The Pali Canon

The Pali Canon is the collection of scriptures preserved by the Theravada tradition of Sri Lanka and South-East Asia. It is written in Pali, an ancient Indian language closely related to the dialects the Buddha is likely to have spoken. It is the most complete early Buddhist canon to survive in an Indian language.

The three baskets

The canon is also called the Tipiṭaka, meaning “three baskets”.

• Vinaya Piṭaka, the basket of discipline. It sets out the rules for monks and nuns and the stories of how each rule came about.
• Sutta Piṭaka, the basket of discourses. It holds the teachings of the Buddha and his leading disciples.
• Abhidhamma Piṭaka, the basket of higher teaching. It analyses mind and matter in detailed, systematic lists.

The discourses

The Sutta Piṭaka is divided into five collections, or nikāyas. The Dīgha Nikāya holds the long discourses. The Majjhima Nikāya holds the middle-length ones. The Saṁyutta Nikāya groups short discourses by subject, and the Aṅguttara Nikāya arranges them by number, from ones to elevens. The Khuddaka Nikāya, the minor collection, includes well-loved works such as the Dhammapada and the Sutta Nipāta.

How it was preserved

According to tradition, the Buddha's disciples gathered soon after his death to recite and agree on his teaching, with Ānanda reciting the discourses and Upāli the discipline. For several centuries the texts were passed on by memory, with groups of monks responsible for chanting particular collections. The tradition records that the canon was first written down in Sri Lanka in about the first century BCE.

Scholars generally agree that the canon grew over time and that some parts, such as many discourses and verses, are older than others, such as the Abhidhamma. Much of the early material has close parallels in collections preserved in Chinese, Tibetan and other languages, which shows a shared early core.

Reading it

The Pali Canon is very large; in English translation it fills dozens of volumes. Newcomers often begin with an anthology, or with short, practical texts such as the Dhammapada, the Metta Sutta and the first discourse. Translations by many translators can be read on SuttaCentral and Access to Insight.