PÄli Canon
The Pali Canon is written in the Pali language, the oldest continuous surviving collection of discourses of the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama. The term is used to distinguish it from other canonical collections of scripture in Buddhism, such as the " Sanskrit canon" or the " Chinese canon".
The other common name " three baskets " is a literal translation of the Tipitaka ( Pali ) and Tripitaka (Sanskrit ). It refers to the layout of the text collection into three major parts ( " baskets ").
Origin and name
The best developed and preserved as the only Buddhist canon completely in an Indian language is the Pali canon of Theravada. The Pali tradition, one of the oldest records of Buddhism. He goes back to the common background in India and Ceylon Vibhajyvāda sect of Theravada direction. The canon was under King Vaṭṭagāmaṇī Abhaya (reigned 89-77 ) in Matale, Sri Lanka in writing and forms the basis of Theravada. The text can apply to Ceylon as secured since the rise of the great comments on the 5th and 6th centuries.
Within the present-day Theravada traditions, although the medium Indian Pāli language is used, however, recorded in local magazines.
By the 6th Buddhist Council ( 1954-56 in Rangoon ) the canon in Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos was only handwritten common. Usually he was (rare wood) recorded on palm leaves. In particular, the suggestion made in the respective Burmese king re- copying was common. Expenditure on other materials, such as the well in the 6th and 7th centuries resulting, 1897 in Hmawanza (Burma ) found, on gold leaves, are rare.
It was printed this canon, stimulated by the interest of European researchers, for the first time in the late 19th century. Erroneously, was and still is the Pali canon referred to as the original, or only correct a mistake of going back to the Indologist this time. The expenditure of the Pali Text Society and the philological today controversial, yet poetic German translations of Karl Eugen Neumann and Anton Gueth, made in the period 1896-1917, have made it accessible in Western languages .
The Agama Sutras of Chinese Mahāyāna respect the content is essentially the Pali canon.
The Pali Canon is divided into three parts ( Pitaka, basket ' ) divided, in turn from several collections ( Nikāya ), departments ( vagga ) and sections ( Nipāta ) exist. For the indication of passages, the abbreviations given here in brackets are in use.
Post- canonical Pali works of literature
After the writing of the canonical writings yet emerged more important and oft-cited works of the Pali literature. For example:
- ( Vis) Visuddhimagga - Buddhaghosa comments
Other important comments were written by Buddhadatta and Dhammapala. In some books, the assignment of the canon is disputed. Thus, the three departments Nettipakarana, Petakopadesa, Milindapanha are not included in the Thai version of the Pali Canon.