Burmese manuscript containing the Kathāvatthu with an over 4 m long sazigyo (ribbon) made in the tablet weaving technique on a backstrap loom with dedicatory inscription inBurmese language, 19th century.British Library
Kathāvatthu (Pāli) (Vietnamese:Bộ Ngữ Tông (Biện Giải); abbreviatedKv,Kvu;transl. "Points ofControversy") is a Buddhist scripture, one of the seven books in theTheravadaAbhidhamma Pitaka. The text contrasts the orthodoxTheravada position on a range of issues to theheterodox views of various interlocutors; the latter are not identified in the primary source text, but were speculatively identified with specific schools of thought in the (historically subsequent) commentaries. The original text is putatively dated to coincide with the reign of KingAshoka (around 240 B.C.), but this, too, is debatable.[1] Though the core of the text may have begun to take shape during Ashoka's reign,Bhikkhu Sujato notes that "the work as a whole cannot have been composed at that time, for it is the outcome of a long period of elaboration, and discusses many views of schools that did not emerge until long after the time of Aśoka."[2]
The Kathavatthu documents over 200 points of contention.[3] The debated points are divided into fourpaṇṇāsaka (lit., "group of 50"). Eachpaṇṇāsaka is again divided, into 20 chapters (vagga) in all. In addition, three morevagga follow the fourpaṇṇāsaka.[4]
Each chapter contains questions and answers by means of which the most diverse views are presented, refuted and rejected. The form of the debates gives no identification of the participants, and does not step outside the debate to state explicitly which side is right.
The views deemed non-heretical by the commentary's interpretation of theKatthavatthu were embraced by the Theravada denomination. According to theCommentaries those whose views were rejected include theSarvastivada.[5]
*This list is a simplification. It is likely that the development of Buddhist schools was not linear. There are also differences of opinion among scholars.
The inclusion of theKathavatthu 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 toMoggaliputta Tissa. However this is not unusual: theVinaya's accounts of the first two Councils are obviously also not the Buddha's actual words.[7]Second, the subject matter of theKathavatthu differs substantially from that of the other texts in the Abhidhamma – but this is true of thePuggalapaññatti as well.
Scholars sometimes also point to the inclusion of some obviously later (relatively new) sections of theKathavatthu in theTipitaka as an indication that thePāli Canon was more 'open' than has sometimes been thought, and as illustrative of the process of codifying new texts ascanonical. In fact this too is not unusual, there being quite a bit of relatively late material in the Canon.[8]
The debates are understood by the tradition, followed by many scholars, as disputes between different schools of Buddhism. However,L. S. Cousins, described by Professor Gombrich as the West's leading abhidhamma scholar,[9] says:
"In spiritual traditions the world over, instructors have frequently employed apparent contradictions as part of their teaching method – perhaps to induce greater awareness in the pupil or to bring about a deeper and wider view of the subject in hand. The Pali Canon contains many explicit examples of such methods. (Indeed much of the Kathāvatthu makes better sense in these terms than as sectarian controversy.)"[10]
^Hinüber (2000), p. 72, writes: "A little more than 200 points were discussed in Kv [the Kathāvatthu], although it seems that the tradition assumes a larger number." Geiger & Ghosh (2004), p. 10, write: "This book contains the refutation of 252 different wrong teachings...."
^Hinüber (2000), p. 71, para. 145. Hinüber comments: "This somewhat irregular structure [of the Kathāvatthu] seems to indicate that the text had been growing over a certain time, and whenever new controversies arose they were included."
"A strong disadvantage of the presentation of the controversies in Kv [the Kathāvatthu] is the lack of any indication of the respective school to which the heretical views under discussion may belong. These are mentioned much later only in the commentary.... In this respect Kv differs from theVijñānakāya [the parallel text of the Sarvastivada], where the interlocutors are named."
^James P. McDermott, KATHAVATTHU; Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume VII: Abhidharma Buddhism to 150 A.D.
"... the canonicity of Kv [the Kathāvatthu] was not universally accepted, because it clearly is notbuddhavacana. However, it is saved as such by the view that the Buddha had spoken themātikā [the abhidhammic classification scheme] in heaven (As 4,3-30), which Moggalliputtatissa unfolded ... at the third council afterAśoka had purged theSaṃgha (Kv-a 6,2-7,29). When the canon was recited on this occasion, Kv was included. Obviously, the tradition was always aware of the relatively late date of Kv."
"It is not entirely obvious why Kv has been included in theAbhidhammapiṭaka. The form of the text, which contains discussions, is nearer to theSuttantas than to theAbhidhamma.... The reason may bechronological. At the time when Kv was formed underAśoka, the four greatNikāyas may have been closed collections already, while the Abhidhamma was still open."
Hinüber (2000, p. 73) further suggests that the Abhidhamma was "closed" by the second century CE but that the fifth Nikaya (theKhuddaka Nikaya) "remained always open for new texts such as thePaṭis and others."
^The State of Buddhist Studies in the World 1972-1997, ed Swearer & Promta, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 2000, page 182
^Gatārē Dhammapāla; Richard Francis Gombrich; Kenneth Roy Norman, eds. (1984).Buddhist Studies: In Honour of Hammalava Saddhātissa. Sri Lanka: Hammalava Saddhātissa Felicitation Volume Committee, University of Sri Jayawardenpura. p. 67.
Hinüber, Oskar von (2000).A Handbook of Pāli Literature. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.ISBN3-11-016738-7.
McDermott, James P. (1975). "The Kathavatthu Kamma Debates" in theJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 95, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1975), pp. 424–433.
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