<P> The Dhyāna sutras (Chan - jing) are a group of early Buddhist meditation texts which contain meditation teachings from the Sarvastivada school along with some early proto - Mahayana meditations . They were mostly the work of Buddhist Yoga teachers from Kashmir and were influential in Chinese Buddhism . </P> <P> The Buddhist poet Aśvaghoṣa composed an epic poem on the life of the Buddha called the Buddhacarita in the early second century CE . </P> <P> The Pali texts have an extensive commentarial literature much of which is still untranslated . These are attributed to scholars working in Sri Lanka such as Buddhaghosa (5th century CE) and Dhammapala . There are also sub-commentaries (tikka) or commentaries on the commentaries . Buddhaghosa was also the author of the Visuddhimagga, or Path of Purification, which is a manual of doctrine and practice according to the Mahavihara tradition of Sri Lanka and according to Nanamoli Bhikkhu is regarded as "the principal non-canonical authority of the Theravada ." A similar albeit shorter work is the Vimuttimagga . Another highly influential Pali Theravada work is the Abhidhammattha - sangaha (11th or 12th century), a short introductory summary to the Abhidhamma . </P> <P> Buddhaghosa is known to have worked from Buddhist commentaries in the Sri Lankan Sinhala language, which are now lost . Sri Lankan literature in the vernacular contains many Buddhist works, including as classical Sinhala poems such as the Muvadevāvata (The Story of the Bodhisattva's Birth as King Mukhadeva, 12th century) and the Sasadāvata (The Story of the Bodhisattva's Birth as a Hare, 12th century) as well as prose works like the Dhampiyātuvā gätapadaya (Commentary on the Blessed Doctrine), a commentary on words and phrases in the Pāli Dhammapada . </P>

When were the earliest buddhist scriptures we have today written