The History of Buddhist Thought c20.20

c20.20

Development, however, did take place, and we find it in the Abhidhamma. The time of the growth and establishment of Abhidhamma may be placed between Asoka in the third century B.C. and Kanishka in the first century A.D. Of actual history in this period we know practically nothing, but before the end of it we find the Pāli Scriptures established in Ceylon, and, as the Ceylon tradition says, committed to writing by the end of the first century B.C. It is also this period which saw the rise of the Mahāyāna movement. We thus have the consolidating of the doctrine in the schools of Abhidhamma and the rise of new conceptions, new ontological theories, and a transformation of the Buddha doctrine, which can be seen already influencing or developing out of the Sarvāstivāda and Mahāsanghika schools.