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LESSON 2914 Mon 25 Feb 2019 Tipitaka - DO GOOD BE MINDFUL is the Essence of the Words of the Awakened One with Awareness ESSENCE OF TIPITAKA http://www.buddha-vacana.org/index.html Positive Buddha Vacana — The words of the Buddha — Interested in All Suttas of Tipitaka as Episodes in visual format including 7D laser Hologram 360 degree Circarama presentation from Analytic Insight Net - FREE Online Tipiṭaka Law Research & Practice University
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112 CLASSICAL LANGUAGES Please Visit: http://sarvajan.ambedkar.org Voice of All Awakened Aboriginal Societies (VoAAAS) 03)Magadhi Prakrit, 04) Classical Hela Basa (Hela Language), 05) Classical Pali, 06) Classical Devanagari,Classical Hindi-Devanagari- शास्त्रीय हिंदी, 07) Classical Cyrillic
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LESSON 2914 Mon 25 Feb 2019
Tipitaka - DO GOOD BE MINDFUL is the Essence of the Words of the Awakened One with Awareness

ESSENCE OF TIPITAKA
http://www.buddha-vacana.org/index.html
Positive Buddha Vacana — The words of the Buddha —

Interested in All Suttas  of Tipitaka as Episodes in visual format including 7D laser Hologram 360 degree Circarama presentation


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Recent Chronology of Pali Canon

TIPITAKA





The Buddha’s first sermon after his awakenment





https://dhammawiki.com/index.php/1-10_early_to_recent_Chronology_of_Pali_Canon


1-10 early to recent Chronology of Pali Canon






Thomas William Rhys Davids in his Buddhist India (p. 188) has given a chronological table of Buddhist literature from the time of the Buddha to the time of Ashoka which is as follows:


1. The simple statements of Buddhist doctrine now found, in identical words, in paragraphs or verses recurring in all the books.


2. Episodes found, in identical words, in two or more of the existing books.


3. The Silas, the Parayana, the Octades, the Patimokkha.


4. The Digha, Majjhima, Anguttara, and Samyutta Nikayas.


5. The Sutta Nipata, the Thera and Theri Gathas, the Udanas, and the Khuddaka Patha.


6. The Sutta Vibhanga, and Khandhkas.


7. The Jatakas and the Dhammapadas.


8. The Niddesa, the Itivuttakas and the Patisambbhida.


9. The Peta and Vimana-Vatthus, the Apadana, the Cariya-Pitaka, and the Buddhavamsa.


10. The Abhidhamma books; the last of which is the Katha-Vatthu, and the earliest probably the Puggala-Pannatti.


Those listed at the top or near the top, such as numbers one to
five, are considered the earliest, oldest texts and the most likely to
be authentic and the exact words of the Buddha. The later texts and the commentaries and the Visuddhimagga, are held in very high esteem by Classical Theravada, whereas, the Modern Theravada focuses on the earliest teachings of the Buddha.





Modern Theravada




Main article: Modern Theravada



Bhikkhu Bodhi, Dhammavuddho Thera and others have their doubts, as do modern scholars about the later texts and if they are Buddhavacana
(exact words of Buddha) or not. Modern Theravadins probably hold a
slight variety of opinions but probably take one of the following:


1. The first four Nikayas in their entirety are Buddhavacana, plus the following books from the Khuddaka Nikaya: Dhammapada, Udana, Itivuttaka, Sutta Nipata, Theragatha, and Therigatha; and the Patimokkha from the Vinaya. (That would still make the Buddhavacana portion of the Tipitaka roughly 30 out of 40 volumes.)


2. All of the above, plus the other books of the Khuddaka Nikaya, plus the other Vinaya books, plus the Abhidhamma, but see them as written by later disciples of the Buddha, who may have been arahants and thus, still worthy to be included in the Canon, although not likely part of Original Buddhism.


The scholar monks Ajahn Sujato and Ajahn Brahmali have written the book The Authenticity of Early Buddhist Texts
and they are in agreement with number one above, consisting of the
first 4 Nikayas and some of the Khuddaka Nikaya as Buddhavacana.


See also: Original Buddhism





References






03)Magadhi Prakrit,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJNkz6tb3Ao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJNkz6tb3Ao
HASANTHA WASANA SAMARASINGHE - PALI SPEECH - MAGADHI BOOK - UNIVERSITY OF SRI JAYEWERDENEPURA
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Hope I could help you guys! Feel free to comment any questions and I’ll answer them to the best o



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Magadhi Prakrit
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Magadhi Prakrit is of one of the three Dramatic Prakrits, the written
languages of Ancient India following the decline of Pali and
Sanskrit.Magadhi Prakrit was spoken in the eastern Indian subcontinent,
in a region spanning what is now eastern India, Bangladesh, and Nepal.It
is believed to be the language spoken by the important religious
figures Gautama Buddha and Mahavira and was also the language of the
courts of the Magadha mahajanapada and the Maurya Empire; the edicts of
Ashoka were composed in it.Magadhi Prakrit later evolved into the
Eastern Zone Indo-Aryan languages, including Assamese, Bengali, Odia and
the Bihari languages .

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3)Magadhi Prakrit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdqbPbZDGEk&t=170s
The Dhammapada Pāli Prakrit धम्मप dhammapada pali version
Sompong Tungmepol
Published on Nov 6, 2011
http://www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/


The Dhammapada (Pāli; Prakrit धम्मपद Dhamapada;[1] Sanskrit धर्मपद
Dharmapada) is a versified Buddhist scripture traditionally ascribed to
the Buddha himself. It is one of the best-kn.wmv
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pali
http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/dam…,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhammapada
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http://www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/ The Dhammapada (Pāli; Prakrit धम्मपद Dhamapada;[1] Sanskrit धर्मपद…

04) Classical Hela Basa (Hela Language),




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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5OwhxbdT5o
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Unit 1, Video 7.
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Unit 1, Video 7.



Published on Jun 25, 2010

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05) Classical Pali,





Published on Mar 12, 2013

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Daily Buddhist Theravada Pali Chanting by VenVajiradhamma Thera

Basa babalee hela basa .Areesen Ahubudu.
Dhammalink
Published on Mar 12, 2013
Daily Buddhist Theravada Pali Chanting by Venerable Vajiradhamma Thera
One of the best Pali Buddhist Chanting. It is a very peaceful, tranquil,
pleasant and harmonious chanting. This Chanting has helped many people
to become peace, calm and tranquil, build mindfulness while listening
and/or chant attentively, re-gain confidence from fear and uncertainty,
bring happiness and positive energy for those who are in sick and those
in their last moment in this very life (as hearing is thought to be the
last sense to go in the dying process). May you get the benefits of this
chanting too. This compilation consists of Recollection of Buddha
(Buddhanusati or Itipiso), Recollection of Dhamma (Dhammanusati),
Recollection of Sangaha (Sanghanusati), Mangala Sutta, Ratana Sutta,
Karaniya Metta Sutta, Khandha Sutta, Bhaddekaratta Gatha, Metta Chant,
Accaya Vivarana, Vandana, Pattanumodana, Devanumodana, Punnanumodana and
Patthana. This compilation is made possible by Venerable Samanera
Dhammasiri getting the permission from Venerable Vajiradhamma Thera to
compile and distribute, and co-edit and proofing. The background image
is photo taken by Venerable Dhammasubho. First compilation completed in
2007 and further edit was done in 2015. Thanks and Sadhu to all who have
assisted and given me the opportunity to do this compilation especially
my family. May the merits accrue from this compilation share with all.
With Metta, Tissa Ng. Website: www.dhammalink.com Copyright © 2007-2015 dhammalink.com
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Pali Chanting - DhammaCakkappavattana Sutta

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Gotama Buddha expounded the 1st Discourse after 7 weeks from Enlightenment.

http://obo.genaud.net/backmatter/appendixes/chron.htm
Pali Chanting - DhammaCakkappavattana Sutta
Dhammadhara Y
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obo.genaud.net
Information for the study of Buddhism and Buddhist Suttas in translation and the original Pali.

http://obo.genaud.net/backmatter/appendixes/chron.htm

Appendixes Masthead

Chronology Of The Pali Canon

By
Dr. Bimala Churn Law, Ph.D., M.A., B.L.B. C. Law.
History of Pali Literature. 2 vols.
London, Kegan Paul

[Believed to be in the Public Domain — inquiry submitted without response to several likely sources.
Please note that this copy is an edited version of what appears to have
been a scanned pre-publication release of this chapter [found at:
http://sino-sv3.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/FULLTEXT/JR-ENG/bcl.htm but
apparently no longer available there]. I have corrected numerous
mis-scannings, but there remain a few places where words and even
perhaps whole sentences have been left out. Additionally there is
considerable inconsistancy in capitalization of the various texts.
This work also suffers from very long paragraphs and a highly convoluted
writing style (reminiscent of my own) but the information provided
rewards a patient reading.]

Rhys Davids in his Buddhist India (pg188) has given a chronological table of Buddhist literature from the time of the Buddha to the time of Asoka which is as follows:–

1. The simple statements of Buddhist doctrine now found, in identical words, in paragraphs or verses recurring in all the books.
2. Episodes found, in identical words, in two or more of the existing books.
3. The Silas, the Parayana, the Octades, the Patimokkha.
4. The Digha, Majjhima, Anguttara, and Samyutta Nikayas.
5. The Sutta-Nipata, the Thera-and Theri-Gathas, the Udanas, and the Khuddaka Patha.
6. The Sutta Vibhanga, and Khandhkas.
7. The Jatakas and the Dhammapadas.
8. The Niddesa, the Itivuttakas and the Patisambbhida.
9. The Peta and Vimana-Vatthus, the Apadana, the Cariya-Pitaka, and the Buddha-Vamsa.
10. The Abhidhamma books; the last of which is the Katha-Vatthu, and the earliest probably the Puggala-Pannatti.

This chronological table of early Buddhist literature is too
catechetical, too cut and dried, and too general to be accepted in spite
of its suggestiveness as a sure guide to determination of the
chronology of the Pali canonical texts. The Octades and the Patimokkha
are mentioned by Rhys Davids as literary compilations representing the
third stage in the order of chronology. The Pali title corresponding to
his Octades is Atthakavagga, the Book of Eights. The Book of Eights, as
we have it in the Mahaniddesa or in the fourth book of the Suttanipata,
is composed of sixteen poetical discourses, only four of which, namely,
(1) Guhatthaka, (2) Dutthatthaka. (3) Suddhatthaka and (4) Paramatthaka
share the common title of Atthaka and consist each of eight stanzas.
That is to say, the four only out of the sixteen poems fulfil the
definition of an Atthaka or octade, while none of the remaining poems
consists, as it ought to, of eight stanzas. The present Atthakavagga
composed of sixteen poems may be safely placed anterior to both the
Mahaniddesa and Suttanipata. But before cataloguing it as a compilation
prior to the four Nikayas and the Vinaya texts, it is necessary to
ascertain whether the Atthakavagga presupposed by the four Nikayas was a
book of four poems bearing each the title of Atthaka and consisting
each of eight stanzas or it was even in its original form an anthology
of sixteen poems. Similarly in placing the Patimokkha in the same
category with the Silas and Parayanas it would be important to enquire
whether the Patimokkha as bare code of monastic rules was then in
existence or not, and even if it were then in existence, whether it
contained in its original form 227 rules or less than this number. There
are clear passages in the Anguttara Nikaya to indicate that the earlier
code was composed of one and half hundred rules or little more
(sadhikam diyaddhasikkhapadasatam, AN., Vol. II, p.232). As Budddhaghosa
explains the pali expression, “Sadhikam diyaddhasikkhapadasatain”, it
means just 150 rules. According to a more reasonable interpertation the
number implied in the expression must be taken more than 150 and less
than 200. If the earlier code presupposed by the Anguttara passages was
composed of rules near about 150 and even not 200, it may be pertinently
asked if the Patimokkha, as we now have it, was the very code that had
existed prior to the Anguttara Nikaya. Our doubt as to the antiquity of
the Patimokkha as a bare code of rules is intensified by the tradition
recorded by Buddhaghosa in the Introduction to his Sumangalavilasini,
(pt. I.,p. 17) that the two codes of Patimokkha were to be counted among
the books that were not rehearsed in the First Buddhist Council.

The putting of the first four Nikatyas under head No.4 with the
implication that these were anterior to the Suttanipata and the
remaining books of the Pali canon are no less open to dispute. With
regard to the Digha Nikaya it has been directly pointed out by
Buddhaghosa that the concluding verses of the Mahaparinibbana Suttanta
relating to the redisribution of Buddha’s bodily remains were originally
composed by the rehearsers of the Third Buddhist Council and added
later on by the Buddhist teachers of Ceylon. A material objection to
putting the Digha and the Anguttara Nikayas in the same category is that
in the Digha Nikaya the story of Mahagovinda (Digha, II., pp.220 foll.)
has assumed the earlier forms of Jatakas characterised by the
concluding identification of Buddha, the narrator of the story, with its
hero, while in the Anguttara Nikaya the story is a simple chronicle of
seven purohitas without the identification. The four Nikayas are
interspersed with a number of legendary materials of the life of the
Buddha which appear at once to be inventions of a later age when the
Buddha came to be regarded and worshipped as a superhuman personality.[1]
Our case is that without discriminating the different strata of
literary accretion it will be dangerous to relegate all the four Nikayas
to the early stage of the Pali canon.

The Suttainpata figures promniently in the fifth order of the
chronology suggested by Rhys Davids. Without disputing that there are
numerous instances of archaism in the individual suttas or stanzas
composing this anthology, we have sufficient reasons to doubt that the
anthology as a whole was at all anterior to the Niddesa which heads the
list of the Pali Canonical texts representing the eighth order. By the
Niddesa we are to understand two separate exegetical works counted among
the books of the Khuddaka-Nikaya, (l) the Mahaniddesa being a
philological commentary on the poems of the Atthakavagga (forming the
fourth book of the Sutta-Nipata) and (2) the Cullaniddesa being a
similar commentary on the poems of the Parayanavagga (forming the fifth
or the last book of the Sutta-Nipata). The two questions calling for an
answer in this connection are (vide B. M. Barua’s Atthakavagga and
Parayanavagga as two independent Buddhist anthologies — Proceedings and
Transactions of the Fourth Oriental Conference, Allahabad, 1928, pp.
211-219) (1) was the Mahaniddesa composed, being intended as a commetary
on the Atthakavagga, the fourth book of the Sutta-Nipata or on the
Atthakavagga, then known to the Buddhist Community as a distinct
anthology? and (2) was the Cullaniddesa composed, being intended as a
commentary on the Parayanavagga, the fifth book of the Sutta Nipata or
on the Parayanavagga then known to the Buddhist community as a distinct
collection of poems? With regard to the second question it may be
pointed out that the poems of the Parayana group, as these are found in
the Sutta-Nipata, are Prologued by 56 Vattugathas, while the
Cullaniddesa is found without these introductory stanzas. The inference
as to the exclusion is based upon the fact that in the body of the
Cullaniddesa, there is nowhere any gloss on any of the introductory
stanzas. We notice, moreover, that the glosses of the Cullaniddesa are
not confined to the sixteen poems of the Parayanavagga,the scheme of the
Canonical Commentary including an additional sutta, namely, the
Khaggavisana, which now forms the second sutta of the first book of the
Sutta-Nipata. From the place assigned to this particular sutta in the
Cullaniddesa, it is evident that when the Cullaniddesa was composed, it
passed as a stray sutta, not belonging to any particular group, such as
the Uragavagga. The stray nature of the Khaggavisana Sutta may be taken
as conclusive also from its mixed Sanskrit version in the Mahavastu
(Senart’s edition, Vol. I., pp. 357-359), in which, too, it is not
relegated to any group. If any legitimate hypothesis is to be made
keeping the above facts in view it should be that the scheme of
anthology in the Cullaniddesa rather shows the anthology of the
Sutta-Nipata yet in the making than presupposing it as a fait accompli.

Even with regard to the first question concerniug the chronological
order of the Mahaniddesa and Sutta-Nipata, a similar hypothesis may be
entertained without much fear of contradiction. The Mahaniddesa,
according to its internal evidence, is an exegetical treatise which was
modelled on an earlier exegesis attempted by Mahakaccana on one of the
Suttas of the Atthakavagga, namely, the Magandiya Sutta (Mahaniddesa,
pp. 197 ff). The modern exegesis of Mahakaccana forming the cornerstone
of the Mahaniddesa can be traced as a separate sutta of the Samyutta
Nikaya, Vol. III., p.9, where the Sutta commented upon by Mahakaccana is
expressly counted as a sutta of the Atthakavsagga (Atthakavaggike
Magandiya panhe). Once it is admitted that the Atthaka group of poems
had existed as a distinct anthology even before the first redaction of
the Samyutta Nikaya and Mahakaccana’s model exegesis on one of its
suttas and, moreover, that the Mahaniddesa as an exegetical work was
entirely based upon that; earlier model, it is far safer to think that
the Mahaniddesa presupposes the Atthakavagga itself as a distinct
collection of poems rather than the Atthaka- vagga of the Sutta-Nipata.
Though the scheme of anthology in the Mahaniddesa includes only the
poems of the Atthaka group, there is a collateral evidence to prove that
in an earlier stage of Pali Canonical literature two stray poems were
associated with those of the Atthaka group just in the same way that the
stray poem, Khaggavisana suttta, has been associated in the
Cullaniddesa with the poems of the Parayana group. The Divyavadana,[2]
for instance, mentions that Purna, an associate of Sthavira
Mahakatyayana, recited the Munigatha and Sailagatha along with the poems
Munigatha of Arthavarga (Pali Atthakavagga) with the implication that
the [sic. Munigatha?] (corresponding to Pali Munisutta) and Sailagatha
(corresponding to Pali Selasutta ), included respectively in the
Uragasutta, the first book and in the Mahavagga, the third book of the
Sutta-Nipata, were associated with the poems of the Atthaka group. To
put forward another argument the Nalaka Sutta in the third book of the
Sutta-Nipata is prologued by twenty Vatthugatha or introductory stanzas
which are absent from its mixed Sanskrit version in the Mahavastu (Vol.
III pp.386, ff.). Judged by the theme and metre of the Vatthugatha, they
stand quite apart from the Sutta proper. The Sutta proper is a moral
discourse of the Buddha which is quite on a par with several suttas in
the Sutta-Nipata and other texts, while in the Vatthugatha, we come to
hit all of a sudden on a highly poetical composition serving as a
historical model to the Buddhacarita of Agvaghosa. The Moneyasute
(Moneyya Sutta) is one of the seven tracts recommended by King Asoka in
his Bhabru Edict for the constant study of the Buddhists. This Sutta has
been rightly identified by Prof. D. Kosambi (Indian Antiquary, 1912,
Vol. XLI, pp. 37-40) with the Nalaka Sutta in the Sutta-Nipata which, as
pointed out above, has a counterpart in the Mahavastu (Mahavastu Ed.
Senart, vol. II., pp.30-43 & Vol.III., pp. 382 ff.) where it does
not bear any specific title. Judged by its theme, Moneyya Sutta is more
an appropriate title than Nalaka. The importance of its naming as Nalaka
arises only when the Vatthugatha or the introductory stanzas are
prefixed to the Sutta without any logical connection between the two.
Considered in the light of Asoka’s title Moneya-sutta and the
counterpart in the Mahavastu as well as of the clear anticipation of
Asvaghosa’s Buddhacarita in the Vatthugatha, it appears that the
christening of the Moneyya sutta as Nalaka and the edition of the
introductory stanzas took place some time after Asoka’s reign and not
before. Some stanzas of the Padhana Sutta have been quoted in the
Kathavatthu which, according to the Buddhist tradition, was a
compilation of Asokan time. The stanzas are quoted without any mention
of the Sutta or of the text on which these have been drawn. The Pali
version of the Sutta is to be found only in the Sutta-Nipata, Book III.
The inference that can legitimately be drawm from the quotation is that
the Papdhana Sutta had existed in some form prior to the compilation of
the Kathavatthu, leaving the question of the Sutta-Nipata altogether
open.

The Khuddakapatha figures as the last book in the fifth order, it
being supposed to be earlier than the Sutta Vibhanga, the Khandhakas,
the Jatakas, the Dhammapadas, the Peta and Vimanavatthus as well as the
Kathavatthu. Buddhaghosa in the introduction to his Sumangalavilasini,
informs us that the Dighabhanaka list of the Pali Canonical texts
precluded these four books, namely, the Buddhavamsa, the Cariyapitaka,
the Apadana and the Khuddakapatha while the Majjhimabhanaka list
included the first three of them. The preclusion may be explained either
as due to sectarian difference of opinion or due to the fact that when
the Dighabhanaka list was drawn up these four texts were non-existent.
If a comparison be made between the Khuddakapatha and the Khandheakas,
it will be noticed that the first short lesson (saranattayam) of the
Khuddakapatha was nothing but a ritualistic elaboration of an earlier
refuge formula that can be traced in a passage of the Khandhakas. The
second lesson may be regarded as made up of an extract from another
passage occurring in the Khandhakas. The same observation holds true
also of the fourth lesson, the Kumarapanham. The sources being not
mentioued, it is indecisive whether the Khuddakapatha has drawn upon the
Khandhakas or on some isolated passages. But if judging by the nature
of differences in the common passages we are to pronounce our opinion on
the relative chronology of the two texts, the priority must be accorded
rather to the Khandhakas than to the Khuddakapatha. The Tirokuddasutta
of the Khuddakapatha is the first and the most important sutta of the
Petavatthu. The existence of this sutta previous to the reign of king
Asoka is clearly proved by certain quotations in the Kathavatthu from
it. Here again we are to grope in the dark whether the quotations were
from the Tirokudda as an isolated Sutta or from a sutta in the
Petavatthu or in the Khuddakapatha. If any inference may be drawn from
the high prominence that it enjoys in the Petavatthu our opinion will be
rather in favour of priority of the Petavatthu. Now coming to the
Kathavatthu, we have already mentioned that it contains certain
significant quotations from two suttas, the Tirokudda and the
Nidhikanda, both of which are embodied in the Khuddakapatha, but there
is nothing to show that when the Kathavatthu was compiled with these
quotations the Khuddakapatha itself was then in actual existence, it
being quite probable that the quotations were made front the two
isolated suttas, we mean when these suttas had not come to be included
in the Khuddakapatha.

The Abhidhamma treatises figure as latest compilations in the
chronological table of Rhys Davids. Of the seven Abhidhamma books, the
Kathavatthu is traditionally known as a compilation of Asokan age. The
credibility of the tradition can be proved by a very peculiar
dialectical style of composition developed in the all-important book of
Buddhist Controversies and the traces of which can also be found to
linger in some of the inscriptions of Asoka, namely the Kalsi
Shahabazgarhi and Manserahversions of the ninth Rock Edict (Vide B. M.
Barua’s old Brahmi Inscriptions, p. 284 ). Another and more convincing
piece of evidence may be brought forward to prove the credibility of the
tradition. Prior to the despatch of missionaries by Asoka, Buddhism as a
religious movement was confined, more or less, within the territorial
limits of what is known in Buddhist literature as the Middle Country
(Majjhimadesa) and the Buddhist tradition in Pail is very definite on
this point. The Sanci stupas which go back to the date of Asoka enshrine
to the relies of the missionaries who were sent out to the Himalayan
tracts as also of the “good man” Mogaliputa, aptly identified by Dr.
Geiger with Moggaliputta Tissa, the traditional author of the
Kathavatthu. Curiously enough, the Kathavatthu contains the account of a
controversy, (I.3) in which it has been emphatically pointed out that
up till the time of this particular controversy, the Buddhist mode of
holy life remained confined to the places within the middle country and
had not gained ground in any of the outlying tracts (paccantimesu
janapadesu), the representatives of Buddhism whether the monks or the
laity having had no access to those regions (B.M. Barua, Old Brahmi
Inscriptions, p.284 ). The account clearly brings out one important
historical fact, namely, that so far as the outlying tracts are
concerned, there were undeniably at that time other modes of Indian holy
life. It is interesting to find that the 13th Rock Edict of Asoka is in
close agreement with the Kathavatthu regarding this point. For in this
important edict issued in about the 13th or 14th regnal year of King
Asoka, His Gifted Majesty definitely says that there was at the time no
other tract within his empire save versions and except the Yona region
where the different sects of Indian recluses, the Samanas and Brahmanas
were not to be found and where the inhabitants had not adhered to the
tenets of one or other of those sects (Vide Inscriptions of Asoka by
Bhandarkar and Majumdar. pp. 49-50- “Nathi cha she janapade yata nathi
ime nikaya anamta yenesha bamhmane cha shamane cha nathi cha kuva pi
janapadashi (ya) ta nathi manushanam ekatalashi pi pashadashi no nama
pashade”). Squaring up the two-fold evidence, it is easy to come to the
conclusion that the compilation of the Kathavatthu could not be remote
from the reign of Asoka.

In the Kathavatthu, there are quotations the sources of which can now
be traced in some of the passages in the Vinaya Pitaka, Digha Nikaya,
the Majjhima Nikaya, the Samyutta Nikaya, the Anguttara Nikaya and some
of the books of the Khuddaka Nikaya. A few of the quotations can be
traced in the Dhammasangani and the Vibhanga among the Abhidhamma books.
As the passages are quoted in the Kathavatthu without any mention of
the sources, rather as well known and authoritative words of the Buddha,
it cannot be definitely maintained that the quotations were cited from
the canonical texts in which the individual passages are traceable.
There were suttas in some definite collections but until other definite
evidences are forthcoming, it will be risky to identify them with the
Nikayas and the Vinaya texts as they are known to us. Even with regard
to this point our position remains materially the same if we take our
stand on the evidence of the Inscriptions of Asoka, particularly on that
of the Bhabru Edict. The Bhabru Edict clearly points back to a
well-known collection of Buddha’s words, the words which came to be
believed as at-once final and authoritative (ekemchi bhamte Bhagavata
Buddhena bhasite save se subhasite). But here again we are helpless as
to by what name this collection was then designated and what were its
divisions? If such be the state of thing, it will be difficult to regard
all the Abhidhamma books in the lump as the latest productions among
the books of the Pali Pitakas. As for the chronology of the Pali
canonical texts, the safer course will be to fix first of all the upper
and lower limits and then to ascertain how the time may be apportioned
between them in conceiving their chronological order. As regards the
upperlimit certain it is that we cannont think of any text on Buddhism
before the enlightenment of the Buddha. Whatever be the actual date of
the individual texts, it is certainly posterior to the great event of
Buddha’s enlightenment, nay, posterior even to the subsequent incident
of the first public statement or promulgation of the fundamental truth
of the new religion. The upper limit may be shifted on even to the
demise of the Buddha, the first formal collection of the teachings of
the Buddha having taken place, according to the unanimity of the
Buddhist tradition, after that memorable event. Looked at from this
point of view, the period covered by the career of 45 years of Buddha’s
active missionary work may be regarded just as the formative period
which saw the fashioning of the early materials of the Buddhist Canon.
With regard to the lower limit we need not bring it so far down as the
time of the Pali scholiasts, Buddhadatta, Buddhaghosa and Dhammapala,
that is to say, to the fifth century A. D. Going by the tradition, the
Buddhist canon became finally closed when it was committed to writing
for the first time during the reign of King Vattagamani of Ceylon (Circa
29-17 B.C.). The truth of this tradition can be substantiated by the
clear internal evidence of the text of the Milinda Panha which was a
compilation of about the first century A. D. As is well-known, in
several passages, the author of the Milinda Panha has referred to the
Pali books or to some chapters of them by name and the number of books
mentioned by name is sufficiently large to exhaust almost the
traditional list. Further, it is evident from references in this text
that when it was compiled the division of the canon into three Pitakas
and five Nikayas was well established. The Dhammasangani, the Vibhanga,
the Dhatukatha, and the rest were precisely the seven books which
composed the Abhidhamma Pitaka and the Digha, Majjhima, Samyutta,
Ekuttara (Anguttara) and Khuddaka were the five Nikayas which composed
the Sutta Pitaka. The Simhalese commentaries, the Mahaatthakatatha,
the Mahapaccariya, the Mahakurundiya, the Andhaka and the rest,
presupposed by the commentaries of Buddhadatta, Buddhaghusa and
Dhammapala point to the same fact, namely, that the canon became finally
closed sometime before the begining of the Christian era. Thus we can
safely fix the first quarter of the first century B. C. as the lower
limit.

The interval of time between these two limits covers not less than
four centuries during which there had been convened as many as six
orthodox councils, three in India and three in Ceylon, the first during
the reign of King Ajatasattu, the second in the reign of King Kalasoka
(Kakavarni of the Puranas ), the third in the reign of Asoka, the fourth
in the reign of King Devanam Piyatissa of Ceylon, the fifth in the
reign of King Dutthagamani and the sixth or the last in the reign of
King Vattagamani. The Pali accounts of these councils make it clear that
the purpose of each of them was the recital and settling of the
canonical texts. If these councils can be regarded as certain definite
landmarks in the process of the development of Pali canonical
literature, we can say that during the first four centuries after the
Buddha’s demise, Pali literature underwent as many as six successive
redactions. Going by the dates assigned to these councils, we may divide
the interval into such shorter periods of Pali literary history as
shown below:

First period —(483–383 B.C.)
Second ” —(383–265 B.C.)
Third ” —(265–230 B.C.)
Fourth ” —(230–80 B.C.)
Fifth ” —( 80-20 B.C.)

Keeping these periods in view, we can easily dispose of some of the
Pali books. We may take, for instanices, the Parivarapatha which is the
last treatise to be included in the Vinayapitaka. This treatise, as
early stateed in the Colophon (nigamana) was written in Ceylon by Dipa,
evidently a learned Buddhist scholar of Ceylon as a help to his pupils
to the study of the contents of the Vinaya (Parivarapatha, p.226,
“Pubbacariyamaggan ca pucchitva’va tahim tahim Dipanamo mahapanno
sutadharo vicakkhano imam vitthara samkhepam sajjhamaggena majjhime
cintayitva Iikhapesi sissakanam sukhavaham Parivaran ti yam vuttam
sabbam vatthum salakkhanam attham attena saddhamme dhammam dhammena
pannatte”). As such the Parivarapatha was composed as a digest of the
subject-matter of Vinaya or Buddhist discipline. We say that this
treatise was composed in Ceylon because there are references within the
text itself that it had been written after the Vinayapitaka was
promulgated by Thera Mahinda and a number of his disciples and by their
disciples in Ceylon. The succession of his disciples from the time of
Thera Mahinda as set forth in the Parivarapatha (pp. 2-3 ) may suffice
to show that the date of its composition could not be much earlier than
the reign of Vattagamani. Even we may go so far as to suggest that the
Parivarapatha was the Vinaya treatise which was canonised at the council
held during the reign of Vattagamani. For it is clearly stated in that
the author caused the treatise to be written (likhapesi), a mode of
preserving the scriptures which would be inconceivable before the reign
of Vattagamani. The reference to the island of Tambapanni or Ceylon is
not only in the verses which one might set aside as interpolation but in
the prose portions which form the integral parts of the text.

Now if we fix our attention on the traditional verses embodied in the
Parivarapatha (pp.2-3 edited by Oldenberg) we have to infer therefrom
that the five Nikayes, the seven treatises of the Abhidhammapitaka and
all the older texts of the Vinayapitaka were made known to the people of
Ceylon by the wise Mahinda who arrived in Ceylon from Jambbudipa
(India) after the third Buddhist council had been over.
(Parivarapathapp. 2-3, “Upali Dasako, c’eva Sonako Siggavo tatha,
Moggaliputtena Pancama ete Jambusirivhaye tato Mahindo Ittiyo Uttiyo
Sambalo tatha Bhaddanamo ca pandito, ete naga mahapanna
Jambudipaidhagata, Vinayam te vacayimsu pitakam Tambapan niya nikaye
panca vacesum satta c’eva pakarane”).

The Mahavagga and the Cullavagga are two among the earlier and
important texts of the Vinayapitaka. Twentytwo Khandhakas or stock
fragments are distributed into the two texts, ten into the Mahavagga and
the remaining twelve into the Cullavagga. These fragments constituting
the separate divisions are arranged in a chronological order, and they
are intended to present a connected account of the ecclesiastical
history of the Buddhists from the time of the enlightenment of the
Buddha down to that of the second Buddhist council which was convened,
according to the Cullavagga account, a century after the demise of the
Buddha (Vassasataparinibbute Bhagavati ). The growth of the two texts
may be sought to be accounted for by these two hypotheses: (1) that the
Khandhakas were being added as they came into existence from time to
time, or (2) that they were arranged all at the same time according to a
set plan. Whatever be the actual merit of these hypotheses, none of
them prevents us from maintaining that the series of the Khandhakas was
closed with the inclusion of the account of the second Buddhist council
and that nothing material was added after that, nothing, we mean to say,
except the Uddanas or mnemonics in doggerel verses appended to each of
the Khandhakas. Had the compilation of the Khandhakas remained open
after the second Buddhist council, it would have included an account of
the later councils, particularly of one held during the reign of Asoka.
This line of argument is sufficientiy strong to establish that the
compilation of the twenty two Khandhakas as we find them embodied in the
Mahavagga and Cullavagga was anterior to the reign of Asoka, as well as
that its history is primarily associated with the tradition of the
second Buddhist council. Assuming then that the closing of the
collection of the Khandhakas in the shape of the Mahavagga and the
Cullavagga could not be removed from the first century of the Buddha
era, we may briefly examine what inferences can be drawn from the
Cullavagga accounts of the first and second Buddhist councils regarding
the development of the Canonical texts. First with regard to the carlier
Vinaya texts, the Cullavagga account of the second Buddhist council
(Chap. 12) has referred to the followillg authorities by name, namely
(1) Savatthiya Suttvibhanga (2) Rajagahe ” (3) Savatthiys ” (4)
Savatthiya sutta (5) Kosambiys ” (6) Savatthiya ” (7) Rajagahe ” (8)
Rajagahe uposathasamyutte (9) Campeyyake Vinaya Vatthusmin.

The Suttavibhanga passages referred to in the Cullavagga account have
been all found out by Prof. Oldenberg in the Suttavibhanga and what is
more, the identified passages have satisfied the context supplied
(Savatthiya, Rajagahe Kosambiya). Keeping this fact in view can it be
doubted that the Suttavibhanga of the Vinayapitaka was current as an
authoritative text on Vinaya when the Cullavagga account referring to
its passages was written? Now with regard to the remaining two
references, namely, Rajagahe Uposathasamyutte and Campeyyake
Vinayavatthusmin traced respectively in the Mahavagga (II., 8. 3) and
Mahavagga (IX. 3.5), it is curious that the first reference is to a
Samyutta passage and the second to a Vinayavatthu. Although the Samyutta
passaga has found its place in the Mahavagga, so long as the fact
remains that the reference is to a passage in the Sutta collection, our
inference must be that the Mahavagga in its extant form was not yet in
existence. The second reference is important as pointing back to the
existence of certain Vinayavatthus serving as materials for a
compilation like the Mahavagga.

Turning at last to the Cullavagga account of the first Buddhist
council, it will be a mistake to suppose that the account as we have it
in the Cullavagga is as old as the time of the counci1 itself. The
account must have been posterior to the time when the scriptural
authorities of the Buddhist community comprised (1) Ubhato Vinaya — the
disciplinary code of the bhikkhunis, and (2) Panca-Nikaya — the five
Nikayas, Digha, Majjhima and the rest. Some of the Burmese manuscripts
read Ubhato Vibhanga in lieu of Ubhato Vinaya.[3]
That may be a mistake. But the contents mentioned in the Cullavagga
account are uudoubtedly the contents of the two vibhangas, the Bhikkhu
and the Bhikkhuni. The list of the Sikkhapadas codified as bare rules in
the two Patimokkhas is important as showing that the author of the
Cullavagga account kept in his mind nothing but the Suttavibhanga with
its two divisions: the Bhikkhu-Vibhanga and the Bhikkhuni-Vibhanga.
Further, when this account was written, the five Nikayas were
well-known. But the contents mentioned are found to be only those of the
first two suttas of the Digha Nikaya, Vol. I., we mean the Brahmajala and the Samannaphala-Suttantas.
In the absence of the remaining details and of the names of the
separate texts it is impossible to say that the Digha-Nikaya as
presupposed was completed in all the three volumes as we now get or the
five Nikayas as presupposed contained all the fourteen suttanta texts as
we now have them. One thing is, however, certain that there is yet no
reference to the Abhidhamma treatises. For the reference to the
Abhidhamma-Pitaka we have to look into the Uddanagathas in which there
is mention of the three pitakas (Pitakam tini). But nothing should be
built upon it with regard to the development of canonical texts in so
early a period as this on the strength of these uddana gathas which are
apparently later additions.

The line of investigation hitherto followed has compelled us to
conclude that the Suttavibhanga with its two great divisions, e.g., the
Bhikkhu and the Bhikkhuni Vibhangas were extant as authoritative texts
on the questions of Vinaya previous to the compilation of the Mahavagga
and the Cullavagga. The hisorical references that may be traced in the
Suttavibhanga appertain to earlier times and cannot, therefore, justify
us in assigning the text to a period far removed from the demise of the
Buddha. but we have still to enquire whether or not the Suttavibhanga
can be regarded us the first or the earliest landmark of the Vinaya
tracts. It may be sound to premise that the first landmark of the
Vinayapitaka is not the landmark of the Vinaya tracts. The point at
issue really is whether or not the text of the Sutta Vibhanga forming
the first landmark of the Vinayapitaka presupposes certain earlier
literary developments and if so, where can this be traced? This is to
seriously ask what was the earlier and more probable denotation of the
term ubhato-vinaya, the two-fold Vinaya. If we decline to interpret it
in the sense of two-fold Vibhanga, we must be raising this important
issue just to remove an anomaly arising from the two-fold significaion
of the Pancanikaya divisions of the Pa1i canon. Buddhaghosa, the great
Pali scholiast, says that in their narrower signification the five
Nikayas denoted the five divisions of the texts of the Suttapitaka, and
that in their wider signification the five Nikayas included also the
texts of the remaining two pitakas, namely, the Vinaya and the
Abhidhamma, the Vinaya and Abhidhamma treatises being supposed to be
included in the Khuddakanikaya [Sumangalavilasini, pt. I., p.23, cf.,
Atthasalini, p.26; Katamo Khaddakanikayo? Sakalam Vinayapitakam
Abhidhammapitakam Khuddakapathadayo ca pubbe-nidassita-pancadasa bheda
(pubbe dassitacuddasa pabheda iti pathantaram), thapetva cattaronikaye
avasesam Buddhavacanam]. Buddhaghosa also informs us that the Anumana
Sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya was known to the ancients as bhikkhuvinaya
and the Singalavada sutta of the Digha Nikaya was venerated as gihi
Vinaya.[4]
It such terms as bhikkhuvinaya and gihivinaya had been current among
the Buddhists of olden times, it is pertinet to enquire whether the
expression “the two-fold vinaya” was originally used to denote the
Bhikkhuvinaya and bhikkhunivinaya or the bhikkhuvinaya and gihivinaya.
If we examine the contents of the Anguttara or the Ekuttara Nikaya, we
need not be surprised to find that Anguttara abounds in the Vinaya
passages. In each nipata of this Nikaya we come across passages relating
to the two-fold Vinaya namely the Bhikkhu and Gihi. Looked at from this
point of view, the Anguttara Nikaya may justly be regarded as a sutta
store-house of distinct Vinaya tracts. In this very nikaya we hit upon a
vinaya tract (A.N., I., pp 98-100) which sets forth a rough sketch
(matika) not of any particular vinaya treatise but of the whole of the
Vinaya pitaka. The list of Vinaya topics furnished in this particular
tract cannot be construed as a table of contents of any particular text
of the Vinaya pitaka. Similar Vinaya tracts are scattered also in the
suttas of other Nikayas. The consideration of all these facts cannot but
lead one to surmise that the treatises of the Vinaya pitaka point to a
sutta background in the vinaya materials traceable in the Nikayas
particularly in the Anguttara. The Sutta background of the Vinaya texts
is clearly hinted at in the concluding words of the Patimokkha.” So much
of the words of the Blessed One handed down in the Suttas, embraced in
the suttas, comes into recitation every half-month” (Vinaya texts,
S.B.E., Vol.I. p.69). As for the date of the composition of the two
Patimokkha codes, one for the bhikkhus (monks) and other for the
bhikkhunis (nuns), it is important to bear in mind that according to an
ancient Buddhist tradition cited by Buddhaghosa, the Patimokkha codes as
they are handed down to us are two among the Vinaya texts which were
not rehearsed in the first Buddhist council(Sumangalavilasin I, pt.I.,
p. 17). It may he readily granted that the codification of the
Patimokkha rules in the extant shape was not accomplished immediately
after the demise of the Buddha. It is one thing to say this and it is
quite another that the rules themselves in a classified form had not
been in existence from the earlier times. The Cullavagga account of the
first Buddhist council throws some clear light on the process of
codification. It is said that the utterance of the dying Buddha
authorising his followers to do away with the minor rules of conduct
(Khuddanu-Khuddakani sikkhapadani), if they so desired, formed a bone of
contention among the bhikkhus who took part in the proceedings of the
first Buddhist Council (See Milinda Panha, pp.142-144). They were unable
to decide which were precisely the minor rules they were authorised to
dispense with. Some suggested all but the four Parajika rules, some, all
but the four Parajika and thirteen Samghadisesa rules, some, all but
the four Parajika, 13 Samghadisesa and two Aniyata rules and thirty
Nissaggiya rules; some, all but the four Parajika, 13 Samghadisesa, two
Aniyata, thirty Nissaggiya and ninety-two Pacittiya rules and some
suggested all but 4 Parajika, 13 Samghadisesa, 2 Aniyata, 30 Nissaggiya,
92 Pacittiya and 4 Patidesaniya rules. The suggestion stopped with the 4
Patidesaniya rules and did not proceed beyond them, leaving us in the
dark as to what the bhikkhus meant by all but “all these” (counted by
names). The Patimokkas code in its final form includes two hundred and
twenty-seven rules, that is to say, the seven adhikarana samathas and
seventy-five sekhiya rules in addition to those mentioned in the
Cullavagga account. Omitting the 75 sekhiya rules the total of the
Patimokkha precepts of conduct would come up to 152, If the theras of
the first Buddhist Council had in their view a Patimokkha code in which
the 75 Sekhiya rules had no place, the total of precepts in the code
recognised by them was 152. Now we have to enquire if there is any
definite literary evidence to prove that in an earlier stage of
codification, the total of the Patimokkha precepts was fixed at 152.
Happily the evidence is not far to seek. The Anguttara Nikaysa, as we
have seen above, contains two passages to indicate that the earlier
Patimokkha code contained one and half hundred rules or little more
(Sadhikam diyaddhasikkhapadasatam).[5]
The earlier Patimokkha code with its total of 152 rules may be shown to
have been earlier than the Suttavibhanga on the ground that the
Sutta-Vibhanga scheme makes room for the 75 Sekhiya rules, thereby
rocognising the Patimokkha total to be 227 which was possible only in
the second or final stage of codification of the Patimokkha rules.

In dealing with the chronology of the seven treatises of the
Abhidhammapitaka, we can only maintain that the order in which these
treatises are enumerated can be interpreted as the order of the
chronology. Any attempt at establishing such an interpretation would be
vitiated by the fact that the order of enumeration is not in all cases
the same. The order in which these are mentioned in the Milinda Panha
(p.12) and which has since become classical is as follows:

(1) Dhammasangani (Dhammasamgaha as Buddhaghosa calls it
- vide Sumangalvilasini,p.17),
(2) Vibhanga,
(3) Dhatukatha,
(4) Puggalapannatti,
(5) Kathavatthu,
(6) Yamakra and
(7) Patthana.

A somewhat different order is evident from a gatha occurring in
Buddaghosa’s Sumangalavilasini, Pt. I., p. 15.
“Dhammasamgani-Vibhanganca Kathavatthunca Puggalam
Dhatu-Yamaka-Patthanam Abhidhammoti vuccati.”

It be noticed that in the gatha order the Kathavatthu stands third
instead of fifth and the Dhatukatha stands fifth instead of third. We
have already noted that according to general interpretsaion of the five
nikaya divisions of the Pail canon, the Ahhidhamma treatises come under
the Khuddaka Nikaya. This is apparently an anomaly which cannot be
removed save by a liberal interpretation making it signify a suttanta
background of the Abhidhammapitaka. Thus an enquiry into the suttanta
background becomes a desideratum
and we may lay down a general canon of chronology in these terms. The
closer connection with the Sutta materials, the earlier is the date of
composition. Among the seven Abhidhamma treatises, tho Puggalapannatti
and the Vibhanga stand out prominently as the two texts which bear a
clear evidence of emergence from a Sutta background. The Puggala
classifications in the Digha, Samyutta and Anguttara Nikayas are seen to
constitute at once the sutta background and the stereotyped Vibhangas
or Niddesas, mostly contained in the Majjhima Nikaya may be take to
repesent the Sutta background of the Vibhanga. The exact position of the
Puggalapannatti in relation to the Suttanta collections has been
properly examined by Dr. Morris in his edition of the Puggala Pannatti
published for the P.T.S. London, Introduction, pp X-XI.

We have just one remark to add, namely, that compared with the
Suttanta materials utilised in it, the Puggalapannatti is the least
original treatise of the Abhidhammapitaka and its inclusion in the
Abhidhamma Pitaka would have been utterly unjustifiable but for the
Pannatti classifications in the matika No.1. Whatever be the actual date
of its compilation in respect of subject matter and treatment, it
deserves to be considered as the earliest of the Abhidhamma books.

In the opinion of Mrs. Rhys Davids,
the Vibhanga is “anticipated” by the Dhammasangani, although “it is by
no means covered by the latter work either in method or in matter”
(Vibhanga, P.T.S., Preface XIV). “In other words, the present book (the
Vibhanga) seems by Buddhists to have ranked second in the seven of its
Pitaka not accidentally, but as a sequel to the Dhammasangani requiring,
in those who came to the study of it, a familiarity [with] categories
and formulas of the latter work-that is with the first book of the
Abhidhamma”, (Ibid, XIII). Thus whether the Vibbanga is anticipated by
the Dhammasangani or the latter is anticipated by the former is the
point at issue.

Examining most of the chapters of the Vibhanga we find that each of
them has a Abhidhamma superstructure (Abhidharmma-bhajaniya) built upon
and kept distinct from a Suttanta exegesis (Suttantabhajaniya) the
counterpart of which is to be found in the first four Nikayas and mostly
in the Majjhima, as it will appear from the following table:

 

Saccavibhanga (Suttantabhajaniya) = Saccavibhanga sutta (Majjhima, Vol.III., No.141)
Satipatthanavibhanga (Suttantabhajaniya) = Satipatthanasutta (M.N.I., No.10)
Dhatuvibhanga (Suttantabhajaniya) = Dhatuvibhanga sutta of the Majjhima, Vol. III. No.140.

 

It is evident from the juxtaposition of the Suttanta and the
Abhidhamma exegesis in its different chapters that the Vibhanga marks
that stage of the developmet of the Abhidhamms pitaka when the
Abhidhamma or Transcendental method of exegesis had not yet gained an
independent foothold, when, in other words, it ramained combined with
the Suttanta or earlier method. The predilection is as yet for
attempting the exegesis of the formulations in the Suttas. An
independent treatment of pure topics of Psychological ethics, such as we
find in the Dhammasangani is far beyond the scheme of the Vibhanga. In
the progressive working out of exegetical schemes, the Niddesa or
detailed specification of meanings of terms comes second to the uddesa
or matika. Now if we compare the treatment of Rupakkhandha in the
Vibhanga (pp. 12-14) with that in the Dhammasangani (pp.124 ff.), we
cannot but observe that all that the Vibhanga has to present is merely
the uddesa or matika of the Rupakkhandha section of the Dhammasangani.
The Niddesa of the rupa-matika is to be found in no other Abhidhamma
books than the Dhabmmsasangani. Mrs. Rhys Davids admits (in a way
arguing in our favour) that the contents of the Vibhanga are by no means
covered by the Dhammasangani. The Vibhanga has, for instance, a section
entited Paccayakaravibhanga, an exegesis on the causal relations. The
paccayas fall outside the scope of the Dhammasangani and they form the
subject matters of the great Abhidhamma treatise, the Patthana or the
Mahapatthana; but compared with the Patthana, the Vibhanga treatment of
the subject is crude and vague, which is to say earlier. Considered in
this light, the Vibhanga seems to stand out as a common presupposition
of both the Dhammasangani and the Patthana. It is much easier to proceed
from the contents of the Vibhanga to the two highly systematic
treatises of the Dhammasangani and the Patthana then to proceed from the
latter to the former. The Dhatukatha being nothing but a supplement to
the text of the Dhammassangani may he briefly disposed of as a
Abhidhamma treatise dependent on and necessarily later than the
Dhammasangani.

It is not only with regard to the Dhammasangani (with its supplement,
the Dhatukatha and the Patthana that the Vibhanga represents the
immediate background; it appears equally to have been the background of
the Yamaka. It is easy to account for the dialectical method of the
study of the Abhidhamma matters by keeping the Panhapucchakas appended
to the different chapters of the Vibhanga. All these considerations lead
us to conclude that strictly speaking the Vibhanga making “an extended
application of (the) organun or vehicle for the cultivation of the moral
intellect” is the first and the earliest of the Abhidhamma books.

1. Puggala Pannatti

2. Vibhanga

(a) Dhammasangani Dhatukatha
(b) Yamaka
(c) Patthana

3. Kathavatthu

Although one can conceive in this manner the chronological succession
of the five Abhidhamma books (leaving out the Puggalapannatti which is
rather a suttanta text and the Kathavatthu which forms a class by
itself), it is difficult to determine the actual dates of their
composition. One thing is certain that the seven books of the
Abhidhammapitaka were well-known and very carefully read especially in
the Himalayan monastery when the Milinda panha was composed in about the
first century A.D. There is no reason for doubt that the Pali canon
when committed to writing during the reign of king Vattagamani in
Ceylon, included all these books in it. We have shown that when the
Uddanagathas of the Cullavagga (Chap. II) of the Vinayapitaka were
added, the three pitakas of the Pali canon had already come into
existence. The question, however, is how far the date of the books of
the Abhidhammapitaka can be pushed back. Here the only anchor-sheet[1]
is the Kathavatthu, the third or the fifth Abhidamma book which
according to tradition, was a compilation of the Asokan age. We have
already adduced certain proofs in suport of this tradition and have
sought to show that when certain controversies which find a place in the
Kathavatthu took place, Buddhism as a religion had not overstepped the
territorial limits of the middle country. But according to Buddhaghosa’s
commentary, the Kathavatthu contains discussion of doctrines held by
some of the Buddhist schools, e. g., the Hemavata, the Andhaka, the
Pubbaseliya and the Aparaseliya, which could not be possible if the
Kathavatthu had been closed in the time of Asoka. If it was a growing
compilation, we have necessarily to suppose that although it commenced
in Asokan time, it was not brought to a close till the rise of the later
Buddhist schools mentioned above.

Turning at last to the Suttapitaka comprising the live nikaytas, we
can definitely say that it had reached its final shape before the
composition of the Milinda Panha in which authoritative passages are
quoted from the texts of this pitaka, in certain instances by a mention
of the name of the sources. We can go further and maintain that the
Suttapitaka was closed along with the entire Pali canon and when the
canon was finally rehearsed in Ceylon and committed to writing during
the reign of King Vattagamani. The tradition says that previous to the
reign of Vattagamani the texts were handed down by an oral tradition
(mukhapathavasena) from teacher to teacher (acariyaparamparaya) the
process of transmission being compared to the carrying of earth in
baskets from head to head. Buddhaghosa says (Sumangalavilasini, pt.I,
pp.12 foll.) that immediately after the demise of the Buddha and after
the session of the first Buddhist Council, the task of transmitting and
preserving each of the five Nikayas to an individual thera and his
followers, which ultimatly gave rise to some schools of bhanakas or
chanters. The existence of the distinct schools of reciters of the five
Nikayas is clearly proved (as shown by Dr B. M. Barua, Barhut
Inscriptions, pp.9-10), by the Milinda Panha where we have mention of
the Jatakabhanakas (the repeaters of the Jatakas) in addition to the
Dighabhanake, the Majjhimabhanaka, Samyuttabhanaka, Anguttara-bhanaka
and Khuddaka- bhanaks, (Milinda Panha, pp.341 foll.). The terms
‘pancanekayika’ (one well versed in the five Nikayas) and bhanaka as
well, occur as distinctive epithets of some of the Buddhist donors in
the Sanci and Barhut inscriptions which may be dated in the lump in the
middle of the second century B.C. The inference from the evidence of
these inscriptions has already been drawn by Prof. Rhys Davids to the
effect that before the use of Pancanekayika (one well-versed in the five
Nikayas) suttantika (a man who knows the Suttanta by heart),
Suttantakini (a feminine form of Suttantika) and Petaki (one who knows
the pitaka by heart) as distinctive epithets, the pitaka and five nikaya
divisions of the Pali canon must have been well-known and
well-established. We say of the Pali canon because substitution of
nikaya for the term ‘Agama’ is peculiar to the Pali tradition. The term
“Pancanikaya” occurs as we saw also in the Vinaya Cullavagga (Chap.II)
which we have assigned to a period which immediately preceded the Asokan
age. But even presuming that the five nikaya divisions of the growing
Buddhist canon were current in the third century B.C., it does not
necessarily follow from it that all the books or Suttas or individual
passages comprising the five Nikayas were composed at that time. All
that we can make bold to say that the first four Nikayas were, to all
intents and purposes, the complete, while the Khaddakanikaya series
remained still open.

We have pointed out that this account in the Vinaya Cullavagga
clearly alludes to the Digha as the first of the five Nikayas as well as
that the first two suttas were the Brahmajala and Samannaphala while as
to the number and succession of the remaining suttas, we are kept
completely in the dark. Straining the information supplied in the Vinaya
Cullavagga we can proceed so far no doubt, that the first volume of the
Digha Nikaya was mainly in the view of its compilers. Comparing the
Suttas comprised in the remaining two volumes and marking the
differences in theme and tone, it seems that these two volumes were
later additions. The second volume contains two suttas, namely, the
Mahapadhana and MahaGovinda which have been mentioned in the
Cullaniddesa (p.80) as two among the notable illustrations of the
Suttanta Jatakas, the Jatakas as found in the earliest forms in Pali
literature. We have already drawn attention to the earlier chronicles of
the seven purohitas in the Anguttara Nikaya where it is far from being a
manipulation in a Jataka form. The casting of this chronicle in a
Jataka mould as we find it in the Maha-Govinds Suttanta could not have
taken place in the life-time of the Buddha. The second volume contains
also the Payasi Suttanta which, as shown by the previous scholars,
brings the story of Payasi to the death of Payasi and his after life in a
gloomy heaven. Thus suttanta contains several anecdotes forming the
historical basis of some of the Jataka stories. In the face of all these
facts, we cannot but agree with Prof. Rhys Davids who places the date
of this suttanta at least half a century after the demise of the Buddha.
The third volume of the Digha includes in it the Atanatiya suttanta
which is otherwise described as a rakkha or a saving chant manipulated
apparently on a certain passage in the then known Mahabharata. The
development of these elements such as the Jataka stories and the
Parittas could not have taken place when Buddhism remained in its
pristine purity. These are later accretions or interpolations, the works
of fable and fiction, we mean of imaginnative poetry that crept,
according to a warning given in certain passages of the Anguttara
Nikaya, under the influence from outside. But there is no reason for
surprise that such developments had already taken place as early as the
fourth century B.C. for the passages strike the note of alarm are
precisely one of those seven important tracts recommended by Asoka in
his Bhabru Edict under the caption ‘Anagatabhayani.’ The growth of these
foreign elements must have caused some sort of confusion otherwise it
would not have been necessary to discuss in a sutta of the Samyutta
Nikaya the reasonable way of keeping genuine the utterances of the
Buddha distinct from others that crept in under the outside influence
and were characterised by poetical fancies and embellishments
(kavikata). (Samyutta Nikaya, pt.II, p.267). We may then be justified in
assigning the whole of the Digha Nikaya to a pre-Asokan age, there
being no trace of any historical event or development which might have
happened after King Asoka. The only exception that one has to make is
only in the case of the concluding verses of the Mahaparinibbana
Suttanta which were interpolated according to Buddhaghosa in Ceylon by
the teachers of that island. Like the first volume of the Digha Nikaya,
the whole of the Majjhima Nikaya strikes us as the most authoritative
and original among the collections of the Buddha’s teachings. There is
no allusion to any political event to justify us in relegating the date
of its compilation to a time far removed from the demise of the Buddha.
If it be argued that the story of Makhadeva, as we find it embodied in
the Makhadeva sutta of this Nikaya, has already assumed the form of a
Jataka, of a Suttanta-Jataka, mentioned in the Cullaniddesa, it cannot
follow from it that the Nikaya is for that very reason a much later
compilation. For the Makhadeva story is one of those few earliest
Jatakas presupposed by the Pali Canonical collection of 500 Jatakas. The
literary developments as may be traced in the suttas of the Majjhima
Nikaya are not of such a kind as to require more than a century after
the demise of the Buddha.

Now concerning the Samyutta which is a collection of kindred sayings
and the third of the five Nikayas, we may point out that it has been
quoted by name in the Milinda Panha, as also in the Petakopadesa under
the simple title of Samyuttaka and that as such this Nikaya had existed
as anauthoritative book of the Pali both [for] the Milinda panha and the
Patakapadesa. [We can] go so far as to maintain that the Samyutta
Nikaya had reached its final shape previous to the occurrence of Panca
nekayika as a personal epithet in some of the Barhut and
Sanci-inscriptions, nay, even before the closing of the Vinaya
Cullavagga where we meet with the expression “Pancanikaya”. In dealing
with the account of the Second Buddhist Council in the Vinaya Cullavagga
(Chap.XII), we have noted that a canonical authority has been alluded
to as “Rajayahe uposatha Samyutte” at Rajagaha in the Uposatha Samyutta.
The translators of the Vinaya Texts (pt.11, p.410) observe that the
term ‘Samyutta’ “must here be used for khandhaka”, the passage referred
to being the Vinaya Mahavagga (II.8.3. the Uposatha Khandhaka). But
looking into the Mahavagga passage, we find that it does not fully tally
with the allusion, as the passage has nothing to do with Rajagaha. In
the absence of Rajagaha giving a ture clue to the tracing of the
intended passage, it is difficult to premise that the passage which the
compilers of the Cullavagga account kept in view was the khandhaka
passaga in the Vinaya Mahavagga. Although we have so far failed to trace
this passage also in the Samyutta Nikaya, the presumption ought to be
that the intended passage was included in a Samyutta collection which
was then known to the compilers of the Cullavagga. The Suttas in the
Samyutta Nikaya do not refer to any political incident justifying one to
place the date of its compilation far beyond the demise of the Buddha.
As contrasted with the Ekuttara or Anguttara Nikaya the Samyutta appears
to be the result of an attempt to put together relevant passages
throwing light on the topics of deeper doctrina1 impotance while the
former appears to be numerical groupings of relevant passage throwing
light on the topics relating to the conduct of the monks and
house-holders. Considered in this light, these two Nikayas must be
regarded as fruits of a critical study of suttas in some previous
collections.

Now coimg to deal with the Ekuttara or Anguttara Nikaya, we have
sought to show that its main bearing is on the two-fold Vinaya, the
Gahapati Vinaya and the Bhikkhu Vinaya. This Nikaya contains a section
(Mundarajavagga in the Pancaka Nipata) commemorating the name of King
Munda who reigned, as shown by Rhys Davids, in Rajagaha about half a
century after the demise of the Buddha The Nikaya made within the fifty
years from the Buddha’s demise. There is, however, no other historical
reference to carry the Mahaparinibbana compilation beyond the first
century from the Mahaparinibhana of the Buddha. The date proposed for
the Anguttara Nikaya will not, we think, appear unreasonable if it be
admitted that the suttas of this nikaya form the real historical
back-ground of the contents of the Vinaya texts.

We have at last to discuss the chronology of the fifteen books of the
Khuddaka Nikaya, which are generally mentioned in the follwiug order:–

(1) Khuddaka Patha,
(2) Dhammapada,
(3) Udana,
(4) Itivuttaka,
(5) Sutta Nipata,
(6) Vimanavatthu,
(7) Petavatthu,
(8) Thera-Theri-gatha,
(9) Jataka,
(11) Niddesa (Culla and Maha),
(12) Patisambhidamagga,
(13) Apadana,
(14) Buddha vamsa, and
(15) Cariyapitaka.

This mode of enumeration of the fifteen books of the khuddaka Nikaya
(pannarasabheda Khuddakanikaya) can be traced back to the days of
Buddhaghosa (Sumangalavilasini, pt.I.,p.17). It is obvious that in this
list the Cullaniddesa and the Mahaniddesa are counted as one book; while
counting them as two books, the total number becomes sixteen. There is
no justification for regarding the order of enumeration as being the
order of chronology. In connection with the Khuddaka Nikaya, Buddhaghosa
mentions the following facts of great historical importance. He says
that the Dighabhanakas classified the books of the Khuddaka Nikaya under
the Abhidhamma Pitaka enumerating them in the following order:–

(1) Jataka,
(2) Mahaniddesa,
(3) Cullaniddesa,
(4) Patisambhidamagga,
(5) Suttanipata,
(6) Dhammapada,
(7) Udana,
(8) Itivuttaka,
(9) Vimanavatthu,
(10) Petavatthu, and
(11) Therigatha,

and leaving out of consideration the four books, namely, the
Cariyapitaka, the Apadana, the Buddhavamsa and the Khuddakapatha.
Buddhaghosa informs us that the Majjhimabhanaka list contained the names
of 15 books counting the Cariyapitaka, the Apadana and the Buddhavamsa
as the three books in addition to those recognised by the Dighabhanakas
(Sumanangalavilasini, Pt.I., p.15). [? It is important to note that the
Majjhimabhanaka list has taken no cognisance of the Khuddakapatha
mentioned as the first book in Buddhanaka [?as this] list was drawn up,
the Khuddaka Nikaya comprised just 12 books and when the Majjhima Nikaya
list was made it came to comprise altogether 15 books, the Mahaniddesa
and the Cullaniddesa having been counted as two books instead of as
one.] It is also easy to understand that from that time onward the
traditional tota1 of the books of the Khuddaka Nikaya became known as
fifteen, and so strong was this tradition that to harmonise with it, the
sixteen books had to be somehow counted as fifteen, the Mahaniddesa and
the Cullaniddesa being treated as a single book. From this we may
proceed to show that the Khuddakapathe appearing as the first book of
the Khuddaka Nikaya in Buddhaghosa’s list, is really the last book taken
into the Khuddaka Nikaya sometime after the Majjhimabhhanaka list
recognising 15 books in all had been closed. We need not be surprised if
the Khuddakapatha was a compilation made in Ceylon and was given a
place among the books of the Khuddaka Nikaya either immediately before
the commitment of the Pali Canon to writing duriug the reign of King
Vattagramani or even after that, although before the time of
Buddhaghosa. The commentaies of Buddhabhosa are our oldest authorities
that mention the Khuddakapatha as a canonical book. It does not find
mention in the Milinda Panha nor in any other work, canonical or
ex-canonical, which was extant before the time of Buddhagosa. The text
is made up of nine lessons or short readings all culled [from] certain
earlier canonical sources, the arrangement of these lessons being such
as to make it serve as a very useful handbook for the beginners and for
the clergy ministering to the needs of the laity. The consideration of
two points may suffice to bear out our contention. The first point is
that the first lesson called the saranattaya presents a developed mode
of refuge formula of the Buddhists which is not to be found precisely in
this form anywhere in other portions of the Pali canon. As for the
second point we may note that the third lesson called the Dvattimsakara
(the thirty-two parts of the body) enumrrates mattake matthalungam[2]
which is not to be found in the list furnished in the Mahasatipatthana
Suttanta of the Digha Nikaya, the Satipatthana Sutta of the Majjhima
Nikaya and numerous other discourses.

We have seen that the Buddhavamisa, the Cariyapitaka and the Apadana
are the three books which found recognition in the list of the
Dighabhanakas, Majjhimabhanakas and were taken no notice of in the
[…text missing…] Apart from other arguments, one has to presume that
these three books were complied and received into the canon after the
list was once known to have been complete with 12 books. These three
books, as far as the subject matters go, are interconnected, the
Buddhavamsa enumerating the doctrine of pranidhana us an essential
condition of the Bodhisatta life, the Cariyapitaka enumerating the
doctrine of cariya or practices of a Bodhisatta and the Apadana the
doctrine of adhikara or competence for the attainment of the higher
life. These three books presuppose a legend of 24 previous Buddhas which
is far in excess of the legend of six Buddhas contained in other
portions of the Canon. The Buddhavamsa and the Cariyapitaka present a
systematic form of the Bodhistta idea that was shaping itself through
the earlier Jatakas and the Apadana furnishing the previous birth
stories of the theras and the theris cannot but be regarded as a later
supplement to the Thera-Theri-gatha.

Besides the Thera-Theri-gatha, the Vimanavatthu or the book of
stories of heaven is just another canonical work which is presupposed by
the Apadana. It is important to note that the Vimanavatthu contains one
story, namely, the story of Serissaka, the incident of which, according
to the story itself, took place a hundred years, calculated by human
computation from the death of the chieftain Payasi. “Manussakam
Vassasatam atitam Yadagge kayamhi idhuappanno” (Vimanavatthu, P.T.S.,
p.81). The Payasi Suttanta of the Digha Nikaya clearly shows that the
death of Payasi could not have taken place until a few years after the
Buddha’s demise. Thus going by the consideration of this point, we are
compelled to assign a date of its composition to an age ahead of a
century and a half from the demise of the Buddha. So the canonisation of
this book could not have taken place earlier than the time of the third
Buddhist Council, we mean the time of King Asoka. Our suggestion for
the date of the Vimanavatthu will gain in significance as we consider
the contents of the Petavatthu, the book of stories of hell. We have
noticed above that in all the three lists of the books of the Khuddaka
Nikaya the name of the Petavatthu stands after that of the Vimanavatthu.
From the occurrence of certain common stories, a suggestion has already
been made that it was somehow an offshoot of the Vimanavatthu. Now in
one of the stories (Petavatthu, IV.3, p.57)[6], we have allusions to the Moriya (Maurya) king, who is identified in the commentary with king Asoka[7].
If this construction of the word Moriya is correct, it leaves no room
for doubt that the Peta Vatthu, as we now have it, was a post-Moriyan or
post-Asokan compilation.

The Cullaniddesa is a canonical commentary of the Khaggavisana sutta
and the Parayana group of sixteen poems, all of which find place in the
anthology called the Sutta Nipata. We have sought to show that the
Cullaniddesa indicates a stage of development of the Pali canon when the
Khaggavisana sutta hang on the Parayanavagga as an isolated poem,
without yet being included in a distinct group such as the Uragavagga of
the Sutta Nipata. Though from this line of argument it follows that the
Cullaniddesa is earlier than the Sutta-Nipata, it cannot at the same
time be denied that it is posterior not only to such Suttanta-Jatakas as
the Mahapadaniya, Mahagovinda, Mahasudassaniya and the Maghadeva
suttanta contained in the Digha and Majjhima Nikayas but also to a
collection of 500 Jatakas (Pancajatakasatiani) (Culianiddesa, p.80). As
such the Cullaniddesa cannot be dated much earlier than the reign of
Asoka.

The Mahaniddesa too is a canonical commentary on the atthaka group of
sixteen poems forming the fourth book of the Sutta-Nipata. As shown
before the exegeses attempted in this book were all modelled on an
earlier exegesis of Mahakaccana in the Samyutta Nikaya. If this
canonical commentary came into existence when the Atthakavagga was yet
currrnt as an isolated group, the date of its composition cannot but be
anterior to that of the Suttanipate. A clear idea of the date of this
work can be fomed from its list of places visited by the Indian seagoing
merchants. The Mahaniddesa list clearly points to a time when the
Indian merchants carried on a sea-borne trade with such distant places
as Java in the east and Paramayona in the west and it alludes as well as
to sea route from Tamali to Java via Tambapanni or Ceylon which was
followed in the 5th century A. D. by the Chinese pilgrim, Fa-Hien. We
can expect to come across such a list only in the Milinda Panha which
may be dated in the 1st or 2nd century A. D. Such a wide expansion of
India’s maritime trade as indicated in the Mahaniddesa list would seem
impossible if the book was a composition much earlier than the second
century B.C. Now turning to the Suttanipata we have been inclined to
place it later than the two books of the Niddesa on the ground that when
it was compiled, the Atthakavagga and the Parayanavagga came to
represent two distinct books of a comprehensive anthology and the
Khaggavisana sutta ceased to be a stray poem hanging for its existence
on the Parayana group. But our main reason for dating it posterior to
the Cullaniddesa is that the Parayanavagga in the Suttanipata is
prefaced by a prologue which is absent from the Cullaniddesa scheme.
Similarly the Nalakasutta perhaps known originally as Moneyya sutta as
evidenced by the titles suggested in Asoka’s Bhabru Edict as a prologue
clearly anticipating the poetical style of Asvaghosa’s Buddhaearita. In
spite of the fact that the suttas embodied in it were gleaned from
earlier collections, the Sutta-nipate scheme of anthology does not seem
to have been carried into effect before the 2nd century B.C.

With regard to the Jatakas as a book of the Khuddaka Nikaya, we have
just seen above that the Cullaniddesa points to a canonical collection
of 500 Jatakas. That five hundred was the original total of the Jatakas
is proved on the one hand by the 500 Jataka representations witnessed by
Fa-Hien round the Abhayagiri monastery of Ceylon and on the other hand
by the mechanical multiplication of the stories in order to raise the
total from 500 to 550 from the days of Buddhaghosa. The Milinda Panha
alludes to the existence of the repeaters of the Jatakas apart from the
repeaters of the five Nikayas. We are unable to decide whether the
Milinda reference is to the canonical books of the Jataks or to a
commentary collection which was then in existence. The numerous
illustrations of the jatakas on the ancient Buddhist railings such as
those at Barhut and Bodhagaya, unmistakably presuppose the existence of
the legendary story of the Buddha’s life past and present. But the
canonical collection of 500 Jatakas referred to in the Cullaniddesa
appear to be earlier than the scriptural basis of the Buddhist
sculptures and whatever the actual data of composition might be it was
certainly later than that of the Suttanta Jatakas scattered throughout
the first four Nikayas. We may say indeed that the canonical collection
took a definite shape near about the early Maurya period.

The Thera-Theri-Gathas are two campanion anthologies of the stanzas
that are supposed to have been uttered by the theras and theris
surrounding the Buddha during the lifetime of the Master, or at least
shortly after his death.(Theragabha Oldenberg’s preface, XI).

“The separate uddanas or indices which occur regularly at the end of
each nipata and at the end also of the whole work, and give the names
and numbers of the theras (and the theris) and the number of verses in
each chapter and in the whole work respectively seem to be based on a
recension or condition of the text different from that which now lies
before us” (Ibid, p.XIV). In the opinion of Dhammapala, the commentator,
the Theragatha anthology had reached the final shape not earlier than
the time of Asoka. He points out that the Thera Tekicchakari whose
gathas are embodied in the Theragatha lived under King Bimbisara, the
father of Dhammasoka. He further adds that the verses uttered by this
thera were received into the canon by the fathers who assembled in the
third Buddhist Council. Dhammapala attributes some of the gathas to
Vitasoka, the younger brother of Dhammasoka and certain other verses to
Tissakumara, the youngest brother of King Asoka. If we can at all depend
for chronology on the information supplied by Dhammapala, the
anthologies of Thera-Theri-gatha must be taken as compilations that had
received their final shape at the Third Buddhist Council and not before.

The Pali Dhammapada is just one and undoubtedlly the earliest of the
six copies of the anthologies of the Dhammapada class. The earliest
mention of the Pali Dhammapada by name is to be found in the Milinda
Panha which is a composition of the first or secnd century A.D. From the
mere fact that there were certain quotations in the Kathavatthu and
Mahaniddesa of stanzas now traceable in the Dhammapada, no definite
conclusion can be drawn as to the actual date of its composition. The
Dhammapada hardly includes any stanzas that might be supposed to have
been drawn upon the canonical collection of Jatakas. But as shown by the
editors of the Prakrit Dhammapada there are a few gathas which were
evidently manipulated on the basis of the gathas in the Jatakas.
Similary it cannot be maintained that the Dhammapada contains any
stanzas that were diretly derived from the Suttanipata, for the suttas
which singled out as the source of some of the gathas of the Dhammapada
are to be found also in such earlier collections as the Digha or the
Majjhima or the Samyutta or the Anguttara. The Thera and Theri-gathas
are the two anthologies of the Khuddaka Nikaya which appear to have been
presupposed by the Dhammapada. As regards external evidence, there is
only one tradition, namely, that a powerful discourse based on the
Appamadavagga of the Dhammapada served to attract the attention of King
Asoka to Buddhism, clearly pointing to the existence of the Dhammapada
as a distinct anthology as early as the third century B.C.

[The] Itivuttaka, the Udana and the Patisambhidamagga are the
remaining three books of the Khuddaka Nikaya of which the date of
composition must depend upon mere conjecture till accidentally we obtain
any reliable date. The Itivuttaka is a book of questions of genuine
sayings of the Buddha, making no reference to any canonical work or to
any historical event ascertaining its date, though it seems that it was
the result of an afterthought, of a critical study of the authentic
teachings of the Buddha in a certain light and for a specific purpose.
The Udana is a curious medley of legends and historical records,
presented in a particular setting with a view to emphasising some
pronounced opinions of the Buddha on certain contrversial matters. The
Patisambhidamagga presents a systematic exposition of certain important
topics of Buddhism, and as such it deserves to be classed rather with
the books of the Abhidhammapitaka than with those of Suttanipata. It is
quite possible that before the development of the extant Abhidhamma
pitaka, it passed as one of the Abhidhamma treatises, Concering these
three books the utmost that we can say that they are mentioned even in
the list of the Dighabhanakas, being counted there as three among the
twelve books of the Khuddaka Nikaya, and that if the tradition about
this list is at all credible, these three books must have existed when
the list was drawn up, say, in the second century B. C.

The Chronology

The results arrived at concerning the chronology of the Pali canonical listerature are preseented in the subjoined table.

 

1

The simple statements of Buddhist doctrines now found, in identical words, in paragraphs or verses recurring in all the books.

2

Episodes found, in identical words, in two or more of the existing books.

3

The Silas, the Parayana group of sixteen poems without the prologue,
the atthaka group of four or sixteen poems, the sikkhapadas.

4

The Digha, Vol. l, the Majjhima, the Samyutta, the Anguttara, and earlier Patimokkha code of 152 rules.

5

The Digha, Vols. II & III, the Thera-Theri-Gatha, the collection
of 500 Jatakas, the Suttavibhanga, the Patisambhidamagga, the
Puggala-pannatti and the Vibhanga.

6

The Mahavagga and the Cullavagga, the Patimokkha code completing 227
rules, the Vimanavatthu and Petavatthu, the Dhammapada and the
Kathavatthu.

7

The Cullaniddesa, the Mahaniddesa, the Udana, the Itivuttaka, the Suttanipata, the Dhatukatha, the Yamaka and the Patthana.

8

The Buddhavamsa, the Cariyapitaka and the Apadana.

9

The Parivarapatha.

10

The Khuddakapatha.

 


[1]Read the Life of Gotama, the Buddha by E.I. Brewster.

[2](Cowell and Neil Ed.)p. 35.

[3]It
may be observed that in giving an account of the first Buddhist
council, Buddhaghosa makes mention of Ubhato-Vibhanga signifying
“thereby the whole text of the Sutta Vibhanga completed in 64 bhanavaras
(Snmagalavilasini, pt.1., p.13 ).

[4]B.M. Barna-A note on the Bhabru Ediet, J.R.A.S., October’ 1915, pp. 805-810

[5]Cf. Milinda Panha which refers to the some total of the Patimokkha rules in the expression “Diyaddhesa Sikkhapadasatesu.”

[6]1.”Raja Pingalako nama Suratthanam adhipapi ahu Moriyanam upatthanamgantva surattham punar againa.”

[7]“Moriyanan’ti Moriyarajunam Dhammasokam samdhaya vadati” Petavatthn. P.T.S.,p.98.


[1]A vessels largest anchor.


[2]The Brain





Contact:
E-mail
06) Classical Devanagari,Classical Hindi-Devanagari- शास्त्रीय हिंदी,

https://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebsut051.htm


Beyond the Tipitaka
A Field Guide to Post-canonical Pali Literature


John Bullitt


Copyright © 2002 John Bullitt

For free distribution only.
You may reprint this work for free distribution.
You may re-format and redistribute this work for use on computers and
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provided that you charge no fees for its distribution or use.
Otherwise, all rights reserved.


A quick glance
through the pages of the Pali Text Society’s publications catalogue should
be enough to convince anyone that there is much more to classical Pali
literature than the Tipitaka alone. Intermingled with the familiar
Nikayas, Vinaya texts, and Abhidhamma are scores of titles with long,
scarcely-pronounceable Pali names. Although many western students of
Buddhism may be unacquainted with these works (indeed, most have never
been translated into English), these books have for centuries played a
crucial role in the development of Buddhist thought and practice across
Asia and, ultimately, the West. In fact, in some countries they are as
deeply treasured as the suttas themselves. But what are these ancient
books, and what relevance do they have to the western student of Buddhism
in the 21st century? Although complete answers to these
questions lie well beyond the range of my abilities, I hope that this
short document will provide enough of a road map to help orient the
interested student as he or she sets out to explore this vast corpus of
Buddhist literature.


Introduction

The
origins of the post-canonical texts

The
Tipitaka (Pali Canon)
assumed its final form at the
Third Buddhist
Council (ca. 250 BCE) and was first committed to writing sometime in
the 1st c. BCE. Shortly thereafter Buddhist scholar-monks in
Sri Lanka and southern India began to amass a body of secondary
literature: commentaries on the Tipitaka itself, historical chronicles,
textbooks, Pali grammars, articles by learned scholars of the past, and so
on. Most of these texts were written in Sinhala, the language of Sri
Lanka, but because Pali — not Sinhala — was the lingua franca of
Theravada, few Buddhist scholars outside Sri Lanka could study them. It
wasn’t until the 5th c. CE, when the Indian monk Buddhaghosa
began the laborious task of collating the ancient Sinhala commentaries and
translating them into Pali, that these books first became accessible to
non-Sinhala speakers around the Buddhist world. These commentaries (Atthakatha)
offer meticulously detailed explanations and analyses — phrase-by-phrase
and word-by-word — of the corresponding passages in the Tipitaka.

After Buddhaghosa the catalogue of
post-canonical Pali literature continued to grow with the addition of
commentaries by both Buddhadatta (5th c.) and Dhammapala (6th c.),
and sub-commentaries (Tika) by Dhammapala on
several of Buddhaghosa’s Atthakathas. During this time, and in the
centuries that followed, other writers prepared Pali translations of
additional early Sinhala texts. These ranged from poetic
hymns in celebration of the Buddha
, to chronicles
tracing the first millennium of Buddhist history, to detailed
Abhidhamma textbooks. Most of the major post-canonical
works, including the sub-commentaries, were completed by the 12th c.

Why these
texts matter

Post-canonical Pali literature supplements
the Tipitaka in several important ways. First, the chronicles and
commentaries provide a vital thread of temporal continuity that links us,
via the persons and historical events of the intervening centuries, to the
Tipitaka’s world of ancient India. A Tipitaka without this accompanying
historical thread would forever be an isolated anachronism to us, its
message lost in clouds of myth and fable, its pages left to gather dust in
museum display cases alongside ancient Egyptian mummies. These texts
remind us that the Dhamma is not an artifact but a practice, and
that we belong to a long line of seekers who have endeavored, through
patient practice, to keep these teachings alive.

Second, almost everything we know today
about the early years of Buddhism comes to us from these post-canonical
books. Though the archaeological evidence from that era is scant and the
Tipitaka itself contains only a handful of passages describing events that
followed the Buddha’s death[1], the
commentaries and chronicles
contain a wealth of historical information with which we are able to
partially reconstruct the early history of Buddhism. The texts illuminate
a host of important historical events and trends: how the Tipitaka came to
be preserved orally; when it was first written down, and why; how the
Tipitaka came close to extinction; how the Buddha’s teachings spread
across south Asia; how and when the various schools and factions within
Buddhism arose; and so on. But these are not just idle concerns for the
amusement of academicians. Any practitioner, of any century, stands to
benefit from understanding how the early Buddhists lived, how they put the
Buddha’s teachings into practice, what challenges they faced; we stand to
learn from those who have gone before. And there are other lessons to be
learned from history. For example, knowing that it was the actions of just
a few individuals that averted the extinction of the Tipitaka[2]
reminds us that it is ultimately up to individuals like ourselves to
safeguard the teachings today. Without the post-canonical texts important
lessons like these — if not the Tipitaka itself — might have been lost
forever in the mists of time.

Third, these texts — particularly the
commentaries — help us make sense of the suttas and give us clues about
their context that we might otherwise miss. For example, the famous
Satipatthana Sutta (MN 10) is popularly cited today as evidence that all one needs to achieve
Awakening is a week or two of unrelenting mindfulness practice. But the
commentary (Papañcasudani) suggests another viewpoint. It explains that
the Buddha’s audience for this particular discourse (the villagers of
Kammasadammam) were already well established in their practice of
mindfulness and virtue. They were not coming to meditation practice “cold”
but were, in fact, unusually well prepared to receive this deep teaching
— a point not apparent from the text of the sutta itself. The commentary
thus reminds us that there are some important fundamentals to be developed
before one undertakes intensive meditation practice.

Finally, the commentaries often contain
magnificent stories to illustrate and amplify upon points of Dhamma that
are made in the suttas. For example,
Dhp 114 takes on a much richer meaning in light of the commentary’s background
story — the famous parable of Kisagotami and the mustard seed.[3]
Commentarial stories like this one (and there are many more) offer
valuable Dhamma teachings in their own right.

The
authority of the texts

One might reasonably wonder: how can a
collection of texts written a thousand years after the Buddha’s death
possibly represent his teachings reliably? How can we be sure they aren’t
simply derivative works, colored by a host of irrelevant cultural
accretions? First of all, although many of these texts were indeed first
written in Pali a thousand years after the Buddha, most Sinhala versions
upon which they were based were written much earlier, having themselves
been passed down via an ancient and reliable oral tradition. But (one
might object) mustn’t those early texts themselves be suspect, since they
are based only on hearsay? Perhaps, but by this argument we should reject
the entire oral tradition — and hence the entire Tipitaka itself, which
similarly emerged from an oral tradition long after the Buddha’s death.
Surely that is taking things too far.

But what of the credentials of the
commentators themselves: can their words be trusted? In addition to living
a monastic life immersed in Dhamma, the compilers of the commentaries
possessed unimpeachable literary credentials: intimate acquaintance with
the Tipitaka, mastery of the Pali and Sinhala languages, and expert skill
in the art of careful scholarship. We have no reason to doubt either their
abilities or the sincerity of their intentions.

And what of their first-hand understanding
of Dhamma: if the commentators were scholars first and foremost, would
they have had sufficient meditative experience to write with authority on
the subject of meditation? This is more problematic. Perhaps commentators
like Buddhaghosa had enough time (and accumulated merit) both for
mastering meditation and for their impressive scholarly pursuits; we will
never know. But it is noteworthy that the most significant discrepancies
between the Canon and its commentaries concern meditation — in
particular, the relationship between concentration meditation and
insight.[4] The question of the authority of
the post-canonical texts thus remains a point of controversy within
Theravada Buddhism.

It is important to remember that the
ultimate function of the post-canonical texts is — like that of the
Tipitaka itself — to assist the student in the quest for
nibbana, the highest
goal of Buddhist practice. Concerns about authorship and authority recede
when the texts are subjected to the same healthy skeptical attitude and
empirical approach that should be familiar to every student of the suttas.
If a commentary sheds light on a murky corner of a sutta or helps us
understand a subtle point of Vinaya or of Abhidhamma, or if the chronicles
remind us that we hold the future history of Dhamma in our hands, then to
that extent they help us clear the path ahead. And if they can do even
that much, then — no matter who wrote them and from whence they came —
these texts will have demonstrated an authority beyond reproach.[5]

A Field
Guide

In the following guide, I have arranged
the most popular post-canonical titles thematically and by date (Common
Era). Authors’ names are followed by the date of authorship (if known).
The authors of these texts were all monks, but for the sake of concision,
I have dropped the honorific “Ven.” from their names. Each
non-commentarial title is followed by a brief description. Many of these
descriptions were lifted verbatim from other sources (see
Sources, below). Page numbers from these sources
are given in the braces {}. Most of these titles have been published in
romanized Pali by the Pali Text Society (PTS); the few for which English
translations are available are noted with a dagger (†), followed by the
translator, date of translation, and publisher.

Contents:



Commentaries and Sub-commentaries

Source Text Commentary
(Atthakatha)
Subcommentary
(Tika)

VINAYA PITAKA

Samantapasadika
(Buddhaghosa; 5th c.)
Vajirabuddhi-tika (Vajirabuddhi;
11-12th c.)
Saratthadipani (Sariputta; 12th c.)
Vimativinodani (Mahakassapa of Cola; 12th c.)
   

Patimokkha


Kankhavitarani
(Buddhaghosa; 5th c.)

Vinayatthamañjusa
(Buddhanaga; 12th c.)


SUTTA PITAKA
   

Digha Nikaya


Sumangalavilasini
(Buddhaghosa; 5th c.)

Dighanikaya-tika
(Dhammapala; 6th c.)
   

Majjhima Nikaya


Papañcasudani
(Buddhaghosa; 5th c.)

Majjhimanikaya-tika
(Dhammapala; 6th c.)
   
Samyutta Nikaya

Saratthappakasini
(Buddhaghosa; 5th c.)

Samyuttanikaya-tika
(Dhammapala; 6th c.)
    Anguttara Nikaya
Manorathapurani
(Buddhaghosa; 5th c.)

Saratthamañjusa-tika
(Sariputta; 12th c.)
   

Khuddaka Nikaya

       

Khuddakapatha


Paramatthajotika (I)
(Buddhaghosa; 5th c.)
-
       

Dhammapada


Dhammapada-atthakatha
(Buddhaghosa; 5th c.)
†(E.W. Burlingame, 1921, PTS)
-
       
Udana

Paramatthadipani (I)/Udana-atthakatha

(Dhammapala; 6th c.)
-
       
Itivuttaka

Paramatthadipani (II)/Itivuttaka-atthakatha
(Dhammapala; 6th c.)
-
       
Suttanipata

Paramatthajotika (II)/Suttanipata-atthakatha
(Buddhaghosa; 5th c.)
-
       
Vimanavatthu

Paramatthadipani (III)/Vimanavatthu-atthakatha
(Dhammapala; 6th c.)
-
       
Petavatthu

Paramatthadipani (IV)/Petavatthu-atthakatha
(Dhammapala; 6th c.)
-
       
Theragatha

Paramatthadipani (V)/Theragatha-atthakatha
(Dhammapala; 6th c.)
-
       
Therigatha

Paramatthadipani (VI)/Therigatha-atthakatha
(Dhammapala; 6th c.)
-
       
Jataka

Jatakatthavannana/Jataka-atthakatha
(Buddhaghosa; 5th c.)
†(various, 1895, PTS)
-
       
Niddesa

Sadhammapajotika
(Upasena; 5th c.)
-
       
Patisambhidamagga

Sadhammappakasini
(Mahanama; 6th c.)
-
       
Apadana

Visuddhajanavilasini
(unknown)
-
       
Buddhavamsa

Madhuratthavilasini
(Buddhadatta; 5th c.)
†(I.B. Horner, 1978, PTS)
-
       
Cariyapitaka

Paramatthadipani (VII)/Cariyapitaka-atthakatha
(Dhammapala; 6th c.)
-
        Nettipakarana
Petakopadesa
Milindapañha
No commentaries exist for these books,
which appear only the Burmese edition of the Tipitaka. See
Nettipakarana,
Petakopadesa
, and Milindapañha,
below.


ABHIDHAMMA PITAKA
   
Dhammasangani
Atthasalini
(Buddhaghosa; 5th c.) †(Pe Maung Tin, 1920, PTS)

Linatthapada-vannana
(Ananda Vanaratanatissa; 7-8th c.)
   
Vibhanga

Sammohavinodani
(Buddhaghosa; 5th c.) †(U Narada,
1962, PTS)
-
    Katthavatthu
Puggalapaññatti
Dhatukatha
Yamaka
Patthana

Pañcappakaranatthakatha
(Buddhaghosa; 5th c.). This commentary covers all five
books. English translations exist for the portions concerning the
Katthavatthu †(B.C. Law, 1940, PTS), Dhatukatha †(U Narada, 1962,
PTS), and Patthana †(U Narada, 1969, PTS)
-
-
-
-
-

Quasi-canonical Texts


  • Nettipakarana
    and Petakopadesa
    (Mahakaccayana?; circa 1st c.?). “The Book of Guidance” and
    “Instruction on the Pitaka,” respectively. These books are introductions
    to the teachings of Buddhism. The source material derives directly from
    the Sutta Pitaka. {HPL pp. 100,117-18}
    These two books appear in the Khuddaka Nikaya of
    the Burmese Tipitaka (but not in the Thai or Sri Lankan). †(Ñanamoli,
    1962 & 1964, PTS)
  • Milindapañha
    (author unknown; beginning of the Common Era). “Questions of Milinda.” A
    record of the dialogues between King Milinda (the Bactrian Greek king
    Menander, r. 2nd c. BCE, who ruled over much of what is now
    Afghanistan) and the elder monk Nagasena concerning key points of
    Buddhist doctrine. {QKM p. 4} The text was probably based
    on a Sanskrit work composed around the beginning of the Common Era, and
    was translated into Pali in Sri Lanka before the 4th c. CE;
    some additions were probably made later. {PLL p. 26 ¶20; HPL
    p. 94} This book appears in the Khuddaka
    Nikaya
    of the Burmese Tipitaka (but not in the Thai or Sri Lankan).
    First translated into Sinhala in 1777. †(I.B. Horner, 1963, PTS)
  • Paritta
    (editor and date unknown). This ancient collection consists of material
    excerpted directly from the Tipitaka: twenty-four short suttas and
    several brief excerpts, including the three refuges, the precepts, ten
    questions for the novice monk, and a review of the thirty-two parts of
    the body. In Buddhist countries monks often recite passages from the
    Paritta during important ceremonial gatherings (special
    full-moon days,
    cremation ceremonies, blessings, dedications of new temples, etc.) The
    Paritta texts have long been regarded as conferring special powers of
    protection upon those who hear or recite them. †(many; see, for example,
    The
    Book of Protection, by Piyadassi Thera, 1999, BPS)

Chronicles and Historical
Accounts

  • Dipavamsa
    (author unknown; after 4th c.). The “Island Chronicle.” This
    book, the first known book written in (and about) Sri Lanka, details the
    early Buddhist history of the island, from the Buddha’s legendary first
    visits through the conversion of the island by Ven. Mahinda (3rd c.
    BCE). {HPL p. 53}
  • Mahavamsa
    (Mahanama; 6th c.). “The Great Chronicle.” A history of Sri
    Lanka from the first visits by the Buddha up until the turn of the
    4th c. The text is based on the Dipavamsa, but
    contains new material drawn from the Atthakatha (commentaries).
    {PLL p. 36 ¶28} This text has long served as a key reference for
    Buddhist historians and scholars. †(W. Geiger & Mabel H. Bode, 1912,
    PTS)
  • Culavamsa
    (various authors). “The Lesser Chronicle.” A continuation of the
    Mahavamsa, extending from the turn of the
    4th c. until the fall of the last Sinhalese king of Kandy (1815).
    {PLL p. 44 ¶38} Its contributors were: Dhammakitti (12th c.),
    an anonymous author prior to the 18th c., Tibbotuvave
    Buddharakkhita (18th c.), and Hiddakuve Sumangala (1877).
    Many historians now consider the Culavamsa to be an integral part of the
    Mahavamsa, the artificial distinction between the two Chronicles having
    been introduced in the late 19th c. by the great Pali scholar Wilhelm
    Geiger. {HPL p. 81} †(Mrs. C. Mabel Rickmers, 1929, PTS)

  • Vamsatthappakasini
    (author unknown; 6th c.).
    Commentary of the Mahavamsa. Since the
    Mahavamsa itself is an expansion of the shorter
    Dipavamsa
    , the Vamsatthappakasini is usually considered a
    sub-commentary (tika). {PLL p. 42 ¶35}

  • Mahabodhivamsa
    (Upatissa; 11th c.). This account of
    the sacred bodhi tree of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, is mostly a
    compilation of material from older texts, including the
    Mahavamsa. {PLL p. 36-37 ¶29}
    This book is venerated in Sri Lanka and “has given rise to well over
    fifty subsidiary titles in both Pali and Sinhala.” {HPL p. 78}
    (Note: the bodhi tree at Anuradhapura continues to be an important
    destination for millions of Buddhist pilgrims. This gigantic tree is
    said to be a direct descendant of a cutting that was taken from the
    original bodhi tree under which the Buddha gained enlightenment, and was
    brought (ca. 240
    BCE) by Ven. Sister Sanghamitta on a missionary expedition to
    Anuradhapura.)
  • Thupavamsa
    (Vacissara; 12th c.). A chronicle of the Mahathupa (Great
    Stupa) in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. {HPL p. 163} This work
    is “merely a compilation of pieces from Nidanakatha [the introduction to
    the Jatakatthavannana],
    Samantapasadika, and
    Mahavamsa
    with its tika [Vamsatthappakasini].”
    {PLL p. 41 ¶34}
  • Dathavamsa
    (Dhammakitti; 13th c.). A poem recounting the early history
    of the sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha, from the time of its removal
    from the Buddha’s funeral pyre until the building of the first temple in
    Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka (4th c.). {HPL pp. 40-41}
    This work is based on material found in the
    Mahavamsa
    along with additions that were “probably culled from local
    tradition of Ceylon.” {PLL p. 41 ¶34} (Note: The Tooth
    Relic — now enshrined in the Sacred Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Sri
    Lanka — is still a favorite destination for pilgrims.)

  • Samantakutavannana
    (Vedehathera; 13th c.).
    “Description of the Adam’s Peak.” A poem in 796 stanzas that deals with
    the story of the Buddha’s life and the legends of his three visits to
    Sri Lanka, including his third visit, during which it is said he left
    the print of his left foot on the summit of what is today known as
    Adam’s Peak. {PLL p. 43 ¶36} (Note: Adam’s Peak, in the
    central forests of the island, continues to be a celebrated pilgrimage
    spot for Sri Lankan Buddhists.) †(A. Hazelwood, 1986, PTS)

  • Hatthavanagalla-viharavamsa
    (author unknown; 13th c.). The life story, in prose and
    verse, of the Buddhist king Sirisanghabodhi (r. 247-249) of
    Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. {HPL p. 55} First translated
    into Sinhala in 14th c.

  • Saddhamma-sangaha
    (Dhammakitti Mahasami; Thai; 14th c.).
    An outline of the literary and ecclesiastical history of Buddhism,
    including the first four councils, the first writing of Tipitaka, and
    the writing of the Tikas (sub-commentaries). The source material for
    this book comes from the Tipitaka and the Atthakathas. {HPL
    p. 129-30}

  • Cha-kesadhatuvamsa
    (unknown Burmese author). A short history of
    the construction of six stupas that enshrine the hair relics that the
    Buddha personally gave to six arahants. {HPL pp. 36-37}
  • Gandhavamsa
    (unknown Burmese author; 19th c.?). A catalogue of ancient
    Buddhist commentators and their works. {PLL p. 48 ¶44.5}
  • Sasanavamsa
    (Paññasamin; Burmese; 19th c.). A history of Buddhism in
    India until the third Council, and then in Sri Lanka and other countries
    to which Buddhist missions had been sent. The source texts for this work
    include the Samantapasadika,
    Dipavamsa, Mahavamsa,
    and the Burmese chronicles. {PLL p. 49 ¶44} †(B.C. Law,
    1952, PTS)

The Life of the Buddha

  • Jinalankara
    (Buddharakkhita; 12th c.). This poem of 278 verses gives an
    account of the Buddha’s life up until his enlightenment. {PLL
    p. 41 ¶34.3}

  • Anagata-vamsa
    (Mahakassapa of Cola; 12th c.?). The
    life story of Metteyya, the next Buddha, told in verse. {HPL
    p. 9}
  • Jinacarita
    (Medhankara; 13th c.). An account of the life of the Buddha,
    told in a poem of 472 verses. {HPL p. 64}
  • Pajjamadhu
    (Buddhapiya Dipankara; 13th c.). A poem of 104 stanzas in
    praise of the Buddha’s physical beauty and wisdom. {PLL p. 44}
  • Jinakalamali
    (Ratanapañña; Thai; 16th c.). This account of the life of the
    Buddha begins with his birth in a previous life as the Indian King
    Sattutapa, and continues through successive lives until his final birth
    as Siddhattha Gotama. It also includes descriptions of the Buddha’s
    visits to Sri Lanka, the establishment of Buddhism there, and the early
    rise of Buddhism in Thailand. {HPL p. 65} †(N.A.
    Jayawickrama, 1962, PTS)

Abhidhamma Manuals

Miscellaneous

  • Vimuttimagga
    (Upatissa; 1st c.). “The Path of Freedom.” A short manual
    summarizing the path of Buddhist practice. The original Pali text was
    long believed to have been lost; for centuries, discussions about the
    text therefore relied on a 5th c. Chinese edition. A Pali
    edition was published in 1963.
    {HPL p. 175-6}
    †(Ehara, Soma Thera, and Kheminda Thera, 1967, BPS)

  • Visuddhimagga
    (Buddhaghosa; 5th c.). “The Path of
    Purification.” A manual of Buddhist meditation, based on both the Pali
    Tipitaka and the ancient Sinhala commentaries. This was Buddhaghosa’s
    first opus, written at the behest of the elders of the Mahavihara
    community “in order to test his abilities prior to entrusting him with
    the weighty and responsible task of translating the Sinhal[a]
    commentaries into Pali.” {EHBC p. 4} The Visuddhimagga’s
    emphasis on meditation practices that play only an insignificant role in
    the suttas (the kasina meditations) fueled a controversy
    concerning the role of both
    jhana
    and
    vipassana
    that persists to this day. {BR p.145} †(Pe
    Maung Tin, 1923-31, PTS; Ñanamoli Thera, 1956, BPS)

  • Vinayavinicchaya
    (Buddhadatta; 5th c.). A summary, in
    verse form, of the first four books of the Vinaya.
    {HPL p. 177}

  • Uttaravinicchaya
    (Buddhadatta; 5th c.). A summary, in
    verse form, of the Parivara, the fifth and final book of the
    Vinaya. {HPL p. 167; PLL p. 33 ¶25}

  • Paramatthamañjusa
    (Dhammapala; 6th c.). Commentary on
    the Visuddhimagga. This, the earliest of
    all the tikas, “explains in detail the brief references found in the
    Visuddhimagga…[,] provides a storehouse of traditional
    interpretations” of Dhamma, and provides discussions on Pali grammar.
    {HPL p. 111-13}
  • Khuddasikkha
    (Dhammasiri; after 11th c.) and
    Mulasikkha
    (Mahasamin; after 11th c.). These are
    short summaries on monastic discipline, meant to be learned by heart.
    {PLL p. 35 ¶27}

  • Upasaka-janalankara
    (Sihala Acariya Ananda Mahathera; 13th c.).
    “A Pali manual dealing with the Buddha’s teachings for laymen.”
    {HPL p. 168}
  • Sarasangaha
    (Siddhattha; 13th c.). A “manual of Dhamma” in prose and
    verse. {HPL p. 141}
  • Sandesakatha
    and Sima-vivada-vinichaya-katha
    (both by an unknown Burmese author; 19th c.). These two works
    “throw interesting sidelight on the relation between Ceylon and Burma.”
    {PLL p. 48 ¶44}

  • Pañcagatidipana
    (author and date unknown). A poem of 114 stanzas
    that describes the five forms of rebirth: in hell, as an animal, as a
    hungry shade (peta), as a human, or as a celestial being (deva).{PLL
    p. 45 ¶40}

  • Saddhammopayana
    (author and date unknown). A collection of 629
    short verses in praise of the Dhamma. {PLL p. 46 ¶41}

  • Tela-katha-gatha
    (author and date unknown). “The Oil-Cauldron
    Verses.” A poem whose 98 stanzas “are ascribed to a Thera [senior monk]
    who was condemned to be thrown into a vessel full of boiling oil. He had
    been falsely accused of indirectly rendering help in an intrigue of the
    wife of King Tissa… The boiling oil cannot injure the Thera and he
    pronounces” stanzas that “deal with death and thought of death, of
    transience, of suffering, and of the unreality of the soul, etc.”
    {PLL p. 46 ¶41}

Notes

1. For example,
DN 16,
MN 108, and
Vinaya Cullavagga XI and XII.
[Go back]

2. In the early
decades of the 1st c. BCE in Sri Lanka — then the hub of
Theravada Buddhist scholarship and monastic training — several forces
combined that would threaten the continuity of the ancient oral tradition
by which the Pali Tipitaka had been passed down from one generation of
monks to the next. A rebellion against the king and invasions from south
India forced many monks to flee the island. At the same time a famine of
unprecedented proportions descended on the island for a dozen years. The
commentaries recount heroic stories of monks who, fearing that the
treasure of the Tipitaka might forever be lost, retreated to the relative
safety of the south coast, where they survived only on roots and leaves,
reciting the texts amongst themselves day and night. The continuity of the
Tipitaka hung by a thread: at one point only one monk was able to recite
the Niddesa. {PLL p. 76}
[Go back]

3. The commentary
tells how Kisagotami, distraught by the death of her son, wandered in vain
from door to door with his corpse in her arms, in search of a cure for his
ailment. Finally she met the Buddha, who promised a cure if she would
simply bring back a few mustard seeds from any household that had never
been touched by death. Unable to find any such household, she soon came to
her senses, understood the inevitability of death, and was at last able to
let go of both the corpse and her grief. (The full story of Kisagotami’s
life is retold in Great Disciples of the Buddha, Bhikkhu Bodhi, ed.
(Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1997).)
[Go back]

4. See BR p.145.
[Go back]

5. See “‘When
you know for yourselves…’: The Authenticity of the Pali Suttas,” by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
[Go back]


Sources

The Buddhist Religion (fourth
edition), (”BR”) by Richard H. Robinson and Willard L. Johnson (Belmont,
California: Wadsworth, 1997)

Early History of Buddhism in Ceylon,
(”EHBC”) by E.W. Adikaram (Dehiwala, Sri Lanka: The Buddhist Cultural
Centre, 1994)

Guide to Tipitaka, by U Ko Lay
(New Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1990)

Handbook of Pali Literature,
(”HPL”) by Somapala Jayawardhana (Colombo, Sri Lanka: Karunaratne &
Sons, 1994)

Pali Literature and Language,
(”PLL”) by Wilhelm Geiger (New Delhi: Oriental Books, 1978)

Pali Text Society’s List of Issues
(1994-95)
by the Pali Text Society (Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1994)

The Questions of King Milinda: An
Abridgement of the Milindapañha,
(”QKM”) by N.K.G. Mendis, ed.
(Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1993).

-ooOoo-


Source: Access-to-Insight,

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/postcanon.html

(Revised:
Mon 20 January 2003)


[Back
to English Index
]
last updated:

21-05-2003




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAdYn6Okw_I&t=485s
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LESSON 2912 Sat 23 & 2913 Sun 24 Feb 2019 Tipitaka - DO GOOD BE MINDFUL is the Essence of the Words of the Awakened One with Awareness ESSENCE OF TIPITAKA http://www.buddha-vacana.org/index.html Positive Buddha Vacana — The words of the Buddha — Interested in All Suttas of Tipitaka as Episodes in visual format including 7D laser Hologram 360 degree Circarama presentation from Analytic Insight Net - FREE Online Tipiṭaka Law Research & Practice University
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112 CLASSICAL LANGUAGES Please Visit: http://sarvajan.ambedkar.org Voice of All Awakened Aboriginal Societies (VoAAAS) in 01) Classical Magahi Magadhi,
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LESSON 2912 Sat 23 & 2913 Sun 24 Feb 2019
Tipitaka - DO GOOD BE MINDFUL is the Essence of the Words of the Awakened One with Awareness

ESSENCE OF TIPITAKA
http://www.buddha-vacana.org/index.html
Positive Buddha Vacana — The words of the Buddha —

Interested in All Suttas  of Tipitaka as Episodes in visual format including 7D laser Hologram 360 degree Circarama presentation


from
Analytic Insight Net - FREE Online Tipiṭaka Law Research & Practice
University
 in
112 CLASSICAL LANGUAGES Please Visit: http://sarvajan.ambedkar.org

Voice of All Awakened Aboriginal Societies (VoAAAS)

in 01) Classical Magahi Magadhi,

Voice of All Awakened Aboriginal Societies (VoAAAS)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIs4sYDVio8&feature=youtu.be


BJP Exposed on hacked EVM. voice record of Amit Shah and NIA chief


Premiered Feb 21, 2019




Its a social activity to make people aware.
To join us, -

या इस लिंक पर क्लिक करें https://goo.gl/3WA1cX

Keep spreading Love, peace and harmony.

#EVMHacked #BJPExposed #AVIDandiya #AmitShah


for Welfare, Happiness and Peace
https://www.tipitaka.org/others
Tipiṭaka Scripts
07) Classical Cyrillic Web

06) Classical Devanagari,Classical Hindi-Devanagari- शास्त्रीय हिंदी,
Web | PDF
40) Classical Gujarati-ક્લાસિકલ ગુજરાતી, Web
54) Classical Kannada- ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರೀಯ ಕನ್ನಡ, Web
68) Classical Malayalam-ക്ലാസിക്കൽ മലയാളം,Web
29) Classical English,RomanWeb | PDF
98) Classical Tamil-பாரம்பரிய இசைத்தமிழ் செம்மொழி,Web
99) Classical Telugu- క్లాసికల్ తెలుగు,Web
Other Scripts
(16) Classical Bengali-ক্লাসিক্যাল বাংলা,, Gurmukhi, 56) Classical Khmer- ខ្មែរបុរាណ,, 73) Classical Myanmar (Burmese)-Classical မြန်မာ (ဗမာ),,
89) Classical Sinhala-සම්භාව්ය සිංහල,
, 100) Classical Thai-ภาษาไทยคลาสสิก,, Tibetan)
https://www.tipitaka.org/romn/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsfdv0ebsNA&list=RDjsfdv0ebsNA#t=71 
Native american shamanic music mix to meditate and relax - by Morpheus

Published on Jan 26, 2013



https://www.youtube.com/watch…
Native american shamanic music mix to meditate and relax - by Morpheus
Emanuele Arcuri
Published on Jan 26, 2013
Yes I know at 14:08 it changes rhythm, but as it was live I made a
mistake with the tracks and I could not change it after. I’m really
sorry for that! I don’t like it either.
I’m not pro DJ , I just made this to make you enjoy a mix of music I really love, so peace
;P

-TRACKLIST (What you see here are the titles you can find in Youtube):

0:00 - 7:01 Wasicu Lakota Native indian music
7:02 - 11:51 Voices of the Wind
11:52 - 15:58 Indian spirit 2 + Voices of the Wind
15:59 - 19:03 Ly-o-Lay-Ale-Loya
19:04 - 22:32 Mohicans (indianische Musik)
22:33 - 26:53 Indian Spirit
26:54 - 29:20 Der mit dem Wolf tantz Indianer II
29:21 - 31:33 Ghost Dance ~ Native American ~ Power Drums ~ Spirit Pride
31:34 - 34:58 Native American ~ Spritual Music
34:59 - 39:32 Eagle Feather - Native indian music
39:33 - 41:46 Indian Sacred Spirit - Indian Music
42:47 - 44:03 GREAT SPIRIT Native american dream
44:04 - 48:49 the sacred of spirit yo - hey - o - hee
48:50 - 52:24 ~ Native American Spiritual Music 2 ~
52:25 - 56:12 Drum Music Fire Drums (Ariel Kalma Kamal M.Engels)
56:13 - 1:02:50 NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE & DRUMS SACRED SPIRIT


A mix I made to meditate e relax with particular shamanic drums (that
makes you fall in trance), and sweet flutepans and violins. Im not a dj
pro, but I think my passion for this kind of music made me do a very
good job ;P Peace everybody! and subscribe for more contents!


Mix che ho ho fatto appositamente per meditare e rilassarsi con i
tamburi degli shamani dei nativi americani (indiani d’america), i quali
ti fanno come cadere in trance, insieme alla dolcezza del flauto pan e
dei violini. Non sono un dj professionista, ma mi sembra accettabile
come lavoro ;P Iscrivetevi se vi va, troverete altro contenuto. Namaste!
Category
Music
29) Classical English,RomanWeb | PDF
https://www.tipitaka.org/romn/
Tipiṭaka (Roman)
Tipiṭaka (Mūla)
Vinayapiṭaka
Suttapiṭaka
Dīghanikāya
Sīlakkhandhavaggapāḷi
1. Brahmajālasuttaṃ


youtube.com
Yes I know at 14:08 it changes rhythm, but as it was live I made a mistake with the tracks and I could not…



in 01) Classical Magahi Magadhi,

From
Jagatheesan Chandrasekharan
Rector
Analytic Insight Net - FREE Online Tipiṭaka Law Research & Practice University
in
 112 CLASSICAL LANGUAGES
Paṭisambhidā
Jāla-Abaddha Paripanti Tipiṭaka nīti Anvesanā ca Paricaya
Nikhilavijjālaya ca ñātibhūta Pavatti Nissāya

http://sarvajan.ambedkar.org anto 112 Seṭṭhaganthāyatta Bhāsā

in 01) Classical Magahi Magadhi,
http://dictionary.sensagent.com/Magahi%20language/en-en/
http://dictionary.sensagent.com/Magahi%20language/en-en/

When
a just born baby is kept isolated, after some days it will speak a
language. That language is Magadhi. It is Prakrit that is the natural
language of human beings like all other living spices have their own
natural languages for communication.
All other languages are the off shoot of Magadhi.

http://translation.sensagent.com/…/MAG…/en/multilingual.html

translations of MAGAHI LANGUAGE

translation of MAGAHI LANGUAGE in Chinese - translate see translations

translation of MAGAHI LANGUAGE in Czech - translate see translations

translation of MAGAHI LANGUAGE in Danish - translate see translations

translation of MAGAHI LANGUAGE in French - translate see translations

translation of MAGAHI LANGUAGE in Hindi - translate see translations

translation of MAGAHI LANGUAGE in Italian - translate see translations

translation of MAGAHI LANGUAGE in Japanese - translate see translations

translation of MAGAHI LANGUAGE in Norwegian - translate see translations

translation of MAGAHI LANGUAGE in Polish - translate see translations

translation of MAGAHI LANGUAGE in Portuguese - translate see translations

translation of MAGAHI LANGUAGE in Spanish - translate see translations

translation of MAGAHI LANGUAGE in Thai - translate see translations

Magadhi
मगही magahī
Spoken in India
Region Bihar in India
Native speakers 13 million (2002)
Language family
Indo-European

Indo-Iranian
Indo-Aryan
Eastern Zone (Magadhan)
Bihari
Magadhi

Writing system Devanagari, Kaithi
Official status
Official language in Bihar state in India
Language codes
ISO 639-2 mag
ISO 639-3 mag

The
Magahi language (Devanagari: मगही; also known as Magadhi, मगधी) is a
language spoken in India. Magadhi Prakrit was the ancestor of Magadhi,
from which the latter’s name derives. The ancestral language, Magadhi
Prakrit, is believed to be the language spoken by the Buddha, and the
language of the ancient kingdom of Magadha. Magadhi is closely related
to Bhojpuri and Maithili, and these languages are sometimes referred to
as a single language, Bihari. These languages, together with several
other related languages, are known as the Bihari languages, which form a
sub-group of the Eastern Zone of Indo-Aryan languages. Magadhi has
approximately 18 million speakers.

It was once mistakenly thought
to be a dialect of Hindi, but has been more recently shown to be
descendant of and very similar to the Eastern Group of Indic languages,
along with Bengali, Assamese, and Oriya. It has a very rich and old
tradition of folk songs and stories. It is spoken in eight districts in
Bihar, three in Jharkhand, and has some speakers in Malda, West Bengal.

Though
the number of speakers in Magadhi is large, it has not been
constitutionally recognized in India. Even in Bihar, Hindi is the
language used for educational and official matters[1] (although
Maithili, a related language also spoken widely in Bihar, is an official
language under the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India).
Magahi was legally absorbed under the subordinate label of Hindi in the
1961 Census. Such state and national politics are creating conditions
for language endangerments.[2]
Contents

1 History
2 Magadhi speech area
3 Speakers of Magadhi
4 Scripts and literary tradition
4.1 Weekdays
4.2 Fruits and vegetables
4.3 Family relations
4.4 Spoken trends
5 Phonology
6 Morphology
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

History
Main article: Magadhi Prakrit
See also: Jain Prakrit and Pali

The
ancestor of Magadhi, from which its name derives, Magadhi Prakrit, was
spoken in the eastern Indian subcontinent, in a region spanning what is
now eastern India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. These regions were part of the
ancient kingdom of Magadha, the core of which was the area of Bihar
south of the Ganges. It is believed to be the language spoken by Gautama
Buddha. It was the official language of the Mauryan court, and the
edicts of Ashoka were composed in it.[3]

The name Magahi is
directly derived from the name Magadhi Prakrit, and the educated
speakers of Magahi prefer to call it Magadhi rather than Magahi.[4]

The
development of the Magadhi language into its current form is unknown.
However, language scholars have come to a definite conclusion that
Magadhi, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Bengali, Assamese and Oriya originated from
Magadhi-Prakrit/Ardh-Magadhi during the 8th to 11th centuries AD. These
different dialects differentiated themselves and took their own course
of growth and development. But it is not certain when exactly it took
place. It was probably such an unidentified period during which modern
Indian languages begin to take modern shape. By the end of 12th century,
the development of Apabhramsa reached its climax. Gujrathi, Marathi,
Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Maithili, etc. tool a definite shape in their
literary writings in the beginning of the 14th century. The distinct
shape of Magadhi can be seen in the Dohakosha written by Sidh-Sarahapa
and Sidh-Kauhapa. Magadhi had a setback due to the transition period of
Magadha administration.[5] Traditionally, strolling bards recite long
epic poems in this dialect, and it was because of this that the word
‘Magadhi’ came to mean ‘a bard’. Kaithi is the script generally used for
it. The pronunciation in Magahi is not as broad as in Maithili and
there are a number of verbal forms for each person.[6] Historically,
Magahi had no famous written literature. There are many popular songs
throughout the area in which the language is spoken, and strolling bards
recite various long epic poems which are known more or less over the
whole of Northern India. In Magahi spoken area folk singers sing a good
number of ballads.

Even though the number of speakers of Magadhi
is quite large, it has not been constitutionally recognized in India.
Even in Bihar, Hindi is the language used for educational and official
matters.[1] Magahi was legally absorbed under the subordinate label of
“HINDI” in the 1961 Census. Such state and national politics are
creating conditions for language endangerments.[2]

The first
success for spreading Hindi occurred in Bihar in 1881, when Hindi
displaced Urdu as the sole official language of the province. In this
struggle between competing Hindi and Urdu, the potential claims of the
three large mother tongues in the region - Magahi, Bhojpuri and Maithili
were ignored. After independence, Hindi was again given the sole
official status through the Bihar Official Language Act, 1950.[7]

Magadhi speech area
Magahi folk singers

Magadhi
is spoken in the area which formed the core of the ancient kingdom of
Magadha - the modern districts of Patna, Nalanda, Gaya, Jehanabad,
Arwal, Aurangabad, Lakhisarai, Sheikhpura and Nawada. Magahi is bounded
on the north by the various forms of Maithili spoken in Tirhut across
the Ganga. On the west it is bounded by the Bhojpuri, On the northeast
it is bounded by Maithili and Angika. The total geographical area
covered by Magahi is much larger today.[4] A blend of Magahi and Bengali
known as Kharostha (Khortha) is spoken by non-tribal populace in North
Chotanagpur division of Jharkhand which comprises districts of Bokaro,
Chatra, Dhanbad, Giridih, Hazaribagh, Koderma and Ramgarh. Khortha
language is often regarded as the rough dialectal variant of Bengali and
it serves as the medium of communication between the tribals and
non-tribals in North Chotanagpur division of Jharkhand.
Speakers of Magadhi

The
number of Magadhi speakers is difficult to indicate because of
unreliable sources. In the urban Magahi region, most educated speakers
of the language name Hindi as their language because this is what they
use in formal contexts and believe it to be the appropriate response
because of unawareness. The uneducated and the rural population of the
region return Hindi as the generic name for their language.People of
Southern Bihar and Northern Jharkhand(the area of central undivided
Bihar and jharkhand) are mostly speakers of Magadhi language.[4] Current
estimates indicate approximately 18 million Magadhi speakers.
Scripts and literary tradition

Magadhi
is generally written using Devanagari script. A later-developed script
of Magadhi is Kaithi.[6] There have been efforts by scholars in the
Magahi area to explore and identify a literary tradition for Magadhi.
Magadhi has a rich tradition of folk literature, and in modern times
there have been various activities in the publication of literary
writing. Magahi Parishad was established in Patna in 1952, which was
renamed Bihar Magahi Mandal. Magadhi, a journal, was started at the same
time, which was renamed Bihan, meaning “tomorrow” or the coming dawn.
This time magadhi is published by akhil bhartiya magahi bhasa sammelan.
it is headed by Kavi Yogesh[8]., who lead Magahi movement. Another very
famous monthly journal was started by Magahi Academy, Gaya edited by Dr.
Ram Prasad Singh, a well-known writer.He also got Sahitya Academy Award
for his contribution. He is famous writer of thirty-five books,
commonly known as ‘Magahi Ke Bhartendu’. Dr. Ram Prasad Singh Sahitya
Puraskar has been awarded every year on his birthday (10 July) to
renowned writers of Hindi & Folk literature. Nalanda Open University
offers various courses on Magahi.[9]
Weekdays
English Magahi/Magadhi मगही/मगधि Hindi Urdu
Sunday Eitwaar एतवार Ravivwaar Eitwaar
Monday Somaar सोमार Somwaar Peer
Tuesday Mangal मंगर Mangalwaar Mangal
Wednesday Budhh बुध Buddhwaar Budhh
Thursday Barashpat/Bife बिफे Guruwaar Jumeraat
Friday Sookar/Sook/Juma सूक / जुमा Shukrawaar Jumma
Saturday Sunicher सनिचर Shaniwaar Sunicher
Fruits and vegetables
English Magahi/Magadhi मगहि/मगधि English Magahi/Magadhi मगहि/मगधि
Mango Aam आम Apple Seo सेव
Orange Narangi/Santola /Kewla नारंगी/संतोला/केवला Lemon Lemu लेमू
Grapefruit; pomelo Mausmi/ मौसमी Papaya Papita पपीता
Guava Amdur अमदुर Melon Jaamun जामुन
Sweet Potato Shataalu शतालु Pomegranate Anaar अनार
Grape Angoor अंगूर Custard apple Shareefa शरीफा
Banana Keraa केरा Lytchee Litchi लीची
Tomato Tamaatar टमाटर Jackfruit Katahar कटहर
Jack Fruit Bhuikatahar भुईकटहर
Family relations
English Magahi/Magadhi मगहि/मगधि
Father Baabuji / Baba/ Bava बाबूजी/ बाबा/ बावा
Mother Maiya/Maay मईया/माय
Sister Bahin / Didi दीदी/बहिन
Brother Bhaai / Bhaiya भाई/भईया
Grandfather Baaba/Daada दादा
Grandmother Daadi/Maama दादी
Spoken trends

Addition of “Waa” or “eeya” to nouns and sometimes verbs

For male nouns:
In Hindi with Magahi/Magadhi style – “सलमनवा के पास एगो मोटरसाइकिल है”
In true Magahi/Magadhi language - “सलमनवा के एगो मोटरसाइकिल हई”
English translation – Salman has a motorcycle.
English in Magahi/Magadhi style – Salmanwa has a motorcycle.

For female nouns:
In Hindi with Magahi/Magadhi style – “रिमवा रिया सेनवा के बहन है”
In true Magahi/Magadhi language - “रिमवा रिया सेनवा के बहिन हई”
English translation – Rimi is the sister of Riya sen
English in Magahi/Magadhi style – Rimwa is the sister of Riya senwa.

In Hindi with Magahi/Magadhi style – “लठीया चला के तोर कपरवे फोर देंगे”
In true Magahi/Magadhi language - “लठीया चला के तोहर/तोर कपरवे फोर देम ”
English translation – (I’ll) throw the baton and crack your skull
English in Magahi/Magadhi style – (I’ll) throw the batowa and crack your skullwa.

In Hindi with Magahi/Magadhi style – “जानते हो, मोहना का बाप मर गया है”
In true Magahi/Magadhi language - “जानअ ह, मोहना के बाप / बाबूजी / बाबा /बावा मर् गेलथिन/गेलवा”
English translation – You know, Mohan’s dad has died
English in Magahi/Magadhi style – You know, Mohanwa’s dad has died

Apart from these all other females names and other nouns get “waa” in their ends.

Addition of “eeye” or “ey” in adverbs, adjectives and pronouns

In Hindi with Magahi/Magadhi style – हम बहुत नजदिके से आ रहें है
In true Magahi/Magadhi language – हम/हमनी बहुत नजदिके (बहुते नज़दीक) से आवईत हिवअ/ आ रहली हे
English translation – We are coming from a very near place
English in Magahi/Magadhi style – We are coming from a very nearey place.

Within
Magahi, one can find lot of variation while moving from one area to
other, mainly end of the sentence is with a typical tone like Hiva,
thau, hein etc. It is a rich language with lot of difference one can see
while saying something with respect to elder or one with peer or
younger.

Magahi is a language of the common people in area in and
around Patna. It has few indigenous written literature, though a number
of folk-tales and popular songs have been handed down for centuries
from mouth to mouth and this remain main form of knowledge transfer in
literature. Strolling bards also known by name “Bhad” recite long epic
poems in this dialect, and sing verses in honor of the heroic
achievements of legendary princes and brave men of ancient time like
“Alha aur udal”. But no manuscriptic text has been seen except that
nowadays people have given it a book form.

One sample of folk song is given below.

Goar Gaura parvati
Sankar jee kariya
Maiya ge sankar jee ke ajbi rahaniya
Ho, Maiya ge Sankar jee ke ajbi rahaniya

गोर गौरा पारवती
शंकर जी करिया
मैया गे, शंकर जी के अज्बी रहनिया
हो, मैया गे शंकर जी के अज्बी रहनिया
Phonology

Research work done in this field:

Dr Saryu Prasad - “A Descriptive Study of Magahi Phonology”, Ph.D. thesis submitted to Patna University.
Dr A.C. Sinha (1966) - “Phonology and Morphology of Magahi Dialect”, Ph.D. thesis submitted to University of Poona.

Morphology

Research
work done in this field: Dr A.C. Sinha (1966) - “Phonology and
Morphology of Magahi Dialect”, Ph.D. thesis submitted to University of
Poona.
See also

Bihari languages
Bihar
Magadha
Bhojpuri language
Maithili language
Culture of Magadh Region
Culture of Bhojpuri Region
Culture of Mithila Region
Culture of Angika Region

References

^ a b “History of Indian Languages”. Diehardindian.com. Retrieved 2012-02-29.
^
a b Verma, Mahandra K.. “Language Endangerment and Indian languages :
An exploration and a critique”. Linguistic Structure and Language
Dynamics in South Asia.
^ Bashan A.L., The Wonder that was India, Picador, 2004, pp.394
^ a b c Jain Dhanesh, Cardona George, The Indo-Aryan Languages, pp449
^ Maitra Asim, Magahi Culture, Cosmo Publications, New Delhi (1983), pp. 64
^ a b “Maithili and Magahi”. Retrieved 2011.
^ Brass Paul R., The Politics of India Since Independence, Cambridge University Press, pp. 183
^ मृत्युंजय कुमार. “मागधी”. Magadhee.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2012-02-29.
^ [1][dead link]

External links

Magahi - A Historical language
Magadhi at The Rosetta Project
Jain Scriptures
http://magahi-sahitya.blogspot.com/

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Y8lz5NY6A
Pure desi magahi language….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Y8lz5NY6A

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Y8lz5NY6A

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