[Buddha-l] Vaitulyakas

[jkirk]

Thanks Lance----now this usage is clear, and I always appreciate getting
the chronological perspective. 
JK
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> Joanna,
> 
>>If a pittaka is not always a collection of texts, then what is it a 
>>collection of? sutras? Why would any text refer to a Vetalhapitaka 
>>if it's not a collecyion?
>>This is a bit confusing.........perhaps you could elucidate further?
> 
> The word pi.taka is literally a basket and so later tradition tends 
> to think of a receptacle for written  texts, but this is doubtful. 
> Apart from anything else, you cannot literally put an orally 
> memorized text in a basket. The notion of the Canon as consisting of 
> three 'baskets' seems not to be older than the writing down of the 
> texts themselves around the first century B.C................
.............