Read the passage and answer the questions:
Buddhism
The Buddha (and other teachers) taught orally—through discussion and debate. Men and women (perhaps children as well) attended these discourses and discussed what they heard. None of the Buddha’s speeches were written down during his lifetime. After his death (c. fifth–fourth century BCE), his teachings were compiled by his disciples at a council of “elders” or senior monks at Vesāli (Pali for Vaishali in present-day Bihar). These compilations were known as the Tipitaka—literally, three baskets to hold different types of texts. They were first transmitted orally and then written and classified according to length as well as subject matter. The Vinaya Pitaka included rules and regulations for those who joined the sangha or monastic order; the Buddha’s teachings were included in the Sutta Pitaka; and the Abhidhamma Pitaka dealt with philosophical matters. Each pitaka comprised a number of individual texts. Later, commentaries were written on these texts by Buddhist scholars. As Buddhism traveled to new regions such as Sri Lanka, other texts such as the Dipavamsa (literally, the chronicle of the island) and Mahavamsa (the great chronicle) were written. Many of these works contained biographies of the Buddha. Some of the oldest texts are in Pali, while later compositions are in Sanskrit. When Buddhism spread to East Asia, pilgrims such as Fa Xian and Xuan Zang traveled all the way from China to India in search of texts. These they took back to their own country, where they were translated by scholars. Indian Buddhist teachers also traveled to faraway places, carrying texts to disseminate the teachings of the Buddha. Buddhist texts were preserved in manuscripts for several centuries in monasteries in different parts of Asia. Modern translations have been prepared from Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan texts.
Identify the texts which contains regional histories of Buddhism?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa
As Buddhism travelled to new regions such as Sri Lanka, new texts were written there: the Dipavamsa (the chronicle of the island) and the Mahavamsa (the great chronicle). The passage calls them chronicles; in the full text they are described as containing regional histories of Buddhism. The Vinaya, Sutta and Abhidhamma Pitakas, by contrast, are the three parts of the Tipitaka, which hold the rules of the sangha, the Buddha’s teachings and philosophical matters.
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