The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.1

v1.c19.s9.1

It remains now to give some account of the literature from which our knowledge of early Buddhism is chiefly derived, and so form some estimate of its value as a source of history. This literature which deals mainly with ethics and religion, grew up gradually among those followers of the Buddha who dwelt in the republics and kingdoms specified above. There are now 27 books, and only three of them deal with the rules of the Order. But these 27 are mostly anthologies of earlier shorter passages. The Pātimokkha for instance—one of the earliest documents—has 227 *suttas*, and they are of the average length of about three lines; and the Sīlas, a string of moral injunctions, are, if taken separately, quite short. But neither of these tracts, each of them already a compilation, now exists as a separate book. They are found only as imbedded in longer works of later date. It took about a century for the more important works, the Vinaya and the four Nikāyas¹, to be nearly finished about as we have them. (See p. 195.)