ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns mainly with the super-structures, in other words, with the values emphasized in the Pitakas, and not merely betrayed. It would be, were the Pitakas the work of men, whose values were the values of the Founder and his contemporaries, in their prime. They are the work of men carried out during a period lasting from, say, the last quarter of Siddhattha Gotama's ministry to a period subsequent to the time of Asoka and the Third Congress, a period not far short of five centuries. During that time, much was undergoing change; tendencies, which were in their infancy at the birth of Sakya, had grown strong and unwithstandable; values strong at that time had depreciated. And, pregnant event, north India had experienced the rapid rise, on the upheaval following Greek invasion, of a Chakravarti, a "world-monarch", an Indian emperor.
