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Rh Buddhist council at Vaisali. He sent messengers to the Bhikkhus of the western country, and of Avanti, as well as of the southern country; but in the meantime the Bhikkhus of Vaisali heard that he was obtaining support from the Bhikkhus of the western provinces, and they, in their turn, sought for sanction from the east. Indeed the difference was between the eastern Buddhists of Vaisali and the western Buddhists of the provinces along the higher course of the Ganges, and also of Malwa and the Deccan.

The final decision of the Council, rendered by a committee of four from each side, was against all the proposed innovations except one, which was allowed in certain cases; but this verdict the majority of monks refused to accept. Those who thus renounced western conservatism in favour of the eastern innovations of the Vrijjians, formed the school known as the Northern Buddhism of Nepal, Tibet, China, and Japan, while their orthodox opponents are represented by the Southern Buddhism of Ceylon, Burma, and Siam.

Buddhism first became the state religion of India when Asoka, who had ascended the throne of Magadha about 272, became a convert to the new faith. About the seventeenth year of his reign, he held at his capital, Pataliputra, the third council, which lasted for nine months, under the presidency of Tissa, son of Moggali, and was attended by a thousand elders. After the close of the Council, Asoka sent missionaries to Kashmir and Gandhara, to Mahisa (near modern Mysore), to Vanavasa (probably Eajputana), to Aparantaka (West