Time and again in modern studies of traditional Buddhist literature, we find the unreflective use of words like ‘author.’ Such words are a natural part of our modern lexicon, and at first glance seem to be implied by Buddhist literary conventions too, for example in colophons or catalogues. Little wonder that we use them so freely. We happily say so-and-so ‘wrote’ a meditation manual, ‘composed’ a commentary, or ‘revealed’ a scripture. Yet on reflection, this is a potentially hazardous way to...