The History of Buddhist Thought c11.s3.21

c11.s3.21

Where we find the names is in a commentary certainly several centuries later than the Council. This commentary is occupied not in specifying the doctrines of the seventeen schools, but in expounding the refutations of doctrines mentioned in the text and in stating what schools hold or have held them. Nine out of the seventeen are not mentioned at all, while some doctrines, indeed, whole sections of the work, are attributed to later schools not among the seventeen. Only three of the original seventeen are mentioned as " now " holding certain doctrines. As Mrs. Rhys Davids points out, the work probably grew gradually. Its " patchwork-quilt appearance " shows its slow growth, for any new heresy could be added and refuted as required.¹