Toh 813 intro.13

intro.13

In the Pali Canon, a similar set of seventeen verses makes up the Ratana-sutta,⁶ a very well-known text that is widely recited as a protection or paritta. The Ratana-sutta itself consists only of the seventeen verses, without any narrative setting, and in Pali sources what is recorded of the background episode comes only from later commentaries:⁷ the Buddha teaches the verses to Ānanda at the city gate, Ānanda goes around inside the city reciting them, and finally the Buddha himself enters the city and recites them again. The text begins with an invocation and exhortation of the nonhuman spirits present, similar to that of the Mahāvastu version but more detailed. Again, there is one stanza on the Buddha, two on the Dharma, and six on the Saṅgha. The Pali version then adds two more stanzas on the Buddha and an additional one on the Saṅgha, before invoking all Three Jewels at the end in three stanzas said to have been spoken by Sakka (Skt. Śakra).