The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.12

v1.c19.s9.12

Further, in certain inscriptions in the Asoka characters of a somewhat later date there are recorded names of donors to Buddhist monuments. The names being similar, distinguishing epithets are used—X. who knows Suttantas, X. who knows the Piṭaka (or perhaps the Piṭakas, *Peṭakī*), X. who knows the five Nikāyas. These technical terms as names for books are, with one exception, found only in that collection we now call the Pāli Piṭakas. The exception is the word *Piṭaka*. That is not found in the four Nikāyas in that sense; and even in the fifth Nikāya it is only approximating to that sense and has not yet reached it. One would naturally think, if these Nikāyas had been put together *after* these inscriptions, that they would have used the term in the sense it then had, and has ever since continued to have; more especially as that sense—the whole collection of the books—is so very convenient, and expresses an idea for which they have no other word.