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Controversies On The Origin of The Theravada Abhidhamma
Controversies On The Origin of The Theravada Abhidhamma
By Bhikkhu Karmananda Tanchangya first published in the now-retired Bodhi Journal, Issue 6,
December 2007.
1. auxiliary (atireka) doctrines and
2. exceptional/superior/highest (visesa/vasisaha/uttama) doctrine.
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-pitaka.
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 ‘Tipitakas’ a term also suggesting the
participants were ‘Masters of the Tipitaka’. According to the Mahavamsa’s and some other
authentic texts like Cullavaggapali’s accounts, it’s much justifiable to assume that the recitation or
perhaps the formation of the Abhidhamma-pitaka probably took place after the first Buddhist
council.
Frauwallner is one of the few scholars who say that the ‘Abhidhamma-pitaka originated between
2nd century BC and 2nd century AD’. This date, to a large extent, is contradictory because
the Atthakathas and the Vatsakathas have it that the Abhidhamma-pitaka came to an end after Ven.
Moggallaputta Tissa, the president of the third council, composed and compiled the last book of
the Abhidhamma-pitaka immediately after the council and that the whole of the Pali
Tipitaka together with its commentaries was committed to writing in the first century B.C.
Accordingly, the full Abhidhamma-pitaka was already extant one century before the date given
by Frauwallner as the origin of the Abhidhamma-pitaka.
Thus the modern scholarship is yet to arrive at a unanimous conclusion on the origin of
the Abhidhamma-pitaka. What the modern scholars like Hinuber could suggest is that
‘the Abhidhamma-pitaka is considerably younger than both Sutta- and Vinaya-pitakas’. Hence, the
modern scholarship concludes that Abhidhamma was a gradual development, interpretation, further
elaboration, organization and systematization of the teachings found in the Sutta-pitaka. 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 Sutta-
pitaka.
The Mahagosihgasutta of the Majjhima Nikaya refers to monks like Venerables Sariputta,
Mahakassapa, Moggallana and so on engaged in ‘abhidhammakatha’ in the form of questioning
and answering.
Similarly we find ‘vedalla-katha’ – also a question and answering session on doctrinal issues either
between the Buddha and disciples or among the disciples themselves. Accordingly
the Mahavedallsutta and Calavedallasuttaof Majjhima Nikaya are a testament to this category.
Apart from these, the most important of the Abhidhammic style teachings found in the suttanta are
the ‘mitikas’– 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 mitikas can be found
in suttas like Sangitisutta and Dasuttarasutta of the Digha Nikaya. Accordingly these mitikas are
the basis of all the seven texts of the present day Abhidhamma-pitaka.
Given the highly technical, profound and penetrative teachings contained in the Abhidhamma-pi?
aka, often said to be the philosophical, psychological & ethical teachings of the Buddha, it,
(the Abhidhamma-pitaka) is unmistakably the genius work produced by enlightened persons or
person, a Buddha or a person equal to Buddha. This is supported by Narada when he says,
‘whoever the great author or authors of the Abhidhammamay have been, it has to be admitted that
he or they had intellectual genius comparable only to that of the Buddha’. Even
though Abhidhamma is said to surpass the Suttanta, the vohra-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 nibbana, for Buddha’s teachings have
only one taste – the taste of nibbana, the apex of Buddhist spiritual practice.