Abhidharma Pitaka

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One of the three divisions of the Tripitaka, or canon of Buddhist scriptures. In fact different schools of Buddhism use the term to refer to quite different collections of writings.

Theravada Buddhism has its Abhidhamma Pitaka, included in the Pali Canon. This consists of seven books.[1]

The extinct Sarvastivada school had its own Abhidharma Pitaka, also in seven books.[2]

The Prajnaptipada survives complete only in Tibetan translation, the others in Chinese.[3] As can be seen, these are different works from the Pali ones, though there is some overlap in material and ideas.

There is also a Chinese translation of a work called Sariputrabhidharmasastra, which may be all or part of the Abhidharma Pitaka of another school, perhaps the Dharmaguptakas. Other early schools of Buddhism are known to have had Abhidharma Pitakas, but nothing of these survives (apart perhaps from a few quotations).

Details of all the above works can be found in Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, ed Potter, volume VII, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1996.

In the Mahayana traditions, the term Abhidharma Pitaka is used differently. In the Tibetan tradition it is used to refer to the Prajnaparamita. In the Chinese tradition its use varies.[4] It always adds to the Chinese translations mentioned above translations of Sarvastivada and other works about abhidharma that those schools do not themselves count as canonical, along with some similar works of the mahayana. Mahayana does not make a distinction between canonical and non-canonical abhidharma works because it does not regard any of them as strictly canonical (likewise, the Tibetan translation of the Prajnaptipada is included in the Tenjur, or non-canonical Indian writings, not the Kanjur, or canon of scripture proper). Some Chinese sources extend this pitaka to include all ("impotant") non-canonical writings.

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