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Early Buddhist Literature
insight into the doctrines than directly to generate a craving for following the path of meditation for the extinction of sorrow. The Abhidhamma known as the Kathavatthu differs from the other Abhidhammas in this, that it attempts to reduce the views of the heterodox schools to absurdity. The discussions proceed in the form of questions and answers, and the answers of the opponents are often shown to be based on contradictory assumptions.
The suttas contain five groups of collections called the Nikayas. These are (1) Digha Nikaya, called so on account of the length of the suttas contained in it; (2) Majjhima Nikaya (middling Nikaya), called so on account of the middling extent of the suttas contained in it; (3) Samyutta Nikaya (Nikayas relating to special meetings), called samyutta on account of their being delivered owing to the meetings (samyoga) of special persons which were the occasions for them; (4) Anguttara Nikaya, so called because in each succeeding book of this work the topics of discussion increase by one1; (5) Khuddaka Nikaya containing Khuddaka patha, Dhammapada, Udāna, Itivuttaka, Sutta Nipata, Vimanavatthu, Petavatthu, Theragatha, Therīgāthā, Jātaka, Niddesa, Patisambhidamagga, Apadana, Buddhavamsa, Caryāpiṭaka.
The Abhidhammas are Paṭṭhāna, Dhammasangani, Dhatukatha, Puggalapaññatti, Vibhanga, Yamaka and Kathavatthu. There exists also a large commentary literature on diverse parts of the above works known as atthakatha. The work known as Milinda Panha (questions of King Milinda), of uncertain date, is of considerable philosophical value.
The doctrines and views incorporated in the above literature is generally now known as Sthaviravāda or Theravada. On the origin of the name Theravāda (the doctrine of the elders) Dipavamsa says that since the Theras (elders) met (at the first council) and collected the doctrines it was known as the Thera Vāda2. It does not appear that Buddhism as it appears in this Pali literature developed much since the time of Buddhaghosa (400 A.D.), the writer of Visuddhimagga (a compendium of theravada doctrines) and the commentator of Dighanikaya, Dhammasangani, etc.
Hindu philosophy in later times seems to have been influenced by the later offshoots of the different schools of Buddhism, but it does not appear that Pāli Buddhism had any share in it. I 1 See Buddhaghosa's Atthasalini, p. 25. 2 Oldenberg's Dipavamsa, p. 31.
