The book is mainly based on the source materials available in Chinese, Sanskrit and Pali, studied historically and philosophically in the line of the textural and critical interpretation documented by the ancient and modern scholars. The authenticity of the literary evidences of the Buddhist canon preserved in Chinese, particularly of the 7 Adhidharma texts comprising the third collection of the canon of the Sarvastivada school of Buddhism, has widely been accepted by the study of the phases of the systematizatation of the Buddhas teachings and practices through the initial stages that grew up as the system of the Buddhist scholasticism. The book traces the origin and development of the Abhidharma in the light of the seven texts available in Chinese only.
The book contains four pages in the related field..The book contains four papers in the related field. The paper on the origin of Adhidharma, examines the backdrop of the formation of Abhidharma. A survey of the seven texts to identify the stages of the growth of Abhidharma is made in the paper on the development of the seven texts entitled A pi ta mo fa yun tsu lun are detailed and compared with parallel texts in Pali and Sanskrit demonstrating the special traits of early Abhidharma.

Dr. Swati Ganguli did her MA in Sanskrit from the University of Calcutta and in Asias studies from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign USA. She was awarded D. Phil in Sanskrit by the University of Calcuta.
Dr. Ganguly studied Chinese language and literature along with aspects of Buddhism in East Asia in the Department of Asian studies, University of Illinois