Abhidhammāvatāra


Abhidhammavatara, according to Encyclopædia Britannica is "the earliest effort at systematizing, in the form of a manual, the doctrines dealt with in the Abhidhamma section of the Theravada Buddhist canon. According to Rupert Gethin, the Abhidhammāvatāra was "written in the fifth century by Buddhadatta, a contemporary of Buddhaghosa." Buddhadatta was a poet and scholar in the region of the Kaveri River, in southern India".
Buddhadatta used this work to sum up and give original systematization to other commentaries dealing with Abhidhamma. It is written in a chapter, verse format, with 24 chapters. The Abhidhammattha-sangaha has, in essence, superseded it.