[Pali] Kathavatthu, Kathāvatthu – Points of Controversy – Bộ Ngữ Tông

The original of this work – the Katha-Vathu – is the fifth among the seven books, making up the third, or Abhidhamma Pitaka of the Buddhist Canon. Its numerical order has been traditional from Buddhaghosa’s days till the present time.1 The Mahabodhivansa ranks it third, but was that in order to make such clumsy versematerials as book-titles scan ? 2 Dr. Winternitz ranks it as’ the seventh book,’ in good German prose, and thus without poetic excuse.3 According to Ledi Sadaw Mahathera, it holds a nearly midway position in its Pitaka in virtue of the nature of its contents. Such, at least, is his explanation of the position of the next or sixth book—the Y a m a k a. The task of this work was to clear up difficulties left by the Katha-vatthu. There would seem, then, to be nothing of chronological significance in the position of the latter. It is true that it refers apparently to passages in the first t wo Abhidhamma books:—the D h a m m a s a n g a n i and Y l b h a n g a. But then it does not quote from the third and fourth books,4 and it does refer to subjects belong-ing peculiarly to the matters treated of in the seventh book

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