Note 190 — THE NIDĀNAKATHĀ OR THE THREE EPOCHS. (continued 2)

The members of the Buddhist Order of mendicant friars were in the habit of selecting some book or books of the Buddhist Scriptures, which it was their especial duty to learn by heart, repeat to their pupils, study, expound, and preach from. Thus the Dīgha Nikāya, or collection of long treatises, had a special school of “repeaters” (bhāṇakā) to itself.