Abhidharmadipa with Vibhasaprabha Vrutti

Author(s): P S Jaini
Publisher: Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute

Page 50

Satra and Abhidharma 35 dhammas scattered all over the other Nikayas find repetition here in an artificial group of numbers. Two books of the Khuddaka-nikaya, viz., the Uddesa and the Patisambhida-magga are pure Abhidhamma works, though grouped in the Suttapitaka. Of these, the Patisambhida-magga is attributed by tradition not to the Buddha but to Sariputta. It is said in its commentary that this work was preached by Sariputta to Ananda, who recited it before the first Council." This review shows us the tendency of certain Suttas of all the Nikayas towards collecting and classifying, and at times elaborating the advanced teachings of the Buddha. Several of these Suttas are not the direct words of the Buddha, but elaborations by his chief disciples like Sariputta and Moggallana on an uddesa or synopsis laid down by the Buddha. These categories or dhammas can be summed up in such oft-repeated technical terms as khandha, dhatu, ayatana, indriya, sachcha, patichcha-samuppada, kamma, kilesa, magga, the items of the thirty-seven bodhipakkhiya-dhammas, jhana, the eight vimokkhas, eight abhibhayatanas, ten kasinas, sannas, etc. The collective name for all these dhammas is 'abhidhamma', as they are 'abhi' visittha dhamma. The contents of all the major works on Abhidhamma, including the Kosa and Dipa, do not, in essence, differ from these few topics, scattered here and there throughout the Sutta-pitaka. Now we turn to the Sangiti suttanta, which marks a definite start of the Abhidhamma literature proper, in the Sutta-pitaka. This sutta also opens with an account of the Nigantha Nataputta's death. This time Chunda or Ananda do not report it to the Buddha, but Sariputta himself relates 'it to the samgha, in the presence of the Master : "The Nigantha Nataputta, friends, has just died at Pava. Since his death the Nigaathas have become divided and have fallen into opposite parties and into strife........But to us, friends, the Norm has been well set forth and imparted by the Exalted 1 Patisambhida magga A, p. 9. 2 For instance, the Sachcha-vibhanga-sutta and the Uddesa vibhanga-sutta.