page_title: Moggaliputta-Tissa
section_title: Theravāda account
hierarchical_section_title: Moggaliputta-Tissa / Theravāda account
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the Buddhist missions during the reign of Asoka. Sourced fromː Cousins, LS. "On the Vibhajjavadins. The Mahimsasaka, Dhammaguttaka, Kassapiya and Tambapanniya branches of the ancient Theriyas", Buddhist Studies Review 18, 2 (2001), TABLE E.
context_page_description: Moggaliputtatissa, was a Buddhist monk and scholar who was born in Pataliputra, Magadha and lived in the 3rd century BCE. He is associated with the Third Buddhist council, the emperor Ashoka and the Buddhist missionary activities which took place during his reign.
  Moggaliputtatissa is seen by the Theravada Buddhist tradition as the founder of "Vibhajjavāda", the tradition of which Theravada is a part as well as the author of the Kathāvatthu. He is seen as the defender of the true teaching or Dhamma against corruption, during a time where many kinds of wrong view had arisen and as the force behind the Ashokan era Buddhist missionary efforts.
  The Sri Lankan Buddhist philosopher David Kalupahana sees him as a predecessor of Nagarjuna in being a champion of the Middle Way and a reviver of the original philosophical ideals of the Buddha.
context_section_description: According to Sri Lankan Theravada sources, Moggaliputtatissa was an arhat and a revered elder (thera) of the Buddhist sangha in Pataliputra, as well as the teacher of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, and is said to have presided over the Third Buddhist Council. His story is discussed in sources such as the Mahavamsa ("Great Chronicle", abbrev. Mhv) and the Vinaya commentary called Samantapāsādikā.
  He was the son of Mogalli of Pataliputra, as Tissa. According to the Mahavamsa, Tissa, who was thoroughly proficient, at a young age was sought after by the Buddhist monks Siggava and Candavajji for conversion, as they went on their daily alms round. At the age of seven, Tissa was angered when Siggava, a Buddhist monk, occupied his seat in his house and berated him. Siggava responded by asking Tissa a question about the Cittayamaka which Tissa was not able to answer, and he expressed a desire to learn the dharma, converting to Buddhism. After obtaining the consent of his parents, he joined the Sangha as Siggava's disciple, who taught him the Vinaya and Candavajji who taught him Abhidhamma. He later attained arahantship and became an acknowledged leader of the monks at Pataliputra (Mhv.v.95ff, 131ff.).
  At a festival for the dedication of the Great Pataliputra monastery called the Aśokārāma as well as the other viharas built by Ashoka, Moggaliputta-Tissa, in answer to a question, informed Ashoka that one becomes a kinsman of the Buddha's religion only by letting one's son or daughter enter the Sangha. Upon this suggestion, Ashoka had both his son Mahinda and daughter Sanghamitta ordained (Mhv.v.191ff.).
  According to the Samantapāsādikā, due to the great wealth which accrued to the sangha through Ashoka's patronage, many non-buddhist ascetics (titthiyas) joined the order or began to dress and act like Buddhists. Because of this, the formal acts of the sangha (sanghakamma) were compromised and monks did not feel they were able to carry out the uposatha ceremony which was thus suspended for a period of seven years at the Aśokārāma. Moggaliputtatissa thus left the monks of Pataliputra under the leadership of Mahinda, and lived in self-imposed solitary retreat on the Ahoganga pabbata mountain. After seven years, Ashoka recalled him to Pataliputra after some monks had been murdered by royal officials attempting to force them to hold the uposatha.
  The Samantapāsādikā then states that Moggaliputtatissa instructed Ashoka in the Buddha Dhamma for seven days, after which Ashoka summoned all the monks to the Aśokārāma to question them on Buddhist doctrine. Ashoka was able to recognize those who were non-Buddhists and expelled all of them (60,000 monks). After this purification of the sangha, the uposatha ceremony was held and the Third Buddhist Council was convened in the Aśokārāma, presided over by Moggaliputtatissa. Moggaliputtatissa is then said to have compiled the Kathavatthu, in refutation of various wrong views held by the expelled ascetics, and it was in this council that this text was approved and added to the Abhidhamma.
  The final part of the Samantapāsādikā's background narrative tells the story of how Moggaliputtatissa organized nine different missions to spread the sasana (the Buddha's dispensation) to the following "border regions" where it would be "firmly established":
  Kasmīra and Gandhāra,
  Mahiṃsa
  Vanavāsi (possibly Kanara),
  Aparantaka,
  Mahāraṭṭha,
  Yonakaloka (i.e. "The realm of the Greeks", possibly Bactria),
  Himavanta (Nepal),
  Suvaṇṇabhūmi (Possibly Myanmar),
  Tambapaṇṇidīpa (Sri Lanka)
  Moggaliputtatissa died at the age of eighty in the twenty-sixth year of Ashoka's reign and his relics were enshrined in a stupa in Sanchi along with nine other arahants.
caption: Map of the Buddhist missions during the reign of Ashoka.
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