6th Issue (December, 2007) Controversies on the Origin of the Theravāda Abhidhamma-piṭaka By Bhikkhu Karmananda Tanchangya The Abhidhamma-pițaka is the third Basket (pițaka) of the Theravāda Tipiṭaka. The Pāli term ‘Abhidhamma’ has an ambiguous meaning, of which two primary meanings given in the Pāli tradition are noteworthy:
Ven.Buddhaghosa, the great Pāli commentator, defines the term ‘Abhidhamma’ as – ‘that which exceeds and is distinguished from the Dhamma’[2] . Abhidhamma, therefore, holistically conveys the meaning of ‘special/supplementary teachings of the Buddha’. Traditionally, Abhidhamma-piṭaka contains seven books viz.: (i) The Book of Enumeration of Phenomena (ii) The Book of Analysis (iii) The Book of Discussion on Elements, (iv) The Book of Individual Concepts, (v) The Book of Points of Controversy (vi) The Book of Pairs and (vii) The Book of Synthesis[3] . Unlike the unanimously accepted Sutta-Vinaya-pitakas, the authenticity and authority of Abhidhamma as direct Words of the Buddha (Buddha-vacana) remains as a controversy. The Theravāda orthodoxy, nonetheless, based on the Atthasālinī (Buddhaghosa’s commentary to the 1st book of Abhidhamma), holds the popular traditional view that Buddha himself was the first ābhidhammika, adding that in the fourth week after His enlightenment, Buddha contemplated the seven books of the Abhidhamma-piṭaka. The commentary further mentions that prior to his 7th annual rainy retreats, Buddha, having ascended to the Tāvatiṁsa heaven, preached the Abhidhamma at a full stretch of three months to the gods assembled from ten thousand world systems headed by his mother goddess Mahāmāyā Devī. The reason for this is that in order to have a complete picture of Abhidhamma, it should be taught unceasingly from the beginning to the end; and only the gods, it is said, could remain in one position for full three months. Being human, however, Buddha came down onto earth for his midday meals leaving behind a self-created image of himself to continue the session in his absence. While on earth He met Ven.Sāriputta and transmitted the Abhidhamma to him who in return taught to his own set of disciples. Subsequently, the Abhidhamma was retained in an oral transmission for generations up until the final writing down of the Tipiṭaka in Sri Lanka in the 1st century B.C. The traditional view, as we shall see below, has a number of inconsistencies, if not defects, which hardly correspond with the evidential information we have in Suttas, Commentaries and Chronicles about the origin of the Abhidhamma-piṭaka. Firstly, the Pāli commentaries state that one of the conditions under which Ven.Ānanda[4] became Buddha’s chief attendant was that the latter should repeat to the former what has been preached to others in his absence. Accordingly, Buddha should have transmitted the Abhidhamma, preached in Tāvatiṁsa, to Ven.Ānanda, not to Ven.Sāriputta. Further, why did Buddha preach Abhidhamma in Tāvatiṁsa and not in Tusita where his mother was supposed to have reborn as a devī? Secondly while referring to His teachings, Buddha explicitly said ‘Dhamma and Vinaya (Disciplines) preached and promulgated by me would be your teacher when I am gone’[5] . This suggests that if Abhidhamma ever existed in the first place, Buddha would have mentioned alongside the Dhamma and Vinaya. The Cullavaggapāli of the Vinayapiṭaka, one of the most authentic Theravādin texts, records the proceedings of the first Buddhist council held just three months after the demise of the Buddha. In that account, quite surprisingly, there is no mention of the recital of the Abhidhamma-piṭaka. However ‘the three parts of the (Pāli) Canon are referred to for the first time in a late part of the Sutta-vibhaṅga in the Vinaya-(piṭaka)’[6] . This is followed by the Sumaṅgalavilāsīnī (the commentary to the Dīgha Nikāya by Ven.Buddhaghosa),which says in its introduction that the Abhidhamma-piṭaka was also recited alongside the Dhamma and Vinaya-piṭakas. This claim is supported by the Dhīga- and Majjhima-bhāṇakas[7] of the Pāli Bhāṇaka tradition. However, the Mahāvaṁsa, a prominent Sri Lankan Pāli chronicle, concludes its introduction to the account of the first Buddhist council saying ‘Dhamma-vinaya’ was recited (no mention of Abhidhamma). Nonetheless the fourth chapter of the same chronicle says that the participants in the second Buddhist council, held a century after Buddha’s demise, were ‘Piṭakattayadhārins’ – a term suggesting that the participants were ‘Bearers of the Tepiṭaka’ (i.e. Sutta, Vinaya and Abhidhamma). Further the fifth chapter of the same chronicle claims that the participants of the third council, held roughly three hundreds after Buddha’s demise, were ‘Tipiṭakas’ a term also suggesting the participants were ‘Masters of the Tipiṭaka’. According to the Mahāvamsa’s and some other authentic texts like Cullavaggapāli’s accounts, it’s much justifiable to assume that the recitation or perhaps the formation of the Abhidhamma-piṭaka probably took place after the first Buddhist council. Bhikkhu KL Dhammajoti, referring to the Abhidhamma-pitaka as the last of the Tipiṭaka, says, without coming to a specific conclusion regarding the origin of Abhidhamma, ‘this very probably reflects the historical fact that the Abhidharma texts were evolved and compiled as a piṭaka later than the other two’[8] . Here if it was so, then it was also logical to conclude that the Vinaya-piṭaka was composed later than the Sutta-piṭaka for, the former position comes after the latter. But from the ongoing discussion we are aware that the Sutta- and the Vinaya-piṭakas were recited almost simultaneously at the first Buddhist council. It was only a matter of naming the piṭakas rather than determining their respective origins by their traditional sequence. Frauwallner is one of the few scholars who say that the ‘Abhidhamma-piṭaka originated between 2nd century BC and 2nd century AD’[9] . This date, to a large extent, is contradictory because the Atthakathās and the Vaṁsakathās have it that the Abhidhamma-piṭaka came to an end after Ven.Moggallīputta Tissa, the president of the third council, composed and compiled the last book of the Abhidhamma-piṭaka immediately after the council and that the whole of the Pāli Tipiṭaka together with its commentaries was committed to writing in the first century B.C. Accordingly, the full Abhidhammapiṭaka was already extant one century before the date given by Frauwallner as the origin of the Abhidhamma-piṭaka. Thus the modern scholarship is yet to arrive at a unanimous conclusion on the origin of the Abhidhamma-piṭaka. What the modern scholars like Hinuber could suggest is that ‘the Abhidhamma-piṭaka is considerably younger than both Sutta- and Vinaya-pitakas’[10] . Hence, the modern scholarship concludes that Abhidhamma was a gradual development, interpretation, further elaboration, organization and systematization of the teachings found in the Suttapiṭaka. Terms like ‘abhidhamme’ often alongside ‘abhivinaye’ occur in the Sutta- and Vinaya-pitakas, but this particular term does not necessarily mean the form of standardized Abdhidhamma we have today. However since some suttas have the characteristics of Abhidhamma we shall see some of them below so to determine how far it’s logical to say that Abhidhamma has its origin in the Suttapiṭaka. The Mahāgosiṅgasutta of the Majjhima Nikāya refers to monks like Venerables Sāriputta, Mahākassapa, Moggallāna and so on engaged in ‘abhidhammakathā’ in the form of questioning and answering. Similarly we find ‘vedalla-kathā’ – also a question and answering session on doctrinal issues either between the Buddha and disciples or among the disciples themselves. Accordingly the Māhāvedallsutta and Cūlavedallasutta of Majjhima Nikāya are a testament to this category. Further in the Suttanta we also find ‘Vibhaṅga (exposition)-methodological teachings in brief and summarized manner which are to be further elaborated on either by Buddha himself or by a proficient disciple. Apart from these, the most important of the Abhidhammic style teachings found in the suttanta are the ‘mātikas’ – meaning (as defined by Bhikkhu KL Dhammajoti) ‘a matrix in the form of a list summarily enumerating topics to be elaborated upon’. Long lists of such mātikas can be found in suttas like Sangītisutta and Dasuttarasutta of the Dīgha Nikāya. Accordingly these mātikas are the basis of all the seven texts of the present day Abhidhamma-piṭaka. Thus mātikas found in the Suttanta are considered to have served as a major basis for the development and origin of the Abhidhamma-pitaka. This is further pushed forward by the fact that ‘…in the ancient triple designations given to the specialists of the Buddhist Canon – vinaya-dhāras, sutta-dhāras, (and) mātika-dhāras’[11] were mentioned in stead of abhidhamma-dhāras for the last one. So it’s highly logical that Abhidhamma could have resulted from the further elaboration and systematization of such mātika-type teachings already found in the Suttanta and to a lesser extent the Vinaya-piṭaka. Given the highly technical, profound and penetrative teachings contained in the Abhidhamma-piṭaka, often said to be the philosophical, psychological & ethical teachings of the Buddha, it, (the Abhidhamma-piṭaka) is unmistakably the genius work produced by enlightened persons or person, a Buddha or a person equal to Buddha. This is supported by Nārada when he says, ‘whoever the great author or authors of the Abhidhamma may have been, it has to be admitted that he or they had intellectual genius comparable only to that of the Buddha’[12] . Even though Abhidhamma is said to surpass the Suttanta, the vohāra-vacana, it is certainly not suggested that one is inferior or superior to the other. Both differs only in the scope of exposition and method but both have the enlightenment potentiality – the door to nibbāna, for Buddha’s teachings have only one taste- the taste of nibbāna, the apex of Buddhist spiritual practice. Editor’s Note :Genuine practioners of Buddhadhamma are advisable not to partake frequently in verbal intellectual disputations on the two theories of the origin of Abhidhammapiṭ̣aka. Overheated intellectual disputations lead to either mental obsessions or remorse or both when the debates are overheated or uncontrollable . Both mental obsessions and remorse impede the noble path to soteriological goal of self-awakening . For those serious Buddhist students or learners, I personally and strongly recommend them to pay attention to Bhikkhu Karmananda’s views on the origin of Theravāda Abhidhamma. It is definitely an excellent Buddhist literature constructed from diligent and careful researches from various reliable resources. Bhikkhu Karmananda was the formal student of the Editor in the International Buddhist College , southern Thailand . This fine piece of his work augurs well for his Dhammaduta in future. My fervent congratulations ! Bibliography:
Other Reading Materials:
1. For more details see – Dhammajoti, 2002 2. Dhammatireka-dhammavisesa ‘ti vuccati abhidhammo; here the prefix ‘abhi’ gives the sense of predominance and distinction and ‘Dhamma’ signifies the teachings of the Suttapitaka 3. Their corresponding Pāli names in order are: Dhammasaṅganī, Vibhaṅga, Dhātukathā, Puggalapaññatti, Kathāvatthu, Yamaka and Paṭṭhāna 4. See Weragoda 5. Dhammacakkapavattanasutta of the Dīgha Nikāya 6. See Hinuber, 1996 7. Bhānakas were those who recited, memorized and preserved a particular part of Buddha’s teachings. Hence Dīgha- and Majjhima-bhānakas were those who recited and preserved the Long and Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha respectively. The Pāli Bhānaka tradition was established soon after Buddha’s death and continued up to the first century BC when the Canon was committed to writing in Sri Lanka under King Vatthagāminī Abhaya. 8. See Dhammajoti, 2002 9. Quoted in the ‘A Handbook of Pāli Literature’; see Hinuber, 1996 10. See Hinuber, 1996 11. See Dhammajoti, 2002 12. See Narada, 2002    
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