The Theravada tradition holds that Moggaliputta Tissa, under Ashoka's patronage, purifies the sangha at Pataliputra and settles the points of doctrine recorded in the Kathavatthu; other early schools do not preserve this council, and the tradition states the fact plainly.
Tagged: Councils Buddhist Theravada
The Event
- Date
- c. 250 BCE (traditional)
- Era
- Early Buddhism; Standard periodization of Buddhist history
- Location
- Pataliputra; today Patna, Bihar, India
- Traditions
- Buddhism
- Streams
- Theravada
- Key figures
- Moggaliputta Tissa, Ashoka
- Key texts
- Kathavatthu
How the Tradition Tells It
The Third Council is a Theravada record. The northern schools preserve no such gathering at Pataliputra, and some count a different third council under Kanishka in Kashmir; the timeline records the Theravada account under its own tradition's flag, as the table gives it.
Primary Sources
- Dipavamsa
- Mahavamsa
Secondary Sources
- Gombrich, Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo (Routledge, 2nd ed. 2006)
- Keown, Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2013)
Provenance: HIST-0404; confidence 0.8; accessed 2026-10-27.
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