The Foundations of Buddhism

The Word of Buddha: Scriptures and Schools 55

to acknowledge freely that its new literary productions did not

have the status of 'the word of the Buddha' (that is, Siltra or

Agama), but were rather commentaries (atthakathii, bha~ya,

vibhii~ii) on or textbooks (sastra) of the teaching of the Buddha.

· In all this there is no convenient point after which we can say we
are dealing exclusively with self-conscious commentary. Most of
the commentaries and manuals come down to us in a form that
post-dates the beginning of the Christian era, yet they refer
to and record the views of 'the ancient teachers', and we can

be certain that some of their traditions are considerably older,

although it may not always be easy to determine precisely which.

The exegetical literature of most of the ancient schools is

lost. We only have significant knowledge of two traditions: the

Sarvastivadins and the Thervadins, the Sri Lankan representat-

ives of the Sthaviras. I would like to single out two manuals that

I shall be continually referring to throughout this book as pro-

viding convenient and at the same time authoritative summaries

of Buddhist theory and practice. Both these manuals were pro-

duced in the fifth century CE but their authority has continued

to be recognized down to the present day.

The first is the Visuddhimagga or 'Path of Purification', a sum-

mary statement of Theravada teaching, whose text in English trans"

lation runs to over 8oo pages.^30 It is the work of Buddhaghosa,

a monk who, so the story goes, travelled from north India to

Anuradhapura, the ancient capital of Sri Lanka and an import-

ant centre of Buddhist learning, where he took up residence in

the Mahavihara (the Great Monastery). With access to earlier

commentaries preserved in the Mahavihara, he produced, as well

as the Visuddhimagga, definitive commentaries to the principal

works of the Pali canon. The Visuddhimagga is one of the classic

texts of the Theravada or 'southern' tradition of Buddhism.

The second manual is the Abhidharmakosa or 'Treasury of

Abhidharma', which takes the form of a summary statement of

the teachings and traditions of the Sarvastvadins in just less than

6oo verses. Its author, Vasubandhu, a monk who lived in north

India, furnished these verses with his own commentary (bha~ya)

which, in addition to expanding on the verses, provides a critique