abhidharma the analytical and systematic presentation of the major conceptual categories constituting Buddhist doctrine; used as a label for both the texts that contain such presentations and the content of what is presented. Early abhidharma texts (up to about the second century A.D.) are catechetical in form, defining key doctrinal terms schematically through question and answer; later works are more discursive, often containing extensive discussions of controverted metaphysical issues such as the existence of past objects or the nature of reference. The goal of abhidharma is to make a complete inventory of existents and of the relations that may hold among them. See also BUDDHIS. P.J.G.