A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s4.39

v2.c19.s4.39

The seventh and last book of the Abhidhammapiṭaka is the Paṭṭhāna-Pakaraṇa, the "Book of the Causal Relationships," or Mahā-Pakaraṇa, "the Great Book," the first part of which is the Tika-Paṭṭhāna and the second part the Duka-Paṭṭhāna.¹ The entire work, deals with the investigation of the 24 kinds of relationships which are assumed between the (corporeal and psychical) phenomena: causal relationship, relationship of subject and object, relationship of the ruler and the ruled, contiguity, co-existence, etc. With the sole exception of Nirvāṇa, which is absolute, there is nothing which is not in some sense relative, *i.e.*, which is not related to something else in one of the 24 ways.² Mrs. Rhys Davids recommends the historian of Buddhistic ideas, and of logical and philosophical ideas in general, to study the first part of the Tika-Paṭṭhāna, in which these 24 kinds of relationships are enumerated, calling it "the one notable constructive contribution to knowledge in the Abhidhamma"; though, in general, she speaks rather sceptically about the value of this work of pure scholasticism.³