Pali Canon Online

Sutta Pitaka

The collection of suttas, or discourses, attributed to the Buddha and a few of his closest disciples, containing all the central teachings of Buddhism.

Subcategories

  • Khuddaka Nikaya

    The Khuddaka Nikaya, or "Collection of Little Texts" (Pali khudda = "smaller; lesser"), the fifth division of the Sutta Pitaka, is a wide-ranging collection of fifteen books (eighteen in the Burmese Tipitaka) containing complete suttas, verses, and smaller fragments of Dhamma teachings. While many of these have been treasured and memorized by devout Buddhists around the world for centuries, others have never left the private domain of Pali scholars; some have yet to be translated into English.

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    122
    • Khuddakapatha (The Short Passages)

      The Khuddakapatha is a collection of nine short passages that may have been designed as a primer for novice monks and nuns. It includes several essential texts that are still chanted daily by laypeople and monastics around the world of Theravada Buddhism.

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    • Dhammapada

      The Dhammapada, an anthology of verses attributed to the Buddha, has long been recognized as one of the masterpieces of early Buddhist literature. Only more recently have scholars realized that it is also one of the early masterpieces in the Indian tradition of kavya, or belles lettres.

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      26
    • Udana

      The Udana, the third book of the Khuddaka Nikaya, offers a rich collection of short suttas, each of which culminates in a short verse uttered by the Buddha. Altogether there are eighty suttas, arranged in eight vaggas, or chapters.

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      80
    • Itivuttaka

      The Itivuttaka, a collection of 112 short discourses, takes its name from the statement at the beginning of each of its discourses: this (iti) was said (vuttam) by the Blessed One. The collection as a whole is attributed to a laywoman named Khujjuttara, who worked in the palace of King Udena of Kosambi as a servant to one of his queens, Samavati. Because the Queen could not leave the palace to hear the Buddha's discourses, Khujjuttara went in her place, memorized what the Buddha said, and then returned to the palace to teach the Queen and her 500 ladies-in-waiting. For her efforts, the Buddha cited Khujjuttara as the foremost of his laywomen disciples in terms of her learning. She was also an effective teacher: when the inner apartments of the palace later burned down, killing the Queen and her entourage, the Buddha commented (in Udana VII.10) that all of the women had reached at least the first stage of Awakening.

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      4
    • Sutta Nipata

      The Sutta Nipata ("The Sutta Collection"), the fifth book of the Khuddaka Nikaya, consists of 71 short suttas divided into five vaggas (chapters).

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      11
    • Vimanavatthu

      The Vimanavatthu of the Khuddaka Nikaya is a collection of 83 stories in verse describing the vimana [vimaana] — a kind of personal heavenly mansion — inhabited by beings reborn as gods or goddesses (devata [devataa]) as a reward for meritorious deeds performed by them as human beings. All the stories follow a similar pattern. They begin with an introductory verse (or verses) in which the god or goddess is asked about the cause for his or her rebirth within that particular mansion. The deva thereupon relates his or her previous good deeds.

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    • Petavatthu

      The Petavatthu contains 51 poems, each explaining how unwholesome deeds led to the rebirth of a being into the miserable realm of the "hungry ghosts" (peta).

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    • Theragatha

      The Theragatha, the eighth book of the Khuddaka Nikaya, consists of 264 poems — 1,291 stanzas in all — in which the early monks (bhikkhus) recount their struggles and accomplishments along the road to arahantship. Their stories are told with often heart-breaking honesty and beauty, revealing the deeply human side of these extraordinary men, and thus serve as inspiring reminders of our own potential to follow in their footsteps.

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    • Therigatha

      The Therigatha, the ninth book of the Khuddaka Nikaya, consists of 73 poems — 522 stanzas in all — in which the early nuns (bhikkhunis) recount their struggles and accomplishments along the road to arahantship. Their stories are told with often heart-breaking honesty and beauty, revealing the deeply human side of these extraordinary women, and thus serve as inspiring reminders of our own potential to follow in their footsteps.

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    • Jataka
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    • Niddesa
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    • Patisambhidamagga
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    • Apadana
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    • Buddhavamsa
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    • Cariyapitaka
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    • Petakopadesa
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    • Milindapañha

      The Milindapañha, the eighteenth book of the Khuddaka Nikaya (according to the Burmese version of the Pali canon), consists of 7 parts as shown below. The conclusion to the Milindapañha states that it contains 262 questions, though in the editions available today only 236 can be found. Although not included as a canonical text in the traditions of all the Theravadin countries, this work is much revered throughout and is one of the most popular and authoritative works of Pali Buddhism.

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      0
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