmaguptaka Bhiksuni Vinaya. The secondary sources are The Buddhist Monastic Code I & II, Analysis of the Bhikkhu-Pātimokkha, along with journals, research papers, the internet, online videos, and encyclopedic sources. See details in the bibliography.

Glossary

All words in the glossary are italicized the first time they appear in the text (but not when they are used in a section heading). Depending on whether a reference is from the Sanskrit translation or Pali translation, respectively, spellings of terms used in these sources are indicated in the glossary. To clarify, this results in different spellings of words with the same meaning.

Primarily, the purpose of this exploration is educational, directed toward Buddhist novice monastics ordained in the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya renunciation discipline, who are English speakers and live inside or independent of a monastery. The translated origin stories compiled from the Dharmagupta and Pali Vinayas can serve as a remembrance, part of the Sojong recitation (restoration and purification ritual), thereby not only recognizing a wrongdoing and rehabilitating but also giving cohesion to the historicity of the group ceremony or solo recitation.

Acknowledgments

In gratitude, I acknowledge the Alliance for Non-Himalayan Nuns for funding this research paper and patience for its publishing. Bilha Keidar, Hila Ron Ha’roe, and Yonathan Licht for offering short, intense writing retreats in their Yorts; and Ilya Natanson for offering space for the same at Dharma House during 2022-2023 in Israel. Anahi Galante for the invaluable link to Purdue OWL; Hanna Geshelin for her citing tips. Yael Shalev for round-trip driving to Bilha, Hila, and Dharma House. Dharma Friends, Israel, for sponsoring me at a fall 2022 overnight retreat, where I was also able to fit in writing time. Shlomo Shantideva Springer for lending The Buddhist Monastic Code I & II and for formatting the research paper for website publishing. Rachel Alpert and Yochay Ohayon, who did food shopping when writing time was a priority. Ariyadhammika Bhiku and Shi Ruxong Bhikuni for their clarification of differences and similarities in the novice monastic disciplines. Tal Roha for the website editing tutorial.

"The author utilized [AI tool Norbu] to assist with [source discovery / outlining / structural review] during the preparation of this manuscript. The final analysis, interpretations, and conclusions are entirely the author's own."