The History of Buddhist Thought c20.30

c20.30

The actual Abhidhamma works were evidently compiled separately in the different schools, but based on common material. Those of the Theravādins do not give us a picture of the whole doctrine, nor, except in the case of the *Kathāvatthu* and *Puggalapaññatti*, do they show the development of new theories. They analyse the Dhamma, and starting from a psychological basis they discuss ethical and logical questions from this standpoint. What Mrs. Rhys Davids says of the first Abhidhamma work, the *Dhammasangani* applies to most of the other Pāli books in showing their standpoint, “the method of the book is explicative, deductive; its object was, not to add to the Dhamma, but to unfold the orthodox import of terms in use among the body of the faithful, and, by organizing and systematizing the aggregate of doctrinal concepts, to render the learner’s intellect both clear and efficient.”²