8o Hutton Webster 



new and full moon, and two less solemn, on the seventh and 

 twenty-first. This day does not exempt them from labor, only 

 fishing is forbidden them ; and those who transgress this prohi- 

 bition pay a fine and are thrown into prison, for having profaned 

 the sanctity of that day."" 



There can be no doubt that the iiposatha, though widely diffused 

 in southeastern Asia, originated in India where it was based on 

 the ancient Brahmanical rites at new and full moon. According 

 to one Buddhist tradition the monks of the non-Buddhistic sects 

 were accustomed to meet together at the middle and at the close 

 of every half-month for the purpose of proclaiming their teaching 

 in public. The Buddhists also adopted the custom of these period- 

 ical meetings on the fourteenth or fifteenth, and eighth day of 

 each half month, a custom by them attributed to the Buddha him- 

 self.^^ According to one account the recitation as the Patimokkha 

 The Buddha seems to have wished that the Patimokkha be 

 recited only on the fourteenth or the fifteenth day of each 

 month. ^° At this time, however, the custom of observing the 

 eighth day in each lunar fortnight in addition to new moon and 

 full moon was apparently well established in India, a circum- 

 stance which led to the adoption of all four periods by Buddhism. ^^ 



" Turpin, "History of Siam," Paris, 1771, in Piiikerton's Voyages and 

 Travels, ix. 583. I do not understand the reference to the " fourth day " 

 (or night) of the moon. In Cambodia the Buddhist holidays or feast days 

 likewise fall on the eighth, and more especially, the fifteenth day of each 

 fortnight (Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, iii. iii, 162). 



"Rhys Davids and Oldenberg, Mahdvagga, ii. i sqq. (Vinaya Texts. 

 Sacred Books of the East, xiii. 239 sqq.). Cf. also Introduction, p. x. 

 of the Buddha's precepts was to constitute the nposafha service.'^® 



''^ Mahavagga, ii. 31. 



^ Ibid., ii. 4, 2. An uposatha service on the fourteenth day of a short 

 month was to be followed by a celebration on the fifteenth of the following 

 long month, the months consisting of- 29 and 30 days in alternation (cf. 

 ibid., ii. 34, i). 



"The eighth day of the waning moon (dstakd) is distinctly mentioned 

 in the Vedas as forming with new moon and full moon, the regular 

 festival periods. Cf. Whitney, Atharva-Vcda, 15, 16, 2; Zimmer, op. cit., 

 365 ; H. Oldenberg, Die Religion des J^eda, Berlin, 1894, p. 439. Of these 



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