Bhuddism saw an explosion of intellectual enlightenment and the expansion of it’s schools in the few hundred years following the death of Sakyamuni Bhudda. Multiple schools of thought as well as the branching of pupils from several prominent teachers spread like wildfire not just through India but also in other places as well. These schools of thought collected and analyzed many of Buddha’s teachings, each having it’s own unique style and practically succinct ways of doing things, created a system of thinking and approach to exposition aptly named Abhidharma, which is in Sanskrit, or Abhidhamma, in Pali. The terminology has it’s linguistic origins in the translation for “concerning (abhi) the teachings (dharma in Sanskrit). As it pertains to the Bhuddist exegetical methods of scholastic disposition, the terminology is meant to actually be translated as “higher” or “further” teachings, and can be said in relations to both doctrinal critiques of the new intellectual movement as well as the literature derived from the exposition of the Buddhist intellectual tradition. These texts contains the third portion of the “three baskets”, also known as tripitaka in Sanskrit, in relations to the Buddhist scriptures, particularly the Adbhidharma-pitaka, accompanying commentaries and addendums of exegetical writings.
Abhidharma is meant to be different from Sutranta, as a standalone genre of writing and as a philosophical style of investigation, where the Sutranta are a collection of methods for the Buddha’s discussions. Contrary to the Buddhist discussions of the past which are meant to be more idiomatic, the Abhidharma approaches things in a more technically inclined manner meant to provide analysts with the ability to read it with precision. The Abhidharma is particularly meant to bring context to topics such as that of living, consciousness and meditation, which are subjects particularly discussed in Buddhist philosophy. The analytical approach to this takes the idea of consciousness and living, and a human being’s connection to mental and physical processes, referred to as “dharmas”. The absorbtion of the analytical exposition of dharmas into several subjects and their amalgamation into a more singular structural entity due to their interrelated nature is called the “dharma theory”. The thorough expositional inquiries into the essence of dharmas and their relations with each other are further examined using metaphysical, epistemological and ontological methods of analysis, and as a result led to disagreements between various Buddhist schools on doctrinal standardization. The Mahayana schools of Madhyamaka and Yogacara benefited from these Abhidharma based investigations by laying the groundwork for these schools when it came to principles of argumentation and notes taken regarding the disagreements. Abhidharma influenced eventual creation of new schools of Buddhist thought and philosophy, and a point of reference for approaches in hermeneutics.
Modern academics are confounded by their inability to estimate more accurate timeframes for the development of Buddhism due to the lack of knowledge and historical documentation of the early days of Buddhism in India. The current consensus regarding academic speculation on the beginnings of Buddhism point to sometime around the start of 300 BCE, when the undeveloped Buddhist community of the time experienced a schism which resulted in the creation of two major Buddhist sects – the Sthaviras and the Mahasanghikas, each of had developed their own distinct religious ceremonies. Teacher lineages and distinct schools of philosophical thought arose as a result of this schism, splitting the sects even further as time went on.