The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (20 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Abhidhamma Pi
aka
(P
li; Skt., Abhidharma Pi
aka). The third and final section of the Buddhist
canon
(
tripi
aka
). Each school of early Buddhism had its own particular version of the Abhidhamma Pitaka, though the only complete versions now extant are those of the
Sarv
stiv
dins
(in Chinese and Tibetan) and the
Therav
dins
(in P
li).
Abhidharma-ko
a
stra
.
A systematic
Sarv
stiv
da
Buddhist treatise composed by (or attributed to)
Vasubandhu
in the period before he embraced
Mah
y
na
Buddhism. The work comprises two parts: verse (
Abh.k. k
rik
) and prose commentary (
Abh.k. bh
ya
). As an encyclopaedia of Abhidharma, the work became absolutely central to the tradition of study within Buddhism in subsequent cents.

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