In the Scriptures of the Southern Buddhists we thus have reliable materials for the history of India for the centuries immediately after the time of Gautama Buddha, while they give a more consistent and a less exaggerated account of the life and work and teachings of Buddha himself than anything which the Northern Buddhists can supply.
The three Pitakas are known as the Sutta Pitaka, the Vinaya Pitaka, and the Abhidhamma Pitaka. The works comprised in the Sutta Pitaka profess to record the sayings and doings of Gautama Buddha himself. Gautama is the actor and the speaker in the earliest works of this Pitaka, and teaches his doctrines in his own words, although occasionally one of his disciples is the instructor, and there are short introductions to indicate where and when Gautama or his disciple spoke.
The Vinaya Pitaka contains very minute rules, often on the most trivial subjects, for the conduct of monks and nuns, the Bhikkhus and the Bhikkhunis who had embraced the holy order. Gautama respected the lay disciple, but he held that to embrace the Holy Order was a quicker path to salvation. As the number of Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis multiplied, it was necessary to fix elaborate rules, often on very minute subjects, for their proper conduct and behaviour in the Vihara, or monastery. As Gautama lived for nearly half a century after he had proclaimed his religion, there can be no doubt that he himself settled many of these rules, but, at the same time, it is equally certain that
