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BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM.
termed Sútra, the doctrinal precepts, being compiled by Ananda; the Vinaya, or discipline of the priestlood, by Upáli; and the Abhidharma, or philosophical portion, by Káśyapa—all three Buddha's disciples. Their compilations were revised at the second council, and were finally established as canonical at the last. Their being compiled, however, does not necessarily imply their being written; and, according to the northern Buddhists, they were not committed to writing until after the convocation in Kashmir, or 153 B.C.; whilst the southern authorities state, that they were preserved by memory for 450 years, and were then first reduced to writing in Ceylon.
It is to the former of these periods that M. Burnouf would ascribe the composition of the principal Sanskrit works which are still extant. That they continued to be written for four or five centuries afterwards is obvious from internal evidence, and even from their number and extent. In the sixth century Hiuan Tsang and his assistants translated 740 works, forming 1,335 volumes. Of these he himself took to China 657, and they had been brought thither in great numbers before his time. There is also a considerable body of works of a still more recent date, forining the basis upon which many adulterations have crept into Buddhism, evidently borrowed from the Tantras of the Brahmans: 700 works, however, all undoubtedly prior to the sixth century, must have been the work of many years, and have furnished full occupation to the Buddhist scholars of several centuries preceding.
