Establishing a uniform canon was not easy, at times not even possible. For example, The Encyclopedia of Religion calls Buddhist literature unique among the religious scriptures of the world because there are a number of canons. It says: “The scriptural collections vary from one another in significant ways, and there are few texts that can be found in every tradition.” This confusion resulted in the formation of sectarian groups and in what history calls the “Eighteen Schools” of Buddhist thought.

BUDDHISM: Tripitaka, from Sanskrit for “three baskets [collections]”

Even more voluminous, the Chinese Buddhist canon is said to cover nearly a hundred thousand printed pages.