A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s1.69

v2.c19.s1.69

From all this, it follows that, some time before the second century B.C. there was already a collection of Buddhist texts, which was called "Piṭakas" and was divided into five "Nikāyas," that there were "Suttas" in which the "Dhamma," the religion of Buddha, was preached, that some of these Suttas agreed with those contained in our Tipiṭaka, and that "Jātakas" of exactly the same kind as those contained in the Tipiṭaka, already belonged to the stock of Buddhist literature—in short, that, at some period prior to the 2nd century B.C., probably as early as at the time of Aśoka or a little later, there was a Buddhist Canon which, if not entirely identical with our Pāli Canon, resembled it very closely.