Pali Canon

Pali Canon is a Western term, apparently invented (in German) by Karl Eugen Neumann in 1892. Western scholars typically say that it is the scripture collection of Theravada Buddhism, and that it is known in the tradition as Tipiṭaka. The name "Pali Canon" comes from Pali, its language, which is similar to Sanskrit. Another name used by some scholars is "Theravāda/vādin canon".

The main divisions of the Pali Canon are the three pitakas:

• the Vinaya-pitaka (monastic rules)
• the Sutta-pitaka (Buddhist sermons etc.)
• the Abhidhamma-pitaka (philosophy and psychology)

For more detail see below.

Non-Theravada forms of Buddhism, which at the present day group themselves under the heading of Mahayana, tend to regard the Tipiṭaka as a sort of "Old Testament". Most scholars recognize the Pali Canon as the earliest source for the Buddha's teachings, in a rough sense.

Evolution of the text

Oral tradition

According to a tradition generally regarded favourably by scholars, the Pali Canon was carried down by oral tradition for some centuries after the passing away of the Buddha, and was only put into written form in the last century BC in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), at what came to be recognized as the Fourth Council. The tradition is not unquestioned among scholars, with some suggesting the process was less straightforward. It is, however, unquestioned that the Buddha's teaching was originally transmitted orally.

Manuscripts

The climate of Theravada countries is not conducive to the survival of manuscripts. Apart from brief quotations in inscriptions, the oldest known manuscript is a two-page fragment from the 8th or 9th century found in Nepal, other manuscripts begin in the late 15th century, and probably most are from the 18th and 19th. Thus the manuscripts available are the result of multiple copying, with the inevitable errors accumulated. This is compounded by transcription between scripts, as Pali has none of its own, each country generally using its own. This problem was exacerbated on more than one occasion in which some texts were lost in one country and had to be reimported from another. Parts of the Canon were often copied separately, not just in such cases, so the interrelationships between textual traditions are not always the same throughout the Canon. Despite this, manuscripts tend to follow different national traditions, though with some interaction. The Theravādin tradition has been aware of these problems, and at various times groups have gathered to re-edit texts after comparing a variety of manuscripts. A "manuscript" of a peculiar sort is the inscriptions of the Canon approved by the Fifth Council (Mandalay, 1871).

Printed editions

The East Asian anticipation of Western printing did not spread to Southeast Asia, so Pali texts were not printed before the era of Western penetration. Attempts to print the whole Canon started in the late 19th century, with the first collected edition apparently published about 1893. The printed edition of the Canon approved by the Sixth Council (Rangoon, 1954-1956), held by all five Theravada countries, is nominally the official edition for the whole of Theravada, but, while the Burmese government does not (or did not as of 1968) allow any other editions to be printed, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Thailand have their own editions. The Buddha Jayanti edition is the standard one in Sri Lanka. The great bulk of the Canon has made it impractical to carry out thorough studies of printed editions, but such sample studies as have been carried out tend to suggest that those published in Theravada countries tend to follow their own national manuscript traditions to a greater or lesser extent. Indian editions are based on Burmese ones. In the West, the Pali Text Society's (founded 1881) edition follows scholarly methods of text criticism, though without a consistent approach; on the whole, it tends to prefer the Sinhalese tradition. Most of it was produced around a century ago, using the very limited source material available then. All editions have their faults, and modern scholars try to compare them.

Digital versions

There are now electronic versions of increasing numbers of editions (the first was completed in 1988). At first, these were transcribed by hand, but more recently photographic reproductions of a number of editions have appeared online. Likewise, increasing numbers of manuscripts can also be viewed online.

Additional note

The Canon seems not to have survived absolutely complete: the main Burmese, Sinhalese and Thai editions include notes saying that a sutta in the Anguttara Nikaya is mentioned in the commentary but not found in the manuscripts; a mediaeval list of jatakas includes 550, not 547 as in the surviving text and commentary; and the Cariyapitaka, which gives verse stories illustrating "perfections", omits some of them.

Canon contents

Statements by Western scholars will be covered first, followed by some information on the use within the tradition of various terms indicated by those scholars as equivalents of "Pali Canon".

Numerous Western (and Japanese) scholars, from at least 1833, give a list of books in the Canon (with occasional variations in arrangement), grouped in three pitakas as follows. This is one of the earliest surviving detailed lists, appearing in commentaries probably compiled in the 5th century AD. It will be called the PTS canon for brevity below, treating the Pali Text Society as representing Western Pali scholarship as a whole.

