The Historical Value of the Pali Discourses

With the present paper I attempt an evaluation of the historical value of the Pali discourses. My presentation covers the following topics: additions recorded in the Pali commentaries, the question of later levelling, additions made in Sri Lanka, the relevance of the finalization of the Pali commentaries, and the political and geographical setting of the Pali discourses. I conclude that, as far as we are able to tell, it seems that the Pali discourses were fairly closed, in doctrinal terms, by the time of the 1st century BCE. (C) Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2012.