Abhidharmadipa with Vibhasaprabha Vrutti

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

Page 60

Satra and Abhidharma 45 collection of dhammas in the Sangiti-suttanta. The remaining twenty-two tikas and the entire duka-matika are briefly explained in the Nikkhepa-kanda, which is a sort of commentary on the Matikas. Whatever the original contents of the Matikas may have been, there is no doubt that it formed the nucleus of the Abhidhamma literature, both Pali and Sanskrit. The Dhammasangani and Vibhanga, particularly, deal with the dhammas on the lines indicated by the Matikas. The Sanskrit Abhidharma works have not come down to us in their original form. But from the above analysis of the later Abhidharma works like Asm., Aam., Kosa and Dipa, it is certain that the original works too had Matnikas as their basis. In the old canocial Pali literature the term Matika takes place of Abhidharma. It occurs once in the Vinaya-pitaka and once in the Ang. nikaya. An expert in the Matikas is called Matika-dhara.' The latter term always occurs with the other two, viz., dhamma-dhara and vinaya-dhara,pointing to the existence of Matikas as a separate collection of the words of Buddha. The term is known to the Vinaya of the mulaSarvastivadins3 and to the Divyavadana, * where also it is placed side by side with sutra and vinaya. The Matikas are to the Abhidhamma-pitaka what Patimokkha rules are to the Vinaya. They are foundations for the super-structures of the Abhidhamma texts (excluding the later Puggala-pannatti and Kathavatthu) and the Sut tavibhanga. The laying down of both is considered by the tradition as an exclusive privilege of the Buddha and not of his disciples. Hence follows the claim that even the works built on them are words of the Buddha. The commentators are well aware of the fact that several suttas preached by Ananda, Moggallana, Mahakachchana and Sariputta are included in the canon as the word of the Buddha. Atthasalini quotes the Madhupindika-sutta of the Majjhima-nikaya to show that although that was preached by Mahakachchana, he had done 1 Dhs A, I. 18. 4 sutrasya vinayasya matrikayah, p. 18. 2 Ang. I. 117. 5 Dhs A. I. 8. 3 See BHSD, p. 428.