They distorted the sense and the teaching of the Five Nikāyas.
Those monks—knowing not what had been spoken at length, and what concisely,
What was the obvious, and what was the higher meaning—
Attached new meaning to new words, as if spoken by the Buddha,
And destroyed much of the spirit by holding to the shadow of the letter.
In part they cast aside the Sutta and the Vinaya so deep,
And made an imitation Sutta and Vinaya, changing this to that.
The Pariwāra abstract, and the Six Books of Abhidhamma;
The Paṭisambhidā, the Niddesa, and a portion of the Jātaka—
So much they put aside, and made others in their place!”...