The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of

scripture Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual pra ...

s in the

Theravada ''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

tradition, as preserved in the

Pāli Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhi ...

language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school. During the First Buddhist Council, three months after the

parinibbana In Buddhism, ''parinirvana'' (Sanskrit: '; Pali: ') is commonly used to refer to nirvana-after-death, which occurs upon the death of someone who has attained ''nirvana'' during their lifetime. It implies a release from '' '', karma and rebirth a ...

Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...

in Rajgir, Ananda recited the Sutta Pitaka, and Upali recited the Vinaya Pitaka. The Arhats present accepted the recitations and henceforth the teachings were preserved orally by the

Sangha Sangha is a Sanskrit word used in many Indian languages, including Pali meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community"; Sangha is often used as a surname across these languages. It was historically used in a political context t ...

. The Tipitaka that was transmitted to Sri Lanka during the reign of King

Asoka Ashoka (, ; also ''Asoka''; 304 – 232 BCE), popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third emperor of the Maurya Empire of Indian subcontinent during to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, s ...

were initially preserved orally and were later written down on palm leaves during the Fourth Buddhist Council in 29

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

, approximately 454 years after the death of

. The claim that the texts were "spoken by the Buddha", is meant in this non-literal sense. The existence of the bhanaka tradition existing until later periods, along with other sources, shows that oral tradition continued to exist side by side with written scriptures for many centuries to come. Thus, the so-called writing down of the scriptures was only the beginning of a new form of tradition, and the innovation was probably opposed by the more conservative monks. As with many other innovations, it was only after some time that it was generally accepted. Therefore, it was much later that the records of this event were transformed into an account of a "council" (sangayana or sangiti) which was held under the patronage of King Vattagamani. Textual fragments of similar teachings have been found in the agama of other major Buddhist schools in India. They were however written down in various

Prakrit The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...

s other than

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

as well as

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

. Some of those were later translated into Chinese (earliest dating to the late 4th century CE). The surviving Sri Lankan version is the most complete, but one that was extensively redacted about 1,000 years after Buddha's death, in the 5th or 6th century CE., Quote: "As of the Pali Canon of Sri Lanka, it was extensively redacted in the fifth or sixth century A.D. (Bechert 1978; Collins 1990; Trainor 1997)". The earliest textual fragments of canonical Pali were found in the

Pyu city-states , conventional_long_name = Pyu city-states , common_name = Pyu City States , era = Classical antiquity , status = City , event_start = Earliest Pyu presence in Upper Burma , year_start = c. 2nd century BCE , date_start = , event_en ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

dating only to the mid 5th to mid 6th century CE.Stargardt, Janice. ''Tracing Thoughts Through Things: The Oldest Pali Texts and the Early Buddhist Archaeology of India and Burma.'', Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2000, page 25. The Pāli Canon falls into three general categories, called '' pitaka'' (from Pali ', meaning "basket", referring to the receptacles in which the

palm-leaf manuscript Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. Palm leaves were used as writing materials in the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia reportedly dating back to the 5th century BCE. Their use began in South Asia and ...

s were kept). Because of this, the canon is traditionally known as the '' Tipiṭaka'' ("three baskets"). The three pitakas are as follows: #

Vinaya Piṭaka The ' (Sanskrit, Pali; ) is a Buddhist scripture, one of the three parts that make up the Tipiṭaka (lit. ''Three Baskets''). The other two parts of the Tipiṭaka are the Sutta Piṭaka and Abhidhamma Piṭaka. Its primary subject matter i ...

("Discipline Basket"), dealing with rules or discipline of the

sangha Sangha is a Sanskrit word used in many Indian languages, including Pali meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community"; Sangha is often used as a surname across these languages. It was historically used in a political context t ...

; # Sutta Piṭaka (Sutra/Sayings Basket), discourses and sermons of Buddha, some religious poetry and is the largest basket; # Abhidhamma Piṭaka, treatises that elaborate Buddhist doctrines, particularly about mind, also called the "systematic philosophy" basket. The Vinaya Pitaka and the Sutta Pitaka are remarkably similar to the works of the early Buddhist schools, often termed Early Buddhist Texts. The Abhidhamma Pitaka, however, is a strictly Theravada collection and has little in common with the Abhidhamma works recognized by other Buddhist schools.

The Canon in the tradition

The Canon is traditionally described by the

as the Word of the Buddha (''

buddhavacana Buddhist texts are those religious texts which belong to the Buddhist tradition. The earliest Buddhist texts were not committed to writing until some centuries after the death of Gautama Buddha. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts a ...

''), though this is not intended in a literal sense, since it includes teachings by disciples. The traditional Theravādin ( Mahavihārin) interpretation of the Pali Canon is given in a series of commentaries covering nearly the whole Canon, compiled by Buddhaghosa ( fl. 4th–5th century CE) and later monks, mainly on the basis of earlier materials now lost. Subcommentaries have been written afterward, commenting further on the Canon and its commentaries. The traditional Theravādin interpretation is summarized in Buddhaghosa's

Visuddhimagga The ''Visuddhimagga'' (Pali; English: ''The Path of Purification''), is the 'great treatise' on Buddhist practice and Theravāda Abhidhamma written by Buddhaghosa approximately in the 5th century in Sri Lanka. It is a manual condensing and sys ...

. An official view is given by a spokesman for the Buddha Sasana Council of

: the Canon contains everything needed to show the path to nirvāna; the commentaries and subcommentaries sometimes include much speculative matter, but are faithful to its teachings and often give very illuminating illustrations. In Sri Lanka and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, "official" Buddhism has in large part adopted the interpretations of Western scholars. Although the Canon has existed in written form for two millennia, its earlier oral nature has not been forgotten in actual Buddhist practice within the tradition: memorization and recitation remain common. Among frequently recited texts are the Paritta. Even lay people usually know at least a few short texts by heart and recite them regularly; this is considered a form of meditation, at least if one understands the meaning. Monks are of course expected to know quite a bit more (see Dhammapada below for an example). A Burmese monk named Vicittasara even learned the entire Canon by heart for the Sixth Council (again according to the usual Theravada numbering). The relation of the scriptures to Buddhism as it actually exists among ordinary monks and lay people is, as with other major religious traditions, problematic: the evidence suggests that only parts of the Canon ever enjoyed wide currency, and that non-canonical works were sometimes very much more widely used; the details varied from place to place.

Rupert Gethin Rupert Mark Lovell Gethin (born 1957, in Edinburgh) is Professor of Buddhist Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and codirector of the Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Bristol, and (since 2003) president of ...

suggests that the whole of Buddhist history may be regarded as a working out of the implications of the early scriptures.

Origins

According to a late part of the Pali Canon, the Buddha taught the three pitakas. It is traditionally believed by Theravadins that most of the Pali Canon originated from the Buddha and his immediate disciples. According to the scriptures, a council was held shortly after the Buddha's passing to collect and preserve his teachings. The Theravada tradition states that it was recited orally from the 5th century BCE to the first century BCE, when it was written down. The memorization was enforced by regular communal recitations. The tradition holds that only a few later additions were made. The Theravādin pitakas were first written down in Sri Lanka in the Alu Viharaya Temple no earlier than 29–17 BCE. The geographic setting of identifiable texts within the Canon generally corresponds to locations in the Ganges region of northeastern India, including the kingdoms of Kosala, Kasi, Vajji, and

Magadha Magadha was a region and one of the sixteen sa, script=Latn, Mahajanapadas, label=none, lit=Great Kingdoms of the Second Urbanization (600–200 BCE) in what is now south Bihar (before expansion) at the eastern Ganges Plain. Magadha was ruled ...

.Witzel, Michael. "Moving Targets? Texts, Language, Archaeology and History in the Late Vedic and Early Buddhist Periods." Indo-Iranian Journal, vol. 52, no. 2/3, 2009, pp. 287–310. . While Theravada tradition has generally regarded Pali as being synonymous with the language of the kingdom of Magadhi as spoken by the Buddha, linguists have identified Pali as being more closely related to other

prakrit The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...

languages of western India, and found substantial incompatibilities with the few preserved examples of Magadhi and other north-eastern prakrit languages. Linguistic research suggests that the teachings of the Buddha may have been recorded in an eastern India language originally, but were transposed into the west Indian precursor of Pali sometime before the Asokan era. Much of the material in the Canon is not specifically Theravādin, but is instead the collection of teachings that this school preserved from the early, non-sectarian body of teachings. According to

Peter Harvey Peter Michael St Clair Harvey (16 September 19442 March 2013) was an Australian journalist and broadcaster. Harvey was a long-serving correspondent and contributor with the Nine Network from 1975 to 2013. Career Harvey studied his journalism c ...

, it contains material which is at odds with later Theravādin orthodoxy. He states that "the Theravādins, then, may have ''added'' texts to the Canon for some time, but they do not appear to have tampered with what they already had from an earlier period." A variety of factors suggest that the early Sri Lankan Buddhists regarded canonical literature as such and transmitted it conservatively. Theravada tradition generally treats the Canon as a whole as originating with the Buddha and his immediate disciples (with the exception certain, generally Abhidhamma texts, that explicitly refer to events long after his death). Scholars differ in their views regarding the ultimate origin of the Pali Canon, but generally believe that the Canon includes several strata of relatively early and late texts, but with little consensus regarding the relative dating of different sections of the Canon or which texts belong to which era.

Authorship

Authorship according to Theravadins

Prayudh Payutto argues that the Pali Canon represents the teachings of the Buddha essentially unchanged apart from minor modifications. He argues that it also incorporates teachings that precede the Buddha, and that the later teachings were memorized by the Buddha's followers while he was still alive. His thesis is based on study of the processes of the first great council, and the methods for memorization used by the monks, which started during the Buddha's lifetime. It's also based on the capability of a few monks, to this day, to memorize the entire canon. Bhikkhu Sujato and Bhikkhu Brahmali argue that it is likely that much of the Pali Canon dates back to the time period of the Buddha. They base this on many lines of evidence including the technology described in the canon (apart from the obviously later texts), which matches the technology of his day which was in rapid development, that it doesn't include back written prophecies of the great Buddhist ruler King Ashoka (which Mahayana texts often do) suggesting that it predates his time, that in its descriptions of the political geography it presents India at the time of Buddha, which changed soon after his death, that it has no mention of places in South India, which would have been well known to Indians not long after Buddha's death and various other lines of evidence dating the material back to his time.

Authorship according to academic scholars

The views of scholars concerning the authorship of the Pali Canon can be grouped into three categories: # Attribution to the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

himself and his early followers # Attribution to the period of

pre-sectarian Buddhism Pre-sectarian Buddhism, also called early Buddhism, the earliest Buddhism, original Buddhism, and primitive Buddhism, is Buddhism as theorized to have existed before the various Early Buddhist schools developed, around 250 BCE (followed by later ...

# Agnosticism Scholars have both supported and opposed the various existing views.

= Views concerning authorship of the Buddha himself

= Several scholars of early Buddhism argue that the nucleus of the Buddhist teachings in the Pali Canon may derive from

himself, but that part of it also was developed after the Buddha by his early followers.

Richard Gombrich Richard Francis Gombrich (; born 17 July 1937) is a British Indologist and scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli, and Buddhist studies. He was the Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford from 1976 to 2004. He is currently Founder-Presiden ...

says that the main preachings of the Buddha (as in the Vinaya and Sutta Pitaka) are coherent and cogent, and must be the work of a single person: the Buddha himself, not a committee of followers after his death. Other scholars are more cautious, and attribute part of the Pali canon to the Buddha's early followers. Peter Harvey also states that "much" of the Pali Canon must derive from the Buddha's teaching, but also states that "parts of the Pali Canon clearly originated after the time of the Buddha." A.K. Warder has stated that there is no evidence to suggest that the shared teaching of the early schools was formulated by anyone else than the Buddha and his immediate followers. J.W. de Jong has said it would be "hypocritical" to assert that we can say nothing about the teachings of earliest Buddhism, arguing that "the basic ideas of Buddhism found in the canonical writings could very well have been proclaimed by him he Buddha transmitted and developed by his disciples and, finally, codified in fixed formulas." Alex Wynne has said that some texts in the Pali Canon may go back to the very beginning of Buddhism, which perhaps include the substance of the Buddha's teaching, and in some cases, maybe even his words.{{refn, group=lower-alpha, name=fnt4, "If some of the material is so old, it might be possible to establish what texts go back to the very beginning of Buddhism, texts which perhaps include the substance of the Buddha's teaching, and in some cases, maybe even his words". He suggests the canon was composed early on soon after Buddha's paranirvana, but after a period of free improvisation, and then the core teachings were preserved nearly verbatim by memory. Hajime Nakamura writes that while nothing can be definitively attributed to Gautama as a historical figure, some sayings or phrases must derive from him.{{sfn, Nakamura, 1999, p=57

= Views concerning authorship in the period of pre-sectarian Buddhism

= Most scholars do agree that there was a rough body of sacred literature that a relatively early community maintained and transmitted.{{sfn, Davidson, 2003, p=147{{refn, group=lower-alpha, name=fnt5, Ronald Davidson states, "most scholars agree that there was a rough body of sacred literature (disputed) that a relatively early community (disputed) maintained and transmitted."{{sfn, Davidson, 2003, p=147 Much of the Pali Canon is found also in the scriptures of other early schools of Buddhism, parts of whose versions are preserved, mainly in Chinese. Many scholars have argued that this shared material can be attributed to the period of

Pre-sectarian Buddhism Pre-sectarian Buddhism, also called early Buddhism, the earliest Buddhism, original Buddhism, and primitive Buddhism, is Buddhism as theorized to have existed before the various Early Buddhist schools developed, around 250 BCE (followed by later ...

.{{citation needed, date=April 2017 This is the period before the early schools separated in about the fourth or third century BCE.

= Views concerning agnosticism

= Some scholars see the Pali Canon as expanding and changing from an unknown nucleus.{{sfn, Buswell, 2004, p=10 Arguments given for an agnostic attitude include that the evidence for the Buddha's teachings dates from (long) after his death. Some scholars of later Indian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism say that little or nothing goes back to the Buddha. Ronald Davidson has little confidence that much, if any, of surviving Buddhist scripture is actually the word of the historical Buddha.{{sfn, Davidson, 2003, p=147 Geoffrey Samuel says the Pali Canon largely derives from the work of Buddhaghosa and his colleagues in the 5th century CE.{{sfn, Samuel, 2012, p=48 Gregory Schopen argues{{sfn, Schopen, 1997, p=24 that it is not until the 5th to 6th centuries CE that we can know anything definite about the contents of the Canon. This position was criticized by A. Wynne.{{sfn, Wynne, 2003, p=

Authorship of the Abhidhamma Pitaka

Western scholarship suggests that the Abhidhamma Pitaka was likely began to be composed around 300 BCE, but may have drawn on an earlier tradition of lists and rubrics known as ' matrika'.{{sfn, Gombrich, 2006, p=4{{cite book , author=Damien Keown , title=A Dictionary of Buddhism , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=985a1M7L1NcC , year=2004 , publisher=Oxford University Press , isbn=978-0-19-157917-2 , page=2 Traditional accounts include it among the texts recited at the First Buddhist Council and attribute differences in form and style to its composition by Sariputra.

The earliest books of the Pali Canon

Different positions have been taken on what the earliest books of the Canon are. The majority of Western scholars consider the earliest identifiable stratum to be mainly prose works,{{sfn, Warder, 1963, p=viii the Vinaya (excluding the Parivāra){{sfn, Cousins, 1984, p=56 and the first four nikāyas of the Sutta Pitaka,{{sfn, Bechert, Gombrich, 1984, p=78{{sfn, Gethin, 1992, pp=42ff and perhaps also some short verse works{{sfn, Gethin, 1992, p= such as the

Suttanipata The ' () is a Buddhist scripture, a sutta collection in the Khuddaka Nikaya, part of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism. Sections The ''Sutta Nipāta'' is divided into five sections: Uraga Vagga ("The Chapter on the Serpent") Cūla Vagg ...

.{{sfn, Cousins, 1984, p=56 However, some scholars, particularly in Japan, maintain that the Suttanipāta is the earliest of all Buddhist scriptures, followed by the Itivuttaka and Udāna.{{sfn, Nakamura, 1999, p=27 However, some of the developments in teachings may only reflect changes in teaching that the Buddha himself adopted, during the 45 years that the Buddha was teaching.{{refn, group=lower-alpha, name=fnt6, "as the Buddha taught for 45 years, some signs of development in teachings may only reflect changes during this period."{{sfn, Harvey, 1990, p=3 Scholars generally agree that the early books include some later additions.{{sfn, Ñāṇamoli, Warder, 1982, p= xxix Aspects of these late additions are or may be from a much earlier period.{{sfn, Harvey, 1990, p=83{{sfn, Cousins, 1982 , p={{sfn, Gethin, 1992, p=48 Other aspects of the Pali Canon, such as the information about society and South Asian history, are in doubt because the Pali Canon was extensively redacted in the 5th- or 6th-century CE, nearly a thousand years after the death of the Buddha. Further, this redacted Pali Canon of Sri Lanka itself mentions that the compilation had previously been redacted towards the end of 1st-century BCE. According to the Early Buddhism scholar Lars Fogelin, the Pali Canon of Sri Lanka is a modified Canon and "there is no good reason to assume that Sri Lankan Buddhism resembles Early Buddhism in the mainland, and there are numerous reasons to argue that it does not." One of the

edicts of Ashoka The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on the Pillars of Ashoka, as well as boulders and cave walls, attributed to Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire who reigned from 268 BCE to 232 BCE. Ashoka used the exp ...

, the 'Calcutta-Bairat edict', lists several works from the canon which he considers advantageous. According to Alexander Wynne:

The general consensus seems to be that what Asoka calls Munigatha correspond to the Munisutta (Sn 207-21), Moneyasute is probably the second half of the Nalakasutta (Sn 699-723), and Upatisapasine may correspond to the Sariputtasutta (Sn 955-975). The identification of most of the other titles is less certain, but Schmithausen, following Oldenberg before him, identifies what Asoka calls the Laghulovada with part of a prose text in the Majjhima Nikaya, the Ambalatthika-Rahulovada Sutta (M no.61).{{sfn, Wynne, 2004, p=

This seems to be evidence which indicates that some of these texts were already fixed by the time of the reign of

Ashoka Ashoka (, ; also ''Asoka''; 304 – 232 BCE), popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third emperor of the Maurya Empire of Indian subcontinent during to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, s ...

(304–232 BCE), which means that some of the texts carried by the Buddhist missionaries at this time might also have been fixed.{{sfn, Wynne, 2004, p= According to the Sri Lankan Mahavamsa, the Pali Canon was written down in the reign of King Vattagāmini ({{IAST, Vaṭṭagāmiṇi) (1st century BCE) in Sri Lanka, at the Fourth Buddhist council. Most scholars hold that little if anything was added to the Canon after this,{{sfn, Ñāṇamoli, Warder, 1982, p=xxxix{{sfn, Gethin, 1992, p=8{{sfn, Harvey, , p=3, loc={{date?, date=February 2022, reason=Which book? though Schopen questions this.

Texts

Manuscripts

The

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

of Theravāda countries is not conducive to the survival of manuscripts. Apart from brief quotations in inscriptions and a two-page fragment from the eighth or ninth century found in

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

, the oldest manuscripts known are from late in the fifteenth century,{{sfn, von Hinüber, 2000, pp=4–5 and there is not very much from before the eighteenth.{{cite web , url=http://www.palitext.com/ , title=Pali Text Society Home Page , publisher=Palitext.com , access-date=14 October 2012

Printed editions and digitized editions

The first complete printed edition of the Canon was published in Burma in 1900, in 38 volumes.{{sfn, Grönbold, 1984, p=12 (as noted there and elsewhere, the 1893 Siamese edition was incomplete) The following editions of the Pali text of the Canon are readily available in the West: * Pali Text Society edition (in

Roman script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Ital ...

), published 1877–1927 (a few volumes subsequently replaced by new editions), in 57 volumes (including indexes). ** The Pali scriptures and some Pali commentaries were digitized as an MS-DOS/extended ASCII compatible database through cooperation between the Dhammakaya Foundation and the Pali Text Society in 1996 as ''PALITEXT version 1.0: CD-ROM Database of the Entire Buddhist Pali Canon'' {{ISBN, 978-974-8235-87-5.{{sfn, Allon, 1997, pp=109–29 * Thai Tipitaka in

Thai script The Thai script ( th, อักษรไทย, ) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai alphabet itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols ( th, พยัญชน� ...

, published during the reign of Rama VII (1925–35), 45 volumes, with fewer variant readings than PTS;{{sfn, Warder, 1963, pp=382 ** BUDSIR on Internet{{cite web , url=http://www.budsir.org/program/ , title=Welcome to BUDSIR on Internet , website=BUDSIR on Internet , access-date=14 October 2012 , url-status=deviated , archive-date=2012-12-08 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121208180137/http://www.budsir.org/program/ free with login; and electronic transcript by BUDSIR: Buddhist scriptures information retrieval, CD-ROM and online, both requiring payment. * Sixth Council Tipiṭaka, Rangoon (1954–56), 40 volumes in

Burmese script Burmese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia * Burmese people * Burmese language * Burmese alphabet * Burmese cuisine * Burmese culture Animals * Burmese cat * Burmese chicken * Burmese ( ...

; with fewer variant readings than the Thai edition;{{sfn, Hamm, 1973, pp= ** electronic transcript by Vipāssana Research Institute available online in searchable database free of charge, or on CD-ROM (p&p only) from the institute. ** Another transcript of this edition, produced under the patronage of the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand, World Tipitaka Edition, 2005, 40 volumes, published by the

Dhamma Society Fund Dhamma Society Fund, formally known as The M.L. Maniratana Bunnag Dhamma Society Fund under the Patronage His Holiness Somdet Phra Ñāṇasaṃvara the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand, is a charitable organisation in the Buddhist Theravāda Tradi ...

, claims to include the full extent of changes made at the Sixth Council, and therefore reflect the results of the council more accurately than some existing Sixth Council editions. Available for viewing online (registration required) at Tipiṭaka Quotation WebService. * Sinhalese (Buddha Jayanti) edition, (1957–1993?), 58 volumes including parallel Sinhalese translations, searchable, free of charge (not yet fully proofread.) Available at Journal of Buddhist Ethics. The only accurate version of the Sri Lankan text available, in individual page images. Cannot be searched though. ** Transcript in BudhgayaNews Pali Canon. In this version it is easy to search for individual words across all 16,000+ pages at once and view the contexts in which they appear. * Cambodian Tipiṭaka in

Khmer script Khmer script ( km, អក្សរខ្មែរ, )Huffman, Franklin. 1970. ''Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader''. Yale University Press. . is an abugida (alphasyllabary) script used to write the Khmer language, the official la ...

. Edited and published by the ''Institut Bouddhique'' in Phnom Penh (1931–69). * The Complete Collection of Chinese Pattra Scripture as preserved by the Dai people.

Translations

''Pali Canon in English Translation'', 1895-, in progress, 43 volumes so far, Pali Text Society, Bristol; for details of these and other translations of individual books see the separate articles. In 1994, the then President of the Pali Text Society stated that most of these translations were unsatisfactory.{{sfn, Norman, 1996, pp=80 Another former President said in 2003 that most of the translations were done very badly. The style of many translations from the Canon has been criticized as "Buddhist Hybrid English", a term invented by Paul Griffiths for translations from Sanskrit. He describes it as "deplorable", "comprehensible only to the initiate, written by and for Buddhologists".{{sfn, Griffiths, 1981, pp=17-32 Selections: see List of Pali Canon anthologies. A translation by Bhikkhu Nanamoli and

Bhikkhu Bodhi Bhikkhu Bodhi (born December 10, 1944), born Jeffrey Block, is an American Theravada Buddhist monk, ordained in Sri Lanka and currently teaching in the New York and New Jersey area. He was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publ ...

of the Majjhima Nikaya was published by Wisdom Publications in 1995. Translations by

of the Samyutta Nikaya and the Anguttara Nikaya were published by Wisdom Publications in 2003 and 2012, respectively. In 2018, new translations of the entirety of the five Nikayas were made freely available on the websit
suttacentral
by the Australian Bhikkhu Sujato, the translations were also released into the

Public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

. A Japanese translation of the Canon, edited by Takakusu Junjiro, was published in 65 volumes from 1935 to 1941 as The Mahātripiṭaka of the Southern Tradition (南伝大蔵経 ''Nanden daizōkyō''). A Chinese translation of the above-mentioned Japanese translation was undertaken between 1990–1998 and thereafter printed under the patronage of Kaoshiung's Yuan Heng Temple.{{Citation needed, date=October 2020

Contents of the Canon

As noted above, the Canon consists of three pitakas. * Vinaya Pitaka ({{IAST, vinayapiṭaka) * Sutta Pitaka or Suttanta Pitaka * Abhidhamma Pitaka Details are given below. For more complete information, see standard references on Pali literature.{{sfn, Norman, 1983, p={{sfn, von Hinüber, 2000, pp=24-26

Vinaya Pitaka

The first category, the '' Vinaya Pitaka'', is mostly concerned with the rules of the ''

'', both

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

s and

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

s. The rules are preceded by stories telling how the Buddha came to lay them down, and followed by explanations and analysis. According to the stories, the rules were devised on an ad hoc basis as the Buddha encountered various behavioral problems or disputes among his followers. This pitaka can be divided into three parts: * Suttavibhanga ({{IAST, -vibhaṅga) Commentary on the Patimokkha, a basic code of rules for monks and nuns that is not as such included in the Canon. The monks' rules are dealt with first, followed by those of the nuns' rules not already covered. * Khandhaka Other rules grouped by topic in 22 chapters. * Parivara (parivāra) Analysis of the rules from various points of view.

Sutta Pitaka

The second category is the '' Sutta Pitaka'' (literally "basket of threads", or of "the well spoken"; Sanskrit: ''Sutra Pitaka'', following the former meaning) which consists primarily of accounts of the Buddha's teachings. The Sutta Pitaka has five subdivisions, or nikayas: * Digha Nikaya (dīghanikāya) 34 long discourses.{{sfn, Harvey, 1990, loc=appendix Joy Manné argues{{sfn, Manné, 1990, pp=29-88 that this book was particularly intended to make converts, with its high proportion of debates and devotional material. * Majjhima Nikaya 152 medium-length discourses.{{sfn, Harvey, 1990, loc=appendix Manné argues{{sfn, Manné, 1990, pp=29-88 that this book was particularly intended to give a solid grounding in the teaching to converts, with a high proportion of sermons and consultations. * Samyutta Nikaya ({{IAST, saṃyutta-) Thousands of short discourses in fifty-odd groups by subject, person etc.

, in his translation, says this nikaya has the most detailed explanations of doctrine. * Anguttara Nikaya ({{IAST, aṅguttara-) Thousands of short discourses arranged numerically from ones to elevens. It contains more elementary teaching for ordinary people than the preceding three. * Khuddaka Nikaya A miscellaneous collection of works in prose or verse.

Abhidhamma Pitaka

The third category, the '' Abhidhamma Pitaka'' (literally "beyond the dhamma", "higher dhamma" or "special dhamma", Sanskrit: '' Abhidharma Pitaka''), is a collection of texts which give a scholastic explanation of Buddhist doctrines particularly about mind, and sometimes referred to as the "systematic philosophy" basket.{{sfn, Gombrich, 2006, p=4 There are seven books in the Abhidhamma Pitaka: * Dhammasangani ({{IAST, -saṅgaṇi or {{IAST, -saṅgaṇī) Enumeration, definition and classification of dhammas * Vibhanga ({{IAST, vibhaṅga) Analysis of 18 topics by various methods, including those of the Dhammasangani * Dhatukatha (dhātukathā) Deals with interrelations between ideas from the previous two books * Puggalapannatti (-paññatti) Explanations of types of person, arranged numerically in lists from ones to tens * Kathavatthu (kathā-) Over 200 debates on points of doctrine * Yamaka Applies to 10 topics a procedure involving converse questions (e.g. Is X Y? Is Y X?) * Patthana ({{IAST, paṭṭhāna) Analysis of 24 types of condition{{sfn, Harvey, 1990, p=83 The traditional position is that ''abhidhamma'' refers to the absolute teaching, while the suttas are adapted to the hearer. Most scholars describe the abhidhamma as an attempt to systematize the teachings of the suttas:{{sfn, Harvey, 1990, p=83{{sfn, Gethin, 1998, p=44 Cousins says that where the suttas think in terms of sequences or processes the abhidhamma thinks in terms of specific events or occasions.{{sfn, Cousins, 1982, p=7

Use of Brahmanical Language

The Pali Canon uses many

Brahmanical The historical Vedic religion (also known as Vedicism, Vedism or ancient Hinduism and subsequently Brahmanism (also spelled as Brahminism)), constituted the religious ideas and practices among some Indo-Aryan peoples of northwest Indian Subco ...

terminology and concepts. For example, the ''Sundarika Sutta'' includes an analogy, quoted in several other places in the Canon, where the Buddha describes the

Agnihotra Agnihotra (IAST: ''Agnihotra'', Devnagari: अग्निहोत्र) refers to the yajna of casting of ghee into the sacred fire as per strict rites, and may include twice-daily heated milk offering made by those in the Śrauta tradition. Th ...

as the foremost sacrifice and the

Gayatri mantra The Gāyatrī Mantra, also known as the Sāvitri Mantra, is a highly revered mantra from the '' Rig Veda'' ( Mandala 3.62.10), dedicated to the Vedic deity Savitr. is the name of the Goddess of the Vedic meter in which the verse is composed. ...

as the foremost meter: {{quote, ''aggihuttamukhā yaññā sāvittī chandaso mukham.'' , Sacrifices have the agnihotra as foremost; of meter the foremost is the Sāvitrī.{{cite journal , last1=Shults , first1=Brett , title=On the Buddha's Use of Some Brahmanical Motifs in Pali Texts , journal=Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies , date=May 2014 , volume=6 , page=119 , url=http://jocbs.org/index.php/jocbs/article/view/76/96 These Brahmanical motives are sometimes introduced in order to "establish a link with the deeds and beliefs of Brahmins", referencing "shared ideas" that were part of the culture of ancient India.{{sfn, Shults, 2014, p=120 In many other instances, they are introduced in order to establish unfavorable comparisons with Buddhist teachings or practices- after identifying the fire sacrifice as the foremost of the Brahminist sacrifices, the Buddha goes on to explain how it is surpassed by the kindling of "inner light" that he practices as an arhat.{{sfn, Shults, 2014, p=123

Comparison with other Buddhist canons

{{See also, Āgama (Buddhism) The other two main Buddhist canons in use in the present day are the Chinese Buddhist Canon and the Tibetan

Kangyur The Tibetan Buddhist canon is a loosely defined collection of sacred texts recognized by various schools of Tibetan Buddhism, comprising the Kangyur or Kanjur ('Translation of the Word') and the Tengyur or Tanjur ( Tengyur) ('Translation of Trea ...

. The standard modern edition of the Chinese Buddhist Canon is the Taishō Revised Tripiṭaka, with a hundred major divisions, totaling over 80,000 pages. This includes Vinayas for the Dharmaguptaka, Sarvāstivāda, Mahīśāsaka, and Mahāsaṃghika schools. It also includes the four major Āgamas, which are analogous to the Nikayas of the Pali Canon. Namely, they are the Saṃyukta Āgama, Madhyama Āgama, Dīrgha Āgama, and Ekottara Āgama. Also included are the Dhammapada, the Udāna, the Itivuttaka, and Milindapanha. There are also additional texts, including early histories, that are preserved from the early Buddhist schools but not found in Pali. The canon contains voluminous works of Abhidharma, especially from the Sarvāstivāda school. The Indian works preserved in the Chinese Canon were translated mostly from

Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (BHS) is a modern linguistic category applied to the language used in a class of Indian Buddhist texts, such as the Perfection of Wisdom sutras. BHS is classified as a Middle Indo-Aryan language. It is sometimes called "B ...

, Classical Sanskrit, or from regional

s. The Chinese generally referred to these simply as "

" (Ch. 梵語, Fànyǔ). The first

woodblock printing Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of textile printing, printing on textiles and later paper. Each page o ...

of the entire Chinese Buddhist Canon was done during the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

by imperial order in China in CE 971; the earliest dated printed Buddhist sutra was the Diamond Sutra printed in CE 868 (printed by an

upāsaka Upāsaka (masculine) or Upāsikā (feminine) are from the Sanskrit and Pāli words for "attendant". This is the title of followers of Buddhism (or, historically, of Gautama Buddha) who are not monks, nuns, or novice monastics in a Buddhist order, ...

for free distribution); although printing of individual Buddhist sutras and related materials may have started as early as the 7th century CE.{{cite work , editor-last1=Jiang , editor-first1=Wu , editor-last2=Chia , editor-first2=Lucille , author-last1=Jiang , author-first1=Wu , author-last2=Chia , author-first2=Lucille , author-last3=Chen , author-first3=Zhichao , title=Spreading Buddha's Word in East Asia – The Formation and Transformation of The Chinese Buddhist Canon , publisher=Columbia University Press , location=New York , year=2016 , page=145 , quote="In the fourth year of the Kaibao 開寶 reign (971), Emperor Taizu (r. 960-975) of the Song Dynasty 宋太祖 ordered the first carving of a set of woodblocks for the Chinese Buddhist Canon." (aka the Kaibao Canon) The Tibetan Kangyur comprises about a hundred volumes and includes versions of the Vinaya Pitaka, the Dhammapada (under the title ''Udanavarga'') and parts of some other books. Due to the later compilation, it contains comparatively fewer early Buddhist texts than the Pali and Chinese canons. The Chinese and Tibetan canons are not translations of the Pali and differ from it to varying extents, but contain some recognizably similar early works. However, the Abhidharma books are fundamentally different works from the Pali Abhidhamma Pitaka. The Chinese and Tibetan canons also consist of Mahāyāna sūtras and Vajrayāna

tantras Tantras ("''doctrine''" or "''framework''" or "''system''" ) refers to numerous and varied scriptures pertaining to any of several esoteric traditions rooted in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. The religious culture of the Tantras is essentially ...

, which have few parallels in the Pali Canon.{{refn, group=lower-alpha, name=fnt8, Most notably, a version of the Atanatiya Sutta (from the Digha Nikaya) is included in the tantra (Mikkyo, rgyud) divisions of the Taisho and of the Cone, Derge, Lhasa, Lithang, Narthang and Peking (Qianlong) editions of the Kangyur.{{sfn, Skilling, 1997, p=84n, 553ff, 617ff.

Notes

{{Reflist, group=lower-alpha, 2

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{{Reflist, 30em

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External links

{{Commons category, Pali Canon
Sayadaw U Vicittasara Mingun Sayadaw: A Fabulous Memory

Beginnings: The Pali Suttas
by Samanera Bodhesako

English translations

Access to Insight
has many suttas translated into English

of Nibbana.com. Burma (Myanmar) * English translations by

of selected suttas of the Majjhima Nikaya are made available by the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition a
Wisdom Publications
* English translations by

of selected suttas from the Anguttara Nikaya a
Wisdom Publications

Pali Canon online

Vipassana Research Institute
(Based on 6th Council – Burmese version) (this site also offers a downloadable program which installs the entire Pali Tipitaka on your desktop for offline viewing)
Sutta Central
Early Buddhist texts, translations, and parallels (Multiple Languages)
Thai Tripitaka
(Thai version)
Sinhala Tipitaka
(Translated into Sinhala by a Government of Sri Lanka initiative)
Tipitaka Online

Pali dictionary

Online Pali-English Dictionary

Pāli Dictionary Online

Pāli Dictionary (Pāli to Chinese, Pāli to English, Pāli to Japanese, Pāli-Vietnamese, Pāli-Burmese)
{{Buddhism topics {{Authority control {{DEFAULTSORT:Pali Canon 1st-century BC books Magahi language Theravada Buddhist texts Tripiṭaka