The Theravāda Abhidhamma is a scholastic systematization of the Theravāda school's understanding of the highest Buddhist teachings (Abhidhamma). These teachings are traditionally believed to have been taught by the Buddha, though modern scholars date the texts of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka to the 3rd century BCE. Theravāda traditionally sees itself as the vibhajjavāda, which reflects the analytical (vibhajjati) method used by the Buddha and early Buddhists to investigate the nature of the person and other phenomena.
Three pages of a Burmese Pali manuscript of the Mahaniddessa, an Abhidhamma style commentary found in the Khuddaka Nikāya.
Buddhaghosa (c. 5th century), the most important Abhidhamma scholar of Theravāda, presenting three copies of the Visuddhimagga.
Ledi Sayadaw, one of the great Abhidhammikas of the 20th century.
Mahākassapa pays homage to the Buddha's remains after the final nibbāna (at the death of the body), Burma, mid 19th century.
Buddhaghosa was a 5th-century Indian Theravada Buddhist commentator, translator and philosopher. He worked in the Great Monastery (Mahāvihāra) at Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka and saw himself as being part of the Vibhajjavāda school and in the lineage of the Sinhalese Mahāvihāra.
Buddhaghosa with three copies of Visuddhimagga, Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara