Kathavatthu
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Kathavatthu (Pāli), literally "Points of Controversy", is one of the seven books in the Theravada Abhidhamma Pitaka. According to tradition, this work was compiled by the venerable Moggaliputta Tissa in his role as leader of the Third Council, which took place sometime in the 3rd Century BCE. It seems more likely that he only began the work, with further debates added as more "heresies" came to the notice of the Theravada authorities.
The Kathavatthu was compiled in order to clarify the various points of controversy regarding Dhamma that had arisen amongst the early Buddhist schools. These disputes had provided the rationale for the convening of the Third Buddhist Council, by King Ashoka. The Kathavattu recorded the answers that were deemed orthodox by the assembled senior monks. There are 23 chapters dealing with some 216 controversies in the form of dialogues in a logical method. Each chapter contains questions and answers by means of which the most diverse false views are presented, refuted and rejected.
The inclusion of the Kathavatthu in the Abhidhamma Pitaka has sometimes been thought of as something of an anomaly. First, the book is not regarded as being the words of the Buddha himself - its authorship is traditionally attributed to Moggaliputta Tissa. However this is not unusual: the Vinaya's accounts of the first two Councils are obviously also not the Buddha's actual words. Second, the subject matter of the Kathavatthu differs substantially from that of the other texts in the Abhidhamma – but this is true of the Puggalapannatti as well. Scholars sometimes also point to the inclusion of some obviously later (relatively new) sections of the Kathavatthu in the Tipitaka as an indication that the Pāli Canon was more 'open' than has sometimes been thought, and as illustrative of the process of codifying new texts as canonical.