Vinaya-pitaka (monastic rules)

• Vinaya-piṭaka: on monastic discipline, including stories of the occasions for the Buddha's laying down of the rules as well as explanations and "judicial precedents", rulings, mostly by the Buddha, on cases arising, and further analysis; subdivisions in both printed editions and scholarly sources differ from each other

Sutta-pitaka (Buddhist sermons etc.)

• Sutta- or Suttanta-piṭaka, discourses; divided into five nikayas (nikāya), which in the first four instances below, happens to be a collection of scripture of a size that can be printed, in modern times, as one large book. The first four of the nikayas are in a fairly uniform style, mainly prose dialogues, sermons, etc., mostly featuring the Buddha
  • Dīgha-nikāya (Long Discourses) - 34 full-length discourses
  • Majjhima-nikāya (Middle Length Discourses) - 152 moderate-sized discourses
  • Saṃyutta-nikāya (Connected Discourses) - thousands of discourses arranged topically in 56 groups, or saṃyuttas
  • Aṅguttara-nikāya (Numerical Discourses) - thousands of short discourses arranged by numbers of items listed in them, from 1s to 11s
  • Khuddaka-nikāya (Minor Collection) - a miscellaneous collection of books in prose and/or verse
    • Khuddakapāṭha: 9 short texts in prose and/or verse
    • Dhammapada: popular book of 423 verses in 26 chapters, topically
    • Udāna: 80 "inspired utterances", mostly verse, with introductory narratives, featuring the Buddha
    • Itivuttaka: 112 prose pieces followed by verse paraphrases or supplements; the frame formulae ascribe them to the Buddha
    • Suttanipāta: basically poetry, but sometimes with prose frames that feature the Buddha
    • Vimānavatthu: 85 poems; typically, a monk, most often the Buddha's disciple Moggallana (Moggallāna), addresses a deity giving descriptions of their heavenly "mansion" and asking about the karma leading to them, and the deity answers
    • Petavatthu: 51 poems; similar, typically describing sufferings of ghosts and the karma leading to them
    • Theragāthā: 264 poems ascribed in colophons to various monks
    • Therīgāthā: 73 poems similarly ascribed to various nuns
    • Jātaka: 547 poems; the poetry is often more or less unintelligible through lack of context; the Niddesa says that the Buddha taught them in relation to past births (jāti) of himself as well as others; according to the late Professor Warder, the most popular book of the Canon
    • Niddesa: commentary on parts of Suttanipata; traditionally divided into two parts, Mahā- and Culla- or Cūḷa-niddesa
    • Paṭisambhidāmagga: 30 treatises on various topics
    • Apadāna: about 600 poems, mostly in the names of monks or nuns telling how meritorious deeds in past lives led to good karmic results and eventual nirvana
    • Buddhavaṃsa: verse book mainly on previous Buddhas and "our" Buddha's meritorious acts towards them in his past lives, told in the first person with an introductory narrative
    • Cariyāpiṭaka: 35 poems about previous lives of the Buddha, told in the first person

Abhidhamma-piṭaka (philosophy and psychology)

These are higher or special teachings, more formal and analytical than the discourses; according to the Vinaya, taught by the Buddha himself. They comprise:

• Dhammasaṅgaṇi: enumeration and classification of mental and physical phenomena
• Vibhaṅga: 18 chapters analysing different topics using, among other things, ideas and material from the previous book
• Dhātukathā: analysis of interrelations among various ideas, mostly from the previous two books
• Puggalapaññatti: classifications of persons
• Kathāvatthu: over 200 debates on doctrinal points; does not identify the disputants
• Yamaka: mostly consists of converse pairs of questions, with answers, in 10 chapters on different topics
• Paṭṭhāna: analysis of 24 types of causal conditionality

Additional texts, and alternative compositions

Some scholars say that either three or four additional texts are included in the Canon in Burma:

• Nettipakaraṇa: treatise on methods of interpretation, in the name of the Buddha's disciple Kaccāna
• Peṭakopadesa): similar and overlapping
• Milindapañha: dialogue between King Menander of Bactria (c. 150 BC) and a monk called Nāgasena

and sometimes

• Suttasaṅgaha: an anthology of pieces, nearly all included in the canonical books listed above.

Western scholars sometimes call these books "paracanonical", or "semicanonical".

Professor Norman, sometime President of the Pali Text Society, asks

If these texts are published with the Canon, how are we to decide whether they are regarded as canonical or not?

Professor Freiberger argues that Western scholars have projected a Western paradigm of a "canon" onto Theravada, but it does not fit.

Western scholars' statements about the history of canonicity

Collins says the Canon has been fixed and closed since some time between the writing down of the Canon in the last century BC and the compilation of the main commentaries in the 5th century AD. Cousins says the Canon was fixed until modern times, when 3 or 4 other works were added or associated, at least in Burma. Gombrich says almost the exact opposite, that the canonical status of some works was settled only in recent times.

Tipiṭaka

"Ti" means "three", and "piṭaka" is usually translated "basket", though this is not unquestioned. .

Although Western scholars typically treat this term as synonymous with "Pali Canon", its actual usage within the Theravada is much more varied.

In Thailand in 2005, an organization called the Dhamma Society Fund (DSF) published a 40-volume set with the title Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka Buddhavasse 2500, sponsored by the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand. It includes all the books of the PTS canon, together with the following three texts:

• Netti
• Peṭakopadesa
• Milindapañha

If we extend to include variants of the word, we find other printed collections:

• Chaṭṭhasaṅgīti Piṭaka (Burma), on which the above edition was based, and with the same contents: [12]
• Buddhajayanti Tripitaka (Ceylon / Sri Lanka), comprising the PTS canon together with Netti and Peṭakopadesa, but not Milindapañha: [13]
• Braḥ Traipiṭaka Pāḷi (Cambodia), with contents as the PTS canon: [14]
• three Thai editions, sharing the word Tepiṭaka in their titles, again with the same contents as the PTS canon ([15]).
• fragmentary references to a Lao edition:
  • According to the DSF website, Lāvaraṭṭhassa Pāḷi Tipiṭaka, 3 volumes, comprising the beginning of each piṭaka
  • According to Gunther Grönbold, Der buddhistische Kanon: eine Bibliographie, 1984, page 22, Tripiṭaka, 3 volumes
  • According to Charles Prebish, Survey of Vinaya Literature, Jin Luen, Taipei, page 116, note 2, Pāli Tipiṭaka in Lao Script, incomplete; this title is one in a series of exactly similar titles he gives for other editions, most of which can be easily proved false

If we now look at secondary sources listing the contents of the Tipiṭaka, we find indeed many that agree with the PTS canon, even at least one Burmese teacher, but many others disagree, with another Burmese teacher, Sayadaw Jotalankara, including the 3 "extra" books listed above. Many sources within the tradition use the term much more broadly. In particular, the majority of authorities in 17yh- to 19th-century Burma include at least many of the commentaries.

Buddhavacana

This is Collins' preferred equivalent of "canon".

This means, roughly, "Word of the Buddha"; compare "Word of God". It is not intended literally. Indeed, the majority of 17th- to 19th-century Burmese writers who discussed the issue of canonicity regarded many of the commentaries as buddhavacana.

Pāli

The third main candidate as equivalent to "canon", according to Collins. Its basic meaning in this context is "text", but what texts are counted as pāli? Sometimes it seems to mean texts that are, roughly speaking, "canonical", but at others it means anything in Pali, as against vernacular literature.

Saṅgītiārūḷha

Approved by a council. See Buddhist councils. The late Professor Masefield suggests this as equivalent to "canonical". This has Western analogues: the Roman Catholic canon of scripture was formally defined by the Council of Florence in 1439, and reconfirmed by the Council of Trent in 1546, and by the First Vatican Council; and Jewish tradition refers its canon to a council at Jamnia (Jabneh) about 90 AD, though its historicity is doubtful.

There are no historically reliable sources to tell us what texts may have been approved by the first four councils. Various traditional sources ascribe all sorts of texts to them, including many of the commentaries. We do, however, know the contents of the inscriptions approved by the 5th Council, and of the printed edition approved by the 6th: they are the same, namely the PTS canon together with the 3 paracanonical books listed in various places above.

Origins

According to the Theravada tradition, the Pali Canon is "The Word of the Buddha" (Buddhavacana), and was compiled by the First Council immediately after the Buddha's death, which it dates around 544 BC (scholars nowadays usually say he died around 400 BC, and disagree on whether the council ever took place). Neither statement is intended literally, the Canon in fact including teachings by followers and accounts of events after the First Council (tradition says these latter, and some other material, were added by later councils). Being actually said by the historical Buddha is not a necessary requirement for counting as Buddhavacana. The tradition holds that the Canon has been accurately transmitted from the Buddha's time to the present day.

Modern scholars are not prepared to accept this position, for a variety of reasons. The most obvious is that the Canon is not unique. We have most of another early canon, that of the Sarvastivada, in Chinese translation, together with greater and lesser amounts of various canons in various languages, along with information from secondary sources about the contents of some. These canons are more or less different from the Pali and each other. Scholars reject as implausible Theravada claims that other schools, deliberately or not, added, subtracted and altered while Theravada preserved the exact original teachings.

On the basis particularly of such comparisons, scholars generally divide the Canon, with some disagreement on detail, into earlier and later halves, assuming similar material likely to be earlier than distinctive.

• earlier: the main body of the Vinaya, the first four nikāyas, and some of the more or less poetic books of the Khuddaka-nikāya (there is some disagreement on which ones); versions of these books seem to have been in existence in all schools, and the surviving versions are more or less similar
• later: the Parivāra (last division of the Vinaya), other books of the Khuddaka-nikāya, and the Abhidhamma; these books seem to be either absent altogether in other schools or else quite different from their versions

This division is only rough and ready: "early" texts may include later additions (indeed Tilmann Vetter argues that some significant evolution continued up to the time of the commentaries), while "late" texts may include early elements. (The statement that the Canon is the earliest source is subject to similar qualifications; indeed, Professor Norman criticizes such statements, asking in particular what they actually mean.)

However, there remains much disagreement on absolute, as against relative, dates, and on further stratification. Professor Gombrich, for example, holds that most of the content of the first four nikayas goes back to the Buddha himself, though not usually in exact words. He himself admits that very few scholars go so far ([16]). He also holds that the Canon was much like its present form after the Third Council about 250 BC, with perhaps some Khuddakanikaya books as the only substantial later additions. Perhaps at the other extreme within the mainstream point of view is the late Professor Nakamura, who held that only parts of the Suttanipata go back to the Buddha's lifetime, the first four nikayas were compiled some time after c. 230 BC, and some of the Canon was at least as late as the 2nd century AD.

A few scholars are outside this mainstream view. Professor Schopen rejects the argument that similar material is likely to be earlier than distinctive, arguing to the contrary that it is likely to result from later harmonization; he criticizes the practice of preferring texts, which he says are of uncertain, perhaps very late, date, to inscriptions, which he says are usually datable fairly accurately and often quite early. And Professor Samuel holds that a wide range of teachings were in circulation in early Buddhism, and that it was only some centuries after the Buddha's time that some schools started rejecting some; so that the Canon was created by subtraction rather than addition, largely by the 5th century commentators.

Language

Like Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, and unlike Christianity and Mahayana Buddhism, Theravada emphasizes the scriptural language. Study and recitation are usually in Pali. By Theravada traditionalists, Pali has been regarded as the "root language", the "language of reality", the language of gods, ghosts, talking animals and wolf-children ([17]).

Scholars classify Pali within the family of Indo-European languages, more specifically Middle Indic. Like other literary languages, Pali is not a pure vernacular dialect, but a mixture of dialects, including Sanskrit. It cannot, however, be assumed that the Pali Canon was originally composed in Pali rather than transposed from some other dialect(s). Much could depend on definitions: how much does a dialect have to change before it counts as a different dialect? Scholars differ on how close it is to the dialect(s) spoken by the Buddha himself.

Pali is not a completely uniform language. Warder distinguishes between canonical and later Pali. Geiger subdivides each of these into prose and verse languages. Oberlies mentions stratification within the canonical language, without giving full details, and says the Netti and Peṭaka are close to canonical Pali, but the Milinda is not (Geiger agrees on the Milinda, but says nothing on the other two). There are spelling differences between countries to this day, and pronunciation differs much more ([18]).

According to Professor von Hinüber, some of the canon was composed after Pali ceased to be a living language.

Translations

Translations of the Canon as a whole have been published in Chinese, Japanese, Khmer ([19]), Sinhalese ([20]) and Thai. Bengali, Burmese and English translations are in progress; the Pali Text Society currently publishes translations of most of the books listed as the PTS canon, and of substantial portions of all of the remainder. There are also translations of parts of the Canon in many languages. There are dozens of English translations of the Dhammapada. A number of anthologies have appeared, though these do not usually attempt to be representative, rather focus on the earlier texts.

Role

In theory, the Canon is the highest authority for the teaching. In practice, its great bulk (editions without extra material, such as translations, tend to be around 40 volumes) means few are familiar with it as a whole. Therefore there is a tendency to specialize. The Vinaya Pitaka mentions vinaya and sutta specialists. The Milindapanha mentions specialists in each of the five nikayas. The commentaries mention abhidhamma specialists. In modern times, those wishing to be ordained as monks in Sri Lanka have had to memorize the Dhammapada. In Myanmar one can earn the title Teacher of Religion (Dhammācariya) by passing an examination where the set texts are the first volume of each pitaka; similarly, an incomplete Lao edition of the Canon published in 1957 comprises the first volume of each pitaka, though these volumes are shorter than the Burmese ones. In practice, at a local level, the important texts may comprise some canonical and some non-canonical texts, varying with place. Before modern times at least, many monasteries did not have a complete set. Professor Collins suggests that the importance of the Canon lies in the idea of it, not in its actual contents.

The Canon was composed, or evolved, for the most part orally, and is adapted to that medium, and so to memorization, with a lot of repetition, for example. There are rare cases of monks who know the whole Canon by heart, and many know substantial parts. Even lay people usually know a few short passages.

Exegesis

Many commentaries have been written on books of the Canon, including subcommentaries, i.e. commentaries on commentaries, and further layers. Commentaries comprise three main types of material: linguistic analysis, explanation of the teachings, and stories, particularly giving background context for the teachings, but also sometimes just illustrative. The vast majority of this literature is connected with just four names.

Buddhaghosa was an Indian monk working in Ceylon in the 4th or, more likely, the 5th century. Traditionally ascribed to him are a handbook of the teachings called Visuddhimagga (Path of Purity or Purification) and a series of commentaries covering most of the Canon (omitting some of the Khuddakanikãya). The authenticity of some of these works has been disputed. The works ascribed to him are largely based on earlier commentaries in Old Sinhalese, now lost apart from a few quotations in mediaeval Sinhalese literature.

Dhammapāla was a monk of South India, for whom various dates have been suggested from the 5th century to the 10th. Tradition ascribes to him commentaries on several books of the Khuddakanikãya, subcommentaries on the first three nikayas, and a subsubcommentary on the Abhidhamma. Again, the authenticity of some is disputed. The late Professor Cousins suggests Dhammapāla was less anti-Mahayana than Buddhaghosa.

Sāriputta worked in Ceylon in the 12th century; he wrote subcommentaries on the Vinaya and Aṅguttara; in addition to his own works there are many commentaries by his pupils on various Vinaya and Abhidhamma handbooks. Works produced in Ceylon in this period account for almost a third of all major post-canonical Pali works ([21]). Professor Gornall argues that these works attempt to return to a supposed original teaching purged of the accretions of previous commentators.

Ñāṇakitti worked in Thailand around 1500. He wrote subcommentaries on the Vinaya and Abhidhamma. He focuses on linguistic analysis, which may explain why his works have had much less currency and influence than the other writers mentioned here.

Collected editions of the primary commentaries (by Buddhaghosa, Dhammapāla and others) published in Theravada countries, like those of the Canon itself, vary somewhat in contents. A Thai edition catalogued by Dr Skilling comprises exactly one commentary on each book in the standard Thai editions of the Canon (as above). The Burmese edition scanned at [22] and the Sinhalese edition issued by the trustees of the Simon Hewavitarne Bequest also include a commentary on the Netti, and a few other works (not all the same ones). When it comes to the Burmese collected edition of subcommentaries at [23] (including some by Sāriputta and others attributed to Dhammapāla), this practice of uniqueness no longer applies, with for example three subcommentaries on the Vinaya included.

Comparison

The other two major branches of the Buddhist tradition at the present day have their own canons, in Chinese and Tibetan respectively. These three canons differ so substantially that it is misleading to talk of them as different versions of "the Tripiṭaka". Nevertheless, they overlap substantially. In addition to these organized canons, there are also bits and pieces surviving in manuscripts in Sanskrit, Gandhari and other ancient languages.

Versions of the Vinaya, the first four nikayas, the Dhammapada, the Itivuttaka and the Milindapañha exist in Chinese. These are inherited from other schools of ancient Indian Buddhism and differ substantially from the Pali versions. Similarly, there are versions of the Vinaya and Dhammapada in Tibetan. There are also bits and pieces of some other books, including the Suttanipāta, Apadāna and Peṭakopadesa, in alternative versions in various languages. All of these can sometimes shed light on the readings and interpretations of the Canon, though few Pali scholars can make direct use of texts surviving only in non-Indic languages. The methodology of the Abhidhamma is found in texts in other traditions.

Literary assessments

Little study has gone into this. Some of the poetry has been spoken of favourably. The Milindapañha, included in some editions, was described by Rhys Davids as the greatest work of classical Indian prose, but Winternitz said such claims were true only of the earlier portions.

Referencing

There is no generally accepted system of referencing passages in the Canon. Western scholars generally refer to the Pali Text Society editions, using volume/page/line for most of the Canon.

Notes

For more details click on the Bibliography and Addendum tabs at top of this page.