grouped with the
Mahayana and which with the Hinayana, that distinction being probably
later in origin. The differences between the eighteen schools in
I-ching's time were not vital but concerned the composition of the canon
and details of discipline. It was a creditable thing to be versed in the
scriptures of them all[570]. It is curious that though the Kathavatthu
pays more attention to the opinions of the six new sects than to those
held by most of the eighteen, yet this latter number continued to be
quoted nearly a thousand years later, whereas the additional six seem
forgotten. It may be that they were more unorthodox than the others and
hence required fuller criticism. Five of their names are geographical
designations, but we hear no more of them after the age of Asoka.

The religious horizon of the heretics confuted in the Kathavatthu does
not differ materially from that of the Pitakas. There are many questions
about arhatship, its nature, the method of obtaining it and the
possibility of losing it. Also we find registered divergent views
respecting the nature of knowledge and sensation. Of these the most
important is the doctrine attributed to the Sammitiyas, that a soul
exists in the highest and truest sense. They are also credited with
holding that an arhat can fall from arhatship, that a god can enter the
paths or the Order, and that even an unconverted man can get rid of all
lust and ill-will[571]. This collection of beliefs is possibly
explicable as a result of the view that the condition of the soul, which
is continuous from birth to birth, is stronger for good or evil than its
surroundings. The germs of the Mahayana may be detected in the opinions
of some sects on the nature of the Buddha and the career of a
Bodhisattva. Thus the Andhakas thought that the Buddha was superhuman in
the ordinary affairs of life and the Vetulyakas[572] held that he was
not really born in the world of men but sent a phantom to represent him,
remaining himself in the Tusita heaven. The doctrines attributed to the
Uttarapathakas and Andhakas respectively that an unconverted man, if
good, is capable of entering on the career of a Bodhisattva and that a
Bodhisattva can in the course of his career fall into error and be
reborn in state of woe, show an interest in the development of a
Bodhisattva and a desire to bring it nearer to human life which are
foreign to the Pitakas. An inclination to think of other states of
existence in a