Four Buddhist Councils were held at the following places. Arrange them in correct chronological order and select the correct answer from the code given below.
1. Vaishali
2. Rajagriha
3. Kundalvana
4.

Question

Four Buddhist Councils were held at the following places. Arrange them in correct chronological order and select the correct answer from the code given below.
1. Vaishali
2. Rajagriha
3. Kundalvana
4. Pataliputra
Code :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, 2, 1, 4, 3, that is Rajagriha → Vaishali → Pataliputra → Kundalvana. The First Council met at Rajagriha (Rajgir) in the rains immediately after the Buddha's mahaparinirvana, under the patronage of Ajatashatru of Magadha and the presidency of Mahakassapa; Ananda recited the Sutta and Upali the Vinaya. The Second Council met at Vaishali about a century later under Kalasoka, called over the 'ten points' of relaxed monastic practice, and it ended in the Sangha's first schism. The Third Council met at Pataliputra in Ashoka's reign under Moggaliputta Tissa, which is when the Kathavatthu was compiled and missionaries were sent abroad. The Fourth Council met at Kundalvana in Kashmir in Kanishka's reign, presided over by Vasumitra with Ashvaghosha as his deputy. The traditional dates (about 483 BCE, 383 BCE, 250 BCE and the first century CE) are approximate and debated among historians, but the sequence itself is not.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This starts with Vaishali and puts Rajagriha second. The First Council was held at Rajagriha in the year of the Buddha's death, and Vaishali came roughly a hundred years later — so the first two positions are swapped. The rest of the sequence (Pataliputra, then Kundalvana) is right, which is exactly what makes this option tempting.  (c) The first two are correct (Rajagriha, then Vaishali) but the last two are reversed: it places Kundalvana in Kashmir, held under the Kushana king Kanishka in the first century CE, before Pataliputra, held under Ashoka in the third century BCE — roughly three centuries out of order.  (d) This simply repeats the order in which the four venues happen to be printed in the question. UPPSC lists them out of sequence on purpose, so 'the list is already chronological' is never a safe assumption; on this option every one of the four positions is wrong.

Concept: A Buddhist Council (sangiti, literally a 'joint recitation') was an assembly of monks convened after the Buddha's death to recite, settle and preserve his teaching and the rules of the monastic order. Four are recognised in Indian tradition, and each is identified by four things — its venue, its royal patron, its president, and what it produced. Because the canon was transmitted orally for centuries, these assemblies are the mechanism by which the Tipitaka was fixed, and the disputes at them are the origin of Buddhism's sectarian divisions.

State PCS 2025 Q26 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q26 — History PYQ with Answer