Pali Canon

The structure of the books considered canonical within the Pali Tripitaka. The Theravāda school generally only recognizes the Pali Tripitaka and rejects the authenticity of other Tripitaka versions.

Standard edition of the Thai Pali Canon
Pāli Canon
Theravāda Buddhism
1. Vinaya Piṭaka
2. Sutta Piṭaka
3. Abhidhamma Piṭaka
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The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language.[1] It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon.[2][3] It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school.[4]

During the First Buddhist Council, three months after the parinibbana of Gautama Buddha 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. The Tipitaka that was transmitted to Sri Lanka during the reign of King Asoka was initially preserved orally and was later written down on palm leaves during the Fourth Buddhist Council in 29 BC, approximately 454 years after the death of Gautama Buddha.[a][6] The claim that the texts were "spoken by the Buddha" is meant in this non-literal sense.[7]

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[8] was only the beginning of a new form of tradition, and the innovation was likely 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 Prakrits other than Pali as well as Sanskrit. Some of those were later translated into Chinese (earliest dating to the late 4th century AD). The surviving Sri Lankan version is the most complete,[9] but was extensively redacted about 1,000 years after Buddha's death, in the 5th or 6th century CE.[10] The earliest textual fragments of canonical Pali were found in the Pyu city-states in Burma dating only to the mid 5th to mid 6th century CE.[11]

The Pāli Canon falls into three general categories, called pitaka (from Pali piṭaka, meaning "basket", referring to the receptacles in which the palm-leaf manuscripts were kept).[12] Thus, the canon is traditionally known as the Tipiṭaka ("three baskets"). The three pitakas are as follows:

  1. Vinaya Piṭaka ("Discipline Basket"), dealing with rules or discipline of the sangha[12][9]
  2. Sutta Piṭaka (Sutra/Sayings Basket), discourses and sermons of Buddha, some religious poetry; the largest basket[12]
  3. 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.[13]

  1. ^ Gombrich 2006, p. 3.
  2. ^ Harvey 1990, p. 3.
  3. ^ Maguire 2001, p. 69.
  4. ^ Hahn, Thich Nhat (2015). The Heart of Buddha's Teachings. Harmony. p. 16.
  5. ^ Wynne 2003.
  6. ^ Drewes, David (2015). "Oral Texts in Indian Mahayana". Indo-Iranian Journal. 58 (2): 131. doi:10.1163/15728536-05800051. The idea that Buddhist texts were first written down in the first century bce has been widely current since the nineteenth century, but has never been much more than a guess. Its only basis is a short passage, two verses long, found in both the fourth or fifth-century Dīpavaṃsa and later Mahāvaṃsa, that states that the Tipiṭaka and commentaries were first written down at this time...however, it fairly clearly does not even intend to record the first time writing was ever used for Buddhist texts, but the first creation of a complete set of written scriptures in Sri Lanka.
  7. ^ Sujato, Bhante; Brahmali, Bhikkhu (2015), The Authenticity of the Early Buddhist Texts (PDF), Chroniker Press, ISBN 978-1-312-91150-5
  8. ^ "THE MAHAVAMSA c.33: The Ten Kings". mahavamsa.org. 8 October 2011. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  9. ^ a b Robert E. Buswell Jr.; Donald S. Lopez Jr. (2013). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press. p. 924. ISBN 978-1-4008-4805-8.
  10. ^ Lars Fogelin (2006). Archaeology of Early Buddhism. AltaMira. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-7591-0750-2., 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)".
  11. ^ Stargardt, Janice (2000). Tracing Thoughts Through Things: The Oldest Pali Texts and the Early Buddhist Archaeology of India and Burma. Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. p. 25.
  12. ^ a b c Gombrich 2006, p. 4.
  13. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica 2008.


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