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INTRODUCTION.
xxvii
bly the Thera Tissa also recited (Buddha's) heresy-crushing Kathâvatthuppakarana.'
This mistake, for I quite agree with Childers that it was a mistake, becomes however less stupendous than at first sight it would appear, when we read the account given in the Dîpavamsa. Here the impression is easily conveyed that Moggaliputta was the author of the Kathâvatthu, and that he recited it for the first time at the Third Council. "Wise Moggaliputta,' we read, 'the destroyer of the schismatic doctrines, firmly established the Theravada, and held the Third Council. Having destroyed the different (heretical) doctrines, and subdued many shameless people, and restored splendour to the (true) faith, he proclaimed (pakasayi) (the treatise called) Kathâvatthu.' And again : • They all were sectarians?, opposed to the Theravada; and in order to annihilate them and to make his own doctrine resplendent, the Thera set forth (desesi) the treatise belonging to the Abhidhamma, which is called Kathâvatthu3.'
At present, however, we are not concerned with these smaller questions. We treat the canon as a whole, divided into three parts, and containing the books which still exist in MSS., and we want to find out at what time such a collection was made. The following is a short abstract of the Tipitaka, chiefly taken from Childers' Pali Dictionary:
. I. Vinaya-pitaka. 1. Vibhanga 4. Vol. I, beginning with Pârâgika, or sins involving
expulsion. Vol. II, beginning with Pâkittiya, or sins involving
penance. 2. Khandhaka.
Vol. I, Mahâvagga, the large section.
Vol. II, Kullavagga, the small section. 3. Parivarapatha, an appendix and later resumé (25 chap
ters). See p. xiii, n. 4; p. xxiv, n. 2.
1 Dîpavamsa VII, 40.
Dipavamsa VII, 55. 3 Dr. Oldenberg, in his Introduction to the Vinaya-pitaka, p. xxxii.
• Oldenberg, Vinaya-pitaka I, p. xvi, treats it as an extended reading of the Pâtimokkha.
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