The whole collection, about two times as big as the Mahabharata, was committed to writing for the first time in Ceylon in the reign of Vattagamini Abhaya, about 25 B.C. ""Then"", says the Mahā-vamsa, ""the most wise Bikkhus who had passed down the Tipitaka and the commentaries thereon orally in former times, since they saw that the people were less righteous, assembled, and in order that the true Doctrine may endure, wrote them down in books.""
The Vinapa pitaka basis with the rules and regulations concerning the governance of the monas tic order. The Sutta Pitaka contains the discourses delivered by the Buddha at different places on different occasions to individuals or assemblies of different ranks. The language and style of these two Pițakas are very simple, which the average reader, even with a working knowledge of Pali, can follow to a great extent. He may also very profitably re-fer to the Atthakatha wherever he finds difficulty in the text. On the other hand, the Abhidhamma Pitaka, which is extremely subtle in its analysis and technical in treatment, is very difficult to understand without the guidance of an able teacher. The Commentaries themselves, though very elaborate and efficient, are not of great help to the beginner.
The Dhammasangani forms the very basis of the whole system of Abhidhamma philosophy. But while reading it, the beginner is likely to get be-wildered at the long lists of psychological and ethical terms coming one after another from the very outset, with seemingly no system in their arrangement, and, worst of all, the same terms, sometimes, being repeated more than once in the same lists. The real task is to understand the system adopted in the distribution of the terms, which, perhaps, was meant to be studied with a teacher who maintained the traditional interpretation. Buddhaghosa, in chapter XIV of his famous work, the Visuddhimagga, has tried to give a beautiful explanation of the same, bur, perhaps, due to lack of space he could not do it in full length. This suggestion was, however, taken up by the Elder Acariya Anuruddha, who, in about 11th century A. D., wrote, with the same purpose, an independent book, well known as the Abhidhammatthasangaha or 'An Introduction to the Categories of the Abhidhamma Philosophy.' The author has compressed the whole of the Abhidhamma-pitaka and its supplement the Visuddhimagga in this small book, mostly written in aphoristic small sentences.
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