DESCRIPTION
The Abhidharma are Buddhist texts from the 3rd century BCE and later that contain detailed scholastic presentations of the ideas that appear in the sutras. The term also refers to the scholastic method itself as well as the field of knowledge that this method is said to study.
There are different types of Abhidharma literature. The early canonical Abhidharma works are not philosophical treatises, but mainly summaries and expositions of early doctrinal lists found in sutras with their accompanying explanations. These texts developed out of early Buddhist lists or matrices (mātṛkās) of key teachings.
Later Abhidharma works were written as either large treatises (śāstra), as commentaries, or as smaller introductory manuals. They are more developed philosophical works which often include many innovations and doctrines not found in the sutras.
Suggested Reading
Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha (‘The Compendium of Things contained in the Abhidhamma’) - a Pali Buddhist instructional manual or compendium of the Abhidhamma of the Theravāda tradition, written by the Sri Lankan monk Ācariya Anuruddha some time between the 8th century and the 12th century.
Visuddhimagga (‘The Path of Purification’) - treatise' on Buddhist Theravāda Abhidhamma written by Buddhaghosa approximately in the 5th Century in Sri Lanka. It is a manual condensing and systematizing the 5th century understanding and interpretation of the Buddhist path as maintained by the elders of the Mahavihara Monastery in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.
Nanamoli Thera, trans. The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga). Kandy, Śrī Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1991.