44 The Word of Buddha: Scriptures and Schools
(ekottarikiigama!atiguttara-nikiiya) consists of short siitras built
around such a numbered list and grouped according to number
rather than topic.In this book I generally quote from and refer to the Pali re-
cension of these texts. Using the Pali recension is in part a
matter of convenience and not a question of thereby suggesting
that the traditions it preserves are always the oldest and most
authentic available to us, even if it is likely that this is generally
the case. The Pali versions of these texts have been translated
into English in their entirety (unlike the Chinese and Tibetan
versions) and are readily available. That these texts have become
widely known over the past century through their Pali form has
sometimes led to an attitude which sees them as presenting the
peculiar perspective of Theravada Buddhism. But, as Etienne
Lamotte pointed out forty years ago, the doctrinal basis com-
mon to the Chinese Agamas and Pali Nikayas is remarkably uni-
form; such variations as exist affect only the mode of expression
or the arrangement of topics.U Far from representing sectarian
Buddhism, these texts above all constitute the common ancientheritage of Buddhism.
The failure to appreciate this results in a distorted view ofancient Buddhism, and its subsequent development and history
both within and outside India. From their frequent references
to and quotations from the Nikayas/ Agamas, it is apparent that
all subsequent Indian Buddhist thinkers and writers of whatever
school or persuasion, including the Mahayana-and most certainly
those thinkers such as Nagarjuna, Asaiiga, and Vasubandhu,
who became the great Indian fathers of east Asian and Tibetan
Buddhism-were completely familiar with this material and treated
it as the authoritative word of the Buddha. When disagreements
arose among Buddhists they did not concern the authority of the
Nikaya/Agama material, but certain points of its interpretation
and the authority of other quite different material, namely the
Mahayana siitras, which we shall return to presently.
Alongside the four primary Nikaya/Agama collections of siitras
the ancient Indian canons like the Pali canon preserved a 'minor'
( k~udrakalkhuddaka) collection of miscellaneous texts that were