The History of Buddhist Thought c28.s1.5

c28.s1.5

¹ Ang. ii, 167 ; Dīgha, ii, 123. This sutta is itself an example of how accretions could occur. The four rules at some period existed, and some pious monk, doubtless convinced that they were Buddha’s own rules, turned them into a sutta, which Buddha was supposed to have uttered a day or two before his death. Its unhistorical character is shown by the fact that it includes the Mātikā, and refers to the Āgamas. Āgama is the Sarvāstivāda term for the collections usually called Nikāyas in Pāli.